This article was originally published in the December 2003 issue of Ordnance magazine. This reprint has been re-improved and edited, supplemented and sorted out by the secondary content, so as to share with the same friends. Personally, I think that "Weapons" magazine is a professional and objective military magazine, and it is recommended to continue to subscribe to enrich their military knowledge. Reprinting some of the older articles on them is mainly to let readers examine the things and opinions of the past from another and more unique perspective.
A matter of heart and soul
On March 22, 1941, the German Navy's battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisseno ended their two-month successful safari in the Atlantic, avoided the British Royal Navy's round-up, and quietly sailed into the French port of Brest, which has since become a heart disease for both sides in the Atlantic.
The Scharnhorst and Gneschenau belong to the same Scharnhorst class, with a standard displacement of 32,000 tons, each equipped with 9 280 mm main guns (3 3-pack turrets), 12 150 mm secondary guns and 14 105 mm anti-aircraft guns. Since the outbreak of the Great War, they have frequently attacked in the form of maritime assault ships, sinking more than 100,000 British ships, including the Royal Navy's 22,000-ton aircraft carrier "Glory", which caused huge losses to Britain.
In order to prevent the two ships from entering the Atlantic Ocean again, the Royal Navy sealed a tight seal on the port of Brest, and the Royal Air Force also flew 1875 aircraft between March and July 1941, dropping 1962 tons of bombs, causing some damage to the two ships. Because of this, when the German Navy's "Rhine Exercise" program was implemented in May, the two ships were unable to respond. The huge ship Bismarck, which broke into the Atlantic, blew up the Royal Navy's pride, the battlecruiser Hood, in two with a row of guns in the Danish Strait, but could not escape the Royal Navy's round-up and was sunk 400 nautical miles west of the port of Brest at 10:36 on May 27. As soon as bismarck sank, The British were able to free their hands, and the Scharnhorst and its sister ships had a worse time.
The battlecruiser Gnessenor, which is resting in a dry dock
On 1 June, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which accompanied Bismarck, also escaped into the port of Brest. In order to eliminate these three German ships, the Royal Air Force has dispatched 299 bombers, losing 43 aircraft and 247 pilots, but has not seen great results. The two sides were deadlocked until 1942. Although the three German ships in the port of Brest were bombed every time, they did not break their bones and still seriously threatened the Atlantic shipping line. Become a big problem for the Royal Navy. According to the "fleet existence" theory of the US naval theorist Mahan, the three ships such as the "Scharnhorst" parked near the British lifeline contained britain's huge home fleet and a large number of aircraft, becoming an important card in the hands of The German naval commander Raeder.
On the other hand, the Germans also have words of suffering. The Port of Brest is invincible. The 3 ships were repeatedly injured in air raids. At this time, the Soviet-German battlefield was in full swing, and the battle between the two sides around the northern route gradually entered a climax. Watching the large number of US and British aid supplies into the eastern battlefield, the German Navy's surface ships, except for the battleship "Tirpiz", which was being tested in the Baltic Sea, were trapped in the port of Brest. Hitler was furious about this. On 12 January 1942, German Navy Commander Raeder, Air Force Chief of Staff Nashonic and newly appointed Fighter Unit Director Garland were each ordered to meet at Hitler's base camp in East Prussia, the Wolf's Den. At the emergency meeting, Hitler announced that he would transfer 3 ships to the Norwegian coast, which could both avoid British bombing and defend the Norwegian coast. According to his incomprehensible "intuition", the Allies may land in Norway to prepare for the Soviet theater on the Eastern Front.
From Brest north to Norway, there are two routes: the first is to enter the Atlantic Ocean, north to bypass the British Isles into the North Sea and back to Germany's western route. There is no air cover along the way, it will be surrounded by the full force of the Royal Navy, and the fate of the "Bismarck" 8 and a half months ago is a lesson from the past:
The other was the eastward route around the Brittany Peninsula and across the English Channel and The Strait of Dover to the North Sea back to Germany, and although the Luftwaffe cover could be obtained along the way, the channel was covered with mines, there were powerful 406 mm British coastal guns on Cape Dover, and the naval and air bases on the southeast coast of England were densely packed with honeycombs. Since the fall of the Spanish Armada, no enemy fleet has dared to cross the English Channel, known as her Majesty's Aqueduct, from under the eyes of the Royal Navy in wartime (only the famous Dutch Admiral de Wright in the 17th century has successfully crossed the ghost gate of the Strait with his fleet).
Whichever option you choose, the risks are unimaginably great. So as soon as Hitler spoke, the generals were all stunned. But he reassured: "Most of the decisions in my life have been risky, and good luck will only go with the adventurers." Maybe this time he was right.
Tit-for-tat
After several deliberations, Germany finally chose the Eastern Route, and the key to the success or failure of this trip lies in the cover of the Air Force. The Director of Fighter Forces, Colonel Adolf Garland, was an ace pilot by training and had a record of shooting down 94 enemy aircraft. He personally developed a cover plan for the Luftwaffe code name "Thunder". In order to deal with the ferocious attack of British aircraft, the Luftwaffe had to ensure local air supremacy in the area through which the fleet passed, so the area of the Straits was specially divided into 3 command zones, under the personal command of Garland himself. The 2nd and 26th fighter groups were responsible for air cover missions, equipped with 180 high-performance Me-109Fs and Fw-190As (the latter of which brought a small "Fokker disaster" to the RAF just over the Straits shortly after entering service).
There are also 60 Me-109s and 30 slower twin-engine Me-110s serving as reserves. Each batch of escort aircraft is 18, half high and half at low altitude, and can be increased to 36 at any time. Corresponding ground staff and facilities have also been added to the airports in each section to ensure that the aircraft can be ready to take off again within half an hour of landing. In order to ensure coordination with naval operations, Garand also sent special personnel to the flagship "Shanhorst" to be responsible for sea and air liaison. In late January and early February 1942, all fighter units preparing to carry out the plan underwent eight days of small-scale coordination training. The Luftwaffe's communications intelligence units also gradually increased their interference with British radars so as not to arouse British suspicion.
The German Navy's task was arduous, with a series of preparations for mine clearance, escort, navigation, air defense and naval warfare. Marshal Redel gave the commander of the Battlecruiser Fleet, Vice Admiral Ciriakos, full command of the operation. The German Navy masseed a large number of minesweepers and torpedo boats on the east side of the Strait and secretly began to clear mines and set up buoys in the intended channel, during which time it also lost the destroyer Bruno Heinemann (number Z-8) and a minesweeper. In order to confuse the British, the Germans spread false news that Brest's fleet was going to the Mediterranean. Ciriacos also deliberately ordered a large number of summer military uniforms and sunglasses to be customized in Paris, and asked the French Navy to prepare lubricating oil for the subtropical region for the three ships such as the "Scharnhorst".
Unaware that Britain already had airborne radars to monitor the Strait day and night, the Germans were planning to take advantage of a moonless night to leave Brest and then rush through the Strait of Dover in broad daylight to avoid hitting mines. The time of departure depends on the weather. In early February, the German Meteorological Service reported that warm winds would approach the British Isles on February 11-13, when clouds would hang low over the Strait and visibility would be extremely low. February 13 coincides with Friday, a taboo day according to Christian tradition. So Celiacus decided to set out on the night of February 11, code-named Ceberus (Ceberus, the three-headed dog of hell in Greek mythology who guarded the gates of the underworld. Among the 12 great feats accomplished by the hero Hercules was to capture him from Hell to Mikne. The German Navy's explanation for the code name was that a man had finally accomplished what many thought could not be done. This clearly pinned Germany's hopes for the success of the program).
Spectacular White Cliffs of Dover
On the other hand, the increasing number of radio communications and the frequent activities of the German Navy in the Channel area attracted the attention of the British. Although not believing that german ships dared to break through the strait, the British Admiralty developed a "set of hammers" program for interception in the strait area as a precaution. Due to the threat of the Luftwaffe, the Royal Navy's heavy ships had been withdrawn to northern Scotland, so Admiral Ramsey, commander of the Dover Sea Zone responsible for interception, had only destroyers and torpedo boats in his hands, and aircraft from the Royal Air Force and Coast command would also participate in the operation. Admiral Ramsey himself was experienced and had successfully commanded the Allied retreat from Dunkirk in the "generator" operation, but most of his personnel were novices and had no actual combat experience in attacking ships.
In order to cooperate with the Home Fleet to block the German ships in the strait, the key to the "hammer" program is whether the intelligence is accurate and timely. Through aerial reconnaissance and French resistance intelligence, the British judged that the German ships were ready to sail in late January, that the start of the operation would be a moonless climax (correct), and that the German ships would leave Brest during the day and pass through the Strait of Dover at night to avoid attacks and air raids on the fortress batteries (mistaken).
In order to prevent the ships such as the "Scharnhorst" from setting sail at night, Ramsey decided to send patrol aircraft equipped with a sea surveillance radar to monitor the exit of the Port of Brest at night, and sent several submarines to take turns to sit outside the harbor. As intelligence increased, the Admiralty became more and more certain that the Germans would have a big operation in the Channel area (Ciriakos's little trick did not hide from the British). On February 3, the order was given to prepare for the implementation of the "hammer set" plan, and according to the tide and weather conditions, it was determined that the German operation time was February 10-15. For a time, the British Naval Aviation and Air Force units stopped training, gathered at the Air Bases in Cornwall and Kent, and the light ships of the Coast Command were also ready for deployment, while monitoring the movements of the Brest Port German ships more closely.
The action begins
As the saying goes, a hundred dense and one sparse. The British should have discovered the departure of the "Scharnhorst" and other 3 ships at the beginning, but for a series of accidental reasons, they did not find out until the German ships sailed out for nearly 13 hours and about 300 nautical miles.
On the night of 11 February, the port of Brest was heavily guarded and a large number of French trucks were ordered to start their engines. In the deafening noise, the 3 German ships began to test drive. 3 destroyers and some supporting dinghies were concentrated in the outer harbor. At 20:30 the "Scharnhorst" anchored slowly to the outer harbor; the "Gnessenau" followed; the "Prinz Eugen" was stuck in the middle of the anchor chain because of the multi-day lying in the harbor, and the impatient captain, Colonel Linkmann, immediately ordered the anchor chain to be cut. Due to the heavy fog on the sea surface, the visibility was only 200 yards (1 yard = 0.9144 meters), and the 3 ships could not complete the formation for a while. It coincided with the arrival of a team of 16 Wellington bombers of the British Air Force for daily "routine bombings". Vice Admiral Ciriakos had no choice but to order the fleet to return quickly to their berths, and to turn on the searchlights with great care, and the large and small artillery fired in unison. Although the bombing did not cause any damage, the fleet was forced to postpone sailing until 22:45. This postponement changed everything.
The British submarines, which had been in charge of surveillance missions in the harbor, were required to end at 21:30, after which the German ships could not pass through the Strait of Dover at night as the British had expected (Britain never expected its old rival to dare to break through the border during the day). A Hudson aircraft patrolling the vicinity of the port also departed at this time. The plane that came to take over flew in the night sky at a height of 600 meters. When the German ships left port again and passed under them, there was no response on the plane's radar display (those early airborne radars were unreliable and often had inexplicable problems). A French Resistance fighter on the dock saw the German ships leave the harbor, but could not go home to report because the entire port area was blocked by the Germans. So the ships such as the "Scharnhorst" quietly crossed britain's first cordon.
Lieutenant General Ciriakos personally commanded the bridge of the Scharnhorst. He wears a leather jacket with a cornflower badge hanging from his chest to show that he was a submarine officer. The three giant ships in the mist completed the formation, but were delayed by two and a half hours from the scheduled departure time. On the left, 3 German destroyers and 15 high-speed torpedo boats formed a barrier. The fleet moved eastward close to the French coast at a speed of 27 knots. The captains seemed to be afraid to disturb the British, and all the orders were suppressed. In the air, the first German night aircraft arrived and began to provide escorts. Whether it's a warship or an airplane. All radio frequencies remain silent, and each time another torpedo boat and plane come to change shifts.
When the German fleet bypassed the Brittany Peninsula, a British night aircraft flew at a very close distance but did not respond, and it turned out that its radar had also failed and was returning to the base to repair it. The commander of the British Coast Command saw that the first cordon did not detect enemy information, and did not send any more aircraft. The commanders of the last few cordons saw that there was no enemy situation in front of them, and with the addition of heavy fog, they also called back the patrol aircraft. The coastal radar was strongly disturbed by the Germans, and the radar soldiers were dazed by the large flares on the fluorescent screen, which the technicians attributed to the weather. Admiral Ramsey sat in the office of the Dover Maritime District Command until late at night and went to sleep when he saw no circumstances. The British unknowingly helped Garland and Ciriakos.
The Germans were busy all night. Colonel Garland, who had expected a major air battle at night, has now been uneventful, saving many aircraft. So he ordered these planes to be quickly concentrated at the airports in the Calais region, with the pilots sitting in the cabins fully equipped, the engines idling, and always on alert. The Navy was nervous about the sudden appearance of newly laid mines by the British army on the channel. The 4 minesweepers desperately rushed to sweep and finally opened the channel. Due to the favorable winds, the German fleet rushed back the two-and-a-half-hour delay and bypassed Cape Ag on the Cotentan Peninsula at 8:50 a.m. on 12 February.
The strait rushed
After dawn the clouds were low, visibility was still poor, and the Wind Fury was over the English Channel. The German sailors were tightly wrapped in cloaks. German ships sailed the strait in broad daylight, and the Royal Navy's southern military ports were close at hand, and everyone could not help but sweat for this adventurous operation. Cyriakos looked anxiously in the direction of the British coast on the left side of the route, but there had been no movement there. At 10:14, the fleet sailed across the mouth of the Seine and approached the Strait of Dover.
It was not until 10:20 a.m. that the British Coast Command decided to send bomb-carrying patrol aircraft to conduct "special reconnaissance". At 10:42 a.m., a British Beaufort bomber skimmed over the fleet and dropped a bomb at an altitude of 2,100 meters, but to no avail. The British plane sent a telegram to the base: 3 warships and 20 other ships were approaching the Strait of Dover.
The high-speed "Scharnhorst" raised the blue and white anti-aircraft warning flag, and all the people began to stretch their necks to look at the low-pressure northern sky. A fight is inevitable. Cyriakos turned to the officers on the bridge and said, "Gentlemen, it seems that our good fortune is now over. ”
The German ships were equipped with four 20 mm anti-aircraft guns
However, the hour after that remained uneventful, and the Germans could not help but wonder while congratulating them on their good fortune. It turned out that the commanders and intelligence officers of the British base did not believe the pilot's report at all and were in a hurry to verify the information. It was not until 11:09 that another British plane also found the German ship, but in order not to break the radio silence, it was not until after flying back to the base to report that everyone was sure that their "prey" had escaped! It was already 11:25 a.m. and Syriakos' fleet was entering the minefield of the Strait of Dover.
Due to the narrow channel of the strait and the abundance of mines, the German ships had to grope forward at a low speed of 10 knots. The captains were all worried, because at this time the warship could not maneuver, and it was the time when it was most vulnerable to attack. But there was not a single British plane in the sky. At 11:40 the fleet passed through the minefield, resumed to a speed of 25 knots, and entered the narrowest point of the Strait of Dover. The sky was drizzling and the bottom of the clouds was only 300 metres high. On the starboard side, the British coast is faintly visible. Near Boogne, 15 more German torpedo boats were incorporated into the fleet. The German radio remained silent, trying to fool through, but soon the British battery on Cape Dover spotted the German ship visually. The British offensive began.
Five British torpedo boats launched their first attack on the German fleet under smoke screen cover, but the German destroyer Hermann Schumann (number Z-7) repelled them. British torpedo boats have been unable to break through the barrier of German torpedo boats. All the torpedoes they fired out of range were lost. At 12:18, the cannons of the Dover Battery opened fire, and the German ships were shrouded in a column of water, but none of them hit. Immediately after, the first six British torpedo planes appeared over the Straits, led by Major E. Esmond of the Royal Navy. He directed these biplane Swordfish torpedoes with a maximum speed of only 225 km/h, which took off from Manston Airport in Kent.
Esmond had participated in the first air raid on bismarck aboard the aircraft carrier Victory. He was a firm believer in the Royal Navy's tradition of "fighting the enemy when it was seen". This time he did not even have time to wait for the 11 Spitfire fighters escorted to arrive before he launched an attack, taking the lead in swooping down on the Scharnhorst. The British plane was intercepted by more than 80 anti-aircraft guns of the German ships, and the German Me-109 aircraft, which had waited overnight, also went down through the clouds and directly attacked these "swordfish". For a moment, the air was full of smoke and flying steel shards. Esmond was shot down before he could shoot the mine. Only 2 British torpedo planes successfully dropped torpedoes and were dodged by German ships. All 6 British aircraft that carried out the deathly attack were shot down. Major Esmond was later posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.
The British were really in a hurry. Naval Aviation Command, Coast Command and RAF Strategic Bombardment Command called for the use of all available aircraft to intercept and sink the German ships with all their might. Batches of British bombers and torpedoes. Under the cover of 15 fighter squadrons, they took off from the airfields of Cornwall, Portsmouth, Manston and Norfolk to meet the German fleet over the Strait. However, the German fighters had long been prepared, and after prior coordinated training, the sea and air communication was smooth, and the aircraft was correctly guided. The anti-aircraft guns of the Three ships, including the Scharnhorst, also opened fire, weaving a dense web of fire, making it impossible for British aircraft to attack effectively. The quality of the British pilots seemed to be slightly inferior to that of their German counterparts, and only 39 of the 550 bombers of various types of bombers were dispatched in succession due to inadequate preparation, bad weather, and fierce and effective resistance from the German sea and air, and only 39 aircraft made substantial attacks on the target. The Royal Air Force dropped hundreds of tons of explosives of all kinds, but none of them hit. In the air battle, the British lost 49 aircraft and the German aircraft lost 17. The German fleet successfully passed through the Strait of Dover in a dogfight.
Successfully returned home
The British would not have spared the German fleet easily. British Navy Captain Piz stationed at Harwich Harbour. At that time, he was directing the six destroyers under his command for routine combat training. Harwich is located just 60 nautical miles from the north mouth of the Strait of Dover. Of the entire Royal Navy's surface fleet, only Piz's fleet had time to attack the Germans. When they learned of the breakthrough of the 3 German ships from the noisy radio, they all felt that this was a great shame for the Royal Navy. Colonel Piz decided to strike at once and challenge the German fleet. The waters were covered with mines from both sides, and the german guns were much more powerful than the British ships, so the British sailors took no less risk than the Germans.
At this time, the unlucky "Scharnhorst" suddenly hit a mine. Lieutenant General Ciriakos, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, fell to the ground with his coffee cup. The hull of the warship shook violently, and its speed was sharply reduced, dragging a long trail of oil on the surface of the sea. The Gneissano and Prinz Eugen sent a concerned signal: "Want help?" Cyriakos angrily shouted, "It's none of their business, hurry up!" The destroyer Z-29, which served as the flagship of the escort destroyer fleet, was ordered to move closer to the sand ship. Syriakos and his staff moved to Z-29. Before leaving, the lieutenant general said to Colonel Hoffman, the captain of the "Sand" ship: "I am gone, and I wish you good luck." The 2,500-ton Z-29 hoisted the lieutenant general's flag and chased after the large troops at high speed. A small group of torpedo boats remained behind to guard the Scharnhorst. It had been half an hour's voyage with the fleet. The British attacked the backward destroyer Z-29 and the Scharnhorst like crazy, but both were repulsed. The weather was even worse. The Z-29 lost its engines during the high-speed maneuver and gradually disengaged from the large forces.
The Piz fleet arrived at this time, firing torpedoes and engaging in an artillery battle with the German ships. The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was surrounded by torpedo trails and high columns of water, but it was not hit once. Instead, the 150 mm shell fired by the "European" ship hit the British destroyer "Estherton". The ship caught fire and had to withdraw from the fighting, struggling to return to Harwich. The "Ou" and "Ge" warships fought and walked, using all their guns to fight back at the enemy at sea and in the air. Constantly burning machines fell from the clouds into the cold sea. In the confusion, accidental injuries were inevitable, and the German destroyer Hermann Schumann was hit by 2 shells from its own family.
German sailors are loading shells for twin 105 mm anti-aircraft guns
At 18:00 on the 12th, when Garland's fighters repelled the last batch of British "Wellington" bombers, it was completely dark. Winter days are short and the two sides are unrecognizable. The Luftwaffe put away the "protective umbrella", but the British army remained undeterred and continued to send bombers to lay mines on the German ship's route. The Germans had their own troubles, and the engine of the Z-29 finally stopped. Impatient, Syriakos changed into a dinghy and tried to catch up with the large force. Who knew that the injured "Scharnhorst" repaired the main engine and suddenly passed him at a speed of 25 knots. He laughed and scolded, "What a damn good thing!" After some tossing and turning, Syriakos finally returned to the Scharnhorst in the cold wind and rain of the North Sea.
At 19:55, in the sea of the West Frisian Islands in the north of the Netherlands, the "Grid" ship and the "Sand" ship were respectively mined, but they were able to maintain their speed, and the "Prinz Eugen" was lucky to be around, and there were no mines during the entire voyage. At midnight, the fleet entered German waters. Lieutenant General Ciriakos finally let out a sigh of relief, and as he stepped off the bridge, he realized that his teeth were shaking. He returned to the officers' cabin, so weak that he almost fell. At dawn on 13 February, the Scharnhorst and Gneissenor sailed into the Kiel dock to repair the damage, while the uninjured Prinz Eugen sailed through the Kiel Canal to the Norwegian coast. Operation Thunder Thurblus came to an end.
The aftermath is not flat
This incident caused an uproar in the British government and the public, and people accused the British Admiralty of being careless and incompetent. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill admitted: "As far as everyone in the allies is concerned, this thing is too bad! The London Newspaper The Times also wrote: "Where Sidonia, a general of the Duke of Midira (commander of the Spanish Armada), failed, Lieutenant General Ciriacos succeeded. Since the 16th century, nothing has done more harm to British sea power."
As they drifted away from the British coast, the Attacks of the British Air force and Navy weakened much. The German fleet finally completed the adventure.
However, Marshal Rieder, the commander of the German Navy, who resigned indignantly nine months later, commented objectively: "Although it seemed to be a tactical victory at the time, it was in fact a strategic failure. The warships were effectively sealed off in port and could no longer pose a threat to the Allied fleets in the Atlantic, and their careers as warships came to an end. In fact, Gneisseno was then severely damaged by British aircraft and lay in the dock for the rest of her life: the sister ship Scharnhorst went alone to the Arta Fjord in northern Norway in March 1943, and did nothing until it was sunk by a powerful British naval formation at the Battle of North Point on December 26 of the same year: the lucky Prince Eugen survived the war and became a victim of American nuclear experiments in 1946.