In late December 1943, Vice Admiral Robert
Burnett was at Murmansk in Soviet Russia on board HMS Belfast, having escorted
the recently arrived Arctic convoy, JW55A. Burnett’s warships were preparing to
escort the next returning convoy back to Britain, when highly significant intelligence
reached them from the Admiralty in London. British Intelligence had intercepted
German naval signals that revealed the battleship Scharnhorst and five destroyers had left their
Norwegian base at Altenfjord. They were planning to intercept the next Arctic convoy heading out
from Britain as it crossed the one returning from Russia. This was exactly the opportunity that
the Admiralty had been waiting for. These convoys had baited out one of the most dangerous German
warships of WW2. HMS Belfast and the rest of the convoy were no longer embarking on a return
journey home, they were heading for battle. The whole story of the Scharnhorst battle hinges
on the passage of a British convoy to Russia. One of the cruisers protecting the convoy keeping
a sharp lookout for that very German battleship which fell right into the trap. The action
took place off the north cape a way up in the arctic circle admiral Robert Burnett found
himself in Russia waiting to return to Britain when word came to him that the Scharnhorst was
out and would be available to draw to battle. Now Burnett was very excited by this prospect.
He was a true fighting admiral and he relished the prospect of finally being able
to bring the Scharnhorst to battle the Scharnhorst was one of Nazi Germany's last
great battleships and one of the best-known fighting ships of the second world war the
admiralty had been conscious for some time of the threat posed by the Scharnhorst to the arctic
convoys and to other merchant and naval ships in northern waters they had been watching carefully
for an opportunity to engage the Scharnhorst draw it into battle and sink it Bismarck had been
sunk in 1941 September 1943 the Tirpitz had been damaged and the Scharnhorst was the last one that
was left and so they really wanted to take out the Scharnhorst and eliminate the threat so that they
could proceed safely without having to think about this massive ship coming out
and threatening their convoys. The arctic convoys started in August 1941 within
weeks of Germany invading the soviet union. Britain realized it needed to
stand firm with its new soviet ally the convoys quickly became a way for the British
to show their solidarity with the soviet people and gained increasing importance in the way
the allies fought the war in eastern Europe. But every convoy was a treacherous mission
overshadowed by bleak inhospitable conditions. Every hour of the day and night through icy gales
and lashings spray the ships of the allies plough steadily northward in the storm-tossed Atlantic
in the arctic sea they bring food and supplies to the theaters of war supplies without which
Britain could not possibly continue the fight. Conditions within the arctic convoys were
probably some of the most difficult and exacting experienced by any allied servicemen during
the war. It was impossible to undertake these in the summer because it was almost constant
daylight and the ships could be threatened by aircraft and submarines and ships all the time
but during the winter it meant that it was mostly in perpetual darkness. It was freezing cold, the
weather was bad, there was rain, there was snow. Living inside the mess decks of metal
warships became extremely inhospitable. What were the conditions like in the arctic? Oh
it was terrible really, it was very very rough it was very very cold of course I believe I'm
right in saying that if one went into the sea their lifespan or time is only a matter
of seconds before you freeze to death. HMS Belfast joined the arctic
convoys at the beginning of 1943. As well as the treacherous conditions, the convoys
were also under perpetual threat of enemy attacks. The arctic convoys were very dangerous for all
the shipping both the merchant shipping and the royal navy shipping. This is shown most clearly by
the fate of HMS Edinburgh which is HMS Belfast's sister ship Edinburgh was escorting a convoy
back from Russia in may 1942 when it was attacked and eventually sunk and the fact that
it was almost a carbon copy of Belfast shows how vulnerable these ships were and the
courage of the sailors who undertook these missions taking these vital supplies to
the soviet union cannot be overestimated. Frederick Parham had been Captain of HMS
Belfast since 1942, and the ship’s company worked very well under him. But Belfast was also
a flagship, with Vice Admiral Robert Burnett on board. Burnett was the flag officer commanding the
10th Cruiser Squadron, which gave him command of Force 1, consisting of HMS Belfast, and the
two cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Sheffield. Vice Admiral Burnett was the
man responsible for this success there was a long gun at the end of 1943 Admiral
Burnett and HMS Belfast were Murmansk preparing for the return convoy to Britain when word
reached them about Scharnhorst's movements. Scharnhorst had been ordered out to engage these
two allied convoys the German high command wanted to attack the escorts and sink the merchant
ships. Scharnhorst was to get amongst the convoy disperse it and make the merchant ships
vulnerable to individual attack. But the weather conditions were appalling and the German admiral
on board Scharnhorst felt uneasy about the plan. The senior German officers in command of the ships
of the Norwegian coast didn't really want to go out at the end of 1943 because the conditions
were so bad, but direct orders were issued from Berlin and they went out to try and engage
both the convoy leaving Russia and returning to the United Kingdom and the one coming from the
United Kingdom into Russia and the Soviet Union. First contact with Scharnhorst was made by Allied
ships just before 9am on 26 December, when HMS Belfast detected the German ship on
its radar sets, just 30 miles away. By the early morning of the 26th of December,
Boxing Day, HMS Belfast and the returning convoy from the soviet union were lodged somewhere
between the north cape right at the north of Norway and Bear Island and Belfast itself is
then set to hunt around to see if they can find any trace of the Scharnhorst and it's about
8.40 in the morning that a blip appears on the radar of HMS Belfast and they work out that
this must be the Scharnhorst and battle is on. The British cruisers of Force 1
closed on the Scharnhorst at around 9.40. Norfolk engaged and hit the battleship,
disabling Scharnhorst's main fire control radar and leaving it almost blind. It turned away to the
north, hoping to circle round Burnett's force and re-approach the convoy from a new direction.
Burnett was left with a choice – to give chase or stay and protect the convoy.
He decided to break contact and wait. And this is where my Admiral had
to make his really big decision and i am absolutely convinced
this is the right one. The choice that Admiral Burnett made
not to pursue directly the Scharnhorst but very cleverly to sit and wait for it to
return to a predicted position where he believed it would return to them this was a very very bold
decision but because he had to wait for some time and increasingly felt under pressure both from
admiral Bruce Fraser and from the admiralty in London he began to lose confidence and he turned
to Frederick Parham the captain of Belfast and said am I doing the right thing and Parham
said I think you are you must trust your judgment and this is exactly what Burnett did and so it's
greatly to his credit that the battle unfolded as it did the risk paid off shortly after
noon Scharnhorst appeared again on the radar all three British cruisers quickly
returned to the attack and resumed fire Scharnhorst was hit again but Norfolk too was
badly damaged the German ship turned south for Norway this time Burnett stayed in contact
shadowing his prey using his superior radar. The Scharnhorst and the British cruisers are
engaged in a running battle which gradually brings the Scharnhorst south but as they proceed
Norfolk and Sheffield both drop out of the chase and this means that by just after four
o'clock HMS Belfast is effectively left alone. Now the Scharnhorst would outgun the Belfast and
if Scharnhorst had turned to engage and tried to attack this one sole pursuer it would have been
disastrous for HMS Belfast. But fortunately Belfast kept the Scharnhorst at sufficient
distance that this didn't come about. Action stations within a warship were always
extremely tense. The crew were closed down, everything was secure, and it was very difficult
to know what was going on around you. Each member of the ship’s company focused on their
job and performed to the best of their ability. This was the case in any action,
but particularly at the Battle of North Cape. The performance of the ship's company is perhaps
best reflected in the story of Larry Fursland. Larry Fursland was a leading stoker and right at
the beginning of the battle as Belfast began to fire its first broadsides it knocked out two of
the cooling pumps on Larry Fursland's generator and so he realized that what he was going to
have to do is find another way of cooling it down and he was able to connect the fire hose to
his generator in order to put cooling sea water to stop it from seizing up as it overheated and when the list of decorations was put forward
Larry Fursland was at the top of the list. And the first broadside of the Belfast
fired the vibration of the ship and the guns not the two circulating pumps out of action I've
seen the temperatures rising up i got all good Christ, i have no tools to do it I had to do it
with my hands and i circulate water from the salt water pump the mains through that engine for eight
or four 12 hours right now 12 hours out there the formidable partner part of us is that you could hear all the repercussions
of the show fire and torpedoes and everything striking the cell of the ship and
i was down down the bottom right you know. Just after 4 o’clock, everything changed. HMS
Duke of York and other powerful elements of the Home Fleet arrived on the scene as planned. Duke
of York’s massive fire power, under the direct command of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser dramatically
turned the fortunes of the battle in favour of the Royal Navy. The Scharnhorst went from being
the dominant factor to the victim. British gunfire turned upon the Scharnhorst, and for
the next two hours, although the Scharnhorst continued to move away as best it could, it was
continually hit by the guns of the British fleet. This is the Duke of York which slowed
up the enemy enabling the destroyers to make their brilliant and daring
torpedo attack at very close range thus finishing off the Scharnhorst
no wonder the CNC looks pleased. Towards the end of the British fleet action
the Scharnhorst is slowing because his has been hit and his engines are suffering and at
this particular point torpedo attacks begin and these come both from the large capital ships
like HMS Belfast and the other cruisers but also principally from the British destroyers which
are able to close upon the Scharnhorst and file directly at it as Fraser closed in Belfast fired
starshells these bright flares illuminated the target as duke of York's heavy guns opened fire
after a running battle under hammering gunfire and hit by torpedoes from British and Norwegian
ships Scharnhorst was sunk just after 7 30. From a crew of nearly 2 000 men only 36 survived. The loss of life is enormous
and every sailor in a warship will retain a very strong degree of sympathy
sailors are particularly aware of the peril of being thrown into the sea and
the fact that if you fall into the freezing waters of the arctic in the dark
with the oil on the top of the surface there is almost no chance of survival and so there
would have been no celebration really aboard a HMS Belfast simply a job well done and there
but for the grace of God would have been myself. The sinking of the Scharnhorst was a
significant victory for the Allies, taking out the last of Germany’s operational
capital ships. It would also prove to be the last ship to ship gun battle of the
old-fashioned kind fought in European waters. The era of the big battleship the capital ship
engaging one another with gunfire was already passing over aircraft submarines torpedoes all had
already threatened the supremacy of the battleship and this was in many ways the end of an era and
it stands an interesting place within the history of the royal navy and the development
of naval warfare in the 20th century. Thanks for watching don't forget to like
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