The Empire Strikes Back, June – July – August 1941
The Germans wished to capitalize on the success of the Operation Rheinübung but the operation also showed the importance of carrier support for future operations. In addition Grand Admiral Raeder wanted to try for maximum concentration of force. So it was decided not to send Bismarck and Scharnhorst out; that and fuel was always a consideration for the German Navy. Instead to keep the British off balance the German Heavy Cruisers would be used.
In late June Lützow the ex Deutschland was torpedoed while attempting to relocate to Norway in June. With Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper in refit and Prinz Eugen being repaired that left Seydlitz to carry on the role of raider. The Seydlitz departed from Norway on July 3rd. The German heavy cruiser spent the next several months in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Seydlitz captured or sank 12 merchant ships totaling 80,000 tons displacement. The heavy cruisers mission had been dodged by trouble as resupply ships were several times sunk by the Royal Navy. Then on August 16th Seydlitz encountered HMS Enterprise an Emerald Class light cruiser.
The Seydlitz attempted for several hours to shake the British cruiser without luck. With the British sending radio reports of her location Seydlitz captain turned and attacked. The battle between the two cruisers raged into the evening when at last Enterprise was reduced to a burning wreck and Seydlitz moved off. While landing a dozen hits with 6” guns Enterprise failed to cripple the German raider but she did something more valuable; Seydlitz location had been compromised.
On August 19th HMS Cornwall and HMS New Castle located Seydlitz. The German raider had expended 43% of her munitions during her long range duel with Enterprise. In addition while largely intact from the battle Emerald had managed to damage a fuel tank limiting Seydlitz’s range. Worse radio intercepts made clear there were other British warships in the area. Seydlitz’s captain decided to do as much damage as possible to the British and if he managed to drive of the British make for Vichy Madagascar.
Seydlitz directed her 203mm battery at the heavy cruiser Cornwall and her 128mm guns at the light cruiser New Castle. The engagement that followed lasted just over an hour. Fifteen minutes into the battle Seydlitz lost her secondary fire control and had to continue the battle with the 128mm guns firing under local control. As a result New Castle while hit repeatedly was damaged far less than she would otherwise have been. Seydlitz had a 100mm main belt and 140mm turrets while Cornwalls thickest external armor was 25mm; this extra protection served the German ship well. In the end Seydlitz was faced with the fire of two enemy cruisers. As the battle concluded Seydlitz and Cornwall were both reduced to little more than wrecks. The British heavy cruiser in a sinking condition while the Germans vitals were protected from shell fire a shell landed on the aft torpedo launchers. The resulting explosion caused the stern to fracture along the aft armored bulkhead, buckling causing major flooding and crippling Seydlitz. Now unable to maneuver the German cruiser was an easy target for New Castle which pumped 6” after 6” shell into Seydlitz.
With resistance hopeless the Seydlitz was abandoned and the scuttling charges set. On the 20th the captain of Seydlitz had the satisfaction of watching Cornwall sink do to progressive flooding from the deck of New Castle. From a prison of war camp Seydlitz’s captain commended the captains of Enterprise, Cornwall and New Castle for the battle they gave him. Later the Admiralty used the German Captains report as justifications for Victoria Crosses for the three captains.
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By the time of Seydlitz’s destruction the Royal Navy had managed to largely sweep the seas clean of the raider support network. The Armed Merchant Cruisers or German warships would not be able to resupply in stealth at sea.
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Both sides carefully considered the situation. In London the presence of German warships in Norway were a grave threat now and in the future. A committee was formed that summer to consider the future needs of the navy. The government was very uncomfortable at the situation having to face German ships in Norway, the Italian Fleet in the Mediterranean and keeping an eye on the Japanese fleet in the Far East. Also there were lessons to consider the current British carriers while well protected needed larger air groups.
The eventual recommendation of the Committee was to cancel the last two Implacable class that had not been laid down and instead build new larger carriers to clean designs. As considerations of larger air groups combined with projected heavier air groups combined the designs exploded in size first to 37,000 tons, then to 40,000 tons and finally over 45,000 tons. Eventually the design was frozen and four units of what would be known as the MALTA class were ordered. The capital ship threat called for new battleships. HMS Vanguard had been ordered last March one ship wasn’t sufficient. While the Admiralty favored the current design of the Lion Class the old problem of capacity to make the 16” guns and turrets remained. Eventually the solutions was to order a second Vanguard Class and decommission one of the older 15” gun battleships to provide the turrets and guns. The hope was to complete the building program by 1944.
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In Germany the situation was also reviewed and while in some ways hopeful was not in other ways. It was known that more British Battleships were under construction while in Germany there was only Petter Strasser. Building entire new capital ships from scratch wasn’t practical. There was neither the production capacity available or the time; especially as Operation Barbarossa was underway. One possibility was to convert ships to aircraft carriers and the second was to complete captured ships in French and Dutch yards for German service.
To be continued…