Battle of the Barents Sea
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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. The action took place in the Barents Sea north of North Cape, Norway.
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[edit] Approach
Convoy JW 51B comprised fourteen merchant ships carrying war materials to the USSR — some 202 tanks, 2,046 other vehicles, 87 fighters, 33 bombers, 11,500 tons of fuel, 12,650 tons of aviation fuel and just over 54,000 tons of other supplies. They were protected by the destroyers HMS Achates, Orwell, Oribi, Onslow, Obedient, and Obdurate; the Flower class corvettes Rhododendron and Hyderabad; the minesweeper HMS Bramble; and two trawlers Vizalma and Northern Gem. The overall commander was Robert St. Vincent Sherbrooke, in Onslow. The convoy sailed in the dead of winter to preclude attacks by German aircraft that had decimated an earlier Arctic convoy, PQ-17.
In addition to the convoy escort, two cruisers, Sheffield and Jamaica, were independently stationed in the Barents Sea to provide distant cover for the convoy. These two ships, known as "Force R", were under the command of Rear-admiral Robert L. Burnett, in Sheffield.
The German forces included the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper; pocket battleship Lützow; and destroyers Friedrich Eckholdt, Richard Beitzen, Theodor Riedel, Z 29, Z 30, and Z 31. These ships were based at Altafjord in northern Norway, and were under the overall command of Vice-admiral Oskar Kummetz in Hipper.
Convoy JW 51B sailed from Loch Ewe on December 22, 1942 and met its escort off Iceland on December 25. From there the ships sailed northeast, meeting heavy gales on December 28 and 29 December that caused the ships of the convoy to lose station. When the weather moderated five merchantmen, including the Oribi and the Vizalma, were missing and Bramble was detached to search for them. Three of the straggling merchantmen rejoined the following day; the other ships proceeded independently towards Kola Inlet.
Meanwhile, on 30 December, the convoy was sighted by the German submarine U-354. When the report was received by the German Naval Staff, Kummetz was ordered to sail immediately with his force to intercept the convoy. Kummetz divided his force into two divisions led by Hipper and Lützow, respectively.
[edit] The battle
Because the battle took place in the middle of the polar night and both the German and British forces were scattered and unsure of the positions of the rest of their own forces, much less the enemy's, the entire battle was a rather confused affair. During the battle it was not clear who was firing on whom or even how many ships were engaged.
At 08:20 on December 31, Obdurate, stationed south of the convoy, spotted three of the German destroyers to the rear (west) of the convoy. Then Onslow spotted Admiral Hipper, also to the rear of the convoy, and steered to intercept with Orwell, Obedient, and Obdurate, while Achates was ordered to stay with the convoy and make smoke. After some firing, the British ships turned to make a feigned torpedo attack. Heavily outgunned, Sherbrooke knew that his torpedoes were his most formidable weapons and once launched, that threat would be gone. The ruse worked: Hipper temporarily retired since Kummetz had been ordered not to risk his ships. Admiral Hipper returned to make a second attack, hitting Onslow and causing heavy damage, although Onslow would ultimately survive the action. Sherbrooke was badly injured by a large steel splinter, and command passed to Obedient.
Hipper then pulled north of the convoy, stumbled across Bramble, which opened fire; Hipper returned fire with her much heavier guns.[1] The destroyer Eckholdt was ordered to finish Bramble off, while the Admiral Hipper shifted target to Obedient and Achates to the south. Achates was badly damaged, but she continued to lay down smoke until she eventually sank. Many of her crew would be rescued by the trawler Northern Gem. The Germans would report sinking a destroyer, but this was on the basis of the sinking the minesweeper Bramble which they mistook for a destroyer - they never realized Achates had been hit.
All this firing attracted the attention of Force R, which was still farther to the north. Sheffield and Jamaica approached unseen, and they opened fire on Admiral Hipper at 11:30, causing some damage. Kummetz initially thought that the attack of the two cruisers was coming from another destroyer, but upon realizing his mistake, he ordered his ships to retreat to the west. In another case of mistaken identity, Eckholdt mistook Sheffield for Admiral Hipper, and she was quickly sunk.
Meanwhile, Lützow approached from the east and fired ineffectively at the convoy (which was still being hidden by smoke from the doomed Achates). Heading northwest to join Admiral Hipper, Lützow also found Sheffield and Jamaica, which opened fire. Coincidentally, both sides decided to break off the action at the same time, each side fearing imminent torpedo attacks upon their capital ships from the other's remaining destroyers. This was shortly after noon. Burnett with Force R continued to shadow the German ships at a distance until it was evident that they were retiring back to their base, while the ships of the convoy re-formed and continued towards Kola Inlet.
[edit] Aftermath
Despite this German attack on convoy JW 51B, all fourteen of its merchant ships reached their destinations in the USSR.
Even more critically for the outcome of the war, Adolf Hitler was infuriated at what he perceived as the uselessness of the surface raiders, seeing that two heavy cruisers were driven off by mere destroyers. There were serious implications: this failure nearly made Hitler enforce a decision to scrap the surface fleet, and for the German Navy to concentrate on U-boat warfare. Admiral Erich Raeder, supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine, offered his resignation - which Hitler apparently reluctantly accepted. Raeder was replaced by Admiral Karl Dönitz, the commander of the U-boat fleet.
On the British side, Captain Robert St. Vincent Sherbrooke was awarded the Victoria Cross. He generously acknowledged that it had truthfully been awarded in honour of the whole crew of Onslow.
At the memorial for Bramble, Captain Harvey Crombie stated of the crew: "They had braved difficulties and perils probably unparalleled in the annals of the British Navy, and calls upon their courage and endurance were constant, but they never failed. They would not have us think sadly at this time, but rather that we should praise God that they had remained steadfast to duty to the end."[2]
The battle was the subject of the book 73 North by Dudley Pope.
[edit] External links
- Battle of the Barents Sea — comprehensive article by Irwin J. Kappes
- Coxswain Sid Kerslake of armed trawler "Northern Gem" during Convoy JW.51B and the Battle of the Barents Sea
