It is the dark, freezing morning of Saint Stephen’s Day, 1943. Rear admiral Erich Bey looks out of the window of his quarters over the trackless sea. Down below, groups of German sailors scramble, running around trying to scrape off the ice built up on the machinery and armaments of the last operational battleship of the Kriegsmarine. Poor visibility and an ensuing snow squall effectively force the German officer to rely solely on the outdated naval radar aboard the Scharnhorst. Suddenly, out of nowhere, eight inch shells crash in the water close to the battleship. The arctic convoy that he had been looking for - had found him first. The battle had just begun. This video is sponsored by World of Warships Blitz! Take to the seas from your mobile device in the free-to-play, World of Warships Blitz. Available via Google Play and Appstore, World of Warships Blitz allows you to build, customise and wage war across the waves in a myriad of different ways. Support our channel by installing the game using the link in the description, and not only will you be helping us but upon reaching level 3, you will gain free access to the tier 3 battleship USS South Carolina It’s late November of the year 1943. Hundreds of allied ships formed into convoys steam through the Arctic. They carry thousands of tons of oil, food and military goods provided under the Lend-Lease program, meant to aid Soviet Russia’s struggle against the German Third Reich. Despite their losses, both the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe, operating from bases in occupied Norway, still pose a serious threat to these allied transports, forcing the British Royal Navy to employ much of its fighting potential to fend off the Germans who were looking for any sign of weakness to strike at. But four years of relentless struggle with the Germany Navy to overcome British dominance at sea took a great toll on their surface fleet, to the point, where Hitler demanded the scrapping of all of the bigger vessels and divert resources to the new U-boats. Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, who took command of the Kriegsmarine early in 1943, managed to placate the Fuhrer and retain the surface fleet, as in Doenitz’s view it was still a useful asset of the German armed forces. In the November of 1943 in addition to its U-boat flotillas, the Kriegsmarine had two capital ships anchored in Norwegian fjords. However, due to extensive damage that the Tirpitz received from a sneak attack by British midget submarines two months earlier, the only operational battleship left was the Scharnhorst, the most successful of all German capital ships. Grand Admiral Doenitz was hesitant to employ his sole available battleship for the task of raiding allied Arctic convoys as he was aware of the Royal Navy’s vastly bigger numbers and just as important - superior radar equipment. It was a threat that couldn’t be underestimated in a possible engagement during the Arctic winter’s long hours of darkness. But by late December, five Allied convoys had reached their destinations unharmed and Doenitz was pressed to prove the necessity of keeping the Scharnhorst operational. Thus, on the 19th of December, the plan for an Arctic sortie was made. Doenitz didn’t have to wait too long for an opportunity to employ the battleship, as three days later, an air reconnaissance report came in via the Luftwaffe reporting that the allied convoy was spotted sailing west. The preparations on the Scharnhorst had begun, and Rear Admiral Erich Bey was picked to command the task force of one battleship escorted by a flotilla of five destroyers. On the evening of Christmas, his force departed the fjords near Alta, steaming north in the hopes of intercepting enemy merchant shipping. Though the German Naval Command believed that the convoy’s protection would not be reinforced by British capital ships, Bey had been instructed to withdraw immediately using his superior speed should that worst case scenario come to pass. Unfortunately for Bey’s task force, however, by 1943 the German naval radar system was largely inferior to British equipment. A situation made even worse in the bad weather conditions: a bitter cold polar night combined with snow squalls and heavy seas. In the morning of the next day, the German battlegroup arrived in the area of the expected encounter with the enemy merchant ships, roughly eighty miles south-east of Bear Island. Bey had guessed that he might overshoot the convoy and so he spread out his destroyers southward in search of the enemy. He subsequently lost contact with the five destroyers due to disparate manoeuvring and poorly transmitted orders. A mere two hours later, admiral Bey was surprised. Instead of finding the convoy, the convoy escort had found him, as the Scharnhorst had been picked up by British radar just thirty minutes prior to their encounter. Three cruisers, HMS Norfolk, Belfast and Sheffield, inflicted minimal damage by closing the distance and opening fire at the unprepared German battleship. The Scharnhorst eventually responded and her main artillery returned fire, but being unsure of the extent of the threat that he was facing, and willing to draw the escort away from the convoy, Admiral Bey decided to turn and use his speed to open the distance again, in order to attack from the north. As noon approached, the British cruisers failed to shadow the German battleship while she steamed northwards. Even at its zenith the winter sun over the Arctic Circle did little to improve visibility, never truly cresting the horizon. A south-westerly gale was driving low clouds, obscuring the noon light, plunging the surrounding waters into perpetual twilight. While weather conditions did not make Bey’s mission to find the convoy any easier, his guess turned out to be correct as just after midday he encountered the British cruisers once again. The Scharnhorst’s main artillery roared, soon scoring first hits on the Norfolk. In exchange, medium calibre British shells also reached the battleship. Even so, it could not be considered a fair fight, as despite their numerical advantage, the Royal Navy cruisers were still outgunned by the Scharnhorst, and both the Norfolk and Sheffield suffered damage from German shells. Luckily for the British, however, two eight inch projectiles fired by the Norfolk yielded immediate and lasting results. The first projectile temporarily disabled one of the Scharnhorst’s turrets, while the other struck the Seetakt radar, rendering it useless. This was a heavy blow for the Germans. In such poor weather the Scharnhorst became virtually blind. Rear Admiral Bey was perfectly aware of their perilous position and gave the command to terminate the operation against the convoy, subsequently turning south and getting back to the Norwegian coast, approximately 9 hours away from their current position. British cruisers commenced shadowing, but soon both the Norfolk and the Sheffield encountered engine problems and were forced to drop back, leaving HMS Belfast the sole vessel tracking the Scharnhorst. Fortunately for the British, Bey was unaware of that fact and did not take advantage of the situation. Shortly before 4 pm the Germans were half-way through their journey back to port. An air of relaxation could be traced on board: despite being unable to attack the convoy, they were thankful that the Scharnhorst hadn’t conceded any major damage or suffered any crew loss. But barely an hour later the monotonous arctic gale was interrupted by starshells fired by the Belfast, lighting up the German battleship. High calibre artillery thundered in the distance and seconds later 14-inch shells exploded on the Scharnhorst’s deck, destroying one of her turrets. The 14-inch shells came from another British force - Force 2 – a distant convoy escort comprising of battleship HMS Duke of York, light cruiser HMS Jamaica and four destroyers under the command of Admiral Bruce Fraser. Fraser, the commander-in-chief of the Home Fleet, closed the distance and engaged the Germans. Those onboard the Scharnhorst were shocked to be attacked by another battleship. Fraser had exploited the enemy’s radar problems and flawlessly acquired a suitable position to begin the artillery barrage. Though being surprised and hit, the Scharnhorst returned fire using her optical rangefinders and aiming in the dark at muzzle flashes in the distance. Much to admiral Fraser’s astoundment, the shells landed dangerously close, with some throwing splinters on his flagship’s boards. Nevertheless the Germans were at a big disadvantage and the Scharnhorst manoeuvred to disengage, while another salvo from the Duke of York struck down two of her main gun turrets. Steaming at full speed north, the German battleship was soon engaged by the Belfast and the Norfolk, which forced her to turn east. The Scharnhorst was able to put some distance between herself and her pursuers, even managing to temporarily strike down radar wires on the Duke of York. None of the British ships were able to really cut through the rough sea at their speed of 30 knots. This was Bey’s only chance to shake off his pursuit and possibly reach safety. As the distance between the enemies increased, Fraser grew skeptical about his chance of engaging the Scharnhorst again and was about to turn back to protect the convoy when he received the message from the plotting room to continue his pursuit. One of the last shells fired by the Duke of York had hit one of the boiler rooms and the German battleship was now steaming at 20 knots at best. The Germans were haemorrhaging speed. The fate of the Scharnhorst had turned once again. The British destroyers were first to catch up. The German crew tried to fend off the enemy with secondary armaments but, ensuing torpedo attacks resulted in four hits, which crippled the battleship even further to a paltry speed of 10 knots. Rear admiral Bey already knew: these torpedo strikes essentially sealed the fate of the Scharnhorst. In the course of the next hour, all pursuing ships caught up and began firing on the immobilised German ship. Soon the very last turret was put out of action and the Scharnhorst suffered continued torpedo attacks. Shortly before 8 pm two major explosions were heard, and the German battleship, hit by multiple torpedos and high calibre shells, capsized and sunk, taking with her more than 1,900 sailors. Just a few dozen survived. The Royal Navy had obliterated the only operational German battleship and had taken another significant step towards winning the Battle of the Atlantic. Serving as virtually the entire German surface fleet outside the Baltic, arctic convoys were still threatened by the Tirpitz until her sinking in port eleven months later. The German Navy essentially lost the capability to disrupt deliveries of war goods to Soviet Russia through the arctic routes, indirectly further complicating the already difficult situation of the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.
I don't understand why Bey didn't keep /any/ of his destroyers in close. I understand the difficulty of finding the convoy but it seems very risky to leave a battleship alone with obsolete radar in almost eternal night. I have to wonder what if he kept his task force together. Could the destroyers have spotted the cruisers' approach sooner or helped the Scharnhorst escape?