Battles of Narvik
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The Battles of Narvik were fought from April 9 until June 8 1940 in the Ofotfjord and the mountains surrounding the North-Norwegian city of Narvik during the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. In the English speaking world, the two naval battles in the Ofotfjord on 10 April and 13 April fought between the British Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine are most well known, while for the other participating nations, such as Norway, France, Poland and Germany, the two-months land campaign is regarded as having equal or more importance.
Narvik was of strategic value to the belligerent nations because its harbor was used to ship iron ore from the Swedish mines in Kiruna. Therefore, Nazi Germany was willing to take a high risk by navigating through 1,700 km of waters controlled by the Royal Navy. Whether Germany's war effort was dependent of the Swedish iron resources or if Germany was invading simply in order to block Britain from controlling the port is a matter of dispute.
| Nazi occupation of Norway |
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| Drøbak Sound –Midtskogen –Narvik–Namsos–Operation Archery–Norwegian heavy water sabotage –Telavåg–Åndalsnes |
German invasion
| Nazi occupation of Norway |
|---|
| Drøbak Sound –Midtskogen –Narvik–Namsos–Operation Archery–Norwegian heavy water sabotage –Telavåg–Åndalsnes |
In the morning of 9 April 1940, ten German destroyers under the command of Commodore Friedrich Bonte and carrying 2,000 Austrian mountain troopers (Gebirgsjäger) commanded by General Dietl entered Narvik harbour under cover of fog and heavy snow. They were spotted by Norwegian vessels, which promptly reported the sighting and alerted the old armored coastal defense ships KNM Eidsvold and KNM Norge. Aboard both ships steps were taken to prepare for combat. The guns were loaded and life preservers issued to the crew. Around 04:15 in the morning, the Germans spotted KNM Eidsvold. Captain Willoch of Eidsvold immediately ordered to signal the leading German destroyer with an aldis lamp. When the Germans failed to respond to the signal, he ordered a warning shot placed before their bow while he flew a two flag signal, ordering the destroyer to halt.
Since the Germans had orders to occupy Norway peacefully if at all possible, the German flagship Wilhelm Heidkamp stopped and signalled Eidsvold that it would send an officer to negotiate. From a distance of about 200 meters, a small launch ferried Korvettenkapitän (lieutenant commander) Gerlach over to Eidsvold. Gerlach and a signalman were taken to the bridge to speak to captain Willoch. At the same time, the gun crews of both the 21 cm guns and the 15 cm guns aboard Eidsvold kept the German destroyer in their sights. Due to the short distance, the trajectory of the shells would have been flat, making it hard not to hit the thinly armoured destroyer
Gerlach tried to convince Willoch that the Germans had arrived as friends and that Willoch should surrender peacefully. Willoch pointed out that he was bound by duty to resist, but asked for a ten-minute break to consider the matter. He used this time to contact his superiors, including the captain of KNM Norge further inside the fjord, informing them of his intent to engage the German forces. In the meantime, a second German destroyer crossed behind Eidsvold and took up a position 700 meters from the vessel, ready to fire her torpedoes.
Gerlach tried once again to convince Willoch to surrender, but Willoch refused. As Gerlach left Eidsvold, he fired a red flare, indicating that the Norwegians intended to fight. At this point, Captain Willoch shouted: "På plass ved kanonene. Nå skal vi slåss, gutter!" ("Man the guns. We're going to fight, boys!"). Eidsvold turned towards the closest destroyer and accelerated, while the battery commander ordered the port battery (three 15 cm guns) to open fire.
The Germans -- afraid that Eidsvold might ram the destroyer -- fired four torpedoes at the old ship. Two or three of the torpedoes hit before the port guns could fire, according to Norwegian sources: one under the rear turret, one midship and one in the bow. It is likely that the torpedoes ignited one of the magazines aboard, because Eidsvold was blown in two and sunk in seconds, propellers still turning. Only six of the crew were rescued by the Germans, while 175 died in the freezing water.
Aboard Norge, deeper inside the fjord, the explosions were heard, but nothing could be seen until two German destroyers suddenly appeared out of the darkness. Captain Per Askim of Norge gave orders to open fire. Four rounds were fired from the 21 cm guns (one from the fore gun and three from the aft) as well as seven or eight rounds from the starboard 15 cm guns, directed against the German destroyer Bernd von Arnim. The range has been estimated as 800 meters (1/2 mile). Due to the difficult weather conditions it was hard to use the optical sights for the guns, which resulted in the first salvo falling short of the target and the others going over the target.
The German destroyers waited until they were alongside the pier before returning fire. Bernd von Armin opened fire with her 12.7 cm (5 inch) guns as well as with machine guns, but the weather gave the Germans problems as well. The destroyer also fired torpedoes -- three salvos of two torpedoes each. The first two salvos missed but the last struck Norge midships and she sank in less than one minute. 90 of the crew were rescued, but 101 perished in the battle which had lasted less than 20 minutes.
First Naval Battle of Narvik
The day after the German invasion, the Royal Navy saw an opportunity to damage the Kriegsmarine, and so the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla comprised of six H class destroyers went up the fjord in the early morning. As they approached Narvik, they engaged a German force at the entrance to the harbour and sank the two destroyers Z 21 Wilhelm Heidkamp and Z 22 Anton Schmidt, heavily damaged the Z 17 Diether von Roeder and inflicted lesser damage on two others. Seven German or German-seized transport ships were also sunk, including the supply ship Rauenfels. They also exchanged fire with German invasion troops ashore, but did not have a landing force aboard and therefore turned to leave.
As they did so, they were engaged by three German destroyers emerging from the Herjangsfjord, led by Commander Erich Bey, and then two more coming from Ballangen Bay, under Commander Fritz Berger. In the ensuing battle, two British destroyers were lost: the flotilla leader HMS Hardy, which was beached in flames, and Hunter, which sank. A third, HMS Hotspur, was damaged badly by a torpedo.
Both the German naval commander, Commodore Friedrich Bonte (on Wilhelm Heidkamp), and the British commander, Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee (on Hardy), were killed in the battle. Warburton-Lee was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, Bonte the Knight's Cross.
As the British destroyers left the Vestfjord outside Narvik, two German submarines, U-25 and U-51, fired torpedoes at them, but German torpedoes at the time had severe problems with their magnetic detonator systems: all of them failed and either did not detonate at all or detonated well before their targets.
Second Naval Battle of Narvik
Considering it imperative for morale and strategic purposes that the Germans in Narvik be defeated, the Royal Navy dispatched Vice Admiral William Whitworth with the battleship HMS Warspite and nine destroyers of the Tribal and H classes, accompanied by aircraft from the aircraft carrier HMS Furious. These forces arrived in the Ofotfjord on 13 April to find that the eight remaining German destroyers, now under the command of Fregattenkapitän (Commander) Erich Bey, were virtually stranded due to lack of fuel and also short of ammunition.
During the opening stages of the battle, a Fairey Swordfish launched from Warspite bombed and sank the German submarine U-64, which was at anchor in a side-fijord near Bjerkvik. Most of the crew survived and were rescued by German mountain troops. This was the first U-boat to be sunk by an aircraft during the Second World War.
In the ensuing battle, three of the German destroyers were sunk by Warspite and her escorts, and the other five were scuttled by their own crews when they ran out of fuel and ammunition. Shore batteries and installations were also very badly damaged by the guns of the battleship. On the Allied side, the destroyer HMS Eskimo lost her bow to a torpedo and could not leave Norway for home until 31 May 1940. German submarines again suffered torpedo failures, when U 46 and U 48 fired at the departing Warspite on 14. April.
The Germans lost over 1,000 men and the destroyers Z 19 Hermann Künne, Z 9 Wolfgang Zenker, Z 13 Erich Koellner, Z 2 Georg Thiele, Z 11 Bernd von Arnim, Z 22 Erich Giese, Z 18 Hans Lüdemann and Z 17 Diether von Roeder in addition to U-64.
Later naval operations
After the naval battles of Narvik, the port and its surroundings remained in German hands, as no Allied forces were available to be landed there. Naval operations were limited at this stage to shore bombarding, as Narvik town was not a primary Allied objective.Among others, the Polish destroyers - ORP Grom, ORP Burza and ORP Błyskawica took part in these operations, during which the Grom was sunk by German aircraft on 4 May 1940.
Land battle
During the Norwegian Campaign, the town of Narvik and the surrounding area saw significant fighting between Allied and German forces, conducted by the 6th Division of the Norwegian Army as well as by an Allied expeditionary corps until 9 June 1940. The initial British detachment was reinforced on 28 April by a French expeditionary force, led by General Béthouart. In early June the Polish Independent Highland Brigade also operated in the area. On 28 May Narvik was taken by the Allies, but due to the dramatically changed strategic situation in Europe following the collapse of France, all Allied troops were evacuated from Narvik between 4 June 4 and 8 June 1940. Three Polish passenger ships -- M/S Sobieski, M/S Batory and M/S Chrobry -- took part in the evacuation operation.References
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