Battle of North Cape

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of the North Cape


caption=Members of HMS Duke of York's gun crews at Scapa Flow after the Battle of North Cape
partof=World War II
date=26 December 1943
place=Off North Cape, Norway
result=Allied victory
combatant1=flagicon|Nazi Germany|naval Kriegsmarine
combatant2=flagicon|United Kingdom|naval Royal Navy
flagicon|Norway|naval Royal Norwegian Navy
commander1=Erich BeyKIA
commander2=Bruce Fraser
strength1=1 battlecruiser
strength2=1 battleship
1 heavy cruiser
3 light cruisers
9 destroyers
casualties1=1 battlecruiser sunk
1932 killed
casualties2=1 battleship, 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 1 destroyer lightly damaged
11 killed
11 wounded

In the World War II naval Battle of the North Cape, ships of the Royal Navy sank the German battlecruiser "Scharnhorst" off Norway's North Cape on 26 December 1943.

Background

Operation "Ostfront" was an attempt by the German 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", HMS "Onslaught", HMS "Orwell", HMS "Scourge", HMS "Impulse", HMCS "Haida", HMCS "Huron", and HMCS "Iroquois", and the minesweeper HMS "Gleaner".

On 25 December 1943, "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 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" and "Ashanti", HMCS "Athabascan", and the minesweeper HMS "Seagull".

Unknown to the Germans 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 new battleship HMS "Duke of York", the cruiser HMS "Jamaica", and the S-class destroyers HMS "Savage", "Scorpion", "Saumarez", "Sword" and HNoMS "Stord" of the Royal Norwegian Navy, was trailing the convoy at a considerable distance.

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 destroyers and sent them southward in an attempt to increase the effective search area. Admiral Fraser, anticipating a German attack, had diverted the convoy northward, out of the area in which it was expected.

The now unescorted "Scharnhorst" encountered Burnett's cruisers shortly after 09:00 hours. At a distance of nearly Convert|13000|yd|km, 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 battlecruiser were forced to aim at the enemy's muzzle flashes. This was made more difficult because two of the British cruisers were using a new flashless propellant, 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.

Once he believed he had shaken off his pursuers, Bey turned north-east in an attempt to circle round them. 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 decided to return to port in "Scharnhorst", while he ordered the destroyers to attack the convoy at a position reported by a U-Boat. The reported position was out of date and the destroyers missed the convoy.

"Scharnhorst" ran south for several hours. Burnett pursued, but both "Sheffield" and "Norfolk" suffered engine problems and dropped back. The lack of working radar aboard "Scharnhorst" prevented the Germans from taking advantage of the situation, allowing the "Belfast" to reacquire the German ship on her Radar set.

Meanwhile, the "Duke of York", with her four destroyers already pressing ahead to try and get into torpedo launching positions, had been informed of "Belfast"'s having contact and soon they themselves picked up "Scharnhorst" on radar at 16:15 and was manoeuvring to bring her full broadside to bear.

At 16:48, "Belfast" fired starshell to illuminate "Scharnhorst". The battlecruiser, with her turrets trained fore and aft, was clearly visible from "Duke of York". "Duke of York" opened fire at a range of Convert|11920|yd|km and scored a hit on the first salvo.Macintyre, Donald, CAPT RN "Shipborne Radar" "United States Naval Institute Proceedings" September 1967 p.79] "Scharnhorst's" foremost turret ("Anton") was disabled after a while, and another salvo destroyed the ship's aeroplane hangar. Bey turned north, but was engaged by the cruisers "Norfolk" and "Belfast", and turned east at a high speed of 31 knots.

Bey was able to put some more distance between "Scharnhorst" and the British ships to increase his prospects of success. He had also scored two hits on the "Duke of York". However, his ship's fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse at 18:20 hours when a shell fired by "Duke of York", at extreme range, pierced her armour belt and destroyed the no. 1 boiler room. "Scharnhorst"'s speed dropped to only 22 knots, though immediate repair work allowed it to regain to 26 knots. 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, "Scharnhorst" turned to starboard to engage the destroyers "Savage" and "Saumarez", but this allowed "Scorpion" and the Norwegian destroyer "Stord" to attack, scoring one hit on the starboard side. As "Scharnhorst" continued to turn to avoid the torpedoes, "Savage" and "Saumarez" scored three hits on her port side. "Saumarez" was hit several times by "Scharnhorst's" secondary armament and suffered eleven killed and eleven wounded.

Despite the torpedo hits, the battlecruiser still maintained a speed of 22 knots, but it was too slow. Now however, with "Scharnhorst" illuminated by starshells "hanging over her like a chandelier"citequote, "Duke of York" and "Jamaica" resumed fire, at a range of only Convert|10400|yd|km. At 19:15, "Belfast" joined in from the north. The British vessels subjected the German ship 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 "Opportune", "Virago", "Musketeer" and "Matchless" fired a further nineteen torpedoes at her. 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 Coord|72|16|N|28|41|E|type:landmark. She was later identified and filmed at Coord|72|31|N|28|15|E|display=inline,title|type:landmark. Of her total complement of 1,968, only 36 were pulled from the frigid waters (none of them was an officer), 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.

Aftermath

Later in the evening of 26 December 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".

The loss of "Scharnhorst" demonstrated the vital importance of radar in modern naval warfare. While the battlecruiser 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. "Scharnhorst" was straddled by 31 of the 52 radar-fire-controlled salvos fired by "Duke of York". 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. 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" (Captain Guy Russell) said: "... the Norwegian destroyer "Stord" carried out the most daring attack of the whole action...".

Notes

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 0-86007-130-8, the story of the Battle of North Cape and the final battle as told by a Scharnhorst survivor.
* Donald MacIntyre, "The Naval War against Hitler" (Willmer Bros. Birkenhead, 1971), ISBN 0-7134-1172-4
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External links

* [http://www.kbismarck.com/scharnhorst.html "The Battleship Scharnhorst"] at [http://www.kbismarck.com/ KBismarck.com]
* [http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/scharnhorst/scharnhorst_menu.html "Scharnhorst" History and Diagrams at Scharnhorst-Class.dk]
* [http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/ships/html/sh_081600_scharnhorst.htm "Scharnhorst" at Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia]