SECOND BATTLE OF NARVIK
Early on the 13th, destroyer ICARUS led the minesweeper sweep followed by destroyers HERO, FOXHOUND and FORESTER streaming minesweeps. These ships swept for mines in Vestfjord prior to battleship WARSPITE's entry into the Fjord for Operation DW. At 0730, the Narvik attack force was composed of battleship WARSPITE (Captain V.A.C. Crutchley, now flying the flag of Vice Admiral Whitworth) with destroyers FORESTER, FOXHOUND, HERO and COSSACK joining destroyers BEDOUIN, KIMBERLEY, ESKIMO and PUNJABI, which formerly operated with light cruiser PENELOPE and destroyer minelayer ICARUS of the 20th Destroyer Flotilla. Destroyer IVANHOE of the 20th Destroyer Flotilla and destroyer HOSTILE of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, while not taking part in the attack, entered the fjord after the WARSPITE force on general duties which would include screening damaged ships and picking up survivors. At 1040, U.48 was discovered by ESKIMO in Vestfjord. Destroyers ESK, IVANHOE, HOSTILE, HAVOCK were sent to hunt the submarine and ESKIMO continued with the WARSPITE group. The submarine was attacked, but no damage was done.
WARSPITE's aircraft scouting ahead of the force located U.64, on her first war patrol, on the surface off Bjevik and sank her with bombs in 68‑29N, 17‑30E. Thirty six crew of the forty four man crew were able to swim ashore and were assisted by German Alpine troops. The crew of U.64 was returned to Germany commencing on the 13th on the Swedish railway and arriving on the 26th on a German passenger ship.
Ten Swordfish of 816 and 818 Squadrons under Captain A.R. Burch RM, from aircraft carrier FURIOUS attacked the German destroyers. HERMANN KUNNE (HK
- see map) and BERND VON ARMIM (BA) were near missed, but not significantly damaged. Two Swordfish of 818 Squadron were shot down by the German forces. The crew of one from 816 Squadron, piloted by Midshipman (A) D H Dammers, was rescued after the plane landed in a snowdrift.Dammers was wounded; his TAG Leading Airman A.J. Sturgess was unhurt. Acting S/Lt (A) G.R. Hampden and Naval Airman R. Dale of the other SWORDFISH were missing.
U.46, five miles up the fjord from Baroy, made an approach at periscope depth on WARSPITE. Maneuvering submerged, she struck an unchartered rock and broke surface. U.46 was able to escape, however, on the surface as the British force was occupied with the sighting of German destroyer KUNNE. ERICH KOELLNER (EK), escorted by KUNNE, on her way to Taarstad sighted the WARSPITE force at 1300 as it was approaching the Narrows. KUNNE sounded the alarm and destroyers HANS LUDEMAN (HL), WOLFGANG ZENKER (WZ) and ARNIM got underway. KOELLNER slowly made her way to Djupvik Bay to wait in ambush as she was in no shape to offer battle. However,
KOELLNER's fate was sealed when she was located by WARSPITE's aircraft. The two leading destroyers, BEDOUIN and ESKIMO, alerted by the WARSPITE scouting plane, sighted KOELLNER as they rounded the point of Djupvik and sank her in a few minutes. Thirty one crew were killed and forty wounded on KOELLNER. KUNNE exchanged shots with the British force as she retired down the Fjord, but at such long range, nothing came of it. As KUNNE retired towards Narvik, she encountered LUDEMAN and ZENKER and they turned towards the British force. Just as they came into sight, the German force was strengthened by the arrival of ARNIM. Destroyer PUNJABI was hit by many five inch shells and was seriously damaged with large fires. She retired up the Fjord for a time, putting out her fires. PUNJABI then returned to the battle, but was limited to fifteen knots and had a jagged hole in her bow. Six were killed, and seventeen, including Lt Cdr (E) R.R. Shorto, were wounded. One wounded died of wounds the next day on board WARSPITE.
By this time, KUNNE, ZENKER and ARNIM were all damaged by shellfire and had exhausted their ammunition. KUNNE, retiring up Herjangsfjord and pursued by ESKIMO, ran herself aground. ESKIMO fired torpedoes into KUNNE to complete the destruction. There were no casualties on KUNNE. German destroyer ERICH GIESE (EG), now with steam up, sailed out of Narvik harbour and was sunk by gunfire from COSSACK, BEDOUIN, FOXHOUND, FORESTER, HERO and ICARUS. Eighty three crew were killed, many wounded, and nine crew were captured from GIESE. As the British force was nearing Narvik, they were taken under fire by destroyer DIETHER VON ROEDER (VR), but the gunfire was mistaken for coming from a shore gun. As COSSACK made her way between the wrecks in the harbour, she was taken under fire by ROEDER and hit eight times by five inch shells; two of which inflicted serious damage. One shell exploded against the fore end of the forward superstructure killing or wounding all the ammunition party inside. The other shell burst in the forward boiler room, killing the stokers and severing the leads from the bridge to the steering engine and the engine room telegraphs and fractured the main steam pipes. Without steerage or means to stop the engines, COSSACK ran hard aground on the south shore opposite the harbour. For the next twelve hours, she remained on this perch, sniped at by General Dietl's troops. Fortunately, most of the mountain guns carried on the destroyers for Dietl were swept away in heavy seas encountered on the voyage to Narvik. Eight ratings were killed and nineteen crew, two dying of wounds, were wounded on destroyer COSSACK.
COSSACK from her location, seeing that ROEDER had now been abandoned, ordered FOXHOUND into the harbour to board her. As FOXHOUND neared ROEDER, a burst of machine gun fire and rifle fire from the shore erupted and FOXHOUND stood off while she returned the fire. While this exchange was going on, ROEDER exploded and was totally demolished. There were no casualties on ROEDER. Destroyers ESKIMO, FORESTER, HERO, BEDOUIN and ICARUS went up Rombaksfjord in pursuit of ZENKER, ARNIM, LUDEMAN and GEORG THIELE (GT). Destroyer ESKIMO encountered LUDEMAN and THIELE which opened up with the last of their main armament ammunition. ESKIMO was the joined by FORESTER and HERO. LUDEMAN fired torpedoes at them but they were evaded by ESKIMO and outrun by FORESTER and HERO. LUDEMAN was hit a number of times by shellfire from the three destroyers and retired up the fjord to join ZENKER and ARNIM where all three scuttled themselves and their crews went ashore. There were a number of casualties in the number 4 and 5 guns on LUDEMAN. There were no casualties on ZENKER and ARNIM. THIELE fired torpedoes at the British ships and then, badly damaged herself, ran aground and capsized. One of the torpedoes struck ESKIMO under the forecastle blasting away the forward part of the ship. The forward turret was out of action, but B turret managed to keep up the fire. FORESTER and PUNJABI stood by ESKIMO, while HERO, ICARUS and KIMBERLEY continued up the fjord. There were fourteen killed and twenty eight wounded on THIELE. There were fifteen ratings killed and ten crew wounded on ESKIMO.
HERO, ICARUS and KIMBERLEY found THIELE, LUDEMAN and ZENKER, all aground and abandoned. As they approached, ZENKER slid off the rocks and sank. A boarding party was put aboard LUDEMAN but after discovering that all the documents had been destroyed prior to abandoning ship, the landing party left and a torpedo was fired to complete the destruction. There was one rating killed and two wounded on FORESTER, and one crewman wounded on KIMBERLEY.
At 1755, WARSPITE escorted by destroyers FOXHOUND, BEDOUIN, HERO and ICARUS retired from the area and got as far as Vestfjord at 2050 when she reversed course and returned to Ofotfjord to assist the damaged COSSACK, ESKIMO and PUNJABI. KIMBERLEY had been left to stand by COSSACK, while PUNJABI and FORESTER had been left to stand by ESKIMO. Two other destroyers, IVANHOE and HOSTILE, which had arrived were left off Narvik to investigate the merchant ships, but the detail was soon abandoned when the destroyers were ordered to hunt a German submarine.
During the battle, Norwegian steamer
CATE B (4285grt) and merchant tanker
RODSKJAEL (133grt), Swedish steamers
TORNE (3792grt) and
OXELOSUND (5613grt) and tug
STYRBJOEN (167grt), German tanker
JAN WELLEM (11,776grt) were lost, but later salved. Swedish steamer OXELOSUND was sunk on 8 May by an internal explosion. U.51 had been at Narvik when the British attack began and, believing the attack to be an air raid, went into the harbour to bottom. Later, U.51 slipped out of the harbour, undetected, to attack the British force but without success. Destroyer FOXHOUND dropped depth charges on U.25 off Tjellebotn doing minor damage to her at 1840. During the night of 13/14 April, destroyer IVANHOE found the destroyer HARDY survivors and the crew of the British Narvik merchant ships that had been put ashore from the German tanker JAN WELLEM during the First Battle of Narvik. IVANHOE embarked these men at Ballengen and took them back to England.
Shortly after 2000, destroyer KIMBERLEY unsuccessfully tried to tow COSSACK off the ground. It was not until 0315/14th that COSSACK finally got underway on her own in high water. COSSACK proceeded to WARSPITE to offload her casualties. Then with destroyer FORESTER escorting, COSSACK proceeded stern first to Skelfjord. At Skelfjord emergency repairs were made to COSSACK. Her ammunition was transferred to destroyer ZULU and her torpedoes to destroyer BEDOUIN. COSSACK departed Skelfjord at 2300/23rd after more emergency repairs with British tanker WAR PINDARI and arrived at Scapa Flow at 0830/27th. COSSACK departed Scapa Flow at 1510/28th and arrived at Portsmouth on the 30th for repairs which were completed on 15 June 1940.
ESKIMO also arrived at Skelfjord early on the 14th towed by BEDOUIN and escorted by HOSTILE and IVANHOE. After emergency repairs at Skelfjord, ESKIMO departed under the tow of British repair ship VINDICTIVE on 14 May to Tjelsundet when Skelfjord was abandoned as a base. ESKIMO proceeded under own power to Hol. She was at various anchorages before berthing at the jetty at Harstad on 17 May. On 25 May, ESKIMO was ready to be moved to England and left stern first under tow for the Clyde where she arrived on 4 June. ESKIMO was under repairs until the first week of September 1940.
PUNJABI after emergency repairs at Skelfjord departed Skelfjord during the forenoon of 20 April. PUNJABI arrived at Scapa Flow at 2200/23rd, departed at 2000/25th and went to Plymouth arriving at 1700/27th. The repairs to PUNJABI were completed on 12 June 1940.