How did the Shane Horst sink?

1943, with the victory of the allied forces in the Atlantic Ocean, the escort to the Soviet Union resumed.

65438+February 65438+February 65438, a fleet numbered JW-55a set out from Evian Bay, England, 19 transport ship. 18 February 18, the German submarine U-636, which was active in the sea east of Xiongdao, found this fleet, but it was impossible to attack it because of the suppression of escort warships. When castle wolfenstein received this information, it was too late to take measures to intercept it. 12 On February 20th, the fleet arrived safely in Kola Bay of the Soviet Union.

On the contrary, the long-range cover formation under the personal command of Admiral Fraser, commander of the local fleet of the British Navy, consists of 1 battleship, 1 cruiser and four destroyers. Worried about the attack of German surface ships, it made an exception and escorted the fleet to Kola Bay, and went to Iceland to refuel on 18, and then set sail to provide long-distance cover for JW-55B and RA-55a fleets.

19 On February 20th, JW-55B fleet set out from Evian Bay, England with 19 transport ship. The escort force is 10 destroyer, 2 frigates and 1 minesweeper. Three days later, on February 23rd, 10, the RA-55a fleet set sail from Kola Bay in the Soviet Union. The fleet consists of 22 transport ships, escorted by 10 destroyer, 3 frigates and 1 minesweeper. Burnett vice admiral commanded three cruisers to cover the Barents Sea at close range.

12 On February 22nd, a German reconnaissance plane spotted the JW-55B fleet. Because it was getting late, the Germans did not organize an attack. On February 23, 65438, more than a dozen German Junk -88 bombers came to attack, but under the effective resistance of escort warships, two of them were not successfully shot down. At the same time, the Germans sent a fleet of eight submarines to Bear Island, ready to intercept the fleet, and ordered the surface ships to prepare for the sea and be ready to set off at any time.

On February 24th, 65438, German reconnaissance planes kept flying to track and monitor the JW-55B fleet. Fraser judged that German surface ships were bound to be dispatched, so he ordered the JW-55B fleet to sail in the opposite direction for three hours, interfering with the speed calculation of the German fleet, and at the same time led a long-distance cover formation to meet at a speed of 19 knots.

On the morning of February 25th, 65438, Frazier thought that the Ra-55a fleet had not been discovered by the Germans and would soon leave the dangerous sea area where German surface ships were operating, while the JW-55b fleet was close to Altafjord, so it was more likely to be attacked by the Germans. Therefore, he ordered four destroyers from the escort warships of the Ra-55a fleet to strengthen the escort power of the JW-55b fleet, and ordered the JW-55b fleet to continue sailing northward.

On the same day 14, the German Northern Naval Command ordered the dispatch of surface ships to attack the JW-55B fleet. On 19, Eric? Major General Bay set out from Altafjord under the command of the Battle Cruiser Shane Horst and five destroyers.

Major General Bey is very pessimistic about this voyage. At this time, it is the polar night in the Arctic. There are only two or three hours of sunshine all day, and the visibility is very low. Although "scharnhorst" is equipped with two radars, its detection performance is far inferior to that of British ships. There are about 80 trainee officers and 100 inexperienced recruits on board. If there is a battle, the outcome is unpredictable, so he asked to postpone the naval battle, but was severely rejected by Deng Nici, commander-in-chief of the navy.

In order to destroy the JW-55B fleet, Deng Nici asked the German Air Force in Norway to provide air cover in addition to the surface ships, and made special instructions after Bey led the fleet to sea, stressing the need to adopt clever and brave tactics. In case of the formation of large British surface ships, he should quickly give up the attack on the fleet and take the initiative to quit the battle to ensure the safety of the Schanhost, because at this time the German army is in Norway, and the only large warship that can be put into use is the Schanhost.

As soon as Bay's fleet was dispatched, British agents in Altafjord sent a report to the British Admiralty. Fraser quickly got this information and immediately ordered the RA55-A fleet to sail northward, using the cover of large-scale ice floes in the sea area north of Bear Island. Four destroyers who reinforced the JW-55B fleet joined Burnett's cruiser formation, speeding up the voyage, sandwiched between the JW-55B fleet and the German fleet, and then led the battleship formation from west to east to form a siege of German ships.

German submarines U-60 1 and U-7 16 overcame the difficulty of low visibility, found the fleet and informed the Gulf fleet of their position, speed and course.

65438+At 7: 30 on February 26th, the German fleet reached the sea area about 40 nautical miles southeast of Bear Island, which was calculated by the German according to the report that the reconnaissance plane intercepted the allied fleet. Bey ordered the ships to keep their distance and search the fleet south.

At 8: 40, Burnett's flagship cruiser "Belfast" radar captured a weak signal at 3 1000 meters. At 9: 00, 2 1, another British cruiser "Sheffield" found a German ship at about 1 1000 meters. At this time, the situation at sea is that the Ra-55a fleet is out of danger, the JW-55B fleet is uncertain, and the Fraser formation still has 150 nautical miles (about 270 kilometers).

At 9: 24, the British ship first fired flares at the German ship. The German ship realized that the British ship was nearby, but the German ship sailed against the wind and the snow came on. The lookout can't find the target at all, and the performance of the German ship radar is poor, so it is impossible to find the target quickly. Just when the German ship was at a loss, the 203 mm main gun of the British ship opened fire, and the intensive artillery fire set off a huge water column around the German ship. German ships can only follow the gunfire of British ships. During the war, the German ship radar just found the British ship and was about to determine its position. A shell of the British cruiser Norfolk just hit the main mast, and the top of the mast was suddenly shot off, and the top radar installed on the main mast was completely destroyed. Knowing that in the dark arctic ocean, it is impossible to fight without radar, Bey immediately ordered the rudder to retreat, but it was still hit by two shells from the British ship. Fortunately, one of them was a dud and did not cause serious damage. With its speed, scharnhorst quickly distanced himself from the British ship. At 9: 40, the British ship stopped shelling.

When the "scharnhorst" got rid of the British ships, if it turned around and returned quickly by virtue of its speed advantage, it was entirely possible to get rid of the encirclement of the British army, but Bey did not do so, because he knew that the elimination of the JW-55B fleet could delay the Soviet combat preparation for one month, so he decided to use the short sunshine time around noon to search the JW-55B fleet again and make a final effort. So he directed the scharnhorst to change to the northeast.

The British ship following the "scharnhorst" did not expect that the German ship would suddenly change course and the radar would lose contact. However, Burnett accurately judged the German ship's attempt, and the enemy's situation changed. He immediately stopped chasing and sailed northwest, ready to seize the favorable position in front of the JW-55B fleet. However, Germany and Britain, one in the northeast and one in the northwest, parted ways, and the distance is getting bigger and bigger.

At about 10, the German reconnaissance plane spotted Fraser formation. Due to the bad weather and low visibility, the report sent back by the pilot was vague-an eastward fleet was found at the northwest of North Point 100 nautical mile, and there might be a battleship. The German commander who received the report was inflexible, demanding that the report must be accurate and clear, and there should be no possible or approximate statements, so he deleted the key sentence "there may be warships" and then forwarded it to Bey. Bey thought it must be a British warship, but it was still far away and decided to ignore it.

10: 30, four destroyers of the RA-55a fleet joined Burnett's formation, and Burnett immediately ordered the destroyers to fan out in front of the cruiser to search for progress. Soon, it joined the JW-55B fleet, and Burnett commanded the cover formation to spread out in front of the fleet to protect the fleet.

1 1, Bey ordered to turn west, facing the British cruiser formation. 12: 05, Burnett's flagship "Belfast" radar found the target at a distance of 28,000 meters, and Burnett undoubtedly determined that this was the "scharnhorst"! Immediately report to Fraser, and at the same time order JW-55B fleet to turn to the southeast, and lead the cover formation to meet the enemy in the northeast.

12: 20, the observation deck of "scharnhorst" found a warship mast about 10000 meters away. Bey immediately ordered the gun rangefinder to start to measure the distance for the main gun, and at the same time the main gun was ready to shoot. With the choke officer's command, scharnhorst's 279mm main gun fired first! Burnett immediately ordered the cruiser to fire, while the destroyer met the enemy at full speed and carried out a torpedo attack. At this time, the sea is very stormy, so it is difficult for British destroyers to occupy a favorable launching position and cannot launch torpedoes. The British cruiser and the German ship launched a fierce artillery battle, which lasted for 20 minutes. The British Norfolk was hit by two shells, the superstructure caught fire, and 13 people were killed. "scharnhorst" was also hit by several shells. According to the huge water column aroused by the recent dropping of shells by the British army, Bey misjudged the British army as a battleship. He saw that his radar was damaged; The destroyer is not nearby, isolated and helpless; There is a big storm on the sea, and the midday sun, which has high hopes, is also driven away by the storm, and the visibility is quite low; The situation was very dangerous, so I decided to disconnect quickly and turn around and return. However, the German ship's retreat route coincides with Fraser's route, which provides an excellent opportunity for Fraser.

At 13, the distance between the German destroyer and the JW-55B fleet was only 10 nautical mile (about 18 km), but the sea was dark and the Germans still didn't find it, so the two sides passed by.

14: 20, Bey informed the destroyer to return.

Burnett led the formation to closely follow the scharnhorst. At this time, the "Sheffield" did not catch up because of engine failure, and only two cruisers and four destroyers followed. Seeing this, Bey once wanted to turn around and kill a comeback, but as soon as the German ship turned around, the British ships also retreated to avoid fighting with the German ship, always keeping an inseparable distance from the German ship, and constantly reporting the position and speed of the German ship to Fraser.

16:08 17, Fraser's flagship battleship "Duke of York" found the German ship at a distance of 22 nautical miles (about 40,000 meters). Frazier ordered ready to shoot. Although it was dark, the gunner couldn't see the German ship at all, but with the gun aiming radar, the 356 mm main gun of Duke of York had been firmly pegged to the German ship!

18, 10, the distance between the Duke of York and the German ship has been shortened to 20,000m. Fraser ordered Burnett to fire flares at the German ship-soon a light spot appeared at the stern of the German ship, and then the German ship was brightly lit. Bey didn't know where the British would attack, so she had to blindly order the main gun to aim straight ahead and let the port anti-aircraft gun shoot down the flare.

18, 15, the main gun of "Duke of York" opened fire, and the German ship found the position of the British ship according to the fire of the British ship's muzzle. Bey realized that she was surrounded by British troops and was afraid to continue fighting. She had to fight back and retreat at a high speed of 3 1 knot, but she still failed to escape from the artillery range of the British ship. One of the main artillery shells of the Duke of York hit Germany. The German ship fought and walked, and the Duke of York was hit by the German ship several times, and the main mast suddenly broke. However, Fraser didn't flinch at all, and still attacked fiercely. Another 356 mm shell hit the back deck of the scharnhorst, and the violent explosion caused a fire, which quickly spread to the superstructure. The raging fire made the German ship a very eye-catching target on the dim sea. The duke of York continued to attack, and the German ship hit the egg many times. Most of the front deck 150 mm auxiliary guns were also destroyed; In the boiler room, the speed of the German ship began to decline, but the damaged pipeline workers and engineers tried their best to repair the damage, and the speed gradually recovered and gradually distanced themselves from the British ship.

18: 20, the "Duke of York" stopped shelling. At this time, the upper deck of the German ship was black and blue, the superstructure was unrecognizable, and the crew suffered heavy casualties, but it still maintained a speed of 26 knots, and it took another hour to sail back to the Norwegian coast.

18: 35, four British destroyers came in two ways, flanked from left to right, and German ships fired quickly. On the right, the destroyers Scorpion and Stolde fired eight torpedoes at a distance of 2,000m. Colonel Hintz, the captain of scharnhorst, immediately commanded the warship to make full rudder steering to avoid torpedoes, but one torpedo still hit the bridge. Then "Somas" and "Savages" on the left side were also close to 1800 meters, and six torpedoes were fired respectively. Because the German ship has been hit by a torpedo, its maneuverability is reduced, and its evasion is not as flexible as before. Three torpedoes hit this torpedo attack, and seawater poured in from the crevasse, and the speed dropped to 22 knots.

19, the British ship "Duke of York" caught up and slammed again with a powerful 356 mm main gun. Cruisers Belfast and Norfolk also joined the battle. The "scharnhorst" was repeatedly shot and caught fire in many places. The whole ship was shrouded in fire and smoke, and the crew suffered heavy casualties. Stubborn Bay still organized the final battle and ordered the former main battle. However, he also realized that he could not escape this robbery, ordered the destruction of all confidential documents, and called the commander-in-chief of the navy, Deng Nici: "Our ship is at war with the enemy's main battleship and is determined to fight to the last bomb!"

19:00 1 1, the speed of "scharnhorst" has dropped to 10 knots, and the only rear main gun was destroyed by "Duke of York", leaving only a few 150 mm sub-guns, which almost lost the power to fight back. Fraser saw that it was difficult to end the battle quickly by gunfire alone. He didn't want precious battleships and cruisers to be damaged in the final battle. He ordered the battleships and cruisers to retreat and the destroyers to torpedo.

19: 30, the speed of scharnhorst was only 5 knots, and it began to tilt. Captain Hintz saw that it was irreversible and had to give orders to abandon the ship.

At this time, several destroyers of the British army fired torpedoes while approaching the German ship, while carrying out artillery bombardment. The British army fired 55 torpedoes in a row, 1 1 hit, which triggered a series of fierce hugs, and finally led to a big hug in the egg medicine cabin. The schonhost sank at 19:45. The British destroyer immediately began to rescue the German officers and men who fell into the water. There were 1968 people on board, and only 36 people were rescued.