Battle of North Cape
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.
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.
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.
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. Meanwhile, the
Duke of York, with her four destroyers already pressing ahead to try and get into torpedo launching positions, had picked up
Scharnhorst on radar at 16:15 and was manoevering to bring her full broadside to bear.
At 16:48,
Belfast fired starshell to illuminate
Scharnhorst. The battlecruiser was clearly visible from
Duke of York, with her turrets trained fore and aft.
Duke of York opened fire at a range of 11,920 yards.
Scharnhort's "Anton" turret was almost immediately disabled, and another salvo destroyed the ship's airplane hangar. Bey turned north, but was engaged by the cruisers
Norfolk and
Belfast, and turned east at full speed.
Although Bey was able to put some more distance between
Scharnhorst and the British ships, and scored two hits on the
Duke of York, his ship's fortunes turned at 18:20 hours when a shell pierced her armor belt and destroyed the number 1 boiler room.
Scharnhorsts 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, 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 had eleven killed and eleven wounded.
Despite the torpedo hits, the battlecruiser still maintained a speed of 20 knots. Now however, with Scharnhorst
illuminated by starshells "hanging over her like a chandelier", Duke of York
and Jamaica
resumed fire, at a range of only 10,400 yards. At 19:15, Belfast
joined in from the north. 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. Scharnhorsts end came when the British destroyers
Opportune,
Virago,
Musketeer and
Matchless 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 (Captain Guy Russell) 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.)
* 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.
* Donald MacIntyre,
The Naval War against Hitler (Willmer Bros. Birkenhead, 1971), ISBN 0713411724
*
The Battleship Scharnhorst at
KBismarck.com*
Scharnhorst History and Diagrams at Scharnhorst-Class.dk*
Scharnhorst at Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia
