(note in my last update I accidently said the British task force was eagle and formidable (this was a typo it was hermes instead of eagle)
The Brinkmann meatgrinder! (Chapter 8)
Aboard the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugene, Central Atlantic, August 1941
Helmuth Brinkmann smiled and breathed a sigh of relief that his long and dangerous mission was nearly at its end. KMS Adirmal Scheer, Lutzow, Emden and their surviving destroyer had arrived to relieve the main Vulture task force which to date had now sunk nearly 100 merchantmen. Ciliax had ordered the group to maintain station together for a few days and then for the Vultures to head back to St. Nazaire.
Meanwhile the major reserve units of the home fleet had finally sallied out of port hell bent on smashing Raeder's raiders. High speed and erratic course changes had prevented most of the tasked U-boats from lining up any clear shots on the task force. One destroyer was lost and a cruiser damaged but the anti sub sweeps were successful sinking 3 boats.
Kapitänleutnant Herbert Wohlfarth aboard U-556 did however find a way via sheer cunning and determination to penetrate the anti sub screens and had a close call with a low flying swordfish biplane armed with a depth charge. He found himself inside the area of the home fleet capital ships and fired 4 torpedos which struck HMS Hermes in quick succession and ripped her guts out. She broke apart quickly and the gallant old carrier slipped into the icy atlantic. Wohlfarth desperately tried to leave the area but vengeful British destroyers swooped on him and depth charged his fragile vessle. After a pair of near misses his boat was forced to the surface where 3 angry British destroyers smothered her with shellfire and a torpedo was flung the sub's way which struck the conning tower from unmissable close range and blew her up with all hands lost
U-556's commander sank HMS Hermes but didn't live to record the kill
The following morning Brinkmann ordered Arado's airborne to look for victims or warships. HMS Formidable had much the same idea as a pair of her swordfish, doubling as scouts salleyed looking for the Vulture taskforce. Both side's aircraft benefitted from beautiful clear late summer weather and found each other at less than 125 km's distance!
The Germans had practiced for this for weeks prior to their departure and all AA guns were made ready for the strike they knew would be comming. The distance and angle of approach made it highly unlikely that the Germans would be able to outrun the British and Raeder's orders to run from battle just never felt right to Ciliax.
Formidable's captain under Tovey's orders sent out a maximum strike of 27 swordfish torpedo bombers with 6 fulmar fighters as escort. He ordered maximum speed for the home fleet to intercept the German task force.
Ciliax based on reports from his Arado aircrewt knew the size and scale of the force he was up against. Scharnhorst with the most modern radar set was placed in the lead of the taskforce as they set a south east course for St. Nazair at slightly less than maximum speed. The British fleet was likely to intercept several hours before dusk and that was exactly how Ciliax wanted the encounter to go.
Just before noon Scharnhorst detected 30+ indians (German term for inbound enemy aircraft). General quarters and later air defense battlestations were called for amongst the German warships making 22 knots. The catapults of the German capital ships and cruisers made themselves busy launching every servicable Arado aircraft until their were 16 of them circling the fleet ready to lay down their lives to protect the warships. Brinkmann wished to god that Goring would have let him have the ramp launched 109's or 110's because he could see the incomming aircraft were those slow basterdly swordfish which had doomed Bismark.
The Arados and the Fleet air arm engaged in their death dance with the German pilots quickly engaging the Fulmars to distract them from their critical escort mission. 7 of the underperforming German aircraft went down but they were able to take 4 fulmars with them and damage the other two so much that they had to turn back. The remaining 9 arados had a field day amongst the 27 frightened swordfish who began their customary ultra low torpedo runs. 15 of them went down in flames as the arados pulled away to the let the AA guns of the fleet open up on the survivors. Their previous success against the isolated Bismark wasn't to be repeated as they found themselves facing the dozens of barrels of the entire German fleet. Brinkmann's relentless training paid off as the swordfish were plucked from the sky one by one. Only thee of the swordfish survived to launch their fish of which only one struck home on the allready damaged KMS Emden. This shot reduced her top speed to 18 knots as several hundreds of gallons of seawater flooded her compartments and the pumps were started up.
Emden was damaged whilst defending herself against British aircraft
The air battle won Ciliax slowed down so Emden could conduct the most dire of repairs and so that the arados could be picked up, refueled and rearmed. The Home fleet was again detected by Scharnhorst a few hours later (Formidable had steamed away not wanting to be anywhere near the upcomming surface engagement) Lookouts from Walrus spotting aircraft and from relaunched Arados reported the fleets at 40kms and closing fast
Spotting was out of the question for the respective fleets as their aircraft became embroiled in an inconclusive duel and the fleets turned parallel for a broadside to broadside action.
Scharnhorst opened fire first using her excellent optics and fire control taking aim at what was tentatively identified as HMS Prince of Whales. Within a couple of minutes every major ship was unloosing full broadsides not seen since Jutland.
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were the first to stop bringing up huge spouts of water. They struck Prince of Whales from less than 20 kilometers and closing. Prince of Whales was still a pair of aft secondary guns from damage she had received during Operation Full Moon. The German battlecruiser struck her on their 6th salvo with the spotting aircraft area destroyed and a large fire started. A plunging shell from Scharnhorst also penetrated a boiler room reducing the flagship's speed.
Tirpitz showed herself to be the finest and most dangerous warship afloat as her massive 15 inch guns quickly found the mark on Malaya whose older fire control systems had a hard time keeping up. By Tirpitz third salvo Malaya was bracketed and started taking hits. A hit just below the waterline started a dangerous leak which required rapid counter flood to stop the ship from developing a potentially dangerous list and reduced her top speed to 15 knots.
Admiral Tovey having gotten the worst of the intial exchange ordered his two cruisers and eleven destroyers on a torpedo attack against the German fleet. Ciliax tasked Scheer, Lutzow, Hipper and Prinz Eugene to prevent exactly this sort of manuever and the mighty German cruisers oppened up with 8 and 11 inch guns on the British light forces which lacked the range in their own weapons to reply. HMS Sheffield was hit repeatedly and broke her back. HMS Suffolk was hit by Prinz Eugene nearly a dozen times and coasted to a stop as the fires became uncontrollable. As the range closed the Brinkmann meatgrinder reached full speed (Brinkmann being given control of this part of the task force) as even the secondary armaments of the German cruisers lashed out at the British destroyers inflicting hit after hit. 4 of the gallant British vessles managed to draw Emden and one of the German destroyers out of position (at this point they only had three) and smothered them with shells and torpedoes and sent them to the bottom. Hipper and Eugene answered their frantic calls for help and pounded the destroyers with 8 inch shells from unmissable close range. Each hit was destructive and deadly with the sea between the two light forces becomming chocked with reckage oil and blood.
Only two of the brave destroyers managed to return to the battleships who were engaged in a death duel with the German capital ships. Tovey found that Duke of York was suffering from problems due to her incomplete construction as two of her guns had broken down with pressure failures and reduced her effectiveness. It was not to be a one sided battle though.
Prince of Whales while slowed and burning pumped 14 inch shells at Gneisenau with untold ferocity smashing her rear turret and starting dangerous fires. The victorious German cruisers then returned and tried to shield their consort. Eugene again showed herself to be well commanded and her gunnery officers well schooled as she fired 5 250 pound shells into Prince of Whales which blew up another secondary battery position and started more fires. The pair of German surviving destroyers darted in and pumped torpedoes into Prince of Whales leaving her dead in the water and starting to list. Tovey exacted his pound of flesh as his remaining secondary batteries obliterated the German destroyers in a hail of fire and he continued to send shells at Gneisenau until his barrels glowed white and their paint was all gone. Gneisenau suffered a catastrophic explosion as her stern was blown clear of the rest of the ship and both portions sank with total loss of life.
Prince of Whales crew whilst proud of their sinking of the German battlecruiser was stuck with the impossible task of trying to control the growing leaks and fires. The continued hits from Hipper, Scheer and Eugene started new fires that merged with those that were allready out of control until the whole ship was ablaze from bow to stern. Her magazines had to be flooded to prevent a catastrophic explosion. Tovey reluctantly ordered the ship to be abandoned but he was far too late and the final salvo from Scheer hit right near the waterline that was allready gaping from the torpedoes and sank the Prince of Whales.
Whilst this was going on Malaya and Tirpitz continued their duel with each scoring hits although Tirpitz's were more frequent and lethal. Malaya scored a lucky hit that shattered Tirpitz's bridge and killed Ciliax sending the ship temporarily out of control. Scharnhort redirected her guns at Malaya blowing up her aft turret with a pair of plunging 11 inch shells. Malaya struck back and her captain ordered the struggling Duke of York to open fire with all weapons on Scharnhorst. Scharnhorst quickly found her armor insuffecient as 14 and 15 inch shells smothered her in smoke and fire and she was forced to retire with over 250 casaulties and a leak in the bow.
With Ciliax dead Brinkmann flat out took over the fleet and ordered all weapons to open up on Malaya. Eugene was the first to score hits including an armor piercing round that smashed the rudder of Malaya. The old warhorse gave all her soul to the battle scoring damaging hits on Lutzow and Hipper but whilst this outnumbered battle went on Tirpitz regained her composure as her executive officer took over and reopened fire with his uncompromised 15 inch guns. Malaya shuttered under their impact as Brinkmann watched via his spotting glasses as the crew of Tirpitz worked themselves into a frenzy over the loss of the Admiral and sustained a high rate of fire. Hit over 40 time Malaya couldn't take anymore and she gave way to the deep.
When Malaya's rudder was damaged and the scale of the disaster that Brinkmann's meatgrinder was causing and knowing two of his guns were allready out of action her captain ordered Duke of York and the pair of surviving destroyers to break contact and head for home.
Brinkmann tired, and with a gaping wound in his elbow from a shell splinter that had struck Eugene with a near miss (the lucky ship's only damage and Brinkmann was the only casualty) refused to order pursuit as nearly his entire fleet was damaged and desperately needed to make port in St. Nazair over 500 miles away. Via enigma 4a he reported his victory to GrossAdmiral Raeder and begged for a large fighter escort to cover the ships and for tugs and emergancy repair crews and medical teams to be standing by.
to be continued
your thoughts
I am sorry for the delay between posts as you can imagine Der Manstein Kommt is taking up most of my reasearch but I had been working on this LARGE chapter for several weeks and didn't want to just hang this story up
