When Two Destroyers Humiliated Hitler’s Navy – Barents Sea 1942

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To check it out, use the QR code on screen now or click the link in the video description below. New players who sign up with my link will get an exclusive starter pack containing new loot boxes which can drop the new unit, the Marines, with a value of $25. This offer is only valid for the next 30 days. Convoy JW51B slips out of Lock U on the evening of the 21st of December 1942.
Composed of 15 merchant ships, the convoy is packed with much needed aid for the Red Army as it battles on around Stalingrad. 2,000 vehicles, mainly Americanbuilt trucks, 202 tanks, 87 fighter aircraft, 33 bombers, 24,000 tons of fuel, and 54,000 tons of general cargo. The close escort is provided by two corvettes and a pair of anti-ubmarine trollers.
Shephering them until Iceland is a force of huntass destroyer escorts. The Royal Navy’s 14th destroyer flatillaa consisting of one Aclass and five Oclass fleet destroyers under Captain Robert Sherbrook sails from eastern Iceland on Christmas Eve to take over escort duties as the convoy crosses the Arctic Circle.
The force is now in the teeth of German defenses. Some of the merchant skippers fear a repeat of PQ17 earlier that summer where the convoy was ordered to scatter to avoid a feared German surface attack and isolated merchants were picked off one by one by yubot. This time Captain Sherbrook has only one task. Defend the convoy or die trying across the Norwegian Sea.
Sheltered in the Alterfield, Vice Admiral Oscar Kumitz of the Crem Marine prepares to strike. The Furer is keen for the German surface fleet to inflict a defeat on the Arctic convoys and orders the creation of an audacious plan, Operation Reagan Bogen or Rainbow. Battleship Turpets is laid up for maintenance.
So the task falls to Kumitz’s flagship, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the pocket battleship Lutzau. All the creeks marine needs is for a British convoy to wander into the trap. By the 27th of December, all the pieces are in play. A British covering force, light cruisers HMS Sheffield and HMS Jamaica designated force R are sailing west from Mansk to support the convoy.
The convoy itself is 150 mi east of Yan Mayan Island, zigzagging its way east northeast at 8 knots. Unbeknownst to the British, they have been spotted. A Fogwolf 200 patrol bomber flying from Buddha in Norway reports the convoy’s position to Vice Admiral Kummit. Due to the Arctic ice cap, the entrance to the Baron Sea is narrow, only 225 mi wide.
Even though the growing darkness precludes further aerial reconnaissance, the Creeks Marine has a good idea of where the convoy will be. By the 28th, the convoy has traveled 140 mi northeast. Cruisers Sheffield and Jamaica are at their patrol area, shadowing the convoy. Force R keeps approximately 50 mi ab breast of the merchants, close enough to respond to surface threats, but far enough to avoid attracting undue attention.
Cruisers are valuable assets, and the Admiral remains troubled by the loss of HMS Edinburgh earlier in the year. Partly caused by her being stationed needlessly close to her convoy, presenting an easy target for submarine U456. A force 8 gale batters the convoy through the night of the 28th. So, the destroyers spend most of the next day rounding up stragglers blown out of position in the storm.
Little do they know that U354 has been shadowing them since 9:40 a.m. The Type 7OT makes its sighting report. In minutes, it’s received aboard Kumitz’s flagship, Admiral Hipper. The German commander briefs his subordinates while they wait for the Furer’s personal approval. Nevertheless, he warns his battle group to be ready to sail at 3 hours notice.
As the surface force prepares to sort U354 attacks, she launches three torpedoes from long range. As standard practice, the convoy has been sailing in a long zigzag pattern to throw off the aim of any submarine. And by chance, just as the German sub launches, the merchants reach a turn, slipping out of the line of fire and all three torpedoes sail past harmlessly.
The turn puts U354 out of position for any further attacks. Just before 5:00 p.m., Hitler gives the personal authorization for Operation Rainbow, prompting a frenzy of activity on the warships scattered across the field. The Furer’s orders are deeplycautious. They warn Kumitz to avoid engaging a superior enemy but then urge him to exercise restraint even when enemy is equally matched.
Kumitz has no idea of which Royal Navy warships may be lurking nearby unspotted. So in effect he is to launch a daring and audacious gamble but simultaneously cannot tolerate any risk to his capital ships. Heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper leads and Lutal follows. Formerly called Deutselland, but renamed to avoid embarrassment if she was sunk.
Ludau is what the Germans call a panzer sheath, an armored ship similar in size to Hipper. But due to her 11in main batteries, the same as the battleship Shanho and Ganisau, the British refer to her as a pocket battleship. Escorting the heavy ships are six destroyers. two type 1934A class destroyers, Frederick Echold and Theodore Reedel and the older Richard Bites, as well as the heavy type 1936A or Narvik class destroyers Z29, Zed30 and Zed31.
Similar to Lutau, the Narvix are disproportionately wellarmed, packing 5.9 in main guns, very large for destroyers. This gives them similar firepower to light cruisers. Altogether, the Creeks Marine has fielded a formidable striking force. The dark shapes of the German capital ships will emerge from the Norwegian coast as night falls.
Destroyers trail in their wake as they turn north, powering through the swell at 24 knots. U354 is forced to break off after narrowly escaping destroyer HMS Odurate, but she makes one last sighting report. Gumitz receives the signal. The convoy is exactly where he wants it. The German force makes steady progress on the 31st of December.
Approaching the suspected location of the convoy, Kermit splits his force into two pincers. Hipper and three destroyers steam ahead while Lutau and her three escorts break off to the east. His plan is simple. Hipper, the faster of the two heavy ships, will threaten the convoy from the north to draw off the escorts.
Then the heavier Lutzau will destroy the now defenseless convoy from the south. Pumitz keeps the search radars of his ships switched off to avoid detection. At 6:00 a.m., HIPPA groups destroy its Friedrich Echol, Richard Biteson, and Z29 are ordered to dogle southeast to scout [music] ahead. Peering through the Merc at 7:18 a.m.
, lookouts aboard Hipper spots two dark shapes on the horizon. Half an hour later, another shape looms from the fog. Kumitz decides that this must be his target. He orders Hipper to close to confirm and the rest of the convoy comes into view. At 8:00 a.m., the Lutzau group also reports sighting the convoy and is in position. This far north, magnetic interference renders compasses unreliable.
With no visible horizon and thick clouds obscuring the stars, navigating officers are forced to rely on simple dead reckoning. using a timer and rough speed distance time calculations to attempt to keep track of their rough position. The touitz and his captains have placed both surface groups in perfect position is nothing short of superb seammanship.
Still, the German admiral holds off, waiting for the polar dawn to provide just a little more light for his gunners. Unaware of the threat, the convoy proceeds at a stately 8 knots. Two merchant men are separated after the storm and the destroyer Aribe mines sweeper Bramble and troller Vizmala are all off looking for them.
Like the Germans, the escort also keeps radar off to avoid revealing their own position. Bringing up the rear of the force, Corvette Hydrobat sightes Hipper Group’s two destroyers, but misidentifies them as Soviet vessels. At 8:30 a.m., Objurat sites the same ships bearing 2110 and reports it to HMS On Enslow.
Sherbrook orders Objurat to split and investigate. After nearly an hour, Objurat intercepts the unidentified ships and flashes a challenge with her signal lamp. At a range of 4 and 1/2 miles, the German destroyers reply with gunfire. Objurate heals hard over to Starboard, dodging the first salvo of shells. Enemy in sight. Destroyers join me.
Sherbrook aboard Enslow tears back through the convoy and HMS Orwell follows behind. HMS Aartis and the corvettes make smoke, shephering the merchantmen away to the east. Aarti’s white chemical smoke shrouds the force, but silhouettes herself. The gunnery team aboard Admiral Hipper slew her 8-in main batteries onto the elderly destroyer and opened fire.
The second salvo straddles her and shrapnel tears through a carti’s hole, damaging electrics and causing flooding. The passageways are littered with injured men. Spotting the flash of Hipper’s guns, Sherbet brings his destroyers around. The three German destroyers slip in a stern of Admiral Hipper.
Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, HMS Onslow opens fire at 9:41 a.m. with her 4.7 in guns. A battery is blocked by ice and the gun crew batter away at it with shell casings to clear the jam as freezing spray slices over the open turret. Unfazed, Hipper continues engaging a cartis. HMS On Enslow leads the facilla, now joined by HMS Obedient, hard to portthrough a full circle, mimicking a torpedo attack to scare off the German cruiser.
The three destroyers keep closing, hoping to get as near as possible to Hipper before unleashing their fish for real. The faint works and fearing a torpedo attack, Kumitz turns Hipper away. She continues to fire on Aartis until they’re separated by a snow squall. At 9:49 a.m., with the cruiser concealed by weather, Sherbuk brings his destroyers east to avoid being drawn too far away from the convoy.
If Hipper attacks aggressively, there will be little Sherbrook and his three destroyers can do to stop it. His only hope is force R, 39 mi to the north and closing fast. Rear Admiral Bernett aboard HMS Sheffield has seen the gun flashes in the distance and has ordered his two cruisers to turn south, breaking into a 31 knot charge to join the fry.
Sherbrook just needs to keep the convoy alive until they can reach him. As the Admiral Hipper emerges periodically from the squall to fire odd broadsides at the destroyers, Sherbrook makes the risky but wise [music] decision to detach obedient then objurate to reinforce the thinly protected convoy.
He accepts the risk of leaving HMS Orwell and his own HMS Onslow behind to keep the heavy cruiser occupied. Kumitz is impressed by the handling of the British destroyers. The convoy is fully screened by smoke from Accartis. He has no idea what Lutau is doing, but hopes she’s in position, lying in wait for the fleeing convoy. At 10:13 a.m.
, Hipper makes another attempt to break through the destroyers. Spotting On Enslow, her forward turrets open up. The 122 kg shells cover the 6 mi in 13 seconds, landing a stern of Enslow. The cruiser’s secondary battery of six 4.1 in guns engages Orwell. The British destroyers blaze away with their four and 4.
7 in guns, though with little effect. Hipper’s fourth salvo straddles On Enslow. A shell explodes in her funnel, and Shrapnel kills the men in the radar office. On the open bridge, a fragment strikes Captain Sherbrook in the face, smashing his cheekbone and his left eye. Still alive, he refuses medical treatment until his ship is out of danger.
Two more rounds strike her folks, sthing down the forward gun crews. Sherbrook orders the wounded HMS On Enslow to starboard and makes smoke, her after guns still firing as the destroyer disappears in her own smoke screen. At 10:22 a.m., another squall blinds Hipper. Sherbrook turns his ship beam onto the wind to help fight the fire raging forward and amid ships and orders the forward magazines flooded.
then gives command of the escort to Captain Kinlock of HMS Obedient. Only now does he allow himself to be taken below for medical attention as Onslow retreats to the convoy. Meanwhile, Kitz changes course to northeast to try and hook around and reappear on the convoy’s far side. Mind sweeper HMS Brambble, separated during the storm, can only see the glow of gunfire on the horizon.
She is hurrying back to help from the north when she runs into Admiral Hipper. The cruiser unleashes a full broadside. Brambble courageously returns fire with her single forward 4-in gun, but is quickly reduced to a blazing wreck. Kumitz detaches destroyers Friedrich Eckt and Richard Bitesen to finish her off, and she sinks with all hands lost.
Meanwhile, the convoy continues heading south, unwittingly being herded towards Lutzau. Akartis is still in the fight, bringing up the rear. 12 merchants in the middle. Obedient and Objurate are two mi to port, making smoke, and Enslow and Orwell are coming south beyond them. Or R is still 15 mi to the north.
Pocket battleship Lutz fires up her search radar and detects the convoy. HMS Obedience spots Lutau through the gloom to the southwest. So she, Objurat, and Orwell rush to shield the merchants. All weather between the pocket battleship and the convoy makes a good gunnery attack unlikely. So Captain Rudolph Stanganger decides to slip back into the mist and cross around behind the convoy to strike from the northeast.
The convoy commander, Captain Meluish, brings his merchant men to the southeast to put more distance between him and Admiral Hipper, still probing from the north. This maneuver inadvertently foils Lutzel’s flanking maneuver, and they also escape the Lutzau and Hipper Pinsir attack in the process. By 11:00 a.m.
, both Hipper and Lutz are searching separately to the east of the convoy. At 11:50 a.m., Captain Kinlock, still commanding the Royal Navy close escort warships, orders the damaged Akartis to the front of the convoy with Onslow so the two damaged destroyers can support each other. However, in doing so, she emerges from the smoke and is spotted by Hipper stalking 10 mi northeast.
Minutes later, shell fire is again raining down around Aartis. Despite evasive maneuvering, the second salvo strikes home, killing her captain and the bridge crew and igniting severe fires amid ships. The next salvo damages boilers, cutting her speed to just 12 knots. Despite the best efforts of her crew,the damage is fatal.
Inlock brings the fighting escort about to face Hipper again. Finished with the cartis, Admiral Hipper’s gunners switch fire. Shell splinters from her first salvo knocks out obedience radio. They’re not able to close with the destroyers due to the risk of torpedo attack. Bite Admiral Kummitz retains the initiative and can dictate the battle.
The destroyers are running around screening the convoy but can’t press the attack against either one of the German ships without leaving the merchants exposed to the other. The convoy is being stalked by two powerful warships and is in serious danger. However, unbeknownst to Kumit, at 11:26 a.m., Bors R arrives.
Light cruiser HMS Sheffield’s radar detects Admiral Hipper 8 mi ahead. Distracted by the battle, Hipper is unaware of the danger bearing down on it. Rear Admiral Bernett brings the townclass cruiser starboard, unmasking her full 12 gun broadside. Under radar control, her 6-in guns thunder through the gloom. Kumitz is bewildered by shells crashing around him.
Sheffield’s second salvo punches a hole through the water line, killing one man, causing flooding and wrecking the number three boiler room, forcing one engine to be shut down and capping Hipper’s speed. Colony class cruiser HMS Jamaica joins the bombardment. An armor-piercing shell ignites a fire in Hipper’s seplane hanger.
The next penetrates her starboard side. The German heavy cruiser attempts to return fire, but smoke from her battle damage blinds her gun directors, and her panicked shooting is wildly inaccurate. Hippa may have the bigger 8-in guns, but the ships of Force R, with their greater number of lighter 6-in batteries, outgun her through sheer rate of fire.
In seconds, the tables have turned. Kumitz himself is trapped in a pinser between three British destroyers on one side and a pair of British cruisers on the other with Lutal nowhere to be seen. Remembering the Furer’s orders to exercise caution at 11:37 a.m. he orders all ships to break off the attack and run. Further north, destroyers Friedrich Eckled and Richard Bitesen are returning from finishing off HMS Bramble.
They signal to Kumit. I can see a cruiser and a destroyer at 3000. Is that you? It’s not. Sheffield’s lookout spot the destroyers 2 miles ahead and her skipper immediately turns her hard to bring all guns to bear. Richard Bitesen tries to warn Echold, but it’s too late. Sheffield lets fly with everything. Two pounder AA guns, 4-in guns, and no less than 16 salvos from her 6-in main batteries.
In seconds, Echold explodes, split in two as the torrent of gunfire reduces her to a mangled, burning wreck. Richard Biteson is engaged by Jamaica, but she escapes behind a sudden snow squall. To the south, Lutal finally spots the convoy and fires her first salvo of the battle, straddling freighter Calobre. But almost immediately, Capitan Stanganger obeys Kumitz’s withdrawal order and ceases fire, turning away southwest, where the two capital ships will rejoin.
Sheffield and Jamaica give chase, trading salvos with the retreating German ships through the mist until radar contact is lost at 2 p.m. Hitler claims on his New Year’s Eve address that the Creeks Marine has destroyed the entire convoy. When Vice Admiral Oscar Kumitz breaks radio silence to make his report the next day, the Furer is less than thrilled.
The convoy has lost one destroyer HMS Accartis and the mind sweeper HMS Bramble with destroyer HMS Onslow damaged. However, all of the merchant ships escape unscathed. In return, the cruise marine has lost destroyer Friedrich Eckled and her entire crew, and heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper is in need of considerable repairs.
Hitler’s entire rationale for Operation Rainbow was contradictory. It was a daring operation in concept, but his orders forced timidity in its execution. Naturally, Hitler views the issue differently. He condemns the Navy as a breeding ground for revolution, idly lying about and lacking any desire to get into action.
He decides, “It is now my irrevocable decision to do away with these useless ships. On Hitler’s orders, battleship Ganisau is dismantled and further scrappings are narrowly avoided. The success of the defensive actions of a handful of British destroyers against his heavy cruiser and battleship until the force cruisers could arrive have shattered Hitler’s faith in the German surface fleet for good.
With his surface fleet now useless, the head of the creeks marine, fleet admiral Eric Rder, resigns and is replaced by Yubot commander Carl Durnis, signaling a doctrinal shift for the Creeks Marine. Convoy JW51B reaches the shelter of Mamman on the 3rd of January 1943. British Home Fleet Commander Admiral John Tovi regards the battle as a victory.
that an enemy force of at least one pocket battleship, one heavy cruiser, and six destroyers with all the advantage of surprise and concentration should be held off for four hours by five destroyers and driven from the areaby two 6-in cruisers without any loss to the convoy is most credible and satisfactory.
For his gallant command of the escort force, Captain Sherbrook is awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery in the presence of the enemy. Thanks again to Supremacy Call of War 1942 for sponsoring this video. Engage in epic battles and click the link in the description to get an exclusive starter pack containing new loot boxes which can drop the new unit, the Marines, with a value of $25.
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