On June 4, 1940, s strong German force commanded
by Vice-Admiral Marschall sailed from Kiel
to attack the Allied withdrawal from Norway.
This force consisted of the battlecruisers
Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, plus the heavy
cruiser Admiral Hipper and four destroyers.
It passed the German mine barrier at Skagen,
and headed Northwest to sweep for naval forces
and transports off Harstad. The Germans are
confident, and plan a prolonged operation
assisted by Luftwaffe reconnaissance planes,
operating in the near 24-hour daylight from
Trondheim. On June 7, the tanker Dithmarschen,
which refueled Admiral Hipper and the destroyers,
joined the German fighting ships.
In the early morning on the 8th, the Admiral
Hipper located and sank a British patrol
trawler. Soon afterwards, the Gneisenau sighted
the tanker Oil Pioneer, and set her afire
with 105-mm guns, leaving her to be finished
off by a destroyer's torpedo. Gneisenau and
Hipper launched seaplanes to scout for Allied
convoys, hoping to catch weakly escorted
ships filled with British troops as they
attempt to remove what assets they can from
the failed attempt to hold Norway. It is
good hunting weather: the skies are clear,
the sea is calm, and visibility is unlimited.
He planes quickly find pray: two ships are
sighted to the south of the Germans, and
two to the north. The southern group is a
merchant ship escorted by a British cruiser,
but the northern group is two unescorted
ships. Hipper and the destroyers dash north,
sinking the 19,500-ton passenger ship Orama
while jamming her distress signal. The other
ship is the hospital ship Atlantis, which
is allowed to pass without being stopped
and searched. As it turns out, the ship contained
a large number of German prisoners being
transported to prison camps in the UK.
After this dash, the destroyers are again
short of fuel, so Vice-Admiral Marschall
sends the destroyers and Admiral Hipper will
refuel at Trondheim, while he continues to
operate against the convoys in the area between
Tromsoe and Harstad.
At 1645 on the 8th, a lookout in the Scharnhorst's
foretop reports that a distant cloud of smoke
had been briefly viable on the horizon. Pressed
for more details by the captain, Midshipman
Goss describes it as "like a blubber
when there's a bit of trouble with the boilers."
Captain Hoffmann believes him, and orders
the ship to action stations, and orders the
Scharnhorst turned towards the position and
run up to full speed. Gneisenau follows,
and soon a mast is spotted over the horizon.
Then a stocky funnel, and a small superstructure
are made out: the squat shape of an aircraft
carrier is unmistakable. At 27 miles lookouts
correctly identify her as the HMS Glorious,
and incredibly only two destroyers escort
her. Captain Hoffmann comments to his navigation
Office, "Poor Devil…Two battleships
against one aircraft-carrier!"
Glorious is sailing south, unaware of the
danger.
Operation Alphabet, the British and Allied
evacuation of Norway, started on June 5,
and was wrapping up on the 8th. Two troop
convoys had been formed, sailing on the 7th
and 8th. Glorious, along with the carrier
Ark Royal, were to be part of the escort
for the second convoy. After in addition
to her 10 fighters and 5 torpedo planes,
Glorious had flown on 20 RAF land-based fighters
for transport back to Britain. Her captain
signalled the task force commander on Ark
Royal, and received permission to leave the
convoy and proceed independently to Scapa
Flow. With her destroyers Ardent and Acasta,
she heads west at 22 knots, then turns south
towards Scapa at 1600 hours.
Worried only about German submarines, the
extremely fast carrier has slowed to 17 knots,
and is sailing a zigzag course with her destroyers
ranged off either bow. She is in the fourth
degree of readiness, with only 12 of her
18 boilers are online, no aircraft staged
on deck, no aircraft up patrolling, and no
lookouts posted in the crow's nest. None
of the ships are equipped with radar.
Shortly after turning south at 1600, lookouts
spot two vessels on the horizon to the west.
HMS Ardent was ordered to close investigate,
and the order was given to bring the 5 Swordfish
torpedo plane up to the flight deck. Action
Stations was not sounded until 1620.
Ardent closed to within 16,000 yards, challenging
the intruders by flashing her searchlight.
The Gneisenau responded with her secondary
guns at 1627, and Scharnhorst followed suit
three minutes later. Ardent turned away,
firing torpedoes which missed, and both destroyers
made smoke to try and hide their charge.
At 1632 Scharnhorst opened up on the carrier
with her main guns, scoring the first hit
with her third salvo at 1638, at a greater
range than any other vessel had ever hit
a moving target. This hit penetrated the
flight deck, starting fired and reducing
the carrier's speed. Gneisenau began firing
her main guns at the carrier also at 1645.
Another hit killed most of the bridge personnel
and the captain. Glorious was burning furiously,
but still making good speed. At 1658 the
smoke screen became effective, causing the
German ships to cease-fire until 1720.
Meanwhile, the destroyers put up a brave
fight in a hopeless attempt to buy time for
the wounded carrier . Ardent scored one hit
on Scharnhorst with her 4.7-inch gun, which
exploded harmlessly against one of the battlecruiser's
main gun barrels. She succumbed to 5.9-inch
fire from the German secondary guns, sinking
at 1725.
At 1720 main battery fire resumed against
Glorious, and a shell struck the center engine
room. Glorious loss speed, healed over to
starboard, and began a slow circle to port.
The Germans ceased fire at 1740, and Glorious
was abandoned at 1810. She capsized to starboard,
and sank with heavy loss of life.
Ardent meanwhile had passed ahead of Scharnhorst
and maneuvered off her starboard side, firing
two salvos of four torpedoes, one at each
German ship, and scoring a single hit with
a 4.7-inch shell on Scharnhorst. As she turned
away, she came under heavy and accurate fire
from both ship's secondary batteries. She
staggered away, burning and sinking. The
Germans checked their fire at 1808, and Ardent
slowly began to slip beneath the waves at
1820.
Her sacrifice was not in vain, for as she
sank one of Ardent's torpedoes struck Scharnhorst
below the rear turret, three meters below
the main belt.
The damage was severe. A whole 6 meters by
14 meters was blown in the shell plating,
and smoke filled the turret and magazine.
The torpedo bulkhead was damaged, and there
was much damage to the interior of the ship.
The order was given to flood the magazine,
but the smoke cleared and there was no sign
of fire, so the order was countermanded.
22 compartments were flooded, and Scharnhorst
took on 2500 tons of water, taking a 3-degree
list and settling 3 meters by the stern.
48 men perished.
The starboard shaft was destroyed, and flooding,
inadvertently let in when a watertight door
was opened to rescue a trapped seaman, damaged
the machinery to the center shaft. The rear
11.1-inch turret was out of action, as was
the aft-most 150-mm twin turret and the fire
control system for the aft 105-mm guns. Limited
to 20 knots on one shaft, Scharnhorst limped
into Trondheim, where she tied up to the
repair ship Huaskaran on the afternoon of
the 9th. RAF bombers found her the next day,
and on the 11th a dozen Hudson bombers attacked,
dropping 36 AP bombs but causing no further
damage. On June 13th Ark Royal launched a
strike, but 8 of her 15 Skua bomber were
shot down in exchange for only one hit, which
failed to explode.
After temporary repairs, Scharnhorst sailed
for home on June 20th with two operational
shafts and two operational main turrets.
The British were waiting, and attacked twice
with aircraft while she was off the coast
of the Isle of Utsire, while powerful surface
ships closed to within 35 miles of the wounded
battlecruiser. German intelligence was alerted
by intercepted British radio messages, and
Scharnhorst put into Stavanger for two days.
She eventually reached Kiel, where repairs
took six months. Her sister Gneisenau was
torpedoed by the British submarine Clyde,
and spent months undergoing repair herself.
British losses were severe. 1,207 men were
lost on the Glorious alone, with 1,519 being
lost between the three ships. Two RAF pilots
and 61 crewmen crawled aboard a Carley float,
but their suffering was not over. The water
was only 34 degrees, so only 38 of the 63
men survived to be rescued by a passing fishing
boat, the Norwegian MS Borgund.
Oddly, both sides saw the engagement as a
defeat. The British had lost a valuable carrier,
two much needed destroyers, and over 1,500
sailors and pilots, so it is easy to see
why the saw it as an embarrassing defeat.
But the German High Command was equally upset.
rather than destroying thousands of enemy
troops by destroying the convoys, Operation
Juno had resulted in the British succefully
evacuating Norway. Upon his return to Trondheim
with his damaged vessel, Vice-Admiral Marschall
was relieved of command for disobeying his
orders to attack shipping off Harstad, for
endangering his ships by attacking British
warships, and for expending too much ammunition
for little gain.