The Whale Has Wings Vol 1 - Rebirth (21 page)

Once the fighters had been brought back (and the original CAP landed on to refuel and rearm), the fleet headed west to give themselves more room and hopefully warning in case of subsequent air attack. The withdrawal did not, in the end , help the Nurnberg; she sailed that night in an attempt to sneak home to Germany, but was intercepted by the submarine HMS Truant (who had been lying
patiently in wait all day), torpedoed and sunk.

10th April, Narvik, 1000.

Although the British destroyers still did not know the Narvik garrison had surrendered, their intention was to attack and destroy the German destroyer force (while it was possible that heavy units had accompanied the destroyers into the fjord, this was thought unlikely as they would be trapped there).

The attack was coordinated with a search mission flown off HMS Colossus; two Swordfish had been flown off to search the fjord and act as spotting planes; four more of her Swordfish were searching for the heavy ships, the other two being used on A/S duties. The carriers 12 Cormorants were readied to carry out a strike at Narvik once the information as to the size and the location of the German destroyers was know; the dive bombers were thought to have a better chance of hits against an agile destroyer.

The two Swordfish spotted six
destroyers in the fjord (there were actually seven, but it seems they missed one), and what they assumed were supply ships of some sort, as well as a considerable amount of neutral shipping. The carrier strike was timed to arrive over the fjord just as the destroyer force entered. Weather was poor (there were constant snow flurries), but acceptable, and as there seemed no risk of fighters this far north the dive bombers could take their time.

As the six British destroyers entered the fjord and commenced to sail up it to Narvik, the dive bombers arrived. Since they had enough fuel to permit them to loiter for a time, the examined the fj
ord themselves, and picked out three German destroyers as targets. The visibility was poor, with snow showers, but the limited sea-room in the fjord meant that the planes could get frequent sight of targets (although not always the same target!). Because of the poor and variable visibility, it was decided to attack the first two ships visible in groups of three planes once the attack order had been given. Soon after the British ships entered, the German destroyers started to head out, it was assumed alerted by spotters near to the fjords entrance. The Cormorants immediately attacked two of the destroyers, in an attempt to sink or disable them and to throw the force into confusion before the British force closed.

Apparently the Germans had not realized that the new planes were actually dive bombers; it was later found that their examination of the fjord had been taken for more reconnaissance, a view confirmed (to them) by the arrival of a British destroyer squadron. As a result, the two attacks were much more successful than anticipated. The first dest
royer was hit by one 1,000 bomb and immediately slewed to a halt, on fire. It would sink 15 minutes later. The second was hit by one bomb, amidships, but this was more than sufficient to wreck a destroyers relatively fragile machinery and bring her to a halt in the middle of the fjord. A second bomb landed close enough in the water to stove her in underwater, and she was seen to be going down by the head.

The attack indeed caused confusion among the remaining five German ships, and as a result the Royal navy force had arrived and was firing on them before they had recovered from the air strike. Two of the large German destroyers were hit before they managed to get a single hit on their attackers. The attack developed into a sort of free-for-all, with destroyers trying to maneuver radically in the confined fjord, while shooting at each other and trying for torpedo attacks. Seeing this, the second Cormorant flight decided to make a dummy attack (they had no bombs left), on one of the German destroyers to see if they could help. Ironically this attack with no bomb load proved at least as damaging as thei
r earlier attack. Not realizing that the planes were unarmed, the destroyer responded by some violent helm actions to evade, which ended abruptly when she ran onto the rocks.

The final result of the action was two German destroyers sunk by the dive bombers, one sunk (or at least a permanent decoration on one side of the fjord) after running aground, one sunk by torpedo attack and the other three disabled and on fire. Three of the Royal Navy destroyers were seriously damaged, one sinking later due to a torpedo hit. The remaining three only received light damage, which left the Royal Navy in command of the fjord. No Cormorants were lost to the AA fire. Once the German destroyers had been defeated, the destroyers also sank or forced to surrender a number of German supply ships, but as they had no troops with them there was nothing they could do about the Germans in the town itself except report the fact.

The decisive defeat of the destroyers was, however, to prove of value in the battle for Narvik. While a number of survivors from the destroyers made it to shore, the bulk of the crews were rescued by the British destroyers. If they had been allowed ashore, it is possible they could have been a considerable help to the 1500 German soldiers already ashore; as it was, they ended up in British PoW camps, and only around 200 were available to help the invaders. Having full control of the fjord, the British force boarded the merchant ships in the port (there were around a dozen, including some British ships), the small number of German soldiers on them being rather intimidated by the sight of the muzzle of a 4.7" gun pointing at them, and a small convoy was assembled higher up the fjord (it would sail for the UK on the following day). At one point a small force of German soldiers in the port area tried firing on one of the destroyers, but with nothing heavier than a machine gun they were driven away by the ships light AA weapons.

10th April, North Sea/Trondheim, 1200.

The movement west of the Home Fleet units had allowed them to join up with HMS Warspite, HMS Formidable and their escorts. The carrier air groups were at nearly full strength (Illustrious had lost a few planes due to damage and landing accidents), and as a result Forbes was able to put out a comprehensive search pattern to the north of his ships (there were not thought to be any German heavy units to the south, but in any case this area was being covered by squadrons from Coastal Command.

While the search for the mysteriously missing German heavy ships went on, Forbes had ordered a strike on the Hipper, last reported in Trondheim harbor. At 1200 the strike was readied on deck; Two reconnaissance planes (with an escort of two fighters), had been sent off a half hour earlier to check that she was still in the port. She was (apparently the crew were working to repair the damage caused by Glowworm ramming her sufficiently to allow her to return safely to Kiel for more lasting repairs). At 1300 18 SeaLance torpedo planes and 18 Cormorants set off for Trondheim, accompanied by 10 Goshawk fighters (the search planes had not reported any fighters, but the carrier force still had 26 fighters available for fleet defence). In addition the search planes reported two destroyers (there were actually three)

The weather had improved noticeably since the previous day, and the planes found the fjord and flew up it to the harbo
ur. The reconnaissance planes had been radioing the position of the targets, and that there seemed to be no AA except for that of the Hipper and her escorts. As yet, there was no sign of enemy fighters. These had in fact been requested by the Captain of the Hipper, but the situation in southern Norway was still confused, and cooperation between the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe was never good at the best of times.

The torpedo planes attacked first, in heavy AA fire from the Hipper and her three escorting destroyers.. While they had been on their way to the fjord, the ships had got underway and were making their way out of the fjord - not, as it turned out, fast enough, and nowhere close to evading the planes watching her from above. Although Trondheim is a fjord, it is a very l
arge fjord and neither the ships nor the attacking planes were particularly constrained in their movements. As usual, the torpedo planes attacked in groups of three. They could clearly see the damage to the cruisers side, though at this time they could only speculate as to what had caused it. The cruiser managed to evade the first six torpedoes, but one of the planes in the third wave got a hit on the forward section of the ship. The next wave missed again, but the last two flights were much more successful, two more torpedoes hitting her, one centre, one aft. The aft hit seemed to have damaged her steering, as the ship started moving erratically, then slowed, listing to starboard.

The timing of this was poor, as there were still 18 dive bombers circling waiting to attack. The attack itself was, however, disrupted by the l
ate arrival of eight Me110 fighters, which were engaged by the escorting Goshawks. They managed to gain the attention of six of the Me110's, however two evaded the defenders and went for the dive bombers waiting to attack. The torpedo planes, less two which had been shot down by the AA fire (one crashed-landed in the fjord, but sadly the crew did not survive the freezing waters), were in the meantime heading out of the fjord at zero feet and maximum speed.

The first planes were already in their attack, and indeed half of them managed to avoid the attention of the attackers by continuing their dives, a maneuver the Me110 couldn't match. As a result of the chaos, only one bomb hit the Hipper (the dive bombers being understandably distracted) , which destroyed her B turret but did not appear to cause much more damage. The remaining 9 dive bombers stayed in a group to defend themselves, and the massed firepower did cause the Me110's difficulties. Although they damaged a number of the Cormorants, they only shot down two, and at that point they had to break off due to lack of ammunition. Meanwhile the six planes attacking the Goshawks had shot down two Goshawks and damaged one more for the loss of two of their own. Again, this fight petered out.

Five of the Cormorants had survived the Me110 attack without apparent damage, and despite the fact that they did not know if more defending fighters would arrive, they attacked anyway. One more bomb hit the Hipper, and this time the 1,000lb bomb did much more serious damage, destroying one engine room and causing numerous fires. The Hipper was left listing steeply and burning as the planes made their way back to the carrier. One divebomber was lost - it went straight into the water without trying to pull out, and it was assumed that the pilot had been hit or the controls damaged.

Back at the Illustrious they were very disappointed at the poor results obtained from the strike (it was not realized yet just how inopportune the intervention of the Me110's had been). The search planes had still not identified any heavy unit
s at sea, and so a cruiser and three destroyers were detached to move southeast to block an attempt to escape south by the Hipper, while the Formidable spotted another twelve dive bombers and six fighters. This strike was not ready before the first strike returned, but by using one carrier it was possible to land all the damaged planes on Illustrious so as not to delay any further - given the terrain of the fjord, a night attack was not considered a serious option for just a cruiser. This time the planes would be on the lookout for fighters. The carriers were close enough to Trondheim that the undamaged planes could wait for the strike to clear. Landing planes on a different carrier was not the preferred option for the FAA - keeping the squadrons together was considered very important - but in this case the advantage was obvious. Once the strike had been struck down, the carriers launched of CAP replacement (they now had eight planes in the air), as it was assumed that the Luftwaffe would be searching for them. The hope was to finish the Hipper, then retire west away from the coast and reorganize - there were still hopes of finding at least one of the German battleships at sea, as they hadn't been reported as being involved in any of the coastal actions.

The second strike arrived at Trondheim at about 1600. This time the protecting fighters looked carefully for any enemy air cover, but as none was seen they signa
lled to the dive bombers to go in. Although the Hipper's captain had been requesting air cover, it was simply not possible at this time for the Luftwaffe in southern Norway to provide continuous cover. This time, the report of planes over the fjord would result in the Luftwaffe arriving too late.

The air strike had headed first for Trondheim as they were not sure if the Hipper would still be there, of if she would have made it out to sea - while she seemed to have taken heavy damage earlier, this was thought a possibility. However the cruiser was found close to the ha
rbor - the original damage by two 1,000lb bombs and three aerial torpedoes had damaged her severely, and she only had damage control parties on board, the rest of the crew having been evacuated to the town. This was the sort of sitting, undefended target that FAA pilots prayed for. The first six Cormorants got two hits on the ship, both of which exploded spectacularly. So much so that she was seen to be clearly sinking (in fact she sank only 15 minutes later from severe flooding, with no power available for her pumps).

The remaining six planes decided to try their luck on a German destroyer they had spotted. This proved to be a far more difficult target than a cruiser - the ship had room to manoeuvre, and although the bombs killed some fish and probably added to the captains white hairs, no hits were achieved. It would seem that destroyers with room to manoeuvre at speed were more difficult targets than had been anticipated. Nevertheless, the crews were happy with the cruiser, especially as it had been obtained without loss to themselves
, and headed back (ironically, six Me110's sent to protect the Hipper arrived just in time to see her finally sink below the freezing waters of the fjord).