Operation Ostfront

Arctic naval operations of World War II

Weserübung Norwegian Campaign Convoys Claymore Gauntlet PQ 7 PQ 8 PQ 12 Sportpalast PQ 13 PQ 14 QP 10 PQ 15 QP 11 PQ 16 PQ 17 Rösselsprung QP 13 Wunderland PQ 18 QP 14 Doppelschlag QP 15 JW 51A JW 51B Regenbogen Barents Sea JW 55B Ostfront North Cape JW 56A JW 56B JW 57 JW 58

Operation Ostfront (German: "Eastern Front") was the sortie into the Arctic Ocean by the German battleship Scharnhorst during World War II. This operation culminated in the sinking of Scharnhorst.

Background

Soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Arctic Convoys were sent by the Western Allies to the Soviet Union delivering vital supplies.

In May 1941, after the loss of the German battleship Bismarck, Adolf Hitler had forbidden any German capital ship from venturing into contested seas. By December 1943 the tide had turned against Germany. The Battle of the Atlantic had been lost, and supplies poured into the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. In September 1943 the German battleship Tirpitz was disabled during the British Operation Source, leaving Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen as the only operational heavy ships in the Kriegsmarine.

The Operation

In November 1943 the Arctic Convoys restarted. On 19 December 1943 Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz submitted a request to Hitler to allow Scharnhorst to attack the next convoy sailing through the Barents Sea. On the 25 December 1943 Dönitz ordered Ostfront to commence. Admiral Fraser (C-in-C of the Home Fleet), alerted by Norwegian resistance information to the possibility of an interception by Scharnhorst, prepared a trap for the German warship. On 25 December Scharnhorst sailed to intercept the British convoy, JW 55B, believing it to be sparsely protected. In the ensuing Battle of the North Cape Scharnhorst was separated from her escorting destroyers and was sunk.

References

Operation Ostfront

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.