1600, North Sea, Home Fleet and Scharnhorst
While the satisfying news was coming in of the Warspite's demolition of the Gneisenau, work was going on preparing a new strike for the Scharnhorst. This was complicated by the worry about the possibility of air attack; a carrier with a hanger deck full of loaded planes was very vulnerable indeed.
Pre-war FAA doctrine had been to keep the hangar deck as non-inflammable as possible. Aircraft were unfuelled, unarmed, and there was no fuel in the refuelling system. This fitted in with the concept that a bomb, if it hit, would explode in the hangar deck, and if a major fire was avoided (a minor one was thought unavoidable), the hangar could be quickly repaired and no additional damage to the ship would ensue.
The problem was that this doctrine clashed with the ability to launch continual strikes (an ability which had been miss-estimated before Norway). So there was, in this case, a compromise. Illustrious continued to control the CAP while Formidable ranged a torpedo strike. To minimise the danger in case of attack, the planes were armed and fuelled in small groups, which added to the time needed to assemble the strike, but meant that as long as there was radar warning, the loaded planes could be brought on deck and the hangar closed (a loaded plane on deck was of course still a vulnerability, but less so that in the hangar)
By 1600, Formidable had ranged 15 torpedo bombers, which took off heading for the Scharnhorst, accompanied by 6 Goshawks.
The planes sighted the fleeing battlecruiser at 1655; by which time she was well south of the fleet and, although not realised at the time, inside the cover of Me109 fighters (while the Luftwaffe was still not terribly enthusiastic about donating aircraft to protect the Kriegsmarine, the obvious disaster happening to the German fleet off Norway had wrung some of the fighters they had only just based close to Bergen free for use. However they still did not have any land-based warning, and as the Me109 didn't have a long range, they were held ready until the ships radar detected a raid and asked for cover.
Indeed, the Scharnhorst's radar had detected the incoming flight at 1640 (at this point in time, the Royal Navy was still very uncertain if the Kriegsmarine had radar - the prevailing opinion was that they did not, so the incoming flight was at 10,000 feet to acquire the target, and easy target for the ships radar). An immediate call had gone out for fighter protection, and the fighters had started to take off 2 minutes later. It wasn't clear which would arrive first, the torpedo planes or the fighter cover.
In fact, the torpedo planes arrived first. They circled around to attack the target in two groups, while their protecting fighters stayed at 10,000 feet to cover them if needed. As usual the planes were attacking in flights of three, and the first six (attacking from both sides) were at low level and had started their attack runs before the Me109's had arrived. As a result they were the most successful. The Scharnhorst managed to evade five of the torpedoes, but she took a hit forward from one. The torpedo did not do any serious damage, but it did cause hundreds of tons of icy water to flood into the ship close to B turret, and although the guns themselves were not damaged, the flooding did cause the magazine to have to be evacuated.
Before the next planes could attack, the Me109's finally arrived - 12 of them. They split up into two formations, six attacking the defending fighters, the other six going for the torpedo planes. This was the first time the Goshawk pilots had encountered the Me109, and it proved a far more difficult opponent than the Me110 they were getting used to. The Me109 was not much faster, but it was more manoeuvrable, and the Luftwaffe pilots highly skilled. As a result, the attackers shot down four Goshawks for the loss of two of their own planes (one of the Goshawk pilots managed to ditch close to a rather surprised Norwegian fishing boat - to end up being delivered to Narvik a week later, safe but smelling rather strongly of fish).
The other six Me109's had dived on the torpedo planes. They weren't quite as easy a target as they first assumed - the Sealance was fast for a torpedo plane, and a plane jinking and swerving a few feet above the waves was an awkward target, however an evading torpedo plane wasn't a very accurate delivery system. Of the first three planes attacked, two were shot down before they could release, the only one that got in a shot missing the battlecruiser.
The remaining two flights fared little better. Three more planes were shot down , with no torpedo hits on the ship. One Me109 did hit the water as it tried to close with one of the planes, its pilot obviously not used to flying so low over water, but the result of the action was very unfavourable to the FAA.
The Me109's didn't chase the planes as they headed off to the North, at full speed and just above the waves; the action had already left them low on fuel, and as soon as the attackers left they were heading back to their base.
The carrier planes made it back at 1815; after hearing the radio reports of the attack, it had been decided that the Scharnhorst was now too far under fighter cover to attack without proper preparation. It was hoped that the torpedo damage might be serious enough to make her take cover in Bergen, where a full strength attack with fighter cover could be made tomorrow, but in fact the ship kept on going (her speed had only been reduced to 25 knots), obviously reluctant to stay anywhere near the British carriers for any longer than absolutely necessary.