Battle of the North Sea

In June 1942 the german Kriegsmarine, emboldened by their success in the Baltic, made a major sortie into the north sea. The german high command were in the main confident, sending out the battlecruiser Scharnhorst along with the Prinz Eugen and pocket battleship Graf Spee. However some in the navy expressed grave concerns, citing that such a concentration of powerful warships had a serious drawback, no guns heavier than the 11" carried by Graf Spee and Scharnhorst.

The British navy were quick to respond to the sortie, having broken the german naval codes. The royal navy had organised into rapid reaction task forces, each consisting of a battleship, an aircraft carrier as well as escorting cruisers and destroyers. This enabled the British to split up their forces and cover the maximum area of sea, while still packing enough punch to deal with one, or maybe two of the german navy's surface raiders on their own. Now however they needed to deal with three.

Unperturbed, the home fleet sent their nearest battle group towards the expected breakout point of the german raiders. The force consisted of the aircraft carrier Corageous and the venerable Valiant, a modified WWI battleship which none-the-less sported 16" guns. Escorted by the cruisers Hermione and Naiad and a group of destroyers, the british ships made good time in the pleasant June weather and early morning on the 7th June the british and german vessels sighted each other.

Both forces closed immediately for battle, and confidence was high on both sides. The germans kept their forces together, and revealed they were protected by Luftwaffe fighters. The air strike launched by Courageous was easily dealt with by the german fighters, and realising the carrier was in 11" gun range, Graf Spee and Scharnhorst opened up on her, damaging the flight deck and forcing the british to disengage. Courageous played no further meaningful part in the battle.

The german ships now concentrated on Valiant, but found to their distress that her armour held up well to their 11" and 8" guns. Meanwhile accurate plunging fire from Valiant's 16" main battery began to take its toll, with Scharnhorst the main target. Hit several times the german battlecruiser was soon a burning mess. Now the british cruisers and destroyers charged into the fray, and although the destroyers were themselves sunk by the german ships' secondary weapons, they succeeded in torpedoing the Prinz Eugen, crippling the heavy cruiser, which later sank.

The Scharnhorst tried to get away, but Valiant continued to pour shells into her with some spectacularly accurate shooting. Soon she stopped dead in the water and sank at 09:07. The Graf Spee should have escaped, but the Valiant was not done. At 10:15 and at extreme range, the british ship landed a 16" salvo with almost pinpoint accuracy. Hit by five 16" shells the Graf Spee was fatally holed, and rolled over and sank in under twenty minutes.

Niaid and Hermione picked up survivors, while the Valiant's crew could hardly believe their crushing victory. In one morning the Kriegsmarine had lost three of their most dangerous surface raiders, almost a third of her capital vessels, for the loss of three destroyers, a handful of swordfish and some damage to Courageous and Valiant's superstructure. Immediately the british were reporting the great naval victory, although it took the german regime several weeks to admit their losses. Hitler was furious, forbidding any further "rash actions" by the Kriegsmarine. The initiative in the atlantic naval war had shifted heavily in favour of the allies.