Hitler’s Pre-Emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940 by Henrik Lunde (the reader ebook .TXT) 📕

Schmitt rolled over, her mast settled on Hermann Künne’s deck and the two ships became entangled and remained immobilized for the next 40 minutes.

There is some dispute as to what happened during this first phase of the attack and that is understandable in such a violent and sudden encounter. Captain MacIntyre writes that torpedoes from Hardy caused the destruction of both Wilhelm Heidkamp and Anton Schmitt and that while both Hunter and Havock fired torpedoes, these appeared to have missed. Moulton appears to accept the same reasoning but this may be because he seems to have relied heavily on what Captain MacIntyre wrote about this event. Dickens and Harvey, however, maintain that torpedoes fired by Havock sank Anton Schmitt. German sources and the sequence of events leading to Commander Böhme reaching the quarterdeck at the same time as the torpedo struck the ship, support Dickens and Harvey’s version.

The German gunfire became increasingly effective as the men began to recover from their surprise, and Courage decided to break off his attack. Havock received fire from Hans Lüdemann, which was now loose from Jan Wellem, and Diether von Roeder as she exited the harbor. Havock was not hit, but Hans Lüdemann sustained two damaging hits. One shell put one of her forward guns out of action while a second shell started a fire in the aft part of the ship, making it necessary to flood the rear magazine to keep it from exploding. Havock was also subjected to a hail of rifle and machinegun fire from German troops on shore. The battle had lasted 30 minutes and the crowded harbor was a terrible scene of destruction.

Hotspur, skippered by Commander Herbert F. N. Layman, and Hostile, skippered by Commander J. P. Wright now joined the battle, as they had returned from their mission to check any shore batteries at Framnes. Hostile became engaged in a gun battle with Diether von Roeder, still at anchor and immobile. The battle was intense but the visibility was so reduced by smoke that the gunnery was not very effective. Hostile took no hits, but Diether von Roeder sustained two damaging hits. Hunter fired four torpedoes into the harbor and hit two merchant ships, one being the British Blythmoor. The British had fired 22 torpedoes into the harbor. All five British destroyers were now steaming in a rough counter-clockwise formation outside the harbor, engaging targets as they came abreast of the entrance.

Due to the reduced visibility caused by the smoke from the fires and guns, the three surviving German destroyers and their five opponents were aiming their fire at observed gun flashes. Commander Wright was trying to get into a position to launch a torpedo attack against Diether von Roeder, but Commander Holtorf beat him to the draw. Diether von Roeder had taken a punishing pounding from the British fire. Two shells from Hostile penetrated her port side below the bridge, rupturing a fuel tank, and damaging the steering controls. The fire from the broken fuel tank set the aft boiler room ablaze. The ship was still immobile but Holtorf feared that the spreading fire would reach the magazines and he decided to launch his torpedoes before it was too late. He sent a spread of eight torpedoes between the merchant ships towards the harbor entrance. Hans Lüdemann and Hermann Künne also sent torpedo salvos towards the entrance.

The British destroyers were now engaged in desperate maneuvers to avoid the many torpedo tracks coming towards them. They managed to avoid most of them, but the after-action reports indicate that three destroyers would have been hit if the German torpedoes had functioned properly by staying at the preset depth. Hardy, Hunter, and Havock reported that torpedoes passed under them and would have been hits if they had traveled at the correct depth.

Diether von Roeder continued to defend itself in a fierce duel against the five British attackers. The German destroyer had dropped its anchor after returning from patrol and the anchor could not be lifted because the power supply to the electrically operated windlass was severed. The warship was a stationary target on which the British concentrated their fire. The boiler room was ablaze, the fire direction system was inoperable, and a shell struck the mess killing eight men and starting a fire that turned the forward part of the ship into an inferno.

A British shell hit and destroyed gun number 3, killing six of its crew. Another shell ignited an ammunition locker and one penetrated the ship near the aft magazine. This made it necessary to flood the magazine. Diether von Roeder’s guns kept firing, directed locally since the central fire control system was down. The ship’s engine still functioned and Commander Holtorf backed his ship to safety between the fiery wrecks of merchant ships, dragging the anchor. He managed to reach the Steamship Pier and there the ship remained with its bow facing the harbor entrance. The fires were extinguished with the help of shore-based fire-fighting equipment. Despite the crew being full of fight, Commander Holtorf decided that his ship had sustained so much damage and its fighting ability was so reduced that it would be folly to keep the crew aboard. He ordered all unnecessary personnel to leave the ship.

Warburton-Lee made a quick assessment of the situation. There was no fire coming from the harbor. The British had counted at least four or five German destroyers in the harbor out of the six that they believed the Norwegians at Tranøy had reported entering Ofotfjord. Warburton-Lee decided, after he was told the ships had 16 torpedoes left, that there was little risk in completing the work he had started and he ordered the destroyers to reenter the harbor and finish off the enemy.

The British destroyers entered the harbor in a line-ahead formation at 20 knots in order to be better able to avoid enemy torpedoes, and circled in a counter-clockwise direction while raking all observed targets in the harbor with their guns. The British ships exited at high