Battle of North Cape
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The naval Battle of the North Cape took place on December 26 1943 during World War II, fought off Norway's North Cape between units of the German Kriegsmarine and the British Royal Navy. It may be the northernmost naval battle in history.
Background
Operation Ostfront was an attempt by the Kriegsmarine to intercept the Russia-bound Arctic convoy JW 55B. The convoy, sighted three days before by a Luftwaffe aircraft, consisted of nineteen cargo vessels, escorted by the destroyers HMS Onslow, Onslaught, Orwell, Scourage, Impulse, HMCS Haida, HMCS Huron, and HMCS Iroquois, and the minesweeper HMS Gleaner.On December 25 1943, the German battleship Scharnhorst (Captain Fritz Hintze) with the Narvik class destroyers Z 29, Z 30, Z 33, Z 34, and Z 38 left Norway's Alta Fjord under the overall command of Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Erich Bey.
Also in the area was convoy RA 55A, returning to the United Kingdom from Russia. RA 55A consisted of 22 cargo ships escorted by the destroyers HMS Musketeer, Opportune, Virago, Matchless, Milne, Meteor, Ashanti, HMCS Athabascan, and the minesweeper HMS Seagull.
Unknown to the Germans, however, was the presence in the area of major Royal Navy forces. Force 1, under Rear Admiral Robert Burnett, comprising the cruisers HMS Norfolk, Belfast, and Sheffield, was nearby. Force 2 commanded by Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, consisting of the modern battleship Duke of York, the cruiser Jamaica, and the (S class) destroyers HMS Savage, Scorpion, Saumarez, Sword and H.Nor.MS Stord of the Royal Norwegian Navy, was trailing the convoy at a considerable distance. Stord was one of the four S class destroyers ordered to obtain an advantageous position for firing torpedoes.
Battle
The following day, in poor weather and heavy seas and with only minimal Luftwaffe reconnaissance to aid him, Rear Admiral Bey was unable to locate the convoy. Thinking he had overshot the enemy, he detached his force of destroyers and sent them southward in an attempt to increase the effective search area. Admiral Fraser, anticipating the German attack, had diverted the convoy northward, out of the area in which it was expected.The now unaccompanied Scharnhorst encountered Burnett's cruisers shortly after 09:00 hours. At a distance of nearly 13,000 yards, the British cruisers opened fire and Scharnhorst responded with her own salvoes. While no hits were scored on the cruisers, the German battleship was struck twice, one shell destroying the radar controls, leaving Scharnhorst virtually blind in a mounting snowstorm. Without radar, gunners aboard the battleship were forced to aim based only on the enemy's muzzle flashes. This was made more difficult because two of the British cruisers were using a new flashless powder, leaving Norfolk the relatively easier target. Bey, now outgunned and believing he had engaged a battleship, turned south in an attempt to distance himself from the pursuers.
Shortly after noon, the cruisers were encountered once again. As the opposing forces exchanged fire, Scharnhorst scored hits on Norfolk, disabling a turret and her radar. Following this exchange, Bey ordered Scharnhorst to follow a southerly course again to try to get around the cruisers to the convoy.
After several hours of southerly flight, pursued by Burnett's cruisers the whole time, at 16:48 Scharnhorst was intercepted by the British battleship Duke of York and came under fire at a range of 11,920 yards. Her "Anton" turret was almost immediately disabled, and another salvo destroyed the ship's airplane hangar. Shortly afterwards, the cruisers Norfolk and Belfast opened fire as well. Although Bey was able to put some more distance between Scharnhorst and the British ships, his ship's fortunes turned at 18:20 hours when a shell pierced her armor belt and destroyed the number 1 boiler room. Scharnhorst's speed dropped to only 22 knots, and she was now vulnerable to the attacks of the destroyers. Five minutes later, Bey sent his final radio message to the German naval command: "We will fight on until the last shell is fired" (Claasen, 232).
At 18:50 hours, destroyers detached from convoy RA55A advanced on Scharnhorst and achieved one torpedo hit on the starboard side and three more on the port side. Despite this mauling, the battlecruiser still maintained a speed of 20 knots. The torpedo hits were followed by further successful barrages from both Duke of York and Norfolk, to which Scharnhorst returned fire with her remaining guns, scoring minor hits on a destroyer and near-misses on Duke of York. The British vessels subjected the battleship to a deluge of shells, and the cruisers Jamaica and Belfast fired their remaining torpedoes at the slowing target. Scharnhorst's end came when the British destroyers fired a further nineteen torpedoes on the ship. Wracked with hits and unable to flee, Scharnhorst finally capsized and sank at 19:45 hours on 26 December, her propellers still turning, at an estimated position of 72 degrees 16 minutes north latitude, 28 degrees 41 minutes east longitude. She was actually identified and filmed at N72 31, E28 15. Of her total complement of 1,968, only 36 were pulled from the frigid waters, 30 by Scorpion and 6 by Matchless. Neither Rear Admiral Bey nor Captain Hintze were among those rescued, although they both were reported seen in the water after the ship sank.
The loss of Scharnhorst demonstrated the vital importance of radar in modern naval warfare. While the battleship should have been able to outgun all of her opponents (save the Duke of York), the early loss of radar-assisted fire control combined with the problem of inclement weather left her at a significant disadvantage. In the aftermath of the battle, the Kriegsmarine commander Großadmiral Dönitz remarked, "Surface ships are no longer able to fight without effective radar equipment" (Claasen, 233).
Stord and Scorpion fired their torpedoes from an easterly direction. Stord fired her eight torpedoes as she was about 1,500 yards from Scharnhorst, while also firing with her guns and scoring hits. After the battle Admiral Fraser sent the following message to the Admiralty: "... Please convey to the C-in-C Norwegian Navy. Stord played a very daring role in the fight and I am very proud of her...". In an interview in The Evening News on 5 February 1944 the commanding officer of HMS Duke of York said: "... the Norwegian destroyer Stord carried out the most daring attack of the whole action...".
Later that evening Admiral Fraser briefed his officers on board Duke of York: "Gentlemen, the battle against Scharnhorst has ended in victory for us. I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as Scharnhorst was commanded today".
(Ironically in 1793 Gerhard von Scharnhorst had served as a young lieutenant under the Duke of York in the Netherlands.)
References
- Claasen, A.R.A. Hitler's Northern War: The Luftwaffe's Ill-Fated Campaign, 1940-1945. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001. pp 228-233. ISBN 0-7006-1050-2
- Fritz-Otto Busch, The Sinking of the Scharnhorst (Robert Hale, LTD., London, 1956), ISBN 0-8600-71308, the story of the Battle of North Cape and the final battle as told by a Scharnhorst survivor.
External links
- [The Battleship Scharnhorst] at [KBismarck.com]
- [Scharnhorst History and Diagrams at Scharnhorst-Class.dk]
- [Scharnhorst at Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia]
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