Post
by Karl Heidenreich » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:57 pm
Here is a summarized account of the 1st and 2nd Battles of Narvik:
First naval battle of Narvik
Date April 10, 1940
Location: Narvik, Norway
Result: British victory
Combatants :
United Kingdom Germany
Commanders:
Bernard Warburton-Lee Friedrich Bonte
The day after the German invasion, the Royal Navy took an opportunity to defeat the Kriegsmarine. The 2nd Destroyer Flotilla under Commodore Bernard Warburton-Lee comprising six H class destroyers (HMS Hardy (flagship), Hotspur, Havock, Hunter and Hostile (British H class destroyers were smaller than the German destroyers) moved up the fjord in the early morning. The German picket ship (Diether von Roeder) had left its post due to a misunderstanding and, as the British flotilla approached Narvik, they surpised and engaged a German force at the entrance to the harbour and sank two destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp (killing Commodore Bonte) and Anton Schmidt, heavily damaged the Diether von Roeder and inflicted lesser damage on two others. They also exchanged fire with German invasion troops ashore, but did not have a landing force aboard and therefore turned to leave.
They were then engaged by three more German destroyers (Wolfgang Zenker, Erich Koellner and Erich Giese) emerging from the Herjangsfjord, led by Commander Erich Bey, and then two more (Georg Thiele and Bernd von Arnim) 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 HMS Hunter, which was torpedoed and sank. A third, HMS Hotspur, was also damaged badly by a torpedo. Hotspur and the other remaining British destroyers left the battlefield, damaging Georg Thiele as they did so. The German destroyers, now short of fuel and ammunition, did not pursue and the British ships were able to sink seven German or German-seized transport ships outside Narvik port, including the supply ship Rauenfels. Soon the German naval forces were blocked in by British reinforcements, including the cruiser HMS Penelope. On 11 April, Erich Koellner sustained further damage when it ran onto uncharted rocks.[2]
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 - possibly due to the high northern latitude: all of them failed and either did not detonate at all or detonated well before their targets.
Both the German naval commander, Commodore Friedrich Bonte (on Wilhelm Heidkamp), and the British commander, Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee (on Hardy), had been killed in the battle. Warburton-Lee was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, Bonte the Knight's Cross
Second Naval Battle of Narvik
Date April 13, 1940
Location: Narvik, Norway
Result: British victory
Combatants
United Kingdom Germany
Commanders
William Whitworth - Erich Bey
The Royal Navy considered it imperative, for morale and strategic purposes, to defeat the Germans in Narvik, so Vice Admiral William Whitworth was sent with the battleship HMS Warspite and nine destroyers; four Tribal class (HMS Bedouin, Cossack, Punjabi, Eskimo) and five others (HMS Kimberley, Hero, Icarus, Forester and Foxhound), 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 were short of ammunition.
During the opening stages of the battle, a Fairey Swordfish launched from Warspite bombed and sank the German submarine U-64,[5] at anchor in a side-fjord 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. First to go was Erich Koellner which was trying to ambush the Allied forces, but was spotted by Warspite's Swordfish and subsequently torpedoed and shelled by the destroyers and battleship. Then Wolfgang Zenker, Bernd von Arnim, Hans Ludemann and Hermann Künne engaged the British forces, but only managed to lightly damage HMS Bedouin. British aircraft from Furious tried to engage the German destroyers but were unsuccessful; two were lost. Wolfgang Zenker unsuccessfully attempted to torpedo Warspite.
Finally, when the German destroyers were low on ammunition, they retreated, except for Hermann Künne, which had not received the order. Hermann Künne was torpedoed and sunk by HMS Eskimo. Eskimo was in turn ambushed by Georg Thiele and Hans Ludemann, losing her bow but surviving. Diether von Roeder and Erich Giese, both suffering engine problems, fired upon the British forces while still docked, damaging Punjabi and Cossack, but they were both sunk before they could cause further damage. That was the last German counter-attack and the remaining German destroyers were scuttled soon after. The only German ship which survived within the port area was the submarine U-51.
Shore batteries and installations were also very badly damaged by Warspite's guns. On the Allied side, the damage to HMS Eskimo kept her in Norway 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 Hermann Künne, Wolfgang Zenker, Erich Koellner, Georg Thiele, Bernd von Arnim, Erich Giese, Hans Lüdemann and Diether von Roeder, in addition to U-64. [6]
Most of the remaining German sailors were transformed into an improvised marine infantry unit and fought in the subsequent land battle
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill
