Battle of the North Cape
Part of World War II
Date December 26, 1943 Location off North Cape, Norway Result British victory
Combatants
Nazi Germany	United Kingdom
Commanders
Erich Bey†	Bruce Fraser
Strength
1 battlecruiser 5 destroyers	1 battleship 1 heavy cruiser 3 light cruisers 9 destroyers
Casualties
1 battlecruiser sunk	1 battleship lightly damaged 1 heavy cruiser lightly damaged 1 light cruiser lightly damaged 1 destroyer lightly damaged

In the World War II naval Battle of the North Cape, ships of the Royal Navy sank the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst off Norway's North Cape on December 26, 1943. It may be the northernmost naval battle in history. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... Midnight sun at the North Cape North Cape (foreground), Knivskjellodden (background) North Cape is a cape on the island of Magerøya in northern Norway, in the community of Nordkapp. ... Image File history File links War_Ensign_of_Germany_1938-1945. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Image File history File links Naval_Ensign_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Erich Bey with Ritterkreuz Konteradmiral Erich Bey (23 March 1898-26 December 1943) was a German naval officer who most notably served as a commander of Nazi Germanys destroyer flotillas and who led the German force in the Battle of North Cape on 26 December 1943, during which the... Bruce Fraser, Baron Fraser of North Cape (February 5, 1888–February 12, 1981) was a senior British admiral during World War II. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet during the later stages of the naval war in Europe, and during that period he commanded the fleet that... Combatants Royal Navy Royal Canadian Navy United States Navy (1941–5) Kriegsmarine Regia Marina (1940–3) Commanders Sir Percy Noble Sir Max K. Horton Percy W. Nelles Leonard W. Murray Ernest J. King Erich Raeder Karl Dönitz Casualties 30,248 merchant sailors 3,500 merchant vessels 175 warships 28... Combatants Nazi Germany United Kingdom New Zealand Commanders Hans Langsdorff Henry Harwood Strength 1 pocket battleship (Panzerschiffe) Admiral Graf Spee 1 heavy cruiser 2 light cruisers Casualties 1 pocket battleship scuttled 36 killed 1 heavy cruiser Exeter heavily damaged 72 killed The Battle of the River Plate (December 13, 1939... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... SC-7 was a World War II convoy of 35 merchant ships which sailed eastbound from Sydney, Nova Scotia for Liverpool, England and other British ports on October 4, 1940. ... HX-84 was a World War II convoy of 38 ships which sailed eastbound from Halifax, Nova Scotia for Liverpool, England on 28 October 1940. ... Convoy HX-106 consisted of some 41 ships, eastbound from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England. ... Operation Berlin was the commerce raid performed by German warships KM Scharnhorst and KM Gneisenau between January and March, 1941. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Operation Rheinübung. ... Combatants Royal Navy Kriegsmarine Regia Marina Strength 62 U-boats Casualties 95 merchant ships sunk 24 warships sunk 62 U-boats lost The Mediterranean U-boat Campaign went on and off from September 21, 1941 to May 1944 during World War II. The Nazi Kriegsmarine aimed at isolating Gibraltar, Malta... Operation Cerberus (German: Zerberus after Cerberus the three-headed dog of Greek mythology who guards the gate to Hades) was the name given to the break-out during World War II of the Kriegsmarines ships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen and a number of smaller ships from Brest to their... The Battle of the St. ... The Laconia incident was a 1942 incident during World War II when RMS Laconia, carrying some 80 civilians and 268 British soldiers, and about 1800 Italian POWs with 160 Polish soldiers on guard, was struck by a torpedo from a German U-boat off the coast of West Africa and... PQ-17 was a World War II convoy carrying war materiel from Britain and the USA to the USSR. PQ-17 sailed in June-July 1942 and suffered the heaviest losses of any Russia-bound (PQ) convoy, with 25 vessels out of 36 lost to enemy action. ... The Battle of the Barents Sea took place on December 31, 1942 between British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR, and German surface raiders. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore the Senior Service). ... HMS Hood (left) and the battleship HMS Barham (right), in Malta, 1937. ... Scharnhorst was a 31,500 tonne Gneisenau class battlecruiser of the German Kriegsmarine, named after the Prussian general and army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst and to commemorate the World War I armored cruiser SMS Scharnhorst. ... Midnight sun at the North Cape North Cape (foreground), Knivskjellodden (background) North Cape is a cape on the island of Magerøya in northern Norway, in the community of Nordkapp. ... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ...

Background

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, HMS Onslaught, HMS Orwell, HMS Scourage, HMS Impulse, HMCS Haida, HMCS Huron, and HMCS Iroquois, and the minesweeper HMS Gleaner. The Arctic convoys of World War II travelled from the United States and the United Kingdom to the northern ports of the Soviet Union - Archangel and Murmansk. ... This or section does not cite its references or sources. ... HMS Onslow was an O-class destroyer of the Royal Navy which entered service in 1941. ... HMS Orwell was an O-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that entered service in 1942. ... HMCS Haida (G-63) is the most famous ship in the Royal Canadian Navy, having sunk more enemy surface tonnage than any other Canadian ship. ... HMCS Iroquois G89/217 was a Destroyer of the Tribal class built in the United Kingdom and served in the Royal Canadian Navy. ...

On 25 December 1943, the German battlecruiser 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. December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 6 days remaining in the year. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... The Zerstörer 1936A class destroyers, or Narvik class destroyers as they were known to the Allies were a class of German destroyers of the Second World War. ... USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range attackers (originally torpedo boats, later submarines and aircraft). ... County Finnmark Landscape Municipality NO-2012 Administrative centre Alta Mayor (2003) Geir Ove Bakken (Ap) Official language form BokmÃ¥l Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 7 3,849 km² 3,651 km² 1. ... The term Rear Admiral originated from the days of Naval Sailing Squadrons, and is most directly associated with the British Royal Navy. ... Erich Bey with Ritterkreuz Konteradmiral Erich Bey (23 March 1898-26 December 1943) was a German naval officer who most notably served as a commander of Nazi Germanys destroyer flotillas and who led the German force in the Battle of North Cape on 26 December 1943, during which the...

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 and Ashanti, HMCS Athabascan, and the minesweeper HMS Seagull. Several ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Meteor after the meteor, a space object. ... HMS Ashanti was a Tribal-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. ... HMCS Athabaskan (G 07) was the first of three destroyers of the Canadian Navy to bear this name. ...

Unknown to the Germans 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 fast battleship HMS Duke of York, the cruiser HMS Jamaica, and the S-class destroyers HMS Savage, Scorpion, Saumarez, Sword and HNoMS Stord of the Royal Norwegian Navy, was trailing the convoy at a considerable distance. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore the Senior Service). ... The term Rear Admiral originated from the days of Naval Sailing Squadrons, and can trace its origins to the British Royal Navy. ... USS Port Royal (CG-73), a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser (really an uprated guided missile destroyer), launched in 1992. ... A long absence of a Norfolk in the Royal Navy was finally ended in the commissioning of County-class heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk (78), which displaced 10,035 tons. ... HMS Belfast, the Royal Navys heaviest ever cruiser, was one of the two ships forming the final sub-class of British Town-class cruisers, the other being HMS Edinburgh. ... HMS Sheffield (24) was a Southampton class cruiser in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. ... Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. ... Bruce Fraser, Baron Fraser of North Cape (February 5, 1888–February 12, 1981) was a senior British admiral during World War II. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet during the later stages of the naval war in Europe, and during that period he commanded the fleet that... The firepower of a battleship demonstrated by USS Iowa. ... HMS Duke of York was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, and the second of the name, the predecessor having been a 4-gun cutter purchased in 1763 and sold in 1766. ... HMS Jamaica (C44), a Crown Colony class cruiser of the Royal Navy, is named after Jamaica when it used to be part of the British Empire. ... The S and T class was a class of sixteen destroyer escorts of the Royal Navy launched in 1942–1943. ... Ten vessels of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Scorpion, after the scorpion. ... HMS SAUMAREZ Source: Naval Historical Branch November 1971 HMS SAUMAREZ was a Fleet Destroyer, (S class) destroyer, built by Hawthorn Leslie, Hebburn, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and completed on 1 July 1943. ... HMS Sword in movie Vynález zkázy based on Facing the Flag by Karel Zeman. ... HNoMS Stord was an S-class 2400 ton destroyer in the service of the Royal Norwegian Navy during World War II. She was lauched 4 April 1943 as HMS Success, but was rechristened HNoMS Stord when she was commissioned in the Norwegian Navy on 26 August 1943. ... Ranks Norwegian military ranks The Royal Norwegian Navy (often abbreviated as RNoN) is the branch of the Norwegian Defence Force responsible for naval operations. ...

Battle

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 destroyers and sent them southward in an attempt to increase the effective search area. Admiral Fraser, anticipating a German attack, had diverted the convoy northward, out of the area in which it was expected. This or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The now unescorted 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 battlecruiser were forced to aim at 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. This long range radar antenna, known as ALTAIR, is used to detect and track space objects in conjunction with ABM testing at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein atoll. ...

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. U-boat is also a nickname for some diesel locomotives built by GE; see List of GE locomotives October 1939. ...

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 manoeuvring to bring her full broadside to bear.

At 16:48, Belfast fired starshell to illuminate Scharnhorst. The battlecruiser, with her turrets trained fore and aft, was clearly visible from Duke of York. Duke of York opened fire at a range of 11,920 yards. Scharnhorst's foremost turret ("Anton") was disabled after a while, and another salvo destroyed the ship's aeroplane hangar. Bey turned north, but was engaged by the cruisers Norfolk and Belfast, and turned east at a high speed of 31 knots. A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage includes large solid projectiles previously termed shot (AP, APCR, APCNR, APDS, APFSDS and Proof shot). ...

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 armour belt and destroyed the number 1 boiler room. Scharnhorst's speed dropped to only 22 knots, though immediate repair work allowed it to regain to 26 knots. 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." ^[1] Belt armor is armor added to the hulls of battleships. ...

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 suffered eleven killed and eleven wounded.

Despite the torpedo hits, the battlecruiser still maintained a speed of 22 knots, but it was too slow. 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 German ship to a deluge of shells, and the cruisers Jamaica and Belfast fired their remaining torpedoes at the slowing target. Scharnhorst's end came when the British destroyers Opportune, Virago, Musketeer and Matchless fired a further nineteen torpedoes at her. 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 later identified and filmed at N72 31, E28 15. Of her total complement of 1,968, only 36 were pulled from the frigid waters (none of them was an officer), 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. December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, 361st in leap years. ... Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi, , gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. ... Longitude, sometimes denoted by the Greek letter λ (lambda),[1][2] describes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north-south line called the Prime Meridian. ...

Aftermath

Later in the evening of December 26 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". December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, 361st in leap years. ... Scharnhorst was a 31,500 tonne Gneisenau class battlecruiser of the German Kriegsmarine, named after the Prussian general and army reformer Gerhard von Scharnhorst and to commemorate the World War I armored cruiser SMS Scharnhorst. ...

The loss of Scharnhorst demonstrated the vital importance of radar in modern naval warfare. While the battlecruiser 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." ^[2] Alternate meaning: Grand Admiral (Star Wars). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

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...". Flag of the Lord High Admiral The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. ... The Norwich Evening News is a daily newspaper for Norwich city and the surrounding suburbs and outlying towns, and is published by Archant. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

References

1. ^ (Claasen, 232)
2. ^ (Claasen, 233)

• 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 0-86007-130-8, 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 0-7134-1172-4

External links

• The Battleship Scharnhorst at KBismarck.com
• Scharnhorst History and Diagrams at Scharnhorst-Class.dk
• Scharnhorst at Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia