16
Immediate Assault on Narvik Abandoned — The Landings in May — General Auchinleck Appointed to the Chief Military Command — The Capture of the Town, May 28 — The Battle in France Dominates All — Evacuation — The Homeward Convoys — Apparition of the German Battle Cruisers — The Loss of the “Glorious” and “Ardent” — The Story of the “Acasta” — Air Attack on German Ships at Trondheim — One Solid Result — The German Fleet Ruined.
IN DEFIANCE OF CHRONOLOGY, it is well to set forth here the end of the Norwegian episode.
After April 16, Lord Cork was compelled to abandon the idea of an immediate assault. A three hours’ bombardment on April 24, carried out by the battleship Warspite and three cruisers, was not effective in dislodging the garrison. I had asked the First Sea Lord to arrange for the replacement of the Warspite by the less valuable Resolution, which was equally useful for bombarding purposes. Meanwhile, the arrival of French and Polish troops, and still more the thaw, encouraged Lord Cork to press his attack on the town. The new plan was to land at the head of the fiord beyond Narvik and thereafter to attack Narvik across Rombaks Fiord. The 24th Guards Brigade had been drawn off to stem the German advance from Trondheim: but by the beginning of May, three battalions of Chasseurs Alpins, two battalions of the French Foreign Legion, four Polish battalions, and a Norwegian force of about thirty-five hundred men were available. The enemy had for their part been reinforced by portions of the 3d Mountain Division, which had either been brought by air from southern Norway or smuggled in by rail from Sweden.
The first landing, under General Mackesy, took place on the night of May 12/13 at Bjerkvik, with very little loss. General Auchinleck, whom I had sent to command all the troops in Northern Norway, was present and took charge the next day. His instructions were to cut off the iron-ore supplies and to defend a foothold in Norway for the King and his Government. The new British commander naturally asked for very large additions to bring his force up to seventeen battalions, two hundred heavy and light anti-aircraft guns, and four squadrons of airplanes. It was only possible to promise about half these requirements.
But now tremendous events became dominant. On May 24, in the crisis of shattering defeat, it was decided, with almost universal agreement, that we must concentrate all we had in France and at home. The capture of Narvik had, however, to be achieved both to ensure the destruction of the port and to cover our withdrawal. The main attack on Narvik across Rombaks Fiord was begun on May 27 by two battalions of the Foreign Legion and one Norwegian battalion under the able leadership of General Béthouart. It was entirely successful. The landing was effected with practically no loss and the counter-attack beaten off. Narvik was taken on May 28. The Germans, who had so long resisted forces four times their strength, retreated into the mountains, leaving four hundred prisoners in our hands.
We now had to relinquish all that we had won after such painful exertions. The withdrawal was in itself a considerable operation, imposing a heavy burden on the Fleet, already fully extended by the fighting both in Norway and in the Narrow Seas. Dunkirk was upon us, and all available light forces were drawn to the south. The battle fleet must itself be held in readiness to resist invasion. Many of the cruisers and destroyers had already been sent south for anti-invasion duties. The Commander-in-Chief had at his disposal at Scapa the capital ships Rodney, Valiant, Renown, and Repulse. These had to cover all contingencies.
Good progress in evacuation was made at Narvik, and by June 8 all the troops, French and British, amounting to twenty-four thousand men, together with large quantities of stores and equipment, were embarked and sailed in three convoys without hindrance from the enemy, who indeed now amounted on shore to no more than a few thousand scattered, disorganised, but victorious individuals. During these last days valuable protection was afforded against the German air force, not only by naval aircraft, but by a shore-based squadron of Hurricanes. This squadron had been ordered to keep in action till the end, destroying their aircraft if necessary. However, by their skill and daring these pilots performed the unprecedented feat – their last – of flying their Hurricanes on board the carrier Glorious, which sailed with the Ark Royal and the main body.
To cover all these operations, Lord Cork had at his disposal, in addition to the carriers, the cruisers Southampton and Coventry and sixteen destroyers, besides smaller vessels. The cruiser Devonshire was meanwhile embarking the King of Norway and his staff from Tromso, and was therefore moving independently. Lord Cork informed the Commander-in-Chief of his convoy arrangements, and asked for protection against possible attack by heavy ships. Admiral Forbes dispatched the Valiant on June 6, to meet the first convoy of troopships and escort it north of the Shetlands and then return to meet the second. Despite all other preoccupations he had intended to use his battle cruisers to protect the troopships. On June 5, reports had reached him of two unknown ships apparently making for Iceland, and later of an enemy landing there. He, therefore, felt compelled to send his battle cruisers to investigate these reports, which proved to be false. Thus, on this unlucky day our available forces in the North were widely dispersed. The movement of the Narvik convoys and their protection followed closely the method pursued without mishap during the past six weeks. It had been customary to send transports and warships, including aircraft carriers, over this route, with no more than anti-submarine escort. No activity by German heavy ships had hitherto been detected. Now, having repaired the damage they had suffered in the earlier encounters, they suddenly appeared off the Norwegian coast.
The battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, with the cruiser Hipper and four destroyers, left Kiel on June 4, with the object of attacking shipping and bases in the Narvik area and thus providing relief for what was left of their landed forces. No hint of our intended withdrawal reached them till June 7. On the news that British convoys were at sea, the German Admiral decided to attack them. Early the following morning, the eighth, he caught a tanker with a trawler escort, an empty troopship Orama, and the hospital ship Atlantis. He respected the immunity of the Atlantis. All the rest were sunk. That afternoon the Hipper and the destroyers returned to Trondheim, but the battle cruisers, continuing their search for prey, were rewarded when at 4 P.M. they sighted the smoke of the aircraft carrier Glorious, with her two escorting destroyers, the Acasta and Ardent. The Glorious had been detached early that morning to proceed home independently owing to shortage of fuel, and by now was nearly two hundred miles ahead of the main convoy. This explanation is not convincing. The Glorious had enough fuel to steam at the speed of the convoy. All should have kept together.
The action began about 4.30 P.M. at over twenty-seven thousand yards. At this range the Glorious, with her four-inch guns, was helpless. Efforts were made to get her torpedo-bombers into the air, but before this could be done, she was hit in the forward hangar, and a fire began which destroyed the Hurricanes and prevented torpedoes being got up from below for the bombers. In the next half-hour she received staggering blows which deprived her of all chance of escape. By 5.20 she was listing heavily, and the order was given to abandon ship. She sank about twenty minutes later.
Meanwhile, her two destroyers behaved nobly. Both made smoke in an endeavour to screen the Glorious, and both fired their torpedoes at the enemy before being overwhelmed. The Ardent was soon sunk. The story of the Acasta, now left alone at hopeless odds, has been told by the sole survivor, Leading-Seaman C. Carter:
On board our ship, what a deathly calm, hardly a word spoken, the ship was now steaming full speed away from the enemy, then came a host of orders, prepare all smoke floats, hose-pipes connected up, various other jobs were prepared, we were still steaming away from the enemy, and making smoke, and all our smoke floats had been set going. The Captain then had this message passed to all positions: “You may think we are running away from the enemy, we are not, our chummy ship [Ardent] has sunk, the Glorious is sinking, the least we can do is make a show, good luck to you all.” We then altered course into our own smoke-screen. I had the order stand by to fire tubes 6 and 7, we then came out of the smokescreen, altered course to starboard firing our torpedoes from port side. It was then I had my first glimpse of the enemy, to be honest it appeared to me to be a large one [ship] and a small one, and we were very close, I fired my two torpedoes from my tubes [aft], the foremost tubes fired theirs, we were all watching results. I’ll never forget that cheer that went up; on the port bow of one of the ships a yellow flash and a great column of smoke and water shot up from her. We knew we had hit, personally I could not see how we could have missed so close as we were. The enemy never fired a shot at us, I feel they must have been very surprised. After we had fired our torpedoes we went back into our own smoke-screen, altered course again to starboard. “Stand by to fire remaining torpedoes”; and this time as soon as we poked our nose out of the smoke-screen, the enemy let us have it. A shell hit the engine-room, killed my tubes’ crew, I was blown to the after end of the tubes, I must have been knocked out for a while, because when I came to, my arm hurt me; the ship had stopped with a list to port. Here is something, believe it or believe it not, I climbed back into the control seat, I see those two ships, I fired the remaining torpedoes, no one told me to, I guess I was raving mad. God alone knows why I fired them, but I did. The Acasta’s guns were firing the whole time, even firing with a list on the ship. The enemy then hit us several times, but one big explosion took place right aft, I have often wondered whether the enemy hit us with a torpedo, in any case it seemed to lift the ship out of the water. At last the Captain gave orders to abandon ship. I will always remember the Surgeon Lieutenant,1 his first ship, his first action. Before I jumped over the side, I saw him still attending to the wounded, a hopeless task, and when I was in the water I saw the Captain leaning over the bridge, take a cigarette from a case and light it. We shouted to him to come on our raft, he waved “Good-bye and good luck” – the end of a gallant man.
Thus perished 1,474 officers and men of the Royal Navy and forty-one of the Royal Air Force. Despite prolonged search, only thirty-nine were rescued and brought in later by a Norwegian ship. In addition, six men were picked up by the enemy and taken to Germany. The Scharnhorst, heavily damaged by the Acasta’s torpedo, made her way to Trondheim.
While this action was going on, the cruiser Devonshire, with the King of Norway and his Ministers, was about a hundred miles to the westward. The Valiant coming north to meet the convoy was still a long way off. The only message received from the Glorious was corrupt and barely intelligible, which suggests that her main wireless equipment was broken from an early stage. The Devonshire alone received this message, but as its importance was not apparent she did not break wireless silence to pass it on, as to do so would have involved serious risk of revealing her position, which in the circumstances was highly undesirable. Not until the following morning were suspicions aroused. Then the Valiant met the Atlantis, who informed her of the loss of the Orama and that enemy capital ships were at sea. The Valiant signalled the information and pressed on to join Lord Cork’s convoy. The Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Forbes, at once proceeded to sea with the only ships he had, the Rodney, the Renown, and six destroyers.
The damage inflicted on the Scharnhorst by the heroic Acasta had important results. The two enemy battle cruisers abandoned further operations and returned at once to Trondheim. The German High Command were dissatisfied with the action of their admiral in departing from the objective which had been given him. They sent the Hipper out again; but it was then too late.
On the tenth, Admiral Forbes ordered the Ark Royal to join him. Reports showed that enemy ships were in Trondheim and he hoped to make an air attack. This was delivered by R.A.F. bombers on the eleventh without effect. On the following morning, fifteen Skuas from the Ark Royal made a dive-bombing attack. Enemy reconnaissance gave warning of their approach, and no fewer than eight were lost. To add one last misfortune to our tale, it is now known that one bomb from a Skua struck the Scharnhorst, but failed to explode.
Whilst these tragedies were in progress, the Narvik convoys passed on safely to their destinations, and the British campaign in Norway came to an end.
* * * * *
From all this wreckage and confusion there emerged one fact of major importance potentially affecting the whole future of the war. In their desperate grapple with the British Navy, the Germans ruined their own, such as it was, for the impending climax. The Allied losses in all this sea-fighting off Norway amounted to one aircraft carrier, two cruisers, one sloop, and nine destroyers. Six cruisers, two sloops, and eight destroyers were disabled, but could be repaired within our margin of sea power. On the other hand, at the end of June, 1940, a momentous date, the effective German Fleet consisted of no more than one eight-inch cruiser, two light cruisers, and four destroyers. Although many of their damaged ships, like ours, could be repaired, the German Navy was no factor in the supreme issue of the invasion of Britain.