The Whale Has Wings Vol 1 - Rebirth (25 page)

The Lutzow
had already had the bad luck to be badly damaged by the Norwegian shore batteries during the invasion, and her luck wasn't getting any better. Despite sailing at full speed to avoid submarines, HMS Spearfish put two 21" torpedoes into her stern, blowing off her propellers and so damaging her stern that she was lucky to get back to Germany. Later photographs by an RAF reconnaissance plane showed her stern under water as far as X turret, and the Admiralty estimated it would take 6-12 months to repair the damage.

11th - 12th April , night, at Narvik.

Four cruisers carrying 1,600 troops between them arrive
in Narvik fjord. The ships had made the run at high speed, and it is hoped that they were not spotted by U-boats. The allies had 400 men (sailors drafted in from the battlecruisers and destroyers), plus 200 Norwegian reservists west of the port. They were in contact with the German force,(but under orders not to attack, but to keep them occupied). Two of the cruisers landed their men under supervision of local fishermen to join them. While the country outside the town was still under thick snow, the help of the locals, and the fact they only had to cover a few miles, made the job practical if chilly.

The other two cruisers carried
on up the fjord to meet with one of the British destroyers. She had been maintaining contact with a small force of Norwegians, about 150 strong, who were part of a force blocking the railway line to Sweden at Bjørnefjell. The men were again brought to shore by small boats, and with local help started to move the 5 miles or so to the eastern outskirts of the town. The locals also reported that a train containing 'some hundreds' of German troops has come through from Sweden, and 100 men were detached to prevent a repetition of this by damaging parts of the line.

The local forces also report
ed that there had been two actions between the Norwegian 6th Division and the Germans at Gratangen. The first attack, by the Germans, routed an unprepared battalion of Norwegian troops, but they report that a counter-attack had driven the Germans back. The German commander was now surrounded, and outnumbered, with 1,400 men west of the town, nearly 1,000 east, and a Norwegian force estimated at some 4,000 20km to his north and approaching the port. He had some 1,700 men, but only 1,400 are trained infantry, and some have had to be used to secure the town and the prisoners taken when the local commander surrendered. His situation was not good, and due to the speed with which the allies have reacted there was little chance of any help from the forces from central Norway for some days at best. In view of this, he started making contingency plans for a withdrawal up the railway line into Sweden.

12th - 15th April, actions at Narvik and Trondheim

13th April.

The RAF withdrew the only two bomber squadrons serving with coastal command. The Admiralty is not impressed. Neither is Churchill, who demands to know why the RAF seems to be the only part of the armed forces not actively engaging the enemy. The RAF reply, that they are saving their strength for the decisive blow against German cities, does nothing to satisfy the critics.

The light carrier HMS Venerable arrives to join the battlecruiser force off Narvik. She had been recalled from convoy escort, and was now carrying 12 fighters and 12 TBR
, which in addition to HMS Colossus's airgroup gave the force 21 fighters.

14th April.

British forces (the 146th
Infantry Brigade) under General Carton de Wiart, one of the more colourful Generals in the British Army, landed at Namsos north of Trondheim. This was intended to be part of a coordinated attack on the German forces around Trondheim.

In order to block allied landings, a Fallschirmjager company made a combat drop at the Dombas railway junction , This successfully blocked the road and rail network (the local geography was very restrictive
, especially in the snow), and the force survived until finally being forced to surrender to the Norwegian army on the 19th.

Forces under Major General Pierse Mackesy, the 24th Guards Brigade as well as French and Polish units under the French Brigadier Bethouart land at Harstad. Again the ships
were not combat loaded, but as the landing was unopposed this was not a fatal flaw. The intention was for this force to join up with the Norwegians north of the port and assault the town, while the two lighter forces to the east and west moved in to force the defenders to defend the entire perimeter.

As it turns out, this was not to be necessary. On the evening of the 13th, the local British commander had been in negotiations with the German commander (at the time he refused to talk to the Norwegians directly), pointing out he was surrounded, with no hope of reinforcements, and severely outnumbered (the British glossed over the fact that the Harstad landing would only take place that night and that it would be some days before the troops could arrive at Narvik, hoping that the rapid, though improvised, actions so far would deceive him as to the speed with which the British could actually mount a serious attack). It was suggested he should surrender to prevent unnecessary loss of life in the town.

On the morning of the 14th, the British reinforced the negotiations by the arrival of the Renown in the fjord, who lay off the town with her 15" guns trained on the port, along with a number of destroyers and cruisers, including an AA cruiser. The German commander reported this, and insisted on an air attack 'to show the British they cannot use the fjord'. The response to this was a raid by 20 He111 bombers at 1400.

The British had been wary of some sort of Luftwaffe attack on Narvik - it was, after all, the only likely way of supporting the occu
pying force. As a result there were four Goshawk fighters from HMS Venerable circling the town (the battlecruiser and carrier force was about 50 miles offshore). Although the AA cruiser was equipped with radar, the confines of the fjord made detection difficult, and the raid was not spotted until it was 10 miles away. As arranged, the carriers CAP was sent to help, while they launched a new CAP in case a new raid targeted them).

The Heinkels first ran into the four fighters defending the town. Since they hadn't been informed that there were any fighters in the vicinity (the German commander understood the local airfield to be non-operation
al at the moment, due to the snow, and no-one had passed on the possibility of British carriers in the area to the squadron), two aircraft were destroyed by the Goshawks cannon before they realized what was happening. However four fighters were not enough to stop the attack, although they managed to shoot down two more before having to break off. The bombers then commenced an attack on the British ships lying in the fjord.

They were met with a very heavy AA barrage, which shot down one bomber and forced the rest to break up their formation and bomb individually. While quite a few near misses were obtained, the only hit was on the destroyer HMS Mohawk by a 250kg bomb. The bomb damaged the destroyer severely, knocking out X turret and her rear engine room. However the damage was not fatal (this time the protection of the fjord and the calmer waters worked to help the British), and she would later make it back home for repairs. Two bombers were damaged during the attack (one later crash-landing
, killing her crew). The additional fighters were too late to stop the attack, although their appearance did cause the Heinkels to flee south as fast as possible, two being destroyed as they fled. Sadly the attack itself also hit the town, a number of houses being destroyed and causing 11 civilian fatalities.

The defeat with little success seemed to be what made up the mind of the German commander (it might also have been influenced by the sight of one of the bombers which had actually crashed not too far from his improvised headquarters). As a result, a compromise was made. The Germans would surrender the town on the condition they were allowed to retreat to Sweden and be interred, rather than captured. After some short discussions, this was agreed by the British and Norwegians - the German force was small, and possession of the town was far more important than the destruction of its garrison. Accordingly on the morning of the 15th the German force was allowed to make its way east under guard (but retaining their weapons), up the damaged rail line and then into Sweden

As the allied forces started to land at Namsos, the Home fleet units at sea moved north to support them. There was concern over the shortage of fighters - with losses, damaged planes that needed repair and a couple of accidents, they were down to around half their initial complement. The situation was solved by HMS Victorious; she had unloaded her Malta-bound planes and reloaded her airgroup. In addition, she carried additional fighters for HMS Formidable which would be flown on to bring both carriers up to full strength. HMS Illustrious, and a number of cruisers and destroyers which needed refuelling and resupply, would head back to Scapa where Illustrious's airgroup would be brought up to full strength again. As there was now little likelihood of any major German surface forces interfering off Norway, the intention was to keep two carriers on station with the fleet, rotating one back home to refuel and replace lost planes as necessary. As more escorted raids were expected as the Luftwaffe settled in to southern Norway, consideration was being given to finding additional fighters and pilots. The RAF was also asked when it was actually going to be putting some planes on the ground (or at least getting them ready now that it looked liked air bases around Narvik would be available soon).

A British vanguard force arrived at Andalsnes on the 12th; a force built around the 148th Infantry Brigade was being prepared for deployment there to attempt to cut off and take Tron
dheim.

On the 14th the submarine HMS Tarpon was sunk off southern Norway (the allied submarine force was
very active in this area trying to slow the reinforcement and resupply ships from Germany). The allies were having better luck against the U-boats still infesting the North Sea; two destroyers escorting the troop convoy to Harstad sank the U-49, and the U-1 sank off Stavanger after hitting a mine (probably a British one, although no-one was quiet sure). The most benefit was obtained by documents captured from the U-49 before she sank giving information on U-boat deployments in the area.

While the Luftwaffe was still only considered a threat in Southern Norway, it was decided not to attack Bergen with a mixed force of cruisers and destroyers (as had been suggested). The attack on Warspite had shown that the likely threat would be on withdrawal, and that it would require a heavy fighter escort over the ships. More efficient was an attack by dive bombers on the shipping thought to be using the port; while this wouldn't do as much damage, it would be less likely to incur losses, and had the advantage of forcing the Germans to assume that FAA planes could arrive at any time over any coastal area, forcing them to increase their defences (and hopefully as a result taking pressure of the Norwegians, who, with little effective AA capability, were suffering heavily from air attack)

According on the 14th, a strike of 24 Cormorants escorted by 9 Goshawks was made from the Formidable and the Victorious. No fighter cover was encountered over the target, but the accuracy of the dive bombing was affected by the low cloud ceiling (under 5,0
00 feet), and as a result only two merchant ships were hit - both sinking from the damage caused by the 1,000lb bombs. Some light German naval craft were also strafed by the Goshawks as the Cormorants withdrew, causing some damage to them. No aircraft were lost.

Some consideration had
also been given to direct strikes against Bergen from the UK, which is in range of the Cormorants if they reduce their load to a 500lb bomb. While considered an possible option, the only two squadrons available are those working up for the new carriers, and so this idea is kept in reserve in case the fleet is forced to withdraw north (in which case another attack may well confuse the Germans as to its location).

April 13th - 14th

Some activity is finally visible from the RAF; Coastal command planes conduct reconnaissance over the coastal areas of southern Norway. In the afternoon, six Hudsons bomb Stavanger airfield; Me110's are encountered and one is claimed as shot down. Barbed comments are made by the FAA in the wardrooms that night that 'it's just as well they used patrol planes, if they'd used RAF bombers they'd probably have missed Norway!'.

The RAF does try to attack some of the German shipping passing between Germany and Norway that night, but the force of Blenheims is unable to find anything in poor weather. Hampdens do lay mines in the area.

On the 14th, under increasing pressure from the War Cabinet and Churchill in particular, the RAF again raids Stavanger - a massive raid by three Wellingtons. A few He111's are damaged.

The FAA again pays Bergen a visit - in addition to damaging the shipping there, the hope is to make the Germans consider it untenable for the moment, hopefully reducing pressure on the Norwegian defence which is being slowly driven North. The raid is again by 24 Cormorants escorted by 9 fighters. They find considerable shipping in the harbour, and two U-boats. The dive bombers concentrate on the U-boats (easy targets, tied up at the dock - rather surprising the FAA, who thought the Germans would have learned from yesterday), and 12 bombs later both boats (the U-60 and the U-7) are still at the docks, but this time under water. Two merchant ships are also sunk. This time one Cormorant is lost, shot down by the AA defences.