On the same day, the Lutzow left Oslo, Koln left Bergen, and the Hipper and a destroyer left Trondheim. Lutzow was unlucky, as she was torpedoed by the submarine Spearfish. Lutzow was so badly damaged that she had to be towed home and put in for repairs in a dockyard for a year. On the 13th a destroyer flotilla led by British battleship Warspite, under Vice-Admiral W.J. Whitworth, successfully met and destroyed the eight remaining German destroyers at Narvik. Such was the Second Battle of Narvik. A complete disaster for the German destroyers. Why did this happen? Well because the German destroyers were almost out of fuel, and they were attacked by a much superior force. Fuel shortage almost made the German destroyers static and thus easy target for the fully equipped British destroyers and the huge battleship Warspite.
Thirty German submarines were also operating off Norway and off the British bases. But they were having technical problems with their torpedoes. Ace commander, Lieutenant Commander Herbert Schultze, a holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, found a enemy heavy cruiser on April 11th, and fired three torpedoes, but all of them missed. That same day he found another heavy cruiser. Schultze fired three torpedoes but all exploded prematurely. Few days later he found the Warspite force and fired, but again the torpedoes failed. A battleship and two destroyers were saved this way.
One day later, the famous ace Gunther Prien, who had destroyed the Royal Oak in Scapa Flow, found a group of British ships disembarking troops at Narvik. Prien targeted two cruisers and two transports and fired four torpedoes. Nothing happened! Prien pulled out and fired again. There was a explosion this time when one of his torpedo had turned and hit a rocky Fjord bank. Two days later Prien found the Warspite and fired two torpedoes but again all failed. Prien was furious and at headquarters, he told Donitz that he " could hardly be expected to fight with a dummy rifle." (Porten, The German Navy in World War 2, page 74.)
Fourteen attacks on British cruisers, ten on destroyers, and fifteen on transports were failures. Four attacks on battleship Warspite also failed. Perhaps the most important contribution of the German submarines in the Norwegian campaign was its completion of six supply runs to Trondheim. The U-Boats would had been very successful in Norway had their torpedoes worked.
Starting on April 14th, the Allies began to land troops on both sides of Trondheim and near Narvik. The Luftwaffe, which held complete mastery of the air, struck hard on the Allies, sinking a light cruiser, several destroyers and many other ships and crafts. It also damaged ships of heavy-cruiser size.
On May 28th, the Allies captured Narvik but the threat of German attacks through Sweden from the Baltic and the need for Allied troops on the Western Front forced the Allies to withdraw from the Trondheim area on May 3rd and from Narvik on June 8th. The German army, supported by the Luftwaffe, had rapidly moved north from the Oslo area and made the Allied situation desperate which actually decided the land war.
A German Naval force, under Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, consisting of the two battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the heavy cruiser Hipper, four destroyers and a supply ship, reached the latitude of Narvik on June 8th and sank a tanker and the troopship Orama. In accordance with international convention, Marschall spared the hospital-ship Atlantis, which in turn promised not to send out warning signals about the German attack force. Several hours later Marschall found and surprised the British aircraft-carrier Glorious, which was escorted by only two destroyers, Acasta and Ardent. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau soon opened fire and landed hits on Glorious.
Within minutes the Glorious capsized and sank. The destroyers made heroic attempts to hold off the German battle-cruisers but were overwhelmed. Both Acasta and Ardent were sunk. But before Acasta sank she launched a torpedo against Scharnhorst, which damaged her severely and killed 48 of her crew. British losses in this action were extremely high: 1,515 killed or drowned, with only 43 saved.
The German Navy had won the Battle of Norway. But this victory came at a cost. One heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, ten destroyers, four submarines, and some smaller ships were lost. Two battleships, one Deutschland, one heavy cruiser were damaged. The Allied naval losses were also heavy. They lost one aircraft carrier, two cruisers, nine destroyers, six submarines and many smaller ships. Also four cruisers, and eight destroyers were damaged. The small German Navy had taken a very courageous and daring operation against vastly larger Allied Navy and succeeded. All in all, the Norwegian campaign was a brilliant military success for the German Armed Forces.
Bibliography
Bauer, Eddy: Illustrated World War II Encyclopedia: Orbis Publishing
Limited, 1972.
Jackson, Robert: KRIEGSMARINE: The Illustrated history of the German Navy in
WWII: MBI Publishing Company, 2001.
Pimlott, John: LUFTWAFFE: The Illustrated history of the German Air Force in
WWII: Motorbooks International Publishers, 1998.
Porten, Der Von: The German Navy in World War 2: Thomas Y. Cromwell Company,
1969.
More Naval Battle of Norway
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