Operation Stonewall
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Operation Stonewall was a World War II operation to intercept blockade runners off the west coast of France. It was an effective example of inter-service and inter-national co-operation.
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[edit] Background
From the start of the war, the Allies had maintained a blockade against the import by Germany of seaborne goods. Although rich in many basic industrial materials, Germany, like Britain, could not produce some essentials. These included rubber, tin and tungsten.
Until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), the blockade was evaded via the Trans-Siberian Railway and large quantities of materials were shipped by this route. Once this was closed, German and Italian ships, stranded in the Far East, were used to bring in these essentials to ports in Occupied France. These were the blockade-runners.
Although an organised interdiction against these blockade-runners could not be set up until December, 1943, several ships were intercepted and sunk in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Few actually managed successful runs.
[edit] The Operation
The New Zealand cruiser, HMNZS Gambia, joined the operation in December, 1943, and operated from Horta, in the Azores, with HMS Glasgow, patrolling an area north of the islands.
On the 23rd December, aircraft from the US carrier USS Card spotted a suspected runner and there were further reports of a flotilla of destroyers escorting another merchantman west from France. The Gambia and Glasgow, and HMS Enterprise formed a cordon to intercept. Aircraft attacked the flotilla, now escorting an incoming merchantman (the Osorno), reporting a hit and a near-miss on the Osorno, which was subsequently beached and unloaded offshore.
More warships (HMS Ariadne, HMS Penelope and four Free French destroyers) joined the patrol to intercept another runner. Aircraft from RAF Coastal Command acted in close cooperation. Before the Allied ships and an RAF strike force could make contact, the shadowing bomber (crewed by Czechs) attacked with bombs and rockets and set the German ship, the Alsterufer, on fire. The German crew were rescued by four Canadian corvettes.
German destroyers had set out to meet and escort the Alsterufer and now the Glasgow and Enterprise sought to intercept them. Guided by shadowing aircraft, the cruisers intercepted eight destroyers in the early afternoon of the 28th December and exchanged fire with them. Despite accurate German gunfire and torpedoes, effective German evading action and an attack with guided bombs by a Luftwaffe aircraft, the British ships maintained contact.
The German ships divided into two groups and the cruisers pursued one of these. By 4pm, three destroyers (Elbing class T25 and T26 and Narvik class Z27) had been sunk and one had escaped, damaged. About 230 survivors were picked up by British minesweepers, a small Irish steamer and Spanish destroyers.
Glasgow, Enterprise and Ariadne returned to Plymouth and the Penelope to Gibraltar. More blockade runners from the Far East were expected, so the Gambia and HMS Mauritius maintained the cruiser patrol north of the Azores for the next three days. The Gambia then returned to Plymouth on 1 January 1944.
Three more German ships were sunk between 3 and 5 January, 1944 by United States Navy patrols in the South Atlantic. These were the last runners.
By Autumn, 1945, German armies were retreating headlong out of France and the French ports were no longer open to Axis ships.
[edit] Allied participants
- Ships: British, New Zealand, French, US, Canadian.
- Aircraft: US, British, Czech
