Warinfo
The 2nd World War, in all its briefness.
The Atlantic Theatre
Operation Rheinubung to The Hunt for the Bismarck
The Atlantic theatre of WW2 comprised of major battles taking place in the Atlantic ocean. Some parts near the north of Scotland, near Greenland and Iceland and some near the coast of North Africa, by Morocco and some near South America. Unlike the Pacific theatre, we cannot trace back to an official date that The Atlantic Theatre of WW2 started. Under this topic, we will uncover things like major battles fought and most famously, Arctic Convoys. Read on and learn about the war waged on the icy waves of the Atlantic Ocean. A common name we can give to the set of these battles fought by allied and axis forces is commonly known as the Battle of The Atlantic.
The Battle of the River Plate
The battle of the River Plate occurred on the 13th December 1939 and was the first naval engagement of WW2 and the first naval engagement in the south Atlantic Ocean.
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By 1939, Germany had directed the Panzerschliffe KM Graf Spee to steam towards The River Plate, near Montevideo, Uruguay. The idea was that the rich shipping lanes in this area of sea would attract many transport vessels and provide Admiral Langsdorf, commander of the Graf Spee to sink more ships.
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However, the Royal Navy would know that Langsdorf would steer his ship this way and HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles, known as Force G, would be ready to fight the battleship.
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On the 13th December 1939, the three cruisers went for the battleship with HMS Exeter being damaged severely and rendered useless due to shell hits having to head back to the Falklands for repairs. The two other cruisers managed to damage the battleship severely enough that she had to turn and dock at Montevideo. Due to the treaty of Hague, the battleship would not be permitted to leave neutral waters as it would affect Uruguay's neutrality and would have to dock there for 24 hours minimum.
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It was here that, HMS Cunningham would join the remnants of force g and would place explosives in careful positions that would blow after Graf Spee would pull out of Montevideo port, placed in the heart of the River Plate. Note that British surface warships were not allowed to fire upon the Graf Spee in dock as again, that would be disrespecting the neutrality of Uruguay.
The plan worked and the Graf Spee was severely damaged and resulted in the deaths of 60 sailors and the suicide of Langsdorf. On the other hand, there were 72 British deaths and the severe damage of the HMS Exeter.
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The battle fo the River Plate was the Kriegsmarine's first defeat and was a boost in morale for the Royal Navy.
The Altmark incident: Neutral or not ?
The Altmark incident occurred on the 16th February 1940 in a Norwegian Fjord by the name of Jossingfjord.
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The tanker Altmark was carrying British POWs and had docked in the fjord for some time. However, little was known that English intel had tracked down the tanker and had found out about the POWs on board. Destroyer HMS Cossack was appointed to liberate the entrapped POWs. There wouldn't be much of a problem: that's what you would have thought, however, the problem actually lie in the country that the Altmark was docked in, Norway. As you can see, Norway was at this time unoccupied and neutral, though ships of the belligerents at the time were allowed to enter docks for repairs but no military engagement must take place as it would pose a threat to the neutrality of the country.
However, the crew of the HMS Cossack got on board and had only showed defensive actions when attacked by the German crew. Once having been defeated, the British made their way down to the bottom of the ships and freed the POWs.
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It is debated as if the Altmarck incident was the last battles in which the Royal Navy used cutlasses, however the HMS Cossack foundation did object this statement.
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The incident took the lives of 8 German sailors and the liberation of 299 British POWs.
Battle of North Cape
The battle of North Cape occurred on the 26th January 1943 as part of the Battle of the Atlantic. The belligerents involved in the battle of North Cape were Germany and Britain.
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On the 26th of January 1943, Battleship KM Scharnhorst, A German Battleship departed the port of Alta in German occupied Norway. Her mission was to, as what was going on at the time, to sink Allied shipping into Russia - Arctic Convoys - shipping supplies and weapons to aid with the war efforts there. Admiral Eric Raedar was in charge of the Kriegsmarine and it was up to him to stop Arctic Convoys reaching their destinations. By this time, there were only 2 operational battleships remaining in German occupied Norwegian fjords, KM Tirpitz and KM Scharnhorst but Tirpitz had been damaged due to recent attacks from British Midget submarines.
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To understand the events of The Battle of North Cape, we must understand the events before. On the morning of 26th of January, German reconnaissance aircraft operating from Norwegian luftwaffe airbases spots more Allied merchant shipping and the Scharnhorst is set to leave Alta to sink these vessels along with destroyers Z29, Z33, Z38, Z34 and Z30.
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After leaving the fjord, when Dönitz, the then commander of the fleet, had ordered all 5 destroyer to search for the convoy, leaving KM Scharnhorst on her own, Scharnhorst had encountered the convoy escorts - 3 Royal Navy cruisers - HMS Belfast, HMS Norfolk and HMS Sheffield. after having exchanging shells for the day, more warships were summoned and the Scharnhorst, having received many torpedo hits and shell hits from cruisers, destroyers and battleships, sank to her icy grave at the bottom of the Norwegian Sea, in the North Atlantic.
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She took with her 1932 sailors of which a mere 36 survived. The battle proved the important use of radar, used by the Royal Navy and it was a decisive allied victory.
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On the other hand, for the Germans, this was a massive blow as KM Tirpitz would be the only operating battleship in the North Atlantic.
The Battle of Denmark strait: Battleship on the loose
The Battle of the Denmark Strait happened on the 24th of May 1941 between the Kriegsmarine and Royal Navy in an area between Iceland and Greenland called the Denmark Strait.
Firstly, let's talk about the events that led up to the Battle of Denmark Strait. It is 1941 and Great Britain is very reliant on shipping from North America in terms of supplies and weapons as an island nation. This is different to Germany's situation as it was not an island nation and had good connectivity to resources from mainland Europe for resources. It is not long until German reconnaissance finds out about this and soon begins to send U-Boats to sink supply ships. This was soon made major and German warships were also sent over to sink allied shipping. This would cause a great change to the English people as it would bring about rations due to the fear of running a complete shortage.
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By this point in time, 21st of March 1941, the German battleships KM Scharnhorst and KM Gneisenau have returned to the German ports in Brest, Occupied France after 60 days of raiding allied shipping. Admiral Eric Raeder, head of the Kriegsmarine wants to do the same operation again but on a massive scale: by appointing all German capital ships to raid allied shipping. However, the battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst have to remain in port for repairs due to torpedo and engine problems, Battleship KM Tirpitz, the fleet's newest battleship was still under crew training which left the one and only, pride of the German Navy, legendary Battleship KM Bismarck.
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This iconic battleship was sent to sink allied shipping in the Denmark strait along with the heavy cruiser KM Prinz Eugen. This was named Operation Rheinübung, the advance into the Atlantic, however, both battleships were spotted by British battleships HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk and were shadowed. This had resulted in an exchange of salvos, that had missed from the Bismarck's side. This had meant that her radar would be damaged due to the mighty Battleship's own force of salvo propulsion.
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Raedar, on board the Bismarck had given KM Prinz Eugen the lead due to radar superiority and had tracked down Royal Navy battleships HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales. This was the main event of the battle and resulted in no official victory on both sides. However, Battlecruiser HMS Hood was sunk and the Bismarck was heavily damaged. In immediate anger, The Royal Navy would commission its best fleet to track down and blow both legendary German warships out of the waters.
The hunt for the Bismarck
After what had happened in Denmark Strait, it would be clear that Battleship KM Bismarck and heavy cruiser KM Prinz Eugen could not continue with Operation Rheinübung. Bismarck was most vulnerable as she had lost a lot of armour during The Battle of Denmark Strait and had let in lots of water due to multiple torpedo hits. The battleship, with the help of Prinz Eugen, would have no other chance but to hobble back to the friendly coast of Brest in Occupied France.
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However, the sinking of the iconic battlecruiser HMS Hood, had left a dire vengeance among the royal navy, now, they would appoint their best warships and 1 aircraft carrier to hunt and sink the Bismarck: The pride of the Kriegsmarine.
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The Bismarck was being shadowed by cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Suffolk and shortly after engaging, had let the unscathed heavy cruiser KM Prinz Eugen to continue on to harass Atlantic merchant shipping. Every available surface warship was appointed to find her and finally, on the 27th of May 1941, HMS King George V, HMS Rodney, HMS Norfolk, HMS Arc Royal, HMS Suffolk and HMS Dorsetshire, hunted her down and sunk her.
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Bismarck took with her 2200 German sailors of which only a few 100 had survived.
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This would play a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic, as merchant shipping would not be as affected and the idea to send capital ships to sink allied shipping was scrapped.
Battle of Casablanca: the first naval engagement of operation torch
Also part of The North African Theatre: Operation Torch
The Battle of Casablanca, happened off the Moroccan coast where French battleships were being anchored. the battle took place on the 8th of November 1942 and we will only be covering the naval actions, for more information about the landings and ground fighting, please see the North African Theatre.
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It is the 8th of November 1942, and American surface warships start to approach the Vichy French port of Casablanca. The point of the battle was to destroy french warships in the French Moroccan Harbour for American troop landings on the North African coast from transport ships. This was the first phase of Operation Torch.
Battleship USS Massachusetts had fired many salvos on the french ships along with many other destroyers, cruisers and battleships. The attack of Casablanca harbour had many losses. The french had lost one battleship that was in the building: Battleship Jean Bart, 7 destroyers and 1 light cruiser.
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The first naval engagement of operation torch had been done in just 5 hours.
Battle of the Bay of Biscay
the battle of The Bay of Biscay occurred on the 28th December 1943 in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France. It was an engagement between German and British warships.
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The battle engaged when German escorts were accompanying a flotilla of transport ships carrying vital transport from Japan. However, German ships were then attacked by the RAF following their location being given away by codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
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Then, British cruisers were appointed to the Bay to engage with the warships. The battle ended in a British victory.
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There were 2 british deaths and 1 damaged cruiser. However, on the other hand, there were 532 german deaths, 1 destroyer, 2 torpedo boats and 1 damaged torpedo boat.
The end of the Atlantic Theatre
The Atlantic theatre of WW2, also known as the Battle for the Atlantic or the Atlantic campaign was one of the largest naval and military campaigns in history. At the end of the War, the allies were successful and The theatre took with her
36,200 sailors , 36,000 merchant seamen
3,500 merchant vessels, 175 warships and 741 RAF Coastal Command Aircraft of the allied forces. In terms of Axis losses,30,000 U-boat sailors, 783 submarines and 47 other warships - German stats. 500 sailors and 17 submarines - Italian stats.