249-506: 1942 1943 1944 1945 Associated articles Operation Tungsten was a Second World War Royal Navy air raid that targeted the German battleship Tirpitz . The operation sought to damage or destroy Tirpitz at her base in Kaafjord in the far north of Norway before she could become fully operational again following a period of repairs. The British decision to strike Kaafjord
498-426: A light cruiser and five destroyers . Force Two was commanded by Rear Admiral Arthur La Touche Bisset and comprised Furious , the four escort carriers, five destroyers and two tankers . It was planned that Force One would initially provide support for Convoy JW 58 and Force Two would sail separately and proceed directly to a point off Norway where it would be joined by Anson and Victorious on 3 April and conduct
747-706: A superfiring arrangement (Anton and Bruno), and one aft (Caesar). The design also enabled the ship to be up-gunned with six 15-inch guns, which never took place. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) L/55 guns, eight of which were placed in two-gun turrets and the remaining four were carried in individual turrets. Her heavy anti-aircraft armament consisted of fourteen 10.5 cm L/65 . These guns were directed by four SL-6 stabilized anti-aircraft director posts . The light anti-aircraft armament consisted of sixteen 3.7 cm (1.5 in) SK C/30 L/83, and initially ten 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The number of 2 cm guns
996-698: A 19,840 GRT passenger ship, while Atlantis , a hospital ship , was allowed to proceed unmolested. Admiral Marschall detached Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers to refuel in Trondheim, while he would steam to the Harstad area. At 17:45, the German battleships spotted the British aircraft carrier Glorious and two escorting destroyers, Ardent and Acasta , at a range of some 40,000 m (44,000 yd; 25 mi). At 18:32 Scharnhorst (as
1245-463: A Royal Navy captain, has been responsible for the former duty whilst Commander Task Force Iraqi Maritime, a Royal Navy commodore, was responsible for the latter. The mission ended in May 2011. The financial costs attached to nuclear deterrence, including Trident missile upgrades and replacements, have become an increasingly significant issue for the navy. HMS Raleigh at Torpoint, Cornwall ,
1494-653: A component of His Majesty's Naval Service . Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France . The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the English Navy of the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services , it is consequently known as the Senior Service . From
1743-606: A comprehensive transformation, brought about by steam propulsion , metal ship construction, and explosive munitions. Despite having to completely replace its war fleet, the Navy managed to maintain its overwhelming advantage over all potential rivals. Owing to British leadership in the Industrial Revolution , the country enjoyed unparalleled shipbuilding capacity and financial resources, which ensured that no rival could take advantage of these revolutionary changes to negate
1992-429: A crew of 1,968. Scharnhorst displaced 32,100 long tons (32,600 t ) at standard displacement and 38,100 long tons (38,700 t) at full load . She was 234.9 m (770 ft 8 in) long overall and had a beam of 30 m (98 ft 5 in) and a maximum draft of 9.9 m (32 ft 6 in). She was powered by three Brown, Boveri & Cie geared steam turbines , which developed
2241-435: A day of steaming west, the ships turned south. Since broadcasting radio messages would betray the position of the ships to the British, an Arado 196 float plane was launched by Scharnhorst on 10 April at 12:00 with the instruction to fly in the direction of Norway and to signal there the intentions of Lütjens to break through to Germany in the night of 11 April. The plane was launched at extreme range and could barely reach
2490-472: A fire in the ammunition magazine, which forced the Germans to flood both forward magazines to prevent an explosion. The water was quickly drained from turret Bruno's magazine. The ship was now fighting with only two-thirds of her main battery. Shortly thereafter, another 14 in shell struck the ventilation trunk attached to Bruno, which caused the turret to be flooded with noxious propellant gases every time
2739-420: A flotilla of torpedo boats. The torpedo boats were led by Kapitän Erich Bey , aboard the destroyer Z29 . General der Jagdflieger (General of Fighter Force) Adolf Galland directed Luftwaffe fighter and bomber forces ( Operation Donnerkeil ) during Cerberus . The fighters flew at masthead-height to avoid detection by the British radar network. Liaison officers were present on all three ships. By 13:00,
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#17327765737322988-639: A further strike on 4 April. The two attacks on Tirpitz largely went to plan. The airmen found the defences and geography at Kaafjord to be very similar to the Loch Eriboll training range, and one of the post-attack reports stated that the operation had been "almost an exercise which they [the aircrew] had frequently carried out before". The official historian of the Royal Navy's role in the Second World War, Stephen Roskill , also judged that
3237-478: A gradual decline in its fleet size in accordance with the changed strategic environment it operated in. While new and more capable ships are continually brought into service, such as the Queen Elizabeth -class aircraft carriers , Astute -class submarines , and Type 45 destroyers , the total number of ships and submarines operated has continued to steadily reduce. This has caused considerable debate about
3486-475: A heavy reliance upon impressed labour. This would result in problems countering large, well-armed United States Navy frigates which outgunned Royal Naval vessels in single-opponent actions, as well as United States privateers, when the American War of 1812 broke out concurrent with the war against Napoleonic France and its allies. The Royal Navy still enjoyed a numerical advantage over the former colonists on
3735-418: A hole 14 by 6 m (15.3 by 6.6 yd) and allowed 2,500 t (2,500 long tons; 2,800 short tons) of water into the ship. The rear (Caesar) turret was disabled and 48 men were killed. The flooding caused a 5 degree list, increased the stern draft by almost a meter, and forced Scharnhorst to reduce speed to 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). The ship's machinery was also significantly damaged by
3984-539: A meter. While the ship was immobilized, Admiral Ciliax transferred to Z29 . The engine room crews managed to restart the first turbine at 15:49, nearly twenty minutes after the mine explosion. The second and third turbines were restarted at 15:55 and 16:01, respectively, which permitted a speed of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph). At around the time the last turbine was restarted, a single bomber dropped several bombs approximately 90 m (98 yd) off Scharnhorst ' s port side, which caused no damage. Once
4233-862: A national institution and not a possession of the Crown as it had been before. Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, England joined the War of the Grand Alliance which marked the end of France 's brief pre-eminence at sea and the beginning of an enduring British supremacy which would help with the creation of the British Empire. In 1707, the Scottish navy was united with the English Royal Navy. On Scottish men-of-war,
4482-756: A navy, this meant the French landed at Sandwich unopposed in April 1216. John's flight to Winchester and his death later that year left the Earl of Pembroke as regent, and he was able to marshal ships to fight the French in the Battle of Sandwich in 1217 – one of the first major English battles at sea. The outbreak of the Hundred Years War emphasised the need for an English fleet. French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed
4731-551: A peak of efficiency, dominating the navies of all Britain's adversaries, which spent most of the war blockaded in port. Under Lord Nelson , the navy defeated the combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar (1805). Ships of the line and even frigates, as well as manpower, were prioritised for the naval war in Europe, however, leaving only smaller vessels on the North America Station and other less active stations, and
4980-566: A point 20 miles (32 km) from the coast, and had reached 7,000 feet (2,100 m) by the time they made landfall at 5:08 am. The force approached the Altenfjord from the west, passing over the western end of the Langfjord before turning south, then looping to the north and attacking the battleship over the hills on the southern shore of Kaafjord shortly before 5:30 am. The arrival of the British force caught Tirpitz by surprise. While
5229-470: A powerful force for Operation Tungsten. The main striking force was made up of two wings of Barracudas: 8 Wing comprising 827 and 830 Naval Air Squadrons , and 52 Wing with 829 and 831 Naval Air Squadrons . While 8 Wing was normally based on board Furious and 52 Wing on Victorious , Moore chose to station a squadron from each of the wings on each carrier so they could launch simultaneously and go into battle as formed units. The 163 Fleet Air Arm airmen in
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#17327765737325478-500: A radar contact at 04:30, which prompted the crews of both vessels to go to combat stations. Half an hour later, Scharnhorst ' s navigator spotted gun flashes from Renown firing at Gneisenau ; the Germans returned fire three minutes later. Gneisenau was hit twice in the opening portion of the engagement, and one shell disabled her rear gun turret. Scharnhorst ' s radar malfunctioned, which prevented her from being able to effectively engage Renown during
5727-399: A radio or radio direction finding station. The Barracudas executed their dive bombing attack at 6:36 am and struck Tirpitz with a 1,600-pound bomb and four 500-pound bombs within a minute. The German defences at Kaafjord received little warning of the incoming raid, and the smokescreen hid the British aircraft from sight. As a result, the gunners had to fire blindly and only shot down one of
5976-497: A range of vessels, including so-called "motherships" planned for procurement by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The Hunt-class vessels combine the separate roles of the traditional minesweeper and the active minehunter in one hull. If required, the vessels can take on the role of offshore patrol vessels. A fleet of eight River-class offshore patrol vessels are in service with the Royal Navy. The three Batch 1 ships of
6225-467: A salvo from turret Caesar before turning and increasing speed to disengage from the cruisers. The battleship was hit twice by 20.3 cm (8 in) shells; the first failed to explode and caused negligible damage, but the second struck the forward rangefinders and destroyed the radar antenna. The aft radar, which possessed only a limited forward arc, was the ship's only remaining radar capability. Scharnhorst turned south and attempted to work around
6474-543: A salvo of her 28 cm guns hit Rawalpindi ' s bridge, killing the captain Edward Kennedy , and the majority of the officers. During the brief engagement, Rawalpindi managed to score a hit on Scharnhorst , which caused minor splinter damage. By 17:16, Rawalpindi was burning badly and in the process of sinking. Admiral Wilhelm Marschall , aboard Gneisenau , ordered Scharnhorst to pick up survivors. These rescue operations were interrupted by
6723-400: A second time. Shortly before 12:25, Scharnhorst hit Norfolk twice with 28 cm shells. The first shell hit the forward superstructure and disabled Norfolk ' s gunnery radar. The second 28 cm round struck the ship's "X" (rear superfiring) barbette and disabled the turret. Scharnhorst then turned again and increased speed, in the hopes of escaping the cruisers and finding
6972-473: A single force. During the early 17th century, England's relative naval power deteriorated until Charles I undertook a major programme of shipbuilding. His methods of financing the fleet contributed to the outbreak of the English Civil War , and the abolition of the monarchy . The Commonwealth of England replaced many names and symbols in the new Commonwealth Navy, associated with royalty and
7221-520: A small number of fighters stationed at bases near Kaafjord, and their operations were constrained by a lack of fuel. British intelligence believed that the German fighter force in the area could be rapidly expanded in the event of an emergency. The Luftwaffe typically conducted three reconnaissance flights into the Arctic Sea each day. Force One departed the Home Fleet's base at Scapa Flow in
7470-448: A small permanent core of warships in peacetime. England's naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow. Control of the sea only became critical to Anglo-Saxon kings in the 10th century. In the 11th century, Aethelred II had a large fleet built by a national levy. During the period of Danish rule in the 11th century, authorities maintained a standing fleet by taxation, and this continued for
7719-541: A third raid, Operation Catechism , was mounted on 12 November in which Tirpitz was struck by several Tallboy bombs and capsized with heavy loss of life among her crew. Citations Works consulted 69°56′07″N 23°02′43″E / 69.9353°N 23.0454°E / 69.9353; 23.0454 Royal Navy The Royal Navy ( RN ) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom , British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies , and
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7968-814: A time under Edward the Confessor , who frequently commanded fleets in person. After the Norman Conquest , English naval power waned and England suffered large naval raids from the Vikings. In 1069, this allowed for the invasion and ravaging of England by Jarl Osborn, brother of King Svein Estridsson , and his sons. The lack of an organised navy came to a head during the First Barons' War , in which Prince Louis of France invaded England in support of northern barons. With King John unable to organise
8217-536: A total of 159,551 shp ; 118,977 kW and yielded a maximum speed of 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) on speed trials. Her standard crew numbered 56 officers and 1,613 enlisted men, augmented during the war to 60 officers and 1,780 men. While serving as a squadron flagship , Scharnhorst carried an additional 10 officers and 61 enlisted men. She was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11.1 in) L/54.5 guns arranged in three triple gun turrets : two turrets were placed forward in
8466-525: A total of 28,488 GRT but could not find Malaya . The next morning Gneisenau approached the convoy but again Lütjens turned away when Malaya closed to 24,000 m (26,000 yd), well within the range of the Germans' guns. He instead turned toward the mid-Atlantic, where Scharnhorst sank the 7,921 GRT Greek cargo ship Marathon . The two ships then refueled from the tankers Uckermark and Ermland on 12 March. On 15 and 16 March,
8715-477: A training mission to Bear Island in the Arctic Ocean. On the 8th, a serious internal explosion occurred in the aft auxiliary machinery space above the armor deck. The explosion killed or injured 34 men and prompted the crew to flood the magazines for turret Caesar as a precaution against a magazine explosion. A repair ship completed work on the vessel in two weeks. Fuel shortages prevented major operations for
8964-569: Is one of the largest ships in the Navy. As of 2018, the newly commissioned HMS Magpie also undertakes survey duties at sea. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary plans to introduce two new Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance Ships , in part to protect undersea cables and gas pipelines and partly to compensate for the withdrawal of all ocean-going survey vessels from Royal Navy service. The first of these vessels, RFA Proteus , entered service in October 2023. The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) provides support to
9213-574: Is primarily designed for anti-aircraft and anti-missile warfare and the Royal Navy describe the destroyer's mission as "to shield the Fleet from air attack". They are equipped with the PAAMS (also known as Sea Viper) integrated anti-aircraft warfare system which incorporates the sophisticated SAMPSON and S1850M long range radars and the Aster 15 and 30 missiles. Sixteen Type 23 frigates were delivered to
9462-759: Is the submarine based element of the Royal Navy. It is sometimes referred to as the " Silent Service ", as the submarines are generally required to operate undetected. Founded in 1901, the service made history in 1982 when, during the Falklands War, HMS Conqueror became the first nuclear-powered submarine to sink a surface ship, ARA General Belgrano . Today, all of the Royal Navy's submarines are nuclear-powered . The Royal Navy operates four Vanguard -class ballistic missile submarines displacing nearly 16,000 tonnes and equipped with Trident II missiles (armed with nuclear weapons ) and heavyweight Spearfish torpedoes , to carry out Operation Relentless,
9711-766: Is the basic training facility for newly enlisted ratings. Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, Devon is the initial officer training establishment for the Royal Navy. Personnel are divided into a warfare branch , which includes Warfare Officers (previously named seamen officers) and Naval Aviators , as well other branches including the Royal Naval Engineers , Royal Navy Medical Branch , and Logistics Officers (previously named Supply Officers ). Present-day officers and ratings have several different uniforms ; some are designed to be worn aboard ship, others ashore or in ceremonial duties. Women began to join
9960-468: Is the traditional workhorse of the Navy. As of May 2024 there are six Type 45 destroyers and 9 Type 23 frigates in commission. Among their primary roles is to provide escort for the larger capital ships—protecting them from air, surface and subsurface threats. Other duties include undertaking the Royal Navy's standing deployments across the globe, which often consists of: counter-narcotics, anti-piracy missions and providing humanitarian aid. The Type 45
10209-468: Is to conduct amphibious warfare, they have also been deployed for humanitarian aid missions. Both vessels were in reserve as of 2024 and in November 2024, the newly elected Labour government indicated that they would in fact be retired from service completely by March 2025. While second-line amphibious capabilities remained within the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the future of the navy's amphibious capability
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10458-709: The Bismarck -class battleship Tirpitz in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union . Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy but British naval patrols intercepted the German force. During the Battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943), the Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank Scharnhorst . Only 36 men survived, out of
10707-777: The Admiralty Board , chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence . The Royal Navy operates from three bases in Britain where commissioned ships and submarines are based: Portsmouth , Clyde and Devonport , the last being the largest operational naval base in Western Europe, as well as two naval air stations, RNAS Yeovilton and RNAS Culdrose where maritime aircraft are based. The Royal Navy stated its six major roles in umbrella terms in 2017 as. The Royal Navy protects British interests at home and abroad, executing
10956-527: The American War of Independence . The United States was allied to France , and the Netherlands and Spain were also at war with Britain. In the Battle of the Chesapeake , the British fleet failed to lift the French blockade, resulting in the surrender of an entire British army at Yorktown . The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793–1801, 1803–1814 & 1815) saw the Royal Navy reach
11205-602: The B-Dienst , Marschall retreated northwards and waited for bad weather in order to break through a British cruiser and destroyer patrol line between the Shetlands and Norway. The Germans reached Wilhelmshaven on 27 November, and on the trip both battleships incurred significant damage from heavy seas and winds. Scharnhorst was repaired in Wilhelmshaven, and while in dock, her boilers were overhauled. Following
11454-647: The Battle of Britain in order to neutralise the Home Fleet , but faced stiff resistance from the Royal Air Force . The Luftwaffe bombing offensive during the Kanalkampf phase of the battle targeted naval convoys and bases in order to lure large concentrations of RAF fighters into attrition warfare . At Taranto , Admiral Cunningham commanded a fleet that launched the first all-aircraft naval attack in history. The Royal Navy suffered heavy losses in
11703-707: The Battle of the Atlantic , Winston Churchill ordered that Bomber Command temporarily halt its campaign against German industry and focus on the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor threat and the U-boat ports and production instead. As soon as Scharnhorst and Gneisenau arrived in Brest, they were added as top priorities on the target list. Between 30 March and 7 July nineteen major raids took place on Brest. The Germans reacted by installing smoke generators which obscured
11952-735: The Invergordon Mutiny took place in the Atlantic Fleet over the National Government 's proposed 25% pay cut, which was eventually reduced to 10%. International tensions increased in the mid-1930s and the re-armament of the Royal Navy was well under way by 1938. In addition to new construction, several existing old battleships , battlecruisers and heavy cruisers were reconstructed, and anti-aircraft weaponry reinforced, while new technologies, such as ASDIC , Huff-Duff and hydrophones , were developed. At
12201-697: The Kingdom of England had possessed less-organised naval forces for centuries prior to this. The Royal Scots Navy (or Old Scots Navy) had its origins in the Middle Ages until its merger with the English Royal Navy per the Acts of Union 1707 . During much of the medieval period, fleets or "king's ships" were often established or gathered for specific campaigns or actions, and these would disperse afterwards. These were generally merchant ships enlisted into service. Unlike some European states, England did not maintain
12450-514: The Merchant Navy available to the RFA under a private finance initiative , while the civilian Marine Services operate auxiliary vessels which further support the Royal Navy in various capacities. The RFA replenishes Royal Navy warships at sea, and augments the Royal Navy's amphibious warfare capabilities through its three Bay-class landing ship vessels. It also works as a force multiplier for
12699-596: The Middle East , especially Iraq . The Royal Navy played an historic role in several great global explorations of science and discovery. Beginning in the 18th century many great voyages were commissioned often in co-operation with the Royal Society , such as the Northwest Passage expedition of 1741 . James Cook led three great voyages, with goals such as discovering Terra Australis , observing
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#173277657373212948-462: The Ministry of Defence published figures showing that the Royal Navy and Royal Marines had 29,090 full-time trained personnel compared with a target of 30,600. In 2023, it was reported that the Royal Navy was experiencing significant recruiting challenges with a net drop of some 1,600 personnel (4 percent of the force) from mid-2022 to mid-2023. This was posing a significant problem in the ability of
13197-765: The North America and West Indies Station . After the First World War, this formation assumed responsibility for the eastern Pacific Ocean and the western South Atlantic and was known as the America and West Indies Station until 1956. In 1921, due to the ambitions of Imperial Japan and the threat of the Imperial Japanese Navy , it was decided to construct the Singapore Naval Base . During this period, naval warfare underwent
13446-547: The Royal Air Force and Soviet Air Forces attempted to strike Tirpitz in her anchorages without success. On 23 September 1943 two British X-class midget submarines succeeded in penetrating the defences around the battleship at her main anchorage at Kaafjord in northern Norway during Operation Source , and placed explosive charges in the water beneath her. This attack caused extensive damage to Tirpitz , putting her out of service for six months. Repairs to Tirpitz were carried out using improvised facilities at Kaafjord as it
13695-568: The Transit of Venus and searching for the elusive North-West Passage , these voyages are considered to have contributed to world knowledge and science. In the late 18th century, during a four year voyage Captain George Vancouver made detailed maps of the western coastline of North America . In the 19th century, Charles Darwin made further contributions to science during the second voyage of HMS Beagle . The Ross expedition to
13944-709: The Type 26 Frigate , with the incremental retirement of the remaining Type 23s commencing in 2021. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 reduced the procurement of Type 26 to eight with five Type 31e frigates also to be procured. There are two classes of MCMVs in the Royal Navy: one Sandown -class minehunter and six Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessels . All the Sandown-class vessels are to be withdrawn from service by 2025 and are being replaced by autonomous systems that are planned to operate from
14193-673: The War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1714) granted Britain Gibraltar and Menorca , providing the Navy with Mediterranean bases. The expansion of the Royal Navy would encourage the British colonisation of the Americas , with British (North) America becoming a vital source of timber for the Royal Navy. There was a defeat during the frustrated siege of Cartagena de Indias in 1741. A new French attempt to invade Britain
14442-412: The high church , and expanded it to become the most powerful in the world. The fleet was quickly tested in the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654) and the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660) , which saw the British conquest of Jamaica and successful attacks on Spanish treasure fleets . The 1660 Restoration saw Charles II rename the Royal Navy again, and started use of the prefix HMS . The Navy remained
14691-459: The increasing cost of weapons systems . In 1981, Defence Secretary John Nott had advocated and initiated a series of cutbacks to the Navy . The Falklands War however proved a need for the Royal Navy to regain an expeditionary and littoral capability which, with its resources and structure at the time, would prove difficult. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Royal Navy was a force focused on blue-water anti-submarine warfare . Its purpose
14940-405: The nuclear deterrent ), 6 nuclear fleet submarines , 6 guided missile destroyers , 9 frigates , 7 mine-countermeasure vessels and 26 patrol vessels . As of May 2024, there are 66 commissioned ships (including submarines as well as one historic ship, HMS Victory ) in the Royal Navy, plus 13 ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). There are also four Point-class sealift ships from
15189-409: The 19th century until the Second World War , it was the world's most powerful navy. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing and defending the British Empire , and four Imperial fortress colonies and a string of imperial bases and coaling stations secured the Royal Navy's ability to assert naval superiority. Following World War I , it was significantly reduced in size. During the Cold War ,
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#173277657373215438-456: The 21st, where she easily steamed at 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph). She did not return to Brest to avoid an undesirable concentration of heavy units in one port ( Prinz Eugen had arrived there on 21 July) but moored alongside at La Pallice on 23 July where she was immediately discovered by aerial reconnaissance. Since the British feared Scharnhorst was preparing for an Atlantic sortie, an immediate attack by six Stirling heavy bombers
15687-437: The 6,150 GRT tanker Lustrous . Since some of the victims were able to alert the British, Lütjens then decided to move away from the North-Atlantic convoy lanes and move to the West African convoy lanes. Karl Dönitz , the commander of the U-boats , sent the three U-boats U-105 , U-106 and U-124 to West African waters for possible combined operations with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau . On 6 March
15936-461: The Allied Secret Intelligence Service group in Alta reported a few hours after the raid, that no civilian casualties had resulted from the attack, and that the local population was "... extremely impressed by the bombing." A further report six days after the operation relayed that the Germans estimated that it would take months to repair the damage inflicted on Tirpitz . The commander of the Kriegsmarine , Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz , directed that
16185-418: The Antarctic made several important discoveries in biology and zoology . Several of the Royal Navy's voyages ended in disaster such as those of Franklin and Scott . Between 1872 and 1876 HMS Challenger undertook the first global marine research expedition, the Challenger expedition . During World War I , the Royal Navy's strength was mostly deployed at home in the Grand Fleet , confronting
16434-461: The Arctic Task Force to Scharnhorst and her five escorting destroyers, since Lützow left for Germany with five destroyers on 23 September. On 25 November 1943 Scharnhorst carried out a two-hour full-power trial achieving 29.6 knots (54.8 km/h; 34.1 mph) and it was noted that her draught had increased by over 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) from her 1940 trials where she had attained 31.14 knots (57.67 km/h; 35.84 mph). With
16683-474: The Arctic convoys. German submarines operating in the Norwegian Sea were rarely able to evade the convoy escorts, and few merchant vessels suffered damage from enemy attack. The British Government and Royal Navy were concerned about the threat Tirpitz posed once she re-entered service. Allied intelligence tracked the progress of work on the battleship using decrypted German radio signals, photo reconnaissance flights and eyewitness reports from agents in Norway. It
16932-422: The Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Control of military forces in Nova Scotia passed to the new Government of Canada after the 1867 Confederation of Canada and control of the naval dockyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia was transferred to the Government of Canada in 1905, five years prior to the establishment of the Royal Canadian Navy . Prior to the 1920s, it was presumed that the only navies that could challenge
17181-436: The Atlantic, and from its base in Bermuda it blockaded the Atlantic seaboard of the United States throughout the war and carried out (with Royal Marines, Colonial Marines , British Army , and Board of Ordnance military corps units) various amphibious operations, most notably the Chesapeake campaign . On the Great Lakes , however, the United States Navy established an advantage. In 1860, Albert, Prince Consort , wrote to
17430-407: The Atlantic. In the passage between Iceland and the Faroes, the Germans' radar detected the patrolling British cruiser Naiad at long range, which allowed Lütjens to retreat unseen, with the aid of a squall . After refueling from Adria in the Arctic Ocean on 30 January, the battleships entered the Atlantic undetected through the Denmark Strait during the night of 3/4 February. On 6 February,
17679-480: The Barracudas; all three airmen died. The second wave landed on the carriers between 7:20 and 7:58 am. A damaged Hellcat had to ditch near the Canadian destroyer HMCS Algonquin and one of the Corsairs suffered heavy damage as a result of a landing accident; both pilots survived. During the period in which the air strikes were conducted, a force of 25 Wildcat and Supermarine Seafire fighters from 801 , 842 and 880 Naval Air Squadrons provided air defence for
17928-833: The British Army and the Board of Ordnance military corps were cutback, weakening garrisons around the Empire, the Militia became a paper tiger, and the Volunteer Force and Fencible units disbanded, though the Yeomanry was maintained as a back-up to the police). Britain relied, throughout the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, on imperial fortress colonies (originally Bermuda , Gibraltar, Halifax (Nova Scotia) , and Malta ). These areas permitted Britain to control
18177-761: The British advantage in ship numbers. In 1889, Parliament passed the Naval Defence Act , which formally adopted the 'two-power standard', which stipulated that the Royal Navy should maintain a number of battleships at least equal to the combined strength of the next two largest navies. The end of the 19th century saw structural changes and older vessels were scrapped or placed into reserve, making funds and manpower available for newer ships. The launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 rendered all existing battleships obsolete. The transition at this time from coal to fuel-oil for boiler firing would encourage Britain to expand their foothold in former Ottoman territories in
18426-413: The British aircraft appeared over Kaafjord, and the battleship's crew were still in the process of moving to their battle stations when the attack commenced; at this time not all of the watertight doors were closed and some damage-control stations were not fully manned. As planned, the British raid began with Hellcat and Wildcat fighters strafing Tirpitz ' s anti-aircraft guns and batteries located on
18675-501: The British aircraft met little opposition. Fifteen bombs hit the battleship, and strafing by fighter aircraft inflicted heavy casualties on her gun crews. Four British aircraft and nine airmen were lost during the operation. The damage inflicted during the attack was not sufficient to sink or disable Tirpitz , but she suffered considerable damage to her superstructure and unarmored areas, with 122 members of her crew killed and 316 were wounded. The German Kriegsmarine decided to repair
18924-533: The British. At 23:00 on 11 February, Scharnhorst , Gneisenau , and Prinz Eugen left Brest. They entered the Channel an hour later; the three ships sped at 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph), hugging the French coast along the voyage. The British failed to detect their departure, as the submarine that had been tasked with observing the port had withdrawn to recharge its batteries. By 06:30, they had passed Cherbourg , at which point they were joined by
19173-616: The Foreign Secretary John Russell, 1st Earl Russell with his concern about "a perfect disgrace to our country, and particularly to the Admiralty ". The stated shipbuilding policy of the British monarchy was to take advantage of technological change and so be able to deploy a new weapons system that could defend British interests before other national and imperial resources are reasonably mobilized. Nevertheless, British taxpayers scrutinized progress in modernizing
19422-492: The French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. England's naval forces could not prevent frequent raids on the south-coast ports by the French and their allies. Such raids halted only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V . A Scottish fleet existed by the reign of William the Lion . In the early 13th century there was a resurgence of Viking naval power in the region. The Vikings clashed with Scotland over control of
19671-610: The German High Seas Fleet across the North Sea. Several inconclusive clashes took place between them, chiefly the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The British fighting advantage proved insurmountable, leading the High Seas Fleet to abandon any attempt to challenge British dominance. The Royal Navy under John Jellicoe also tried to avoid combat and remained in port at Scapa Flow for much of the war. This
19920-431: The German battleship with star shells . At 16:50, Duke of York opened fire at a range of 11,000 m (12,000 yd); Scharnhorst quickly returned the fire. Five minutes after opening fire, one of Duke of York ' s 14 in (35.6 cm) shells struck Scharnhorst abreast of her forward (Anton) gun turret. The shell hit jammed the turret's training gears, putting it out of action. Shell splinters started
20169-621: The German battleships could track the carrier with their radar. By 18:26 the range had fallen to 24,100 m (26,400 yd; 15.0 mi), and Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were firing full salvos at the carrier. After approximately an hour of shooting, the German battleships sent Glorious to the bottom. They also sank the two destroyers. As Acasta sank, one of the four torpedoes she had fired hit Scharnhorst at 19:39. Acasta also hit Scharnhorst ' s forward superfiring turret with her 4.7-inch QF guns, which did negligible damage. The torpedo hit caused serious damage; it tore
20418-447: The Home Fleet. Nine Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers, which were also operated by 842 Naval Air Squadron, conducted anti-submarine patrols. No threat to the fleet developed, and Corsairs took over air defence duties at the conclusion of the two attacks. During the early afternoon of 3 April, Moore considered conducting a further raid on Kaafjord the next day. He decided against doing so as the preliminary assessment of photos taken during
20667-700: The Orkney Islands on 30 March, three days after JW 58 had sailed from Loch Ewe in Scotland. Force Two departed separately later that day. The convoy comprised 49 merchant ships escorted by a powerful force of 33 warships, including two escort carriers. German reconnaissance aircraft located JW 58 on 30 March, and all of the U-boats in the Norwegian Sea were directed to intercept it. The German aircraft did not conduct wider-ranging sorties in search of
20916-727: The Pacific and had begun building large, modern fleets which went to war with each other in 1904. Britain's reliance on Malta, via the Suez Canal, as the nearest Imperial fortress was improved, relying on amity and common interests that developed between Britain and the United States during and after World War I, by the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, allowing the cruisers based in Bermuda to more easily and rapidly reach
21165-689: The Queen's ships in highly profitable raids against Spanish commerce and colonies. The Royal Navy was then used in 1588 to repulse the Spanish Armada , but the English Armada was lost the next year. In 1603, the Union of the Crowns created a personal union between England and Scotland. While the two remained distinct sovereign states for a further century, the two navies increasingly fought as
21414-531: The Royal Navy at sea in several capacities. For fleet replenishment, it deploys one Fleet Solid Support Ship and six fleet tankers (three of which are maintained in reserve). The RFA also has one aviation training and casualty reception vessel, which also operates as a Littoral Strike Ship . Three amphibious transport docks are also incorporated within its fleet. These are known as the Bay-class landing ships, of which four were introduced in 2006–2007, but one
21663-690: The Royal Navy belonged to nations on the Atlantic Ocean or its connected seas, despite the growth of the Imperial Russian and United States Pacific fleets during the latter half of the 19th Century. Britain relied on Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, to project power to the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean via the Suez Canal after its completion in 1869. It relied on friendship and common interests between Britain and
21912-582: The Royal Navy in 1917 with the formation of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), which was disbanded after the end of the First World War in 1919. It was revived in 1939, and the WRNS continued until disbandment in 1993, as a result of the decision to fully integrate women into the structures of the Royal Navy. Women now serve in all sections of the Royal Navy including the Royal Marines . In August 2019,
22161-543: The Royal Navy so as to ensure, that taypayers' money is not wasted. Between 1815 and 1914, the Royal Navy saw little serious action, owing to the absence of any opponent strong enough to challenge its dominance, though it did not suffer the drastic cutbacks the various military forces underwent in the period of economic austerity that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of 1812 (when
22410-647: The Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force , hunting for Soviet submarines and mostly active in the GIUK gap . Following the collapse of the Soviet Union , its focus has returned to expeditionary operations around the world and it remains one of the world's foremost blue-water navies . The Royal Navy maintains a fleet of technologically sophisticated ships, submarines, and aircraft, including 2 aircraft carriers , 2 amphibious transport docks , 4 ballistic missile submarines (which maintain
22659-654: The Royal Navy, often doing patrols that frigates used to do. The Royal Navy is part of His Majesty's Naval Service, which also includes the Royal Marines and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord who is an admiral and member of the Defence Council of the United Kingdom . The Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to
22908-540: The Royal Navy, with the final vessel, HMS St Albans , commissioned in June 2002. However, the 2004 Delivering Security in a Changing World review announced that three frigates would be paid off as part of a cost-cutting exercise, and these were subsequently sold to the Chilean Navy . The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review announced that the remaining 13 Type 23 frigates would eventually be replaced by
23157-632: The Royal Navy. In December 2019, the modified Batch 1 River-class vessel, HMS Clyde , was decommissioned, with the Batch 2 HMS Forth taking over duties as the Falkland Islands patrol ship. HMS Protector is a dedicated Antarctica patrol ship that fulfils the nation's mandate to provide support to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). HMS Scott is an ocean survey vessel and at 13,500 tonnes
23406-852: The STOVL variant of the F-35 Lightning II . Queen Elizabeth began sea trials in June 2017, was commissioned later that year, and entered service in 2020, while the second, HMS Prince of Wales , began sea trials on 22 September 2019, was commissioned in December 2019 and was declared operational as of October 2021. The aircraft carriers form a central part of the UK Carrier Strike Group alongside escorts and support ships. Amphibious warfare ships in current service include two landing platform docks ( HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark ). While their primary role
23655-491: The Second World War. She was commissioned in February 1941 and completed her crew training late that year. At about the same time the German high command decided to station the battleship in Norway; this deployment was intended to deter a feared Allied invasion of Norway and threaten the convoys which regularly sailed through the Arctic Sea to the Soviet Union. These convoys carried large quantities of war material from ports in
23904-576: The Soviet Union. It was hoped that if German forces spotted the British fleet it would be assumed that the warships were supporting the convoy. As part of the final preparations for the attack a full-scale rehearsal was conducted using the training range at Loch Eriboll on 28 March. From 1 April onwards, the Admiralty received hourly weather reports from a group of Norwegian Secret Intelligence Service agents in Alta , near Kåfjord . The Royal Navy assembled
24153-705: The UK and Iceland, and were frequently attacked by the German air and naval units stationed in Norway. Tirpitz arrived in Norway in January 1942 and operated from anchorages located in fjords. While she was operational the Allies had to keep a powerful force of warships with the British Home Fleet to guard against the possibility of a sortie against the Arctic convoys, and capital ships accompanied most convoys part of
24402-434: The United Kingdom's Continuous At Sea Deterrent (CASD). The UK government has committed to replace these submarines with four new Dreadnought -class submarines , which will enter service in the "early 2030s" to maintain this capability. German battleship Scharnhorst Scharnhorst was a German capital ship , alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser , of Nazi Germany 's Kriegsmarine . She
24651-676: The United States (which controlled transit through the Panama Canal , completed in 1914) during and after the First World War, and on Bermuda, to project power the length of the western Atlantic, including the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The area controlled from Bermuda (and Halifax until 1905) had been part of the North America Station, until the 1820s, which then absorbed the Jamaica Station to become
24900-554: The aircraft had first been picked up by a German radar station shortly after they crossed the Norwegian coastline, the battleship was not immediately warned. At the time of the attack Tirpitz was preparing to sail for her high-speed trials, and her crew were busy unmooring the vessel. Her five protective destroyers had already departed for the trials area in Stjern Sound . The warning from the radar station arrived shortly before
25149-418: The aircraft of the first wave were dispatched successfully, and the force completed forming up at 4:37 am. Flying conditions remained perfect, and German forces had not detected the British fleet during its approach. The first wave headed for Norway at low altitude, flying just 50 feet (15 m) above the sea to avoid detection by German radar. The aircraft began to climb to a higher altitude when they reached
25398-498: The airmen were woken shortly after midnight, and attended a final briefing by Strike Leader Baker-Falkner from 1:15 am. The aircraft to be used in the strike were armed at this time, with all of the bombs being marked with messages for Tirpitz in chalk. The aircrew began boarding their aircraft at 4:00 am and flying-off operations started 15 minutes later; at this time the warships were 120 miles (190 km) from Kaafjord. Ten Corsairs drawn from 1834 and 1836 Naval Air Squadrons were
25647-561: The appearance of the cruiser Newcastle . Based on the reports of Rawalpindi and Newcastle , the British deployed the Home Fleet with the battleships Nelson and Rodney from the Clyde towards Norway in case the Germans intended to return to Germany, and the battlecruisers Hood and the French Dunkerque left from Devonport towards Iceland to prevent a breakout towards the Atlantic. Aware of these deployments through
25896-412: The armored deck and tore a small hole in it. The explosion caused splinter damage and disabled the ammunition hoists for the 37 mm anti-aircraft guns. Two of the 454 kg bombs hit amidships between the 15 cm and 10.5 cm gun turrets; both failed to explode and instead penetrated the ship completely. The first went through each deck and exited the ship through the double bottom , while
26145-544: The attack had concluded that Tirpitz was badly damaged. Moore was also aware that his aircrew were fatigued, and was reluctant to expose them to what would now be alert defences. Accordingly, he ordered that the fleet return to base, and it arrived at Scapa Flow in the afternoon of 6 April. King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent congratulatory messages to the fleet, but both Churchill and Cunningham were concerned that Tirpitz could be returned to service. Cunningham also regretted Moore's decision not to launch
26394-401: The attack on the convoy and could position their forces accordingly. At 07:03, Scharnhorst was some 40 nautical miles (74 kilometres; 46 miles) southwest of Bear Island when she made a turn that would put her in position to attack the convoy at 10:00. Admiral Burnett, commanding the three cruisers escorting Convoy JW 55B , Norfolk , Belfast , and Sheffield , placed his ships between
26643-402: The attack. Damage-control teams managed to correct the list with counter-flooding, and although draft increased by 1 m (3.3 ft), Scharnhorst was able to leave for Brest at 19:30. On the morning of 25 July, one of the escorting destroyers shot down a British patrol plane. The ship reached Brest later that day and went into dry dock for repairs, which took four months. While the damage
26892-501: The attack. Overall, 122 sailors died and 316 were wounded; these casualties represented 15 per cent of the battleship's crew. Many of the casualties were anti-aircraft gunners who were killed or wounded by machine-gun fire from the British fighters. The British fighters also damaged four patrol craft and a large repair ship; the captain of an armed trawler died and 13 other sailors on board these vessels suffered wounds. Torstein Raaby of
27141-426: The attacking units included 28 New Zealanders, three Canadians, two Australians, and one South African; the remainder were British. The large number of warships assigned to the operation were initially split into two groups. Force One was personally commanded by Fraser on board the battleship HMS Duke of York , and also included Victorious , the battleship HMS Anson (with Moore and his staff on board),
27390-431: The attacks on the ship by sending the battleship Rodney and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal . On 13 June, Ark Royal launched fifteen Skua dive bombers ; German fighters intercepted the attackers and shot eight of them down. The other seven made it past the air defenses and attacked Scharnhorst , but only scored one hit, and the bomb failed to detonate. Preliminary repairs were completed by 20 June, which permitted
27639-465: The battle against the Scharnhorst has ended in victory for us. I hope that any of you who are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, will command your ship as gallantly as the Scharnhorst was commanded today." Admiral Bruce Fraser At 18:42, Duke of York ceased fire, having fired 52 salvos and having scored at least 13 hits, but Scharnhorst
27888-418: The battle. At 05:18, the British battlecruiser shifted fire to Scharnhorst , which maneuvered to avoid the falling shells. By 07:15, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had used their superior speed to escape from the pursuing Renown . Heavy seas and the high speed with which the pair of battleships escaped caused them to ship large amounts of water forward. Scharnhorst ' s forward (Anton) turret
28137-457: The battleship Tirpitz . The reinforcement of the German fleet in Norway with the arrival of the Scharnhorst forced the British to suspend the Arctic convoys during the summer of 1943. On 22 March, Scharnhorst , Tirpitz , and Lützow steamed to Altafjord for repairs to damage incurred in heavy storms. In early April, Scharnhorst , Tirpitz , and nine destroyers conducted
28386-478: The battleship during the first attack. Most of these bombs did not penetrate the ship's armoured deck as they had been dropped from too low an altitude. Hundreds of members of the ship's crew died or were wounded; her commanding officer, Captain Hans Meyer , was among the wounded and intelligence officer Hugo Heydal assumed command. The battleship also drifted into the western shore of Kaafjord and ran aground, but
28635-410: The battleship herself. Further aircraft flying from Furious and the escort carrier HMS Fencer would protect the fleet against attack by German aircraft or submarines. While carrier aircraft had previously lacked a bomb capable of penetrating a battleship's thick deck armour, it was hoped that the recently developed 1,600-pound (730 kg) armour-piercing bomb would be able to pierce at least
28884-412: The battleship lacked the necessary velocity to penetrate her deck armour. Nine Royal Navy airmen died during the raid. While two bombs that exploded in the water near Tirpitz opened holes in her hull and caused flooding, none of the 15 bombs that struck the battleship penetrated her main deck armour belt. As a result, her guns, magazines, and machinery did not suffer serious damage. Most of the damage to
29133-491: The battleship was hidden by a smokescreen. A further four carrier raids were conducted against Kaafjord between 22 and 29 August during Operation Goodwood , but these caused only light damage to the battleship. In late August it was decided that further Fleet Air Arm attacks should not be attempted as the Germans were now able to cover Tirpitz in smoke before Barracudas could reach the battleship, and these aircraft could not carry bombs large enough to inflict heavy damage. As it
29382-403: The battleship was inflicted on her superstructure and between her armoured decks. The starboard aircraft catapult and crane were destroyed, as were both Tirpitz ' s Arado floatplanes. The number two starboard 150-millimetre (5.9 in) gun turret was knocked out, and the number three port 150 mm turret incurred significant damage. The officers' mess and several galleys were wrecked, and
29631-468: The battleship was unable to put to sea for crew training due to the threat of Allied attack and fuel shortages. These shortages also meant the Germans were unable to move the battleship between anchorages to make her more difficult to locate and attack. The options for attacking Tirpitz at Kaafjord were limited. Another submarine-borne raid was considered impractical as intelligence gathered from intercepted radio transmissions and field agents indicated that
29880-584: The battleship's underwater defences had been improved and more aerial reconnaissance patrols of the region were being flown. The commander of the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command , Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris , also refused to attempt a heavy bomber raid on Tirpitz on the grounds that the Kaafjord area was beyond the effective range of these aircraft and the battleship's guns would cause heavy casualties. After these two options were ruled out,
30129-422: The battleship, and works were completed by mid-July. The British conducted further carrier raids against Tirpitz between April and August 1944 in the hope of prolonging the period she was out of service, but none was successful. Tirpitz was eventually disabled and then sunk by Royal Air Force heavy bombers in late 1944. The threat posed by Tirpitz had an important influence on British naval strategy during
30378-458: The battleships met U-124 northwest of Cape Verde in order to discuss cooperation. The next morning the two ships encountered convoy SL 67 , escorted by the battleship Malaya . Lütjens again forbade an attack, but he shadowed the convoy and directed the U-boats to attack the convoy and sink Malaya . U-105 and U-124 attacked during the night of 8/9 March and sank five ships for
30627-574: The beginning of the war without the loss of a single life. The Royal Navy nevertheless remained active in other theatres, most notably in the Mediterranean Sea , where they waged the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns in 1914 and 1915. British cruisers hunted down German commerce raiders across the world's oceans in 1914 and 1915, including the battles of Coronel , Falklands Islands , Cocos , and Rufiji Delta , among others. At
30876-433: The breeches were opened. A third shell hit the deck next to turret Caesar and caused some flooding; shell splinters caused significant casualties. At 17:30, shells struck the forward 15 cm gun turrets and destroyed them both. At around 18:00, another 14 inch shell struck the ship on the starboard side, passed through the thin upper belt armor, and exploded in the number 1 boiler room. It caused significant damage to
31125-512: The captain of Victorious estimated that 85 per cent of the aircrew embarked on his ship had not previously operated at sea. The training programme was centred on Loch Eriboll in northern Scotland which, like Kaafjord, was surrounded by steep hills. Flying from RNAS Hatston in the Orkney Islands, aircrew practiced manoeuvring around this terrain to familiarise themselves with the tactics needed to avoid German anti-aircraft guns and successfully attack Tirpitz . The Royal Navy drew on intelligence on
31374-684: The class serve in U.K. waters in a sovereignty and fisheries protection role while the five Batch 2 ships are forward-deployed on a long-term basis to Gibraltar, the Caribbean, the Falkland Islands and the Indo-Pacific region. The vessel MV Grampian Frontier is leased from Scottish-based North Star Shipping for patrol duties around the British Indian Ocean Territory . However, she is not in commission with
31623-506: The closer ship) opened fire with her main armament on Glorious , at a range of 26,000 m (28,000 yd; 16 mi). Six minutes after opening fire, Scharnhorst scored a hit at a range of 25,600 m (28,000 yd; 15.9 mi). The shell struck the carrier's upper hangar and started a large fire. Less than ten minutes later, a shell from Gneisenau struck the bridge and killed Glorious ' s captain. The two destroyers attempted to cover Glorious with smoke screens, but
31872-622: The coast prompted the force to return to port, however. Another attempt to reach Norway was canceled under similar circumstances. On 8 March, however, poor weather grounded the British bombers, and so Scharnhorst and four destroyers were able to make the journey to Norway. A severe storm off Bergen forced the destroyers to seek shelter but Scharnhorst was able to continue on at the reduced speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). At 16:00 on 14 March, Scharnhorst dropped anchor in Bogen Bay outside Narvik. There she met Lützow and
32121-505: The completion of repairs, Scharnhorst underwent trials in the Baltic before returning to Kiel in December 1940. There she joined Gneisenau , in preparation for Operation Berlin , a planned raid into the Atlantic Ocean designed to wreak havoc on the Allied shipping lanes. The ships left Kiel on 28 December, but off Norway a severe storm caused damage to Gneisenau , Scharnhorst
32370-711: The completion of repairs, Scharnhorst went into the Baltic Sea for gunnery training. Heavy ice in the Baltic kept the ship there until February 1940 when she could return to Wilhelmshaven, arriving on 5 February. Between 18 February and 20 February, she participated in Operation Nordmark , a brief sortie into the North Sea as far as the Shetland Islands . She was then assigned to the forces participating in Operation Weserübung ,
32619-415: The contract, where the keel was laid on 16 July 1935. The ship was launched on 3 October 1936, witnessed by Adolf Hitler , Minister of War Generalfeldmarschall Werner von Blomberg , and the widow of Kapitän zur See Schultz, the commander of the armored cruiser Scharnhorst , which had been sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands during World War I . Fitting-out work followed her launch, and
32868-493: The convoy and Scharnhorst ' s expected direction of attack. Fraser in the powerful battleship Duke of York , along with the cruiser Jamaica and four destroyers, moved to a position southwest of Scharnhorst to block a possible escape attempt. An hour after making the turn, Bey deployed his destroyers in a line screening Scharnhorst , which remained 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi) behind. Half an hour later, Scharnhorst ' s loudspeakers called
33117-604: The convoy so that Gneisenau could attack the convoy. Lütjens ordered Hoffmann to rejoin the flagship immediately. After being detected, the battleships steamed off to the north for a few days to refuel and then returned to the same shipping lanes but closer to Newfoundland to search for more shipping. On 22 February, Gneisenau ran into three independently sailing merchant ships from a recently dispersed convoy. The battleships abandoned their search for convoys and started to hunt independent ships; Gneisenau sank four vessels totalling 19,634 GRT and Scharnhorst sank
33366-418: The convoy's battleship covering force or other Allied ships. A total of 17 U-boats attacked JW 58 between 1 and 3 April without success; none of the Allied ships suffered any damage, and the escorts sank four U-boats and shot down six German aircraft during the convoy's voyage from Scotland to the Soviet Union. JW 58 reached its destination at Kola Bay on 6 April. While several Allied aircraft were lost during
33615-521: The convoy. Burnett chose to keep his distance and shadow Scharnhorst with radar while Fraser made his way to the scene in Duke of York . Meanwhile, the five German destroyers continued searching for the convoy without success. At 13:15, Bey decided to return to base, and at 13:43, he dismissed the destroyers and instructed them to return to port. At 16:17, Duke of York made radar contact with Scharnhorst ; thirty minutes later, Belfast illuminated
33864-469: The crew to battle stations in preparation for the attack. At 08:40, Belfast picked up Scharnhorst on her radar. Unaware that they had been detected, the Germans had turned off their radar to prevent the British from picking up on the signals. At 09:21, Belfast ' s lookouts spotted Scharnhorst at a range of 11,000 m (12,000 yd). The cruiser opened fire three minutes later, followed by Norfolk two minutes after. Scharnhorst fired
34113-414: The crippled ship off with torpedoes. After several more torpedo hits, Scharnhorst settled further into the water and began to list to starboard. At 19:45, the ship went down by the bow, with her propellers still slowly turning. British ships began searching for survivors, but were soon ordered away after just a few were pulled out of the water even though voices could still be heard calling for help from
34362-667: The cross of St Andrew was replaced with the Union Jack. On English ships, the red, white, or blue ensigns had the St George's Cross of England removed from the canton, and the combined crosses of the Union flag put in its place. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the Royal Navy was the largest maritime force in the world, maintaining superiority in financing, tactics, training, organisation, social cohesion, hygiene, logistical support and warship design. The peace settlement following
34611-421: The cruisers, but the superior British radar prevented Bey from successfully carrying out the maneuver. By 12:00, Scharnhorst was to the northeast of the convoy, but Belfast had reestablished radar contact; it took the cruisers twenty minutes to close the range and begin firing. Scharnhorst detected the cruisers with her aft radar and opened fire with her main battery guns before turning away to disengage
34860-450: The damage caused to Tirpitz during Operation Tungsten be repaired. Although the battleship was no longer capable of operating against Allied convoys for lack of air support, it was considered desirable to retain her in service in order to tie down Allied naval resources. Repair work began in early May after a destroyer transported equipment and workmen to Kaafjord from Germany, and Tirpitz was able to steam under her own power by 2 June. She
35109-618: The darkness. Of the crew of 1,968 officers and enlisted men, only 36 men survived. In September 2000, a joint expedition to find the sunken battleship conducted by the BBC , NRK , and the Royal Norwegian Navy began. The underwater survey vessel Sverdrup II , operated by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment , was used to scan the sea floor. After locating a large submerged object,
35358-410: The deck just forward of the starboard 15 cm twin turret next to the conning tower. It passed through the upper and middle decks before exploding on the main armored deck, which contained the blast. The joints with the torpedo bulkhead were weakened enough to cause leaking. The second 227 kg bomb fell forward of the rear main battery turret and penetrated the first two decks. It also exploded on
35607-466: The defective tubes was carried out by French naval dockyard workers – to a higher standard, according to Scharnhorst 's captain, than could be achieved at the time in the naval yards in Germany. Repair work lasted until July, which caused the ship to be unavailable during Operation Rheinübung , the sortie by the new battleship Bismarck in May 1941. Facing increasing losses during
35856-413: The defences of Kaafjord to make the exercise range as similar to the conditions around Tirpitz as was possible, and the aircrew were extensively briefed on the locations of German positions. An area the size of the battleship was also marked out on an island in the centre of the loch and repeatedly bombed. While these preparations were under way, the Allies continued to monitor Tirpitz . In late February
36105-412: The early portion of World War II , including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation in November 1939, Scharnhorst sank the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau participated in Operation Weserübung , the German invasion of Norway, from April to June 1940. During operations off Norway,
36354-573: The eastern Pacific Ocean (after the war, the Royal Navy's Bermuda-based North America and West Indies Station was consequently re-designated the America and West Indies station , including a South American division. The rising power and increasing belligerence of the Japanese Empire after World War I, however, resulted in the construction of the Singapore Naval Base , which was completed in 1938, less than four years before hostilities with Japan did commence during World War II . In 1932,
36603-444: The effectiveness of the U-boats. The only effective weapon at the disposal of the Germans in Norway was Scharnhorst ; Tirpitz had been badly damaged, and the four remaining heavy cruisers were committed to the Baltic. During a conference with Hitler on 19–20 December, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz decided to employ Scharnhorst against the next Allied convoy that presented itself. Erich Bey, by now promoted to Konteradmiral ,
36852-405: The emergency shut-off switches to the boilers and turbines, which could not be turned off until power was restored. The explosion tore a large gash in the side of the hull and allowed 1,220 t (1,200 long tons; 1,340 short tons) of water into the ship, flooding 30 watertight spaces within five main watertight compartments . Scharnhorst took on a list of one degree and was down by the bows by
37101-532: The end of World War I, the Royal Navy remained by far the world's most powerful navy, larger than the U.S. Navy and French Navy combined, and over twice as large as the Imperial Japanese Navy and Royal Italian Navy combined. Its former primary competitor, the Imperial German Navy, was destroyed at the end of the war . In the inter-war period , the Royal Navy was stripped of much of its power. The Washington and London Naval Treaties imposed
37350-483: The escort carrier HMS Chaser transported photo analysts and the ground crews for a Royal Air Force photo reconnaissance detachment to Vaenga airfield in northern Russia. These personnel were joined by three Supermarine Spitfires fitted for photo reconnaissance work and a single Consolidated PBY Catalina in March. The Spitfires flew regular sorties over Kaafjord and took very detailed photographs of Tirpitz and
37599-424: The evening was able to surprise Gneisenau . The German battleship used her high speed to escape in the darkness, but this intervention convinced Lütjens that the chances of further success were small. He therefore decided to head for Brest in occupied France, which the ships reached on 22 March. Throughout the operation, Scharnhorst had difficulties with the superheater tubes in her boilers. Replacement of
37848-399: The extra 200 miles (320 km) to reach Scharnhorst . The Halifaxes attacked Scharnhorst at her moorings. They scored five hits in an almost straight line on the starboard side, parallel to the centerline. Three of the bombs were 454 kg (1,001 lb) armor-piercing bombs, and the other two were 227 kg (500 lb) high-explosive bombs. One of the 227 kg bombs hit
38097-408: The fight with Glowworm, Admiral Hipper and her four destroyers set course for Trondheim, and at 22:00 the ten destroyers left for Narvik, whilst Scharnhorst and Gneisenau took a position South of the Lofoten in the Vestfjorden to cover both landings. Early on 9 April, the two ships encountered the British battlecruiser HMS Renown . Gneisenau ' s Seetakt radar picked up
38346-461: The first aircraft to be launched and were followed by the 21 Barracudas of 8 Wing; 827 Squadron was launched from Victorious and 830 Squadron departed from Furious . Seven of the Barracudas were armed with a 1,600-pound bomb, and the remainder carried multiple 500 or 600-pound weapons. Once the Barracudas were airborne the remaining escort fighters – 30 Wildcats and Hellcats from 800 , 881 and 882 Naval Air Squadrons – were launched. All
38595-413: The first layer of Tirpitz ' s armour if they were dropped from an altitude of 3,500 feet (1,100 m) or higher. The damage caused by such hits was expected to put the battleship out of service. Nine of the Barracudas were to be armed with 1,600-pound bombs and a further 22 would each carry three 500-pound semi-armour-piercing bombs that were capable of penetrating the lightly protected upper decks of
38844-402: The first two years of the war. Over 3,000 people were lost when the converted troopship Lancastria was sunk in June 1940, the greatest maritime disaster in Britain's history. The Navy's most critical struggle was the Battle of the Atlantic defending Britain's vital North American commercial supply lines against U-boat attack. A traditional convoy system was instituted from the start of
39093-527: The flooding, and the starboard propeller shaft was destroyed. The damage was severe enough to force Scharnhorst to put into Trondheim for temporary repairs. She reached port on the afternoon of 9 June, where the repair ship Huaskaran was waiting. The following day a reconnaissance plane from RAF Coastal Command spotted the ship, and a raid by twelve Hudson bombers took place on 11 June. The Hudsons dropped thirty-six 227 lb (103 kg) armor-piercing bombs, which all missed. The Royal Navy joined in
39342-433: The force had an uneventful flight to the Kaafjord area. While the German defences were now alert, the artificial smoke screen being generated around Kaafjord was not yet sufficient to hide Tirpitz from view. The second attack on Tirpitz was similar to the first. It began with Hellcat fighters strafing the anti-aircraft batteries while Wildcats attacked the battleship. The fighters also attacked German ships in Kaafjord and
39591-436: The foreign and defence policies of His Majesty's Government through the exercise of military effect, diplomatic activities and other activities in support of these objectives. It is also a key element of the British contribution to NATO, with a number of ships or aircraft allocated to NATO tasks at any time. In 2007 core capabilities were described as: The English Royal Navy was formally founded in 1546 by Henry VIII , though
39840-420: The forward superfiring turret (Bruno). The blast damaged the ship's circuit breakers and knocked out her electrical system for 20 minutes. The explosive shock caused serious damage; turret Bruno was jammed, as were the twin and single 15 cm mounts on the port side. The blast also damaged the fuel oil pumps and the bearings in the turbo-generators, which brought the ship to a halt. The power outage disabled
40089-423: The harbour with good effect. Scharnhorst was not hit, but in the night of 4 April a dud bomb close to Gneisenau forced her to leave dock, and next day the battleship was torpedoed in her exposed position in the harbour. When Gneisenau was moved back in her dock, she was hit by four bombs in the night of 10 April. These second hits on Gneisenau raised the first doubts, for German naval planners, over
40338-439: The hull of the German ships. Of the two X-craft that were assigned to attack Scharnhorst , one was lost on its way to Norway and the other suffered mechanical problems and had to abort the attack. But even if the X-craft had managed to reach the moorings of Scharnhorst , the attack would have failed since Scharnhorst had left for a training cruise. Other X-craft attacked and seriously damaged Tirpitz. This reduced
40587-485: The invasion of Denmark and Norway. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were the covering force for the assaults on Narvik and Trondheim ; the two ships left Wilhelmshaven on the morning of 7 April under the command of vice admiral Günther Lütjens . They were joined by the invasion force for Trondheim, consisting of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and four destroyers, and by the invasion force for Narvik, consisting of ten destroyers. Between 14:25 and 14:48 on 7 April,
40836-463: The isles though Alexander III was ultimately successful in asserting Scottish control. The Scottish fleet was of particular import in repulsing English forces in the early 14th century. A standing "Navy Royal", with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I , England became involved in a war with Spain , which saw privately owned vessels combining with
41085-452: The light cruisers Köln and Leipzig , and three destroyers, which parted company in the morning of 22 November for operations in the Skagerrak . The next day, the German battleships intercepted the British armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi . At 16:07, lookouts aboard Scharnhorst spotted the vessel, and less than an hour later Scharnhorst had closed the range. At 17:03, Scharnhorst opened fire, and three minutes later
41334-407: The maneuvers, she collided with the German submarine U-523 , which caused damage that necessitated dry-docking for repairs. Work was completed by September, and the ship conducted further training in the Baltic. Scharnhorst steamed to Gotenhafen in late October for a new rudder, the design of which was based on the lessons learned from the torpedoing of Prinz Eugen and Lützow earlier in
41583-680: The navy to meet its commitments. In December 2019 the First Sea Lord , Admiral Tony Radakin , outlined a proposal to reduce the number of Rear-Admirals at Navy Command by five. The fighting arms (excluding Commandant General Royal Marines ) would be reduced to commodore (1-star) rank and the surface flotillas would be combined. Training would be concentrated under the Fleet Commander . The Royal Navy has two Queen Elizabeth -class aircraft carriers. Each carrier cost £ 3 billion and displaces 65,000 tonnes (64,000 long tons; 72,000 short tons). The first, HMS Queen Elizabeth , commenced flight trials in 2018. Both are intended to operate
41832-619: The nearby anti-aircraft batteries on 12 and 13 March; after being developed the Catalina flew these images to the UK. Although the German forces in northern Norway detected the Spitfire flights, the Kaafjord area's defences were not increased or placed on alert. On 16 March eight British, Dutch and Norwegian submarines were directed to take up positions off the Norwegian coast after decrypted German radio messages indicated that Tirpitz may have been preparing to depart Kaafjord for Germany to complete her repairs. A further eight British and Dutch submarines were dispatched on 18 March, but two days later it
42081-517: The next six months, during which Scharnhorst was able to conduct only short training maneuvers. Scharnhorst , Tirpitz , and nine destroyers embarked from Altafjord on an offensive on 6 September known as Operation Zitronella ; the ships were tasked with bombarding the island of Spitzbergen . During the operation, Scharnhorst destroyed a battery of two 76 mm (3.0 in) guns and shelled fuel tanks, coal mines, harbour facilities, and military installations. Of particular importance
42330-428: The number of smoke generators located around Tirpitz was increased. Following Operation Tungsten, British intelligence assessed that Tirpitz would be repaired within six months. Accordingly, Cunningham directed Fraser on 13 April to launch another attack on the battleship. While Cunningham did not believe that Barracudas could carry weapons capable of sinking Tirpitz , he hoped that further air strikes would increase
42579-427: The open sea four hours later. At 03:19, Bey received instructions from the Fleet Command that Scharnhorst was to conduct the attack alone if heavy seas interfered with the destroyers' ability to fight. Unbeknown to the Germans, the British were able to read the ciphered Enigma radio transmissions between Scharnhorst and the Fleet Command; Admirals Robert Burnett and Bruce Fraser were aware of Bey's plan for
42828-596: The other was deflected by the torpedo bulkhead and penetrated the hull beneath the side belt armor. The third 454 kg bomb hit aft of the rear 28 cm turret, about 3 m (9.8 ft) from the side of the ship. It too failed to detonate, and passed through the side of the hull, which was not protected by the main armor belt. These three hits caused significant flooding and an 8 degree list to starboard. The forward and rear gun turrets (Anton and Caesar) were temporarily disabled, along with half of her anti-aircraft battery. Two men were killed and fifteen were injured in
43077-426: The outer islands on the Norwegian coast where it managed to send its message. The float plane was towed to Trondheim where it could also convey Lütjens' order to Admiral Hipper to join the German battleships in the return journey to Germany. Admiral Hipper joined in the morning of 12 April but her four destroyers had to stay back at Trondheim because of lack of fuel. A Royal Air Force (RAF) patrol aircraft spotted
43326-476: The period the battleship was out of service and harm her crew's morale. Fraser initially resisted Cunningham's order, arguing that the prospects for a successful raid were poor as the Germans would have reinforced the defences around Tirpitz and weather conditions were likely to be worse than those encountered during Operation Tungsten. He eventually relented, and Moore sailed from Scapa Flow on 21 April to attack Kaafjord again. This raid, designated Operation Planet,
43575-471: The period the ship was under repair, Scharnhorst , the only remaining operational German battleship, was sunk on 26 December during the Battle of the North Cape . Following this engagement the Royal Navy stopped deploying battleships to cover convoys travelling to and from the Soviet Union. By this stage of the war the Allies also had large numbers of anti-submarine and anti-aircraft escort ships available, and were able to assign strong forces to protect all of
43824-611: The raid the next day. Tirpitz 's anchorage at Kaafjord was protected by anti-aircraft batteries and fighter aircraft. At the time of Operation Tungsten, four batteries of heavy anti-aircraft guns and seven batteries of light guns were located on the shore near the battleship. Several anti-aircraft vessels and destroyers were also usually moored near Tirpitz . The battleship herself was fitted with 68 anti-aircraft guns. Equipment capable of generating an artificial smokescreen to hide Tirpitz from aircraft had also been installed around Kaafjord. The German Air Force ( Luftwaffe ) had only
44073-531: The raid were centred on two dive-bombing attacks by Fleet Air Arm Fairey Barracuda aircraft. Led by Strike Leader Roy Sydney Baker-Falkner . Each of the attacks was to involve 21 Barracudas escorted by 40 fighters; Vought F4U Corsairs flying from Victorious would provide protection against German aircraft while Grumman F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcats operating from Furious and the escort carriers HMS Emperor , Pursuer and Searcher were to strafe anti-aircraft batteries near Tirpitz , as well as
44322-412: The raidin collaboration with Fleet Air Arm Wing Leader Lieutenant Commander Roy Sydney Baker-Falkner . The operation was initially designated "Operational Thrustful", but was later renamed "Operation Tungsten". The attack was originally scheduled for mid-March 1944, shortly before the time Allied intelligence believed Tirpitz would become operational. However, it was delayed by two weeks while Victorious
44571-414: The rapidly deteriorating military situation for the German Army on the Eastern Front , it became increasingly important to interrupt the flow of supplies from the Western Allies to the Soviet Union. By December 1943, the German Army was forced into continuous retreat. The Luftwaffe had been seriously weakened by four long years of war, and increasing Allied anti-submarine capabilities were steadily degrading
44820-400: The repair process, the aircraft catapult that had been installed on the rear (Caesar) gun turret was removed. The two ships left Wilhelmshaven on 4 June to return to Norway. They were joined by Admiral Hipper and four destroyers. The purpose of the sortie was to interrupt Allied efforts to resupply the Norwegians and to relieve the pressure on German troops fighting in Norway. On 7 June,
45069-446: The research team then used the Royal Norwegian Navy's underwater recovery vessel HNoMS Tyr to examine the object visually. The wreck was positively identified by an ROV on 10 September, which located armament consistent with that of Scharnhorst . The ship sank in approximately 290 m (950 ft) of water. The hull lies upside down on the seabed, with debris, including the main mast and rangefinders, scattered around
45318-440: The scrapping of some capital ships and limitations on new construction. The lack of an imperial fortress in the region of Asia , the Indian Ocean , and the Pacific Ocean was always to be a weakness throughout the 19th century as the former North American colonies that had become the United States of America had multiplied towards the Pacific Coast of North America, and the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire both had ports on
45567-401: The ship if dropped from above 2,000 feet (610 m). The remaining ten aircraft would be armed with 500- and 600-pound general-purpose bombs and with anti-submarine bombs intended to inflict casualties among the battleship's crew and cause underwater damage if they exploded in the water near her hull. The aircraft carrying high-explosive bombs were to initiate the dive bombing of Tirpitz as it
45816-406: The ship to KzS Friedrich Hüffmeier . In October 1943, shortly before Scharnhorst ' s last mission, Hüffmeier was replaced by KzS Fritz Hintze, who was killed during the ship's final battle. Scharnhorst was ordered as Ersatz Elsass as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought Elsass , under the contract name "D." The Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven was awarded
46065-689: The ship to return to Germany. While Scharnhorst was en route under heavy escort on 21 June, the British launched two air attacks, six Swordfish torpedo bombers in the first and nine Beaufort bombers in the second. Both were driven off by anti-aircraft fire and fighters. The Germans intercepted British radio traffic that indicated the Royal Navy was at sea, which prompted Scharnhorst to make for Stavanger . British warships were within 35 nmi (65 km; 40 mi) of Scharnhorst ' s position when she turned to Stavanger. The next day, Scharnhorst left Stavanger for Kiel, where repairs were carried out, lasting some six months. Following
46314-412: The ship was back under way, twelve Beauforts launched a 10-minute attack that was beaten off by anti-aircraft fire and the escorting Luftwaffe fighters. The British carried out a series of attacks that were all unsuccessful; Scharnhorst ' s anti-aircraft guns were red-hot by the end of the action, and one 20 mm gun had burst from the strain. The ship struck another mine off Terschelling on
46563-409: The ship was filled with smoke. Tirpitz ' s funnel was also struck by bomb fragments that badly damaged all of the boiler intakes. While the starboard turbine was knocked out by shock damage and two of the boilers were disabled after being contaminated by salt water used for firefighting, the battleship was still capable of steaming within Kaafjord. Tirpitz ' s crew suffered heavy casualties in
46812-419: The ship's propulsion system and slowed the ship to 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). Temporary repairs allowed Scharnhorst to return to 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph). She managed to add 5,000 m (5,500 yd) to the distance between her and Duke of York , while straddling the ship with several salvos. Shell splinters rained on Duke of York and disabled the fire-control radar. "Gentlemen,
47061-489: The ship. The ice had been cleared by noon, permitting Scharnhorst ' s entrance to Wilhelmshaven. Two days later, Scharnhorst went to Kiel for permanent repairs. Work was conducted in a floating dry dock and lasted until July 1942. Afterward, another round of trials were conducted in the Baltic, which revealed the necessity of replacing several of the boiler tubes. In early August 1942, Scharnhorst conducted exercises in cooperation with several U-boats. During
47310-407: The ships had cleared the Strait of Dover ; half an hour later, a flight of six Swordfish torpedo bombers, with Spitfire escort, attacked the Germans. The British failed to penetrate the Luftwaffe fighter shield, and all six Swordfish were destroyed. Scharnhorst did not make the voyage unscathed, however; at 15:31 she struck an air-dropped magnetic mine in the mouth of the Scheldt, abreast of
47559-421: The ships were unsuccessfully attacked West of the Skagerrak by twelve bombers. By evening the weather had deteriorated and several destroyers could not keep up the high (27 knots, 50 km/h, 31 mph) speed and remained behind the main force. Heavy winds caused significant structural damage that evening, and flooding contaminated a portion of Scharnhorst ' s fuel stores. On 8 April at 09:15 one of
47808-440: The shore; this attack inflicted heavy casualties on the battleship's gunners, disabled her main anti-aircraft control centre and damaged several guns. The fighters also strafed several anti-aircraft ships in Kaafjord. The 21 Barracudas began their attack shortly afterwards, and hit Tirpitz with a general-purpose bomb, three 500-pound semi-armour-piercing bombs and three 1,600-pound bombs within 60 seconds. Overall, ten bombs struck
48057-411: The size of the Royal Navy. A 2013 report found that the Royal Navy was already too small, and that Britain would have to depend on her allies if her territories were attacked. The Royal Navy was responsible for training the fledgling Iraqi Navy and securing Iraq's oil terminals following the cessation of hostilities in the country. The Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission (Navy) ( Umm Qasr ), headed by
48306-448: The smoke screen was generated. On 7 December the first attempt was made with Oboe for blind bombing through the smoke screen. Only on 6 January there was a small success with a light hit on Gneisenau , but the other ships were not hit. On 12 January 1942, the German Naval Command, in a conference with Hitler, made the decision to return Scharnhorst , Gneisenau , and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen to Germany. The intention
48555-403: The squadron rendezvoused with the tanker Dithmarschen to refuel Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers. The next day, the British trawler HMT Juniper was discovered and sunk, along with the 5,666 GRT oil tanker Oil Pioneer . The Germans then launched their Ar 196 float planes to search for more Allied vessels. Admiral Hipper and the destroyers were sent to destroy Orama ,
48804-436: The starboard side at 22:34. The mine briefly knocked out the power system and temporarily disabled the rudders. Two of the three turbines were jammed, and the third had to be turned off. Another 300 t (300 long tons; 330 short tons) tons of water flooded ten watertight spaces in four main compartments. Only the centerline shaft was operational, which permitted a speed of only 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Partial power
49053-416: The start of World War II in 1939, the Royal Navy was still the largest in the world, with over 1,400 vessels. The Royal Navy provided critical cover during Operation Dynamo , the British evacuations from Dunkirk , and as the ultimate deterrent to a German invasion of Britain during the following four months. The Luftwaffe under Hermann Göring attempted to gain air supremacy over southern England in
49302-408: The strikes were "beautifully co-ordinated and fearlessly executed". The most important discrepancy between the plans for the operation and its execution was that many pilots dropped their bombs below the specified minimum altitude of 3,000 feet (910 m) in an attempt to improve their chances of hitting Tirpitz . The shorter than optimum flight times may have meant that some of the bombs which struck
49551-560: The task was assigned to the Home Fleet's aircraft carriers. At this time the large fleet carriers HMS Furious and Victorious and four smaller escort carriers were ready. Planning for the raid on Kaafjord began in December 1943. Vice Admiral Bruce Fraser , the commander of the Home Fleet, was not optimistic about the prospects for success, and had to be persuaded to undertake the operation by First Sea Lord Sir Andrew Cunningham . Fraser gave his second in command, Vice Admiral Sir Henry Moore , responsibility for planning and leading
49800-495: The third struck toward the rear of the ship and damaged the port propeller shaft. The fourth hit the ship in the bow. The torpedoes slowed Scharnhorst to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), which allowed Duke of York to close to 9,100 m (10,000 yd). With only turret Caesar operational, all available men were sent to retrieve ammunition from the forward turrets to keep the last heavy guns supplied. Fraser then ordered Jamaica and Belfast to move into range and finish
50049-416: The three ships that day, and 82 RAF Bomber Command and nine RAF Coastal Command aircraft were ordered to attack the ships. The German warships were protected by poor visibility, however, and none of the bombers found the ships whilst losing nine of their number to German fighters. The three ships safely reached Wilhelmshaven at 22:00. Scharnhorst was repaired at the Deutsche Werke in Kiel . During
50298-401: The trailing destroyers, Bernd von Arnim signalled a fight with a British destroyer and at 09:22 Lütjens ordered Admiral Hipper to investigate. The German cruiser found the British destroyer HMS Glowworm and hit her with accurate artillery fire. Before Glowworm sank, she attempted to ram and damage Admiral Hipper and sent out a warning message to the British fleet. Shortly after
50547-413: The two battleships, with the two tankers in company, encountered ships from a dispersed convoy in the mid-Atlantic. Scharnhorst sank six ships totaling 35,080 GRT, whilst Gneisenau sank seven ships totaling 26,693 GRT and captured another three ships totaling 20,139 GRT as prizes . Alerted by distress signals of the victims, the British battleship Rodney left convoy HX 114 and in
50796-455: The two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent . In that engagement Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history. In early 1942, after British bombing raids, the two ships made the Channel Dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined
51045-439: The two ships refueled from the tanker Schlettstadt south of Cape Farewell . Shortly after 08:30 on 8 February, lookouts spotted convoy HX 106 , escorted by the battleship Ramillies . Lütjens' orders prohibited him from engaging Allied capital ships, and so the attack was called off. Scharnhorst ' s commander, KzS Hoffmann, however, closed to 23,000 m (25,000 yd) in an attempt to lure Ramillies away from
51294-426: The viability of Brest as a base for German capital ships. Prinz Eugen was seriously damaged by a bomb on 1 July. On 9 July the campaign by Bomber Command was halted as the tides had shifted in the battle of the Atlantic, and because of Operation Barbarossa , Bomber Command wanted to resume the campaign against German industry. After repairs were completed in July, Scharnhorst went to La Pallice for trials on
51543-473: The voyage, mostly to flying accidents, all of the ships arrived unscathed. Owing to a combination of favourable factors, Fraser decided on 1 April to bring the raid on Kaafjord forward by 24 hours. Decrypted German signals indicated that Tirpitz ' s trials had been delayed until 3 April, and Fraser hoped that an attack on this date would catch the battleship away from her usual well-protected mooring. Moreover, as JW 58's escorts were performing well and there
51792-502: The war, but German submarine tactics, based on group attacks by " wolf-packs ", were much more effective than in the previous war, and the threat remained serious for well over three years. After World War II, the decline of the British Empire and the economic hardships in Britain forced the reduction in the size and capability of the Royal Navy. The United States Navy instead took on the role of global naval power. Governments since have faced increasing budgetary pressures, partly due to
52041-417: The way to the Soviet Union. The British attacked Tirpitz several times during 1942 and 1943 . When the battleship sortied to intercept Convoy PQ 12 on 6 March 1942 HMS Victorious , which formed part of the convoy's escort, attempted to attack her using torpedo bombers . These aircraft launched twenty torpedoes at the battleship but all missed. On several occasions during 1942 and 1943 bombers from
52290-411: The year. Boiler and turbine troubles kept the ship in Germany for the remainder of 1942. By December, only two of the three shafts were operational and a complete overhaul of the propulsion system was required. In early January 1943, the ship was back in service, and after trials, left Germany on 7 January in company with Prinz Eugen and five destroyers. Reports of heavy activity in British airfields near
52539-407: Was 20 to 40 mm (0.79 to 1.57 in) thick on the flat portion, increasing to 105 mm (4.1 in) on downward-sloping sides that connected to the bottom of the belt. Her main battery turrets had 360 mm (14 in) of armor on their faces and 200 mm (7.9 in) on their sides. The conning tower was protected with 350 mm on the sides. At her commissioning, Scharnhorst
52788-424: Was achieved at 4:20 pm on 2 April. After the two forces met Duke of York , with Fraser on board, and two destroyers sailed to the north-west and took up a position where they would be able to intercept Tirpitz in the event that she had sailed from Kaafjord without being detected. The remainder of the Home Fleet proceeded to the strike's launching point. The attack was launched during the early hours of 3 April. All
53037-502: Was acquired in 2023 to act as a mothership for autonomous minehunting systems. The Royal Navy also includes a number of smaller non-commissioned assets such as the Sea-class workboats . On 29 July 2022, the Royal Navy christened a new experimental ship, XV Patrick Blackett , which it aims to use as a testbed for autonomous systems. Whilst the ship flies the Blue Ensign , it is crewed by Royal Navy personnel and will participate in Royal Navy and NATO exercises. The Submarine Service
53286-456: Was being repaired, a new radar system was installed aft, the power output for the forward radar was increased to 100 kW, and the 53.3 cm torpedo tubes were installed. The strategic position following the damage to Scharnhorst was serious. Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen were still being repaired, Bismarck had been sunk on 27 May. All German capital ships deployed to the Atlantic were therefore out of action. In addition, Tirpitz
53535-487: Was called off on 24 April due to bad weather over the target area. Two other attacks, Operation Brawn and Operation Tiger Claw, also had to be cancelled on 15 and 28 May respectively because of adverse weather. Further carrier raids were attempted in July and August after Allied intelligence determined that the repairs to Tirpitz were nearing completion. During Operation Mascot a force of 42 Barracudas and 40 fighters attacked Tirpitz on 17 July, but did not score any hits as
53784-537: Was capable of undertaking gunnery practice by the end of June, and all repairs were completed in mid-July. During this period the battleship's anti-aircraft armament was augmented by fitting her with additional 20-millimetre (0.79 in) cannons, modifying the 150 mm guns so they could be used to attack aircraft and supplying anti-aircraft shells for her 380-millimetre (15 in) main guns. The defences of Kaafjord were also improved during this period. Additional radar stations and observation posts were established, and
54033-411: Was commanded by Kapitän zur See ( KzS ) Otto Ciliax . His tenure as the ship's commander was brief; in September 1939, an illness forced him to go on sick leave, and he was replaced by KzS Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann . Hoffmann served as the ship's captain until 1942. On 1 April 1942, Hoffmann, who had been promoted to Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) and awarded the Knight's Cross , transferred command of
54282-408: Was completed by January 1939. Scharnhorst was commissioned into the fleet on 9 January for sea trials , which revealed a dangerous tendency to ship considerable amounts of water in heavy seas. This caused flooding in the bow and damaged electrical systems in the forward (Anton) gun turret. As a result, she went back to the dockyard for extensive modification of the bow. The original straight stem
54531-442: Was concluded that Tirpitz was not about to put to sea and the submarines were diverted to other tasks or ordered back to port. On 21 March British intelligence warned the Admiralty that due to recent Soviet advances on the Eastern Front, the Germans were placing a strong emphasis on disrupting the flow of supplies to the Soviet Union and could dispatch Tirpitz to attack any convoys not escorted by capital ships. In response, Fraser
54780-411: Was considered too risky to attempt to move the damaged warship to Germany. Instead, equipment and work crews were shipped to the fjord from German ports. On the night of 10/11 February 1944, 15 Soviet aircraft attacked the battleship, but did not cause any damage. By 17 March, the repairs to Tirpitz ' s armament, machinery and hull were complete, but several minor repair tasks were outstanding. During
55029-405: Was contrary to widespread prewar expectations that in the event of a Continental conflict Britain would primarily provide naval support to the Entente Powers while sending at most only a small ground army. Nevertheless, the Royal Navy played an important role in securing the British Isles and the English Channel , notably ferrying the entire British Expeditionary Force to the Western Front at
55278-425: Was definitively toward the Soviet Union. A U-boat reported the convoy's location at 09:00 on 25 December, and Dönitz ordered Scharnhorst into action. In his instructions to Bey, Dönitz advised him to break off the engagement if presented with superior forces, but to remain aggressive. Bey planned to attack the convoy at 10:00 on 26 December if the conditions were favorable for the attack. At this time of year, there
55527-423: Was directed to provide battleship protection for the next Arctic Convoy. The final decision to undertake Operation Tungsten was made in mid-March on the basis of a decrypted radio message that indicated that Tirpitz was almost ready for combat and would conduct high-speed trials on 1 April. As a result of the delays to the operation, the sailing of the attack force coincided with the departure of Convoy JW 58 for
55776-403: Was eventually increased to thirty-eight. Two triple 53.3 cm (21 in) above-water torpedo tubes , taken from the light cruiser Nürnberg , were installed in 1941. Scharnhorst had an armor belt that was 350 mm (13.8 in) thick in the central portion, where it protected the ship's ammunition magazines and propulsion machinery spaces. The ship had an armored deck that
56025-428: Was eventually restored to the starboard turbine, which allowed speed to be increased to 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). The shock damaged the rotating parts of all of the ship's gun turrets, and three of the 15 cm turrets were seriously jammed. By 08:00, Scharnhorst had reached the Jade Bight but ice prevented the ship from entering Wilhelmshaven. While waiting outside the port, Admiral Ciliax returned to
56274-442: Was feared the battleship could sortie and attack convoys in the Norwegian Sea or Atlantic Ocean after the repairs were completed. The need to guard against this possibility would also occupy warships needed to support the planned invasion of France . As a result, it was decided in late 1943 to make further attempts to sink the battleship. Despite Allied concerns, Tirpitz posed only a limited danger to Allied shipping. From late 1943
56523-408: Was fitted with new radars. The British considered cancelling Operation Tungsten in February as Victorious was also needed in the Indian Ocean to counter a build-up of Japanese warships at Singapore. To enable the attack to proceed, the United States Navy agreed to temporarily transfer USS Saratoga to the Eastern Fleet so that Victorious could be retained in the North Sea. The plans for
56772-399: Was given command of the task force. On 22 December Dönitz ordered Bey to be ready to go to sea on a three-hour notice. Later that day, reconnaissance aircraft located a convoy of some 20 transports escorted by cruisers and destroyers approximately 400 nautical miles (740 kilometres; 460 miles) west of Tromsø . The convoy was spotted again two days later, and it was determined that the course
57021-441: Was hoped that these weapons would knock out at least some of the battleship's anti-aircraft guns before the main attack commenced. The Fleet Air Arm units selected for Operation Tungsten conducted intensive training from February 1944 under Roy Sydney Baker-Falkner with his very experienced 827 Naval Air Squadron and 830 Naval Air Squadron . A high proportion of the airmen of the 2nd Wing 829 NAS and 831 NAS were inexperienced, and
57270-517: Was motivated by fears that the battleship, upon re-entering service, would attack strategically important convoys carrying supplies to the Soviet Union. Removing the threat posed by Tirpitz would also allow the Allies to redeploy the capital ships which had to be held in the North Sea to counter her. After four months of training and preparations, the British Home Fleet sailed on 30 March 1944 and aircraft launched from five aircraft carriers struck Kaafjord on 3 April. The raid achieved surprise, and
57519-593: Was no indication that Tirpitz would sortie into the open sea, Fraser judged that Force One no longer needed to provide support for the transports. Weather conditions were also unusually good for the Norwegian Sea in early Spring and were well suited to flying operations. After the decision to attack was made both tankers and two escorting destroyers detached from Force Two and proceeded to a point 300 miles (480 km) north-west of Kaafjord where they remained to supply any destroyers that ran low on fuel. The rest of Force Two altered course to rendezvous with Force One, and this
57768-415: Was not launched due to engine problems. Only two of the Barracudas in this wave were armed with 1,600-pound bombs. As with the first strike, 40 fighters accompanied the torpedo bombers; these comprised 10 Corsairs from 1834 and 1836 Naval Air Squadrons, all of the 20 Wildcats assigned to 896 and 898 Naval Air Squadrons and 10 Hellcats from 804 Naval Air Squadron . All aircraft were launched by 5:37 am, and
58017-426: Was now in question. The Royal Navy clearance diving unit, the Fleet Diving Squadron, was reorganised and renamed the Diving and Threat Exploitation Group in 2022. The group consists of five squadrons: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo. The Royal Navy has a separate unit with divers the special forces unit the Special Boat Service . The escort fleet comprises guided missile destroyers and frigates and
58266-435: Was only 45 minutes of full daylight and six hours of twilight, which significantly limited Bey's operational freedom. The Germans were concerned with developments in Allied radar-directed fire control, which allowed British battleships to fire with great accuracy in the darkness; German radar capabilities lagged behind those of their opponents. Scharnhorst and her five destroyers left port at around 19:00 and were in
58515-640: Was ordered but the aircraft achieved nothing and one was shot down by German fighters. The RAF had planned a large daylight raid on the capital ships in Brest on 24 July, but the departure of Scharnhorst to La Pallice caused last-minute alterations to the operation: three forces of three Flying Fortress , eighteen Hampden and 36 Blenheim bombers attacked several coastal targets in order to draw up German fighters prematurely. Only 79 Wellington bombers attacked Brest, with Prinz Eugen and Gneisenau as their principal targets. Fifteen Halifax heavy bombers of No. 35 Squadron RAF and No. 76 Squadron RAF flew
58764-423: Was pulling away. Many of these hits had badly damaged the ship's secondary armament, which left her open to destroyer attacks, which Fraser ordered. The destroyers Scorpion and HNoMS Stord launched a total of eight torpedoes at 18:50, four of which hit. One torpedo exploded abreast of turret Bruno, which caused it to jam. The second torpedo hit the ship on the port side and caused some minor flooding, and
59013-414: Was put out of action by severe flooding. Mechanical problems with her starboard turbines developed after running at full speed, which forced the ships to reduce speed to 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had reached a point north-west of Lofoten, Norway, by 12:00 on 9 April. The two ships then turned west for 24 hours while temporary repairs were effected. After
59262-466: Was quickly refloated. One of 830 Squadron's Barracudas crashed following the attack with the loss of all three members of its crew. The surviving aircraft of the first wave began landing on the carriers at 6:19 am, and all were recovered by 6:42. The first aircraft of the second wave took to the air at 5:25 am. One of 829 Squadron's Barracudas crashed shortly after take-off, resulting in the deaths of its crew of three, and another aircraft from this squadron
59511-408: Was replaced with a raised "Atlantic bow." A raked funnel cap was also installed during the reconstruction, along with an enlarged aircraft hangar; the main mast was also moved further aft. The modifications were completed by November 1939, by which time the ship was finally fully operational. Scharnhorst ' s first operation began on 21 November 1939; the ship, and her sister Gneisenau ,
59760-497: Was sold to the Royal Australian Navy in 2011. In November 2006, the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band described the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels as "a major uplift in the Royal Navy's war fighting capability". In February 2023, a commercial vessel was also acquired to act as a Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance (MROS) Ship for the protection of critical seabed infrastructure and other tasks. She entered service as RFA Proteus . An additional vessel, RFA Stirling Castle ,
60009-455: Was still seen as desirable to destroy Tirpitz , the task was assigned to Bomber Command. On 15 September a force of heavy bombers attacked Kaafjord after refuelling at bases in northern Russia and inflicted irreparable damage on the battleship. Following this, Tirpitz sailed to an anchorage near Tromsø to be used as an immobile coastal defence battery. Operation Obviate , another heavy bomber attack on 29 October caused only minor damage, and
60258-535: Was still working up and not ready for service; Lützow had been seriously damaged by a torpedo on 13 June 1941; Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper were in dockyards for maintenance. On 10 November Bomber Command was forced to pause its campaign against German industry because of high losses and lack of success. As a result the attacks against the ships in Brest resumed. Between 19 August and 11 February 36 attacks were mounted, most of these were surprise attacks by small groups of aircraft that tried to arrive before
60507-575: Was the lead ship of her class , which included her sister ship Gneisenau . The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven ; she was laid down on 15 June 1935 and launched a year and four months later on 3 October 1936. Completed in January 1939, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never carried out. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of
60756-476: Was the weather station that was transmitting weather information to the Allies, which was used to schedule convoys to the Soviet Union. The destroyers landed some 1,000 troops, which pushed the Norwegian garrison into the mountains, completing the mission without major loss. On 22 September, the British executed Operation Source , an attack by six X-craft midget submarines on the German fleet in Norway at their moorings. The X-craft were to drop ground mines below
61005-406: Was thwarted by the defeat of their escort fleet in the extraordinary Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, fought in dangerous conditions. In 1762, the resumption of hostilities with Spain led to the British capture of Manila and of Havana , along with a Spanish fleet sheltering there. British naval supremacy could however be challenged still in this period by coalitions of other nations, as seen in
61254-410: Was to attack the Northern Patrol between Iceland and the Faroe Islands . The intent of the operation was to draw out British units and ease the pressure on the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee , which was being pursued in the South Atlantic. A patrol line of four U-boats was stationed in the North Sea to intercept any sortie from the Home Fleet. The two battleships left Wilhelmshaven in company of
61503-433: Was to deploy the vessels to Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. The so-called " Channel Dash ", codenamed Operation Cerberus, would avoid the increasingly effective Allied radar and patrol aircraft in the Atlantic. Vice Admiral Otto Ciliax, Scharnhorst ' s first commander, was given command of the operation. In early February, minesweepers swept a route through the English Channel undetected by
61752-418: Was to search for and destroy Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic, and to operate the nuclear deterrent submarine force. The navy received its first nuclear weapons with the introduction of the first of the Resolution -class submarines armed with the Polaris missile . Following the conclusion of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1991, the Royal Navy began to experience
62001-405: Was undamaged. The two ships were forced to return: Scharnhorst went to Gotenhafen while Gneisenau went to Kiel for repairs. Repairs were quickly completed, and on 22 January 1941, the two ships, under the command of Admiral Günther Lütjens on Gneisenau , left port for the North Atlantic. They were detected in the Skagerrak and the British Home Fleet deployed to block a breakout into
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