Was HMS Glorious detached to carry out Churchill's Operation Paul minelaying plan?
Short answerChurchill proposed Operation Paul, but the connection to Glorious is unpersuasive because routine mine-laying training, her light escort, small Swordfish force, and the documentary record fit a voyage home better.
NotesOperation Paul was a proposed carrier-launched Swordfish mission across Scandinavia to mine Swedish Baltic ore ports. Churchill omitted it from his memoirs, and respected accounts of the plan do not connect it to the loss of Glorious. Mine-laying training does not uniquely identify the ship because Royal Navy torpedo-spotter-reconnaissance squadrons routinely trained with mines, bombs, and torpedoes. Operational details also count against the theory: a carrier sailing toward the enemy on a special mission should have received a cruiser or heavier escort, while Glorious had only two destroyers and too few Swordfish for a large minelaying strike. The available sources, force composition, and normal deployment practice fit a voyage home better than a secret combat mission.