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ThisDay in Alternate History Blog
| High Tide of the Kriegsmarine Operation Rheinubung - May 1941. By David Atwell Prelude It was madness, or so Captain KurtHoffmann of the Scharnhorst thought.Here he was, thanks to the craziest orders that he had ever seen, steaming atflank speed through the English Channel during the darkness of night. The shipsof the Royal Navy were bound to be lurking out there somewhere, patrolling thewaters, & thus he, & his companion ship, would be surely caught. The Gneisenau& Scharnhorst were indeed on the wildest of missions. Having been sent to Brest, after asuccessful sortie into the Atlantic Ocean in late 1940, the two Germanbattleships had all but been interned thanks to the blockade imposed upon themby the Royal Navy. Now, in early April 1941, they were involved in "OperationCerberus", or the "mad dash"as this latest mission had been called by the more positive members of theship's crews, which would take the two German ships to safer waters of theNorth Sea, off the German coast, with Wilhelmshaven as their new home. That isif they got there, of course, as other crew members had compared this latestmission as the naval equivalent of the Charge of the Light Brigade. No one on board either Gneisenau or Scharnhorst,however, understood why this suicide mission had been ordered. Nothing had beenexplained in the orders. Merely they were ordered to get out of Brest & makebest speed past Dover & the Royal Navy. Fortunately for the Germans, theRoyal Navy had been caught napping. Not only was the Royal Navy taken bysurprise, but almost no one in Britain believed, in their wildest dreams, thatthe Germans would attempt such a mad undertaking in the English Channel. Thus, when the Germans were finallycaught out by chance north of Dover, only one squadron of RAF torpedo armedaircraft were available at such a short notice. At dawn they took off with muchhaste & immediately chased after the two German battle cruisers. Althoughthe Royal Navy also got into action, finally, only the eight RAF aircraft wouldbe involved in any serious combat with the German ships. Yet, even though theBritish pilots showed much courage & skill in their attack, none of theirtorpedos hit the mark. By the time the RAF squadron returned to refuel &rearm, Gneisenau & Scharnhorsthad left behind anything which the British could attack with. The first step,albeit a small one, of "Operation Rheinubung" had been completed longbefore the actual operation had even begun. Introduction For political reasons, Admiral Donitzwas ironically overjoyed when he heard that the surface vessels of the Kriegsmarinewere about to commit suicide, or so he believed, after he had just been informedabout Hitler's latest naval adventure - which in comparison made the "maddash" appear sensible. This new mission would, for once & for all time,prove to Hitler that Germany's surface navy was nothing more than "expensivetin cans floating around". Hitler, Donitz assured himself, would then have tofund his U-Boats &, in doing so, inevitably win the war for Germany. AdmiralRaeder, on the other hand, believed that, although this sortie into the AtlanticOcean was dangerous he, nonetheless, had good faith in Hitler's somewhatuncanny ability to gain victories from seemingly reckless schemes. "Had notthe ‘mad dash' been successful?" Raeder asked his staff. The war to datehad been more or less won by similar ideas & now he, Raeder, had been giventhe opportunity to win control of the Atlantic Ocean. By doing so, Britain wouldbe thoroughly isolated. The result for Britain would be either starvation orsurrender. The war, Raeder came to believe, could be over by Christmas 1941.Then the Soviets would hence be the next, on the long list of nations, to sufferdefeat at the hands of Germany. Itwas in such a mind set, thus, thatGermany's Navy, the Kriegsmarine, had been ordered to conduct "Operation Rheinubung".To put it simply, Hitler wanted the German Navy to conduct a large scaleoperation using the full potential of its capital ships. As to what purpose themission was created for exactly, no one really knows, however, as there appearsto have been Hitler's original intention & that of Raeder's actualconduct. Nonetheless, regardless whether "OperationRheinubung" was a large convoy raid, or that it was an effortto ensure that control of the Atlantic Ocean came under the dominance ofGermany, what they got, all the same, was a battle with the might of the RoyalNavy. Needles to say, such an event was probably inevitable - regardless of theintention of the original mission. In other words, a great clash between twogrand navies, worthy of Jutland, was achieved. The after effects, however, onlymade the final result of the Battle of the Atlantic further unpredictable. Plans The two combatants, in May 1941, had twocompletely different plans for coping with the events which were about to beunleashed. The British had no idea that the Germans were about to sortie instrength, although the British well knew that the capital ships of the Germansurface fleet had more or less come together in great strength. Up until now,though, the Germans had mostly kept to the European coasts with their majorships, whilst commerce raiders made a dash to the Atlantic in order to make anuisance of themselves. Only the pocket battleship Graf Spree operated at some distance from European waters & wassunk early in the war for her efforts. As a result of the German tactics, theBritish blockaded the European coast. These blockade forces were thus spread out& not concentrated. This worked well for reconnaissance duties, especiallyagainst the commerce raiders, but if the Germans wanted to make a real effort,one even greater than the recently conducted "mad dash", to break theblockade screen, then the Royal Navy would find it hard to repulse any suchattempt. With this in mind, Admiral Tovey thus kept his large capital ships backfrom the blockade line. In his plans, Tovey had HMS Hood& HMS Prince of Wales stationed north-west of the Shetland Islands.Meanwhile, at Scapa Flow, Tovey usually had with him HMS King George V & HMS Rodney.The HMS Rodney, though, in May of1941,was replaced with HMS Repulse, asthe Rodney was making sail for Americato undergo an overhaul. It was, however, an act of Providence that she had onlyjust sailed, prior to the Germans commencing "OperationRheinubung", & was quickly recalled to join Tovey's taskforce. Other than these capital ships, Tovey also had the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious with him. Thus, on paper, the size of Tovey's forceseemed impressive. And, obviously, he could call upon these ships should anyGerman breakthrough take place. Yet, even with such forethought, not even Toveyhad foreseen what was about to take place. Although Raeder was thrilled to finallyget the German surface navy into the war in such a way, he was no fool either.He knew that the Royal Navy was not just going to let him sail into the AtlanticOcean & take it for Germany. At some stage a major confrontation with theRoyal Navy was bound to take place at some point in time. It was just a matterof when. But even before this battle could take place, the German fleet wouldhave to achieve a breakthrough. And this meant forcing a way past the Britishcruisers who guarded jealously the approaches to the Atlantic. Thus Raeder,considering the two issues at hand, had little choice but to ensure that theGerman sortie was as strong as possible. To that end Raeder gathered basicallyevery German capital ship which was operational. First on the list came the Bismarck.Second were the battleships Gneisenau& Scharnhorst. Although both had some damage at the time, thanks tothe "mad dash", they were nonetheless ordered to fix their problems as fastas possible in order to be battle ready. Finally came the Tirpitz. Raeder genuinely thought twice about Tirpitz, believing it to be far from ready, but her captain finallyconvinced him otherwise: this was besides the fact that only half of hersecondary armament, & most of her anti-aircraft guns, were not yetoperational. As a stand-by measure, just in case Tirpitz could not put to sea on time, the Admiral Scheer & Deutschland(or Luztow depending upon the date)were also added to the fleet list. In the actual event, though, both pocketbattleships would sail along with the Tirpitz. Raeder, believing that a large battlewould take place with the Royal Navy, decided to also include a large cruiser& destroyer screen. Hence the PrinzEugen, Koln, & Nurnberg wouldalso go along with the capital ships as well as four destroyers. Raeder actuallywanted more destroyers, but the heavy losses suffered by the destroyer forces inthe Norwegian Campaign meant their numbers were limited. ToThe Atlantic It was a calm & beautiful night inthe Skagerrak as the German fleet came together on May 20 1941. This wassomewhat annoying for Raeder as he was hoping for at least overcast skies assuch weather would help hide his ships from any reconnaissance. Nonetheless,U-Boats had began patrolling the area intensively the night before to ensurethat the Royal Navy was no where to be seen. Thankfully for the Germans, theRoyal Navy, after the fall of Norway, had withdrawn such patrols in fear oflosing ships unnecessarily to either aircraft, U-Boats or even surface attacks.This, thus gave opportunities to the Germans & they were using every one ofthem now. Reconnaissance missions at sea need notonly be conducted by naval assets alone: there is, needless to say, aircraftwhich can carry out such duties as well as ships. But like their Royal Navycounterparts, the Royal Air Force considered that the airspace around theSkagerrak was far too dangerous for its aircraft. The war was still being wagedin full intensity & anywhere along the coast of Europe was far from safe;especially the area currently in question. Having said all that, the Britishstill had other means by which to keep an eye on German shipping. Spies. Their services are as about asold as the profession of soldiering itself & the British put them to gooduse. Furthermore, spying no longer meant having agents in enemy territory anymore. Thanks to technology, Britain could listen in on German radio &, farmore importantly, thanks to ULTRA, decode many German orders. Yet, even with allthis ability, it would come down to a Norwegian spy in the employ of theBritish, as Raeder considered "OperationRheinubung" to be most secret, he forbad any radio messagesabout the mission. Everything was either sent via telephone or through couriers.In this regards the British were kept in the dark. But, as stated, it came downto a watchful pair of Norwegian eyes who, not long after seeing the Bismarck& Tirpitz with their escorts sail past his vantage point, radioed theBritish on the night of May 21 with his discovery. Alas, for his efforts, theunknown Norwegian spy was shot & killed by the Germans as his reward. The Admiralty, even though the sightingof the Bismarck & Tirpitzwere unconfirmed, nevertheless took it as granted that the two great Germanbattleships were on the move into the Atlantic. What the British were not awareof, however, was the size of the fleet which accompanied the two German ships.But that did not matter to Tovey. More important to him was finding where theGermans were &, fundamentally, which route they would take into theAtlantic. Basically it came down to four: the direct route between the Orkney& Shetland Islands; to the North of the Shetlands; to the South of Iceland;or to the North of Iceland. To Tovey it seemed highly unlike that it would bethe first route, so that left the other three. Most worrying for Tovey was thathe did not necessarily have enough capital ships to cover all three routes. Sohe would have to take an educated risk based upon the information at hand -which was not much. As a result of Tovey's analysis, hehad Hood & Prince of Wales patrol the far northern route past Iceland.Secondly, Tovey would take King George V&Repulse with him to patrol theShetland Island to Iceland gap, whilst Victoriouswould come along in support. Finally, the heavy cruisers HMS Suffolk& HMS Norfolk, along with a number of destroyers, would advance from theircurrent station, the Straits of Denmark, & begin searching for the Germanships in the North Sea off the Norwegian coast. The Germans, likewise, had no idea wherethe British ships were & were convinced that they had complete surprise.Furthermore, Raeder wanted to ensure that surprise would remain with theGermans. He was thus convinced that he would have to take the long route to thenorth of Iceland. Any move further south was bound to bump into a British navalpatrol &, in particular, air patrols. In this regards he was correct, asanything which could fly reconnaissance missions in Scotland, were doing so overthe sea approaches by dawn the next day. Luck still, though, favoured theGermans. As the British began their air patrols, the weather changed for theworst. Raeder's hope that bad weather would cover his break-out attempt noweventuated. The British were down to a handful ships in the North Sea trying toconduct the impossible task of finding the German ships. For a full day, theBritish thus stumbled around in a fruitless effort to find the Germans, all thewhile not knowing the true strength of the German fleet. It was a dangerousventure. Fortune, however, favours the brave& this was certainly case for the British - finally. In a desperate bid inorder to find the Germans, Victoriousbegan launching aircraft whilst the weather backed off for a short time.Limiting their mission to the most suspected sea routes open to the Germans,after four long hours one of the German ships was spotted. This, needless tosay, was reported to Victorious, &Tovey quickly ordered Suffolk & Norfolk tothe area. Not long afterwards, the two cruiserssoon discovered, albeit at long distance, the presence of the German ship &began to shadow it using radar. When it was decided that the ship was a cruiser, Norfolk broke away & began looking for other ships. It soonfound, via its radar, another two ships, one of which it was concluded to be acruiser whilst the other was either Bismarckor Tirpitz. Needless to say, thesereports were sent to Tovey with much haste. Tovey had been right. The Germans wereindeed heading north &, more probable than not, trying to use the sea routenorth of Iceland. He was satisfied that he had done all that he could so far inthis endeavour & had, through foresight, stationed Hood & Prince of Wales in the perfect position to intercept the Germanships. The calculations suggested that, based upon the current speed &direction of the Germans, the two naval task forces should meet sometime shortlyafter dawn. Although the Germans & the Royal Navy would have an equal numberof capital ships, Tovey was certain that Admiral Holland, on the Hood,could do the job required. Furthermore, even if the Germans turned around &ran, they would do so right into the guns of Tovey's task force. Yes, Toveythought, tomorrow, May 24, was to be a great day for the Royal Navy. Contact It was around dawn on May 24 whenAdmiral Holland, on board Hood, wasfinally satisfied that everything was ready. Reports from Norfolk & Suffolkindicated that at least one battleship & two cruisers were heading his way.His force of four destroyers & two British battleships were more than enoughin dealing with this German task force, even if one of the German battleshipsseemed to have disappeared. Sighting the Germans, however, wasanother matter altogether. Visibility this morning, as it had been for the lastfew days, was down to four miles. This caused some concerns, but both Hood& Prince of Wales had reasonably efficient radar which was, needlessto say, utilised to the full. Having said that, it was not radar which spottedthe first German ship but a pair of watchful eyes thanks to a sudden clearing inthe weather. Prince of Wales signalled to Holland that the enemy was in sight. Holland wasted no time & immediatelyordered flank speed towards the direction of the sighted German ship. At speedsapproaching 30 knots, both Royal Navy battleships thundered & crashed theirway through the rough seas of the Atlantic Ocean fearing nothing. Holland didnot want to waste a second in his attempt to intercept the Germans, besides thefact that if he could surprise this one off vessel, before the Germans couldreact, so more the better. Employing such tactics, however, hadseveral drawbacks. The first was the simple fact that only the forward turretson the British ships could fire. The second were the rangefinders. With thespray gushing high over the bows of the ships, everything, especially therangefinders for the guns, were made totally useless. It may have made for adramatic sight to anyone watching, but it made the Royal Navy's battleshipsall but impotent at the same time. Nonetheless, as the two Britishbattleships got closer, it soon became apparent that there was more than oneGerman ship to their front. Soon a second then a third German ship loomed in thedistance. This did not bother Holland overly much as this confirmed the reportsfrom Suffolk. But then a fourth Germanship appeared thought to be a battleship. If so, Holland now knew the locationof both the Tirpitz & Bismarck.This, hence, did not overly concern Holland, but when more ships were sighted,Holland feared that a trap may be in the offering. Immediately he ordered a turnto port of 20 degrees. Not long afterwards, both Hood& Prince of Wales opened fire onthe leading German ship. Regardless of the difference infirepower, the Prinz Eugen wasnevertheless a ship to be respected. Upon discovering, to his horror, that hewas up against two battleships, the captain of the PrinzEugen stayed on course. Thankfully, for the Prinz Eugen, Hood & Princeof Wales soon shifted their targeting, as it was realised that behind the PrinzEugen, steamed the Tirpitz & Bismarck.And not long thereafter, when the two main German battleships became the targetsfor the shells of the Royal Navy, they in turn returned fire. Alas for Holland, it soon becameapparent that other German battleships were also present, one to the port &another to the starboard of Tirpitz& Bismarck, as other large caliberguns could be seen coming into play. The Gneisenau& Scharnhorst, having been missedby all British attempts at reconnaissance, now opened fire on the two Britishbattleships. But that was not all. Two other ships, thought to be cruisers dueto their size, & that they were deployed on the flanks of the battlelineacting in a supportive role, also opened fire. It was thus realised, in Hood's bridge, that theseso-called cruisers were actually the pocket-battleships AdmiralScheer & Deutschland. Holland now knew that he was in deeptrouble. As he had feared, only a few minutes before, this was indeed a trap.Yet before he could signal his intention to withdraw under the cover of smoke, Hoodexploded in a horrific blast of fire & smoke. No warning whatsoever had beenindicated that something was wrong. It would be fair to say that everyone wasstunned, regardless whether they be German or British. Nonetheless, after ashort lull, battle recommenced. And, considering the new circumstances, Prince of Wales had littlechoice but to retreat & began making smoke. In order to cover the withdraw of Prince of Wales, however, the supporting destroyer forcehad to make a dash at the Germans. This thankless task, though, would not beoverly successful. The Germans, now at a good speed, & noticing that Prince of Wales was trying towithdraw, cared little for the destroyer threat & ploughed on regardlessthrough the sea, ignoring exploding shells & the threat from potentialtorpedoes. Knowing that a great victory was in stall for the Kriegsmarine,Raeder wanted the remaining British battleship destroyed & no four RoyalNavy destroyers were going to stop this mighty achievement. As a result, allfour destroyers bore the might of the large German guns & were promptlydealt with. Princeof Wales, even with thesacrifice of the destroyers, was still in serious trouble. Now being chased byall six German capital ships, which could not only match her speed but alsooutpace her, a running battle at high speeds soon began. It was, however, merelya matter of time. Yet Captain Wake-Walker, ofthe Prince of Wales, was not going tosurrender his ship. The Germans, though, did not care too much for the nicetiesof surrender as the German gunnery began to find its mark more often than not.By 08:00 hours, some 2 hours after the first shell had been fired, Prince of Wales began to sink.Most of her crew went down with her. PickingUp The Pieces Suffolkhad witnessed the entire engagement from the sidelines. No one on board theheavy cruiser could believe what they had just seen. Knowing it would be follyto launch an attack, even with her sister ship nearby ready to assist, hercaptain decided to return to her previous duty & continue to shadow theGerman fleet, now armed with the full knowledge of its true size. It had been acolossal blunder to say the least, but Suffolk,nonetheless, reported the situation to the Admiralty in full. Tovey was thoroughly briefed not longafterwards & was said to have been in shock. Nonetheless, from Scapa Flow heordered his own task force of King GeorgeV, Repulse & Victorious to sea& Rodney, which had only leftScapa Flow a day earlier, was ordered to rejoin Tovey's task force. But nowknowing the true size of the German fleet, Tovey need more ships. And to thisend he demanded, not requested, reinforcements. The Admiralty, well aware of the fullgravity of the situation, immediately agreed to Tovey's demand & a rush oforders went out to numerous combat vessels within range of the Germans. Althoughthese Royal Navy ships had other pressing wartime duties, these quickly tooksecond place to the sudden crisis at hand. As a result, Force H, based around HMS ArkRoyal & HMS Renown, was ordered from the Mediterranean Sea into the AtlanticOcean to a rendezvous point to the west of Ireland. Elsewhere, the battleshipsHMS Revenge & HMS Ramilles,were ordered from their convoy duties & directed towards H-Force'srendezvous position to the west of Ireland. Finally, the old aircraft carrier,HMS Furious, was also ordered to sea along with the heavy cruiser HMS Dortsetshireas escort. Cat& Mouse Raeder & the German fleet did notwait around for long. Only slight damage was suffered by Bismarck whilst Tirpitzreceived no damage at all. That was not to say that Tirpitz did not have its problems, but they were related to the factthat, despite her captain's claim, only half of the ship's secondaryweaponry & anti-aircraft guns were operational. After allowing the Germandestroyers to conduct some rescue missions for the horrified British survivors,the Germans turned south-west in order to head for the convoy lines in theAtlantic Ocean. By now, however, Raeder was well awarethat he was being shadowed by at least one if not two Royal Navy ships. Indeedthis was actually the case as both Suffolk& Norfolk, once again, commencedtheir dangerous mission of following, albeit now at a respectable distance, theGerman fleet. Before Raeder could take up station in the middle of the Atlantic,though, he wanted to loose his unwanted lingerers. But he would have to waituntil dark before he would employ a cunning plan. Because of the situation, both the Suffolk& her sister ship shadowed the German fleet from the east. This way theycould keep an eye on the flank of the German fleet & be, hopefully, out ofharms way should the Germans turn on their unwanted stragglers. Raeder decidedto use this positioning to his advantage as, apart from the Deutschland& Nurnberg, the rest of the Germanships were both unsighted & beyond radar range. Then, as part of hisdeception ploy, Raeder started a zig-zag pattern as if to allude Britishsubmarines. This all appeared suspicious to the British cruisers, but they stuckto their task nevertheless. Nothing, however, seemed to be overlywrong until Deutschland & Nurnberg,instead of conducting a turn towards the south-west at midnight as expected,continued in a north-westerly direction. Although it seemed strange, theirBritish shadows continued after them. For two hours the German ships, includingthe four escorting destroyers, continued this course & then turned towardsthe north-east. Then, at 02:00, Deutschland,Nurnberg & the accompanying destroyers, turned north & thusfurther away from the main German fleet, which had, incidentally, already turnedtowards the south-west 2 hours earlier. Again the British cruisers continued tofollow Deutschland & Nurnberg,even though some concerns was being raised as to the German tactics. But beforean answer could be found, just as dawn approached, Deutschlandsuddenly turned & began to fire at the leading British ship Norfolk.Needless to say, Norfolk,even with Suffolk in support, had nointention of taking on a battleship, even a small pocket-battleship, not knowingif the other ships of the German fleet were also heading in her direction. As aresult, the British ships quickly turned away with much haste. Both cruisers,alas, soon lost contact with the German cruiser & pocket-battleship. Then,as part of Raeder's plan, the six German ships made a successful dash for thesafer waters off the Norwegian coast. The British were now in a quandary. Thelast report from Suffolk indicatedthat the Germans were possibly heading home. But that did not make much sense.Furthermore, contact had been lost & there was no way of knowing what theGermans were actually up to. Nonetheless, Tovey, aware that a large force ofRoyal Navy ships were gathering west of Ireland, & thus covering the convoyroutes, decided to see if the Germans were indeed heading for home. Henceforthhe decided to head for the North Sea, even though he had no proof that theGermans were actually heading that way. Although the British cruisers had notregained contact with the Germans, did not mean that other means wereunavailable to the British for reconnaissance. Sutherland flying boats,operating out of Iceland & elsewhere, now began a desperate bid to discoverthe location of the Germans. Hours went by without any sighting. Unfortunately,however, for the Germans, the weather finally began to clear. That, though, did not mean that they were immediately discovered. Instead, it tookuntil 18:10 on May 25 before the main German fleet was sighted whilst headingsouth-south-west from Iceland. They were, unfortunately for Tovey, at some greatdistance from his task force. Tovey, nevertheless, immediatelyrealised his error & reversed course. Furthermore, Victorious was, along with an escort of four light cruisers,dispatched at best speed in an effort to catch up with the Germans & launchan air strike. Thankfully for the British, being at some distance behind Tovey's battleships meant that Victoriouswas not all that far from the Germans as aircraft range goes. Having said that,the newest aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy would have to wait until the nextmorning before any air strike could commence. ThoseVenerable Stringbags Raeder, meanwhile, was confident thathis location was unknown to the British. As a result, it came as a rude shockwhen, at 10:30 on May 26, several obsolete looking aircraft, that being twentyBritish Swordfish aircraft armed with torpedos, began an audacious attack uponhis battleships. Immediately the Germans commenced anti-aircraft proceduresagainst the Swordfish of Victorious.But, regardless of the courage on display by the British pilots, only onetorpedo found its mark on Bismarckcausing minor damage. The Germans, on the other hand, were no better with theiranti-aircraft fire & only caused limited damage to four Swordfish. The British, needless to say, were farfrom happy with the results of the morning air raid. Victorious was ordered to launch another air strike which,incidentally, the captain of the British aircraft carrier had already authorised.Meanwhile, Ark Royal had likewiselaunched an air strike, but its Swordfish had mistaken the cruiser HMS Sheffieldto be one of the German ships. How this was possible, no one seems to know, butthe Sheffield had the unenviableexperience of being attacked by twelve aircraft from its own side. Fortunatelyfor the Sheffield, Ark Royal had beenrecently issued with new magnetic triggers for their torpedos which proved to beextremely faulty. Most exploded upon impacting the water. A few, though, headedtowards their target, but Sheffieldmanaged to evade these torpedos. Thankfully, the Swordfish finally identifiedthe true nature of the ship, called off the attack, & returned to base. Unlike the experience of the ArkRoyal's Swordfish, those from Victoriouswere back in the air & heading towards their target by 16:00. Raeder,however, anticipating further air attacks had placed AdmiralScheer, Gneisenau & Scharnhorstto the east in order to offer some protection for Bismarck &, especially, Tirpitz.Although this would see both his main battleships through the next attackunscathed, it was not to be the case with his other ships. The airmen from the Victorious decided to attack the first target spotted. This, as ithappened, turned out to be the AdmiralScheer. Being thus swamped by eighteen angry Swordfish, regardless of theefforts of the ship's crew, the AdmiralScheer was in serious trouble. By the time the attack had finished, threetorpedos had found their mark midships & the German pocket-battleship wasseriously damaged below the waterline. After listing to port, ten minutes afterthe attack, the ship was abandoned by her crew. Admiral Scheer would shortly thereafter roll over & sink half anhour later. Raeder now became deeply concerned. Theloss of the Admiral Scheer wassignificant, even though his four other battleships were still fullyoperational. But, if the British aircraft continued to concentrate their attackson a single ship, rather than as before being spread over several ships, thenclearly he could lose another ship or two. At this point Raeder now believedthat it would be better to head for the French coast near Brest in order to, notonly gain air cover from the Luftwaffe, but get support from U-Boats operatingout of the French port. Thus the order was given. Unbeknownst to Raeder, though,he was heading straight for the Royal Navy rendezvous point to the west ofIreland. If Raeder thought that he, by a changein direction, could evade another air attack, he was unfortunately mistaken. At 20:00 hours, both ArkRoyal to the south-east & Furiousto the east, launched the final air-attack for the day. Tovey had made it clearto the aircraft carriers that the Germans had to be slowed down somehow &they were the only ones who could do it. Although the Royal Navy's Force H(Plus) was rather powerful, having the 15 inch guns of Renown,Revenge & Ramilles to use, Tovey well & truly now believed that it wasprobably not enough. Thus, in order to ensure that the Germans would indeed bedefeated, the three battleships with his task force would have to be added tothose of Force H (Plus). As luck would have it, he would get his dire wishfulfilled. At 21:00, as light was beginning tofade, twenty Swordfish from Ark Royal(now rearmed with the older contact trigger torpedos) came upon the German fleetmore so through accident than design. They immediately radioed their discovery,along with the new direction of the German fleet, then attacked. Ten of theSwordfish went after the Gneisenau,whilst the others took on Scharnhorst.This time around, however, the anti-aircraft fire was far better than that from AdmiralScheer & six British aircraft were shot down. Nevertheless, each shipwas hit once, causing some, albeit limited damage. Both, though, were stillfully operational. The same, however, could not be said forBismarck. Not long after the attack ofArk Royal's Swordfish, fifteenSwordfish from Furious arrived thanksto the new coordinates given by their fellow naval airmen. But instead of goingafter either Gneisenau or Scharnhorst,they went after bigger fish. Bismarckwas next in the line of ships & it was too much of a tempting target toignore. Yet, as was the case with the air-defence of the two smaller Germanbattleships, the anti-aircraft fire from Bismarckwas even more horrendous. Of the fifteen Swordfish attacking the great Germanbattleship, seven were shot down, but not before two torpedos found their mark.The first torpedo hit midships & caused little damage. The second, however,hit Bismarck's aft destroying hersteering gear. As a result, Bismarck,although still fully operational weapon wise, had her speed reduced to a mere 5knots. Raeder was now in a bind. He could leaveBismarck behind, to whatever fateawaited her, & continue at best speed towards the French coast; or staybehind & escort the wounded battleship to Brest. If he were to chose theformer, the German fleet would survive, although Bismarck would surely be sacrificed. This would mean, however, hishead once he arrived in Brest. If he kept the fleet together, though, it wouldprobably mean another major naval engagement. Yet, considering what happened to Hood & Princeof Wales, there was every likelihood that the Kriegsmarinewould, once more, enjoy another glorious victory. Thus, after weighing up thepros & cons, Raeder decided to stay with Bismarck & fight it out. TheBattle of Great Sole Bank The German Admiral's decision to staywith the wounded Bismarck suited Toveyjust fine. Because of the German fleet's limited speed of 5 knots, Tovey, witha speed of 22 knots, would quickly catch up with his prey. During the night,moreover, the rest of the Royal Navy were not necessarily waiting for Tovey toenter the current battle. An audacious torpedo attack, to further impede theGermans, was attempted by several destroyers of the Royal Navy. Alas, for thedestroyer force, it was repulsed without any German loss, whilst two of thesesmall daring British ships were sunk. Tovey, like his fellow Royal Navysailors, was far from idle. A flurry of messages were going to & fro betweenTovey & Force H (Plus). Much of the radio traffic was about Tovey's planfor the forthcoming morning battle. Although somewhat complicated, it wasnevertheless a rather straight forward plan. The battleships of Force H (Plus), Renown,Revenge & Ramilles, would forma battleline to the south-east of the Germans. Tovey, meanwhile, would formanother battleline towards the north-east of the enemy using Rodney,King George V & Repulse.Hence the Germans would be attacked simultaneously by both battleship squadronsfrom two directions. The aircraft carriers would hold back & not participatein the battle, as the experience with the Sheffieldconvinced Tovey that the same event may be repeated to one of his battleships,& that was the last thing he wanted during the forthcoming battle. Dawn broke over the German ships withoutthe enemy in sight. Although this relieved Raeder to some extent, he could notignore the fact that the British, thanks to aircraft, knew is general location.He had already given the alert to expect renewed British air strikes in themorning if not a surface attack. By 08:00, when no air attack came, Raederbecame more convinced that a surface engagement was not far from taking place.At 08:43 his expectation was met when Kolnreported that the enemy was in sight towards the south-east. Two minuteslater Gneisenau reported enemy shipstowards the north-east. Raeder, at first, did not know what to make of thesereports, but as further information arrived he soon realised Tovey's tactics. Nonetheless, even though Raederunderstood the intentions of the British, due to Bismarck'sslow speed, there was little he could do other than form his line of battle.This, unfortunately for the Germans, ensured that the two Royal Navy battleshipsquadrons had little trouble getting within range of the enemy. As a result,Tovey's three ships were to take on Tirpitz& Gneisenau, whilst the Force H(Plus) ships were to take on Bismarck& Scharnhorst. The first shots of the Battle of GreatSole Bank took place just before 09:00 as the Rodney,with its 16 inch guns, announced that combat had begun. Soon, the other Britishcapital ships joined the Rodney inwhat would be the biggest surface naval engagement of World War II. But if theBritish thought that this business would be over quickly, they were in for onerude shock. Not long after the Rodneyhad opened fire, Bismarck & Tirpitzreplied in kind. Thirty minutes would go by before therewas any hint as to who may have gained an advantage. Even though the Germanswere outnumbered at every level, their superior gun skill made up thedifference. Repulse was the first toshow signs of serious damage & soon several explosions rocked the ship. Her"A" turret had exploded as a 15 inch shell penetrated its armour. As aresult, the ship disappeared in smoke. The worst fears of Tovey were soon set atease, however, when Repulse's rearturret was seen to continue firing even though it was impeded visually. Alas for the Germans, although itappeared that the balance of the battle may have actually begun to swing theirway, Tovey ordered both Rodney & KingGeorge V to concentrate their firepower on Gneisenau.This was an attempt to give Repulsesome cover whilst she dealt with her damage. Five minutes later & it wassoon apparent that the Germans were now in trouble as the Gneisenauhad suffered several hits & was, like Repulse,surrounded in smoke. If the battle, towards the north-east,seemed to be finally going the Royal Navy's way, the same could not be saidfor the capital ships of Force-H (Plus). Within fifteen minutes, Revengewas already in serious trouble. Both her "A" & "B" turrets had beenput out of action, although she had no intention of leaving the battleline justyet. The Germans, on the other hand, were doing better, although Scharnhorsthad suffered some damage whilst Tirpitzonly had her main armament operational. Little damage had been suffered by Ramilles. Renown, on the other hand, had fires raging midships yet was stillfiring as normal. The battle, however, would not bedecided by the engagement taking place towards the south-east, but by Tovey'sefforts. Now that Gneisenau wasseriously damaged, Tovey ordered a change in the concentration of firepowertowards the wounded Bismarck. Unlike Gneisenau,which was able manoeuvre to much degree before her demise, Bismarckhad no such advantage. Soon themighty German battleship suffered an horrendous hammering, which by 09:50, couldno longer return fire. Simultaneously, Repulse & Gneisenauhad engaged in a death struggle in an effort to see which ship could send theother to the bottom before the other joined her. Sure enough, by the time KingGeorge V shifted her guns back towards Gneisenau,the German ship suffered a terrific explosion which ripped her in two thussinking the German battleship in the process. Repulsewould win this deadly contest, only to sink herself some ten minutes later. As Rodneycontinued to pound Bismarck, KingGeorge V left this engagement & headed towards Tirpitz.This, the Tirpitz did not need, eventhough she had witnessed the sinking of Revenge&, along with Scharnhorst, waskeeping the two remaining British battleships at bay. The situation, however,was about to change as King George Vre-engaged the enemy at 10:08. Not long afterwards, Tirpitz was taking a hammering from an enemy she had no chance ofreplying to. Soon, the damage began to mount up, but like Bismarck, Tirpitz had nointention of sinking easily. Nonetheless, both Ramilles & Renown nowconcentrated their firepower on Tirpitzwhich ensured that the German battleship soon went silent at 10:22. Meanwhile, seeing all was lost, CaptainHoffmann of Scharnhorst, ordered aretreat. After completing a 180 degree turn, Scharnhorst went to flank speed in an effort to escape the carnagetaking place around her. Koln, havingescaped much of the fighting so far, witnessed the attempt by Scharnhorstto flee & copied the actions of the remaining operational German battleship.In a similar fashion, Prinz Eugendecided that it was also time to leave. Unlike her two compatriots, however, sheturned west instead of north. If Captain Hoffmann thought that Scharnhorstwould escape, then he was sadly wrong. Heading north, he ran straight into theguns of King George V which was not inany mood to let the last German battleship to leave. But before Scharnhorst began a running battle with the British battleship, thesurviving crew of the Bismarckabandoned ship & tried scuttled her. Yet, even then, the mighty German shipwould not sink. That would take place later thanks to three British torpedos.Not long afterwards, the Tirpitz wouldmeet the same fate. Yet, as Bismarckwas meeting her fate, Scharnhorstcontinued to steam north at flank speed whilst now exchanging gunfire with KingGeorge V. In the middle of this new battle, Kolnnow joined, but after several salvos from KingGeorge V's rear turret, the Kolnsoon found herself with serious damage. Then came several shots from Rodney, which had now left Bismarckbehind for the cruiser Dortsetshire todeal with & was making every attempt to catch Scharnhorst. This, however, was impossible due to the speedadvantage of the German battleship, but the fate of the somewhat crippled Kolnwas a different story. The German light cruiser did not last much longer. The destiny of Scharnhorst would, however, mirror that of her fellow battleships.Although she was holding her own againstKing George V, due to her direction, she unknowingly ran straight into Suffolk& Norfolk. After losing contact with the German fleet some days ago,both British cruisers had steamed at flank speed in order to catch up with theenemy. Although they were to miss the main part of the battle, the two Britishheavy cruisers would now take on Scharnhorstwhilst she was preoccupied with KingGeorge V. After a twenty minute engagement, between the three British ships& the lone German battleship, Scharnhorstbegan to sink. Her captain, like his comrades on this dreadful day, would godown defiantly. Aftermath The British were able to claim a greatvictory at the Battle of Great Sole Bank, but it was gained at great cost. Notonly had they lost Repulse & Revengeduring the battle, but an extremely damaged Renownwould sink on the way home. At least the crew of the Renownwere rescued prior to the demise of the battle cruiser, unlike the crews fromher fellow sunken ships - both British & German. The list of causalities atGreat Sole Bank were not the only Royal Navy casualties of this business, as Hood& Prince of Wales should also be included having been sunk a few daysearlier off the western coast of Iceland. Ironically, even though the British hadwon, the German's loss in shipping was, in fact, less than their enemy. Bothcombatants had five battleships sunk, although the Germans lost a cruiser. ThisGerman loss, however, was more than off set by the sacrifice of several Britishdestroyers. Essentially, & most importantly, the British still had thenumbers in combat ships to ensure that the Atlantic Ocean would be completelysafe from any future German surface raids, as the only German survivor of thegreat naval battle was Prinz Eugen.Henceforth, in one week, the German surface navy was drastically reduced to onepocket-battleship, the Deutschland,& a handful of cruisers including PrinzEugen & Nurnberg. Everything, though, was far from lostfor Germany. Donitz would get his wish. Hitler, now that his love affair withthe surface ships of the Kriegsmarinewas well & truly over, took heed in what Donitz was stressing about hisU-Boats. Thus, not long after Prinz Eugen made it, albeit bruised & battered, to the safety ofBrest, all construction on future German surface combat ships ceased. In theirplace, however, the soon to be feared U-Boats would be produced as fast as theycould be built. Unfortunately for the British, eventhough the Battle of Great Sole Bank may have been over, with the Royal Navyvictorious, the real Battle for the Atlantic was about to begin… Bibliography Text Gunston, B., Allied Fighters of WW2, Sydney, 1981 Ireland, B. The Rise And Fall of The Aircraft Carrier, London, 1979. London, C, Jutland 1916, Oxford, 2000 DVD SinkThe Bismarck, directed by Gilbert, L. 1960,(http://www.foxmovies.com.au) Internet Arsenal of Dictatorship (http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/2833/) Fleet Air Arm Archive (http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/) German Naval History (http://www.german-navy.de/) KBismarck.com (http://www.kbismarck.com) Military History Online, (http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/) Naval Historical Center (http://www.history.navy.mil/index.html) Third Reich Factbook (http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/) Warships1 (http://www.warships1.com/) World War II Plus 55 (http://www.usswashington.com/dl_index.htm) And finally - Chris Nuttall - for originallyraising this topic. |
