The two Battles of Narvik April 10th, 1940

[The Sailor]

First Battle of Narvik WW2

In the First Battle of Narvik on April 10th, 1940, five Royal Navy destroyers entered the harbour of Narvik where five destroyers of the Kriegsmarine were seriously damaged, thereof two sunk. Six other German ships were also sunk. And also two British destroyers sank. Both the German Commander, Commodore Bonte, and the British Commander, Captain Warburton-Lee, were killed in the battle.
Warburton-Lee was later awarded the Victoria Cross, the UK's highest award for gallantry in the face of enemy action.]



Second Battle of Narvik

The Second Battle of Narvik occurred three days after the First Battle of Narvik on 13 April 1940.
Vice Admiral William Whitworth and his forces arrived at the fjord to finish off the eight remaining German destroyers and two U-boats that were virtually stranded in a trap due to lack of fuel, a result of the First Battle of Narvik. The British forces consisted of the HMS Warspite (probably the best known 20th century Royal Navy battleship) and nine destroyers and planes from the carrier "Furious".

During the battle, a Fairey Swordfish catapult aircraft launched from the HMS Warspite sank the submarine "U-64", making it the first U-boat to be sunk by an airplane in World War II.

The Royal Navy easily wiped out the remaining eight German destroyers.

Plenty of scope to add further pics here anyone.

[herakles]

Two very successful attacks indeed.

Wouldn't happen today of course. The rules have changed for fighting ships so much.

[The Sailor]

These two battles sure were costly to the Germans in destroyers. They lost ten sunk and four damaged.

The Royal Navy fared better with two sunk and four damaged.

[herakles]

A good news story like this is always a great read!

[Harley]

It shows how desperate things were if the Royal Navy was willing to risk what was effectively Britain's newest battleship in such a mission.

I effectively wrote the Wikipedia article on Crutchley, captain of "Warspite" at Second Narvik - I can not say I would have liked to have been in command going up a very long fjord with no guarantee you'd be coming out again. Such is duty though.

Harley

[The Sailor]

I effectively wrote the Wikipedia article on Crutchley, captain of "Warspite" at Second Narvik -
Harley

That's pretty interesting Harley. How about telling the forum more about how and why you came to do that?

[Draconis]

On top of the lost destroyers, the Kriegsmarine lost the Blücher on the 9th at Oslofjord to the norwegian coastal batteries.
These losses started to slowly cripple the KM.
On the 8th the Hipper was rammed and damaged by HMS Glowworm and the Gneisenau took light damage from the HMS Renown.

Note:
In the first battle the commander of the destroyer goup, consisiting Wolfgang Zenker, Erich Koellner and Erich Giese was the same Erich Bey who led the Scharnhorst to her final journey.

[The Sailor]

In the end, all that effort and attrition by the Royal Navy couldn't save Norway from invasion.
The Germans gave the Norwegian people a very hard time.

[Harley]

That's pretty interesting Harley. How about telling the forum more about how and why you came to do that?

Admiral Victor Alexander Charles Crutchley, V.C., K.C.B., D.S.C., D.L., R.N. happened to be in technical command of the Battle of Savo Island in August, 1942. In light of the severe British reverses around that time my interest was piqued by a British admiral being in command of Australian and U.S. ships so far from home. I have Bob Ballard's book on the Lost Ships of Guadalcanal and access to a number of resources so I resolved to find out more about the man. Truly a fascinating character;

Present at Jutland, won the V.C. in the second Ostend Raid when his ship became a charnel house and had to take command of both it and then the rescue boat. Was present in the relief operations after the Hawkes Bay earthquake in '31, and then took command of "Warspite" after her reconstruction, and captained her during her interesting cruise up to Narvik, before a spell of shore duty then being given effective operational command of the Royal Australian Navy. He was also I believe the only RN admiral in WWII to have a full beard. Ahem.

Somewhat interestingly about "Blücher" (it interests me anyway), she was torpedoed by the shore defences and not sunk by shellfire. "Blücher" must be an unlucky name for German ships I suppose.

Harley

[Draconis]

Yes Harley, underground tunnel-torpedoes (Whitehead) sunk the Blücher.
Previously it was bombarded by two 280 mm coastal gun (from the 19nth century!!!) from point blank range, several 150 mm and some 57 mm guns as well.

It was a nice looking ship...

[Batstiger]

SMS Blucher from start to finish.

[The Sailor]

Yes Harley, underground tunnel-torpedoes (Whitehead) sunk the Blücher.
Previously it was bombarded by two 280 mm coastal gun (from the 19nth century!!!) from point blank range, several 150 mm and some 57 mm guns as well.

It was a nice looking ship...

Underground tunnel torpedoes? Were these used on the coast of Britain in
WW2? Does anyone know?

[Draconis]

"The Germans were unaware of a torpedo battery near Oscarsborg's main gun battery at North Kaholmen Island. Built in 1901, it was equipped with three shore-mounted dual elevators firing the torpedoes via underwater tunnels. The torpedoes were Austrian-built Whitehead torpedoes of the same turn-of-the-century vintage. These torpedoes had been practice-launched well over 200 times before being fired in anger, and no-one was certain if they would function or not. They did. Blücher received two direct hits, one near her forward turret Anton and the second in the engine room, leaving her drifting out of control in the narrow fjord. The torpedoes sealed her fate."

I don't have any information wether the costal defense of Britain have any kind of torpedo battery like this or not. I'll search for any kind of proof.

[The Sailor]

Thanks for this info Draconis. I have never ever heard of shore fired torpedoes, but when one thinks about it, it is quite feasable. Hence my question as the wether Britain used them?
So many things I have learnt on here. Good one mate.

[Batstiger]

I have just finished reading an article about the two battles of Narvik and things didn't appear to go all that smoothly.
The Germans lost a total of ten destroyers and one U boat in the two battles, and the British, two destroyers with half a dozen badly damaged but repairable.
The loss of life at Narvik-Civilian and naval, neutral and belligerent- had been heavy: 435 Norwegians, 321 Germans and 188 British. On the British ships there were many wounded to be helped. The three Tribals Cossack, Eskimo and Punjabi had received heavy casualties. The other destroyers that had taken part in the action had fared better.

The book by the way is "Destroyer Actions" September 1939 to June 1940.
Author:-Harry Plevy.