At 7:30 on May 26, 1942, the German fleet arrived in the ocean about 40 nautical miles southeast of Bear Island. The radar of the "Scharnhorst" was damaged during the voyage and became an iceberg. The blind bat in the sea provided an excellent opportunity for the British warships. The "Scharnhorst" failed to find the escort convoy, so it turned around and headed south. At about 9 o'clock, the British "No. 1 Combat Formation" blocked the way and was attacked for the first time. The "Sand" ship was hit by two artillery shells. At 9:40, the German ships headed north again to search for the convoy convoy. At 12:20, the "Sha" ship discovered the British ship. The two sides engaged in a brief exchange of fire, and the "Sha" ship was ordered to fire several shells. At this time, Rear Admiral Erich. Bay made a fatal error in judgment. World War II historians still cannot understand why the German commander mistakenly believed that the British cruiser's gunfire was fired from a battleship that was as powerful as the German ship. In order to preserve strength, Erich. Bei urgently ordered to withdraw from the battle. At 14:30, Germany issued a return order. The "Scharnhorst" then turned to 155" and the speed increased to 28 knots. The return journey was less than 200 nautical miles. At about 20 o'clock, it could return to the Norwegian coast and enter the Altenfjord at night. This is Germany's The second mistake the ship made was because the guns of the British "No. 2 Battle Group" with the "Duke of York" as its flagship were welcoming its arrival.
The British "No. 1 Battle Group" was approaching. The position of the German ship was continuously reported to the "Duke of York" of the "No. 2 Battle Group". The British Admiral Fraser could accurately find the German ship on the chart at 16:17. As expected, the radar soldiers discovered the "Scharnhorst" at the 20" position, 22 nautical miles away. The Scharnhorst was groping forward in the dark due to damaged radar. Its three turrets were all in a stationary state and was completely unaware of the existence of the British ship ahead. At this time, the Scharnhorst was 70 nautical miles north of the Norwegian coast. It is heading east at high speed; about 10 nautical miles to the north of it is the British cruiser fleet (3 cruisers), sailing parallel to the east with the "Sha" ship; to the south of the "Sha" ship's stern is The British battleship "Duke of York", 1 cruiser and 4 destroyers are forming a siege on the "Sand" ship.
At 4:54 pm, a flare fired from the Royal Navy. The naval light cruiser HMS Belfast roared into the night sky. In an instant, the dark sky became like daylight. The lonely sand ship revealed its majestic body on the vast sea. Many people had never seen the majesty of the sand ship. The British sailors couldn't help but marveled, and the officers and soldiers of the sand ship suddenly rushed to the deck as if by magic. "Get ready to fight!" " Lieutenant General Bai roared at the top of his lungs. In a desperate situation, he knew that at this moment he could only fight tooth and nail. The high-quality German sailors quickly entered the fighting position amidst the sound of the battle siren, just waiting for the moment of life and death to arrive.
When the distance between the two ships was only 14 nautical miles, Fraser solemnly ordered to fire. The British gunners seemed to be impatient, and before the commander's words came to the ground, a 360mm shot was fired. The shells had already been fired at the German ship, and the two sides immediately turned into the heaviest fight.
The sand ship had only one target at this time, and that was the battleship Duke of York, which was more powerful than it. Only by destroying this new Royal Navy battleship in a last-ditch battle can it change its dying fate. So the 279mm cannon was directed at the Yue ship. It was the Yue ship that was hit first. At this time, the combat experience and technology of the two warring parties became clear. It is extremely important. The gunfire fired back by the sand ship accurately hit the mast of the battleship, which made everyone in the British fleet break into a cold sweat. But no one still knows why this shell did not explode. It was just the radar on the mast of the battleship. The antenna was broken. A brave British officer braved the strong wind and climbed up the mast to repair the antenna.
The distance between the two sides was too close, despite the speed of the sand ship. However, it still could not escape the range of the ship's artillery. The 360mm cannon shells continued to explode around the sandship, and the water column that was hit tightly covered the sandship. Naturally, the sandship would not sit still and wait for death. The guns fired back at the ship. This was one of the most brutal and fierce naval battles in human history. Any accurate hit on either side of the war could lead to the complete destruction of the opponent.
The foundation of British ships is more powerful artillery fire and stronger hulls; while German ships can rely on higher maneuverability and the superb combat skills of German soldiers . So far, they had successfully hit the British ship HMS Norfolk twice and the Duke of York once. However, as the war continued, the Royal Navy, which has a fine tradition, increasingly showed its bravery and fighting qualities. Everyone in the British fleet understood that today would be a day that changed history.
A round of cannonballs rushed towards the sandship. Suddenly, there was an earth-shattering explosion from the sandship, and then a thick black smoke came from the main gun emplacement on the bow of the sandship. It rose up and turned into a bright orange fire dozens of meters high in the sky. The sandship was finally hit!
The officers and soldiers of the British ships were deeply encouraged, and their hit rate continued to increase. Another shell accurately hit another main gun battery on the bow of the sandship, and the third shell hit the boiler room of the sandship on the waterline. The shell penetrated an important steam pipe leading to the turbine. pipeline. The speed of the sand ship suddenly dropped from 30 knots to 10 knots. The livid-faced Lieutenant General Bai looked at the equally livid-faced Hinze, and then ordered the engineers to carry out emergency repairs while preparing to generate electricity for D?nitz and the "Führer". His message was as follows: "As long as we have the last shell, we will keep fighting!" This pessimistic message conveyed an accurate message, that is, Bai and Hinze wanted to realize their old superior Lei's plan. Marshal Del's oath: "Either all officers and soldiers unite as one to win victory; or the war chess is raised high and submerged into the ocean." Captain Hinze understands the meaning of this sentence better. As a symbol of the Imperial Navy, the sandship is always accompanied by honor. , as the last captain of the sandship, he will push this tradition to the extreme.
Four British destroyers dropped their torpedoes into the icy ocean one by one. Explosions occurred one after another in the distance. The fire ignited by the sand ship lit up the sky. This giant ship is now scarred and a piece of Langji could no longer move.
Fraser immediately led the engagement ship and three cruisers to appear again. At this time, his prey was still making its final struggle, but it could no longer pose any threat to the British ship. The Belfast continued to throw ruthless shells onto the body of the sandship, and suddenly the body of the sandship tilted to the south. At 7:12 pm, the Belfast finally knocked off the last main gun turret of the sand ship. What moved Fraser was that the sandship, with only two 150mm secondary guns left, continued to fight.
Forty-five minutes later, the bow of the sand warship sank suddenly, and the entire ship submerged straight into the ocean, with only three huge propellers still spinning helplessly. Afterwards, through statistics of data from various aspects, it was found that the blow suffered by the sand ship was shocking-hundreds of artillery shells exploded on the sand ship, and at least 17 of the 55 torpedoes that attacked the sand ship had direct hits!
There were 1,968 German officers and soldiers who sank with the sandship into the Northern Winter Sea. Hundreds of people jumped into the sea when the sandship sank. The cold and biting water caused the officers and soldiers who fell into the water to die within a few minutes. He lost consciousness and then drowned. The British destroyer HMS Scorpio searched for surviving German troops on the vast ice sea. In the end, only 36 people were rescued.
The courage of the German officers and soldiers deeply shocked Lieutenant General Fraser. The general said emotionally to his officers and soldiers that night: "Gentlemen, if one day you are sent to such a warship , participating in such a battle with such a disparity in strength, I hope that all the gentlemen present can fight as vigorously as the officers and soldiers of the sandship!" A few days later, when the ship returned to the UK, when it passed the sea area where the sandship sank, Lieutenant General Fraser said He personally led all the ship's officers and honor guard to line up on the deck and watched as a wreath symbolizing memory was thrown into the sea.
This naval battle was the last large-scale naval battle fought by the German and British navies before the end of World War II.
Years later, Norwegian TV reporter Alf and relevant experts went through all the files in the National Archives and the Ministry of Defense, and interviewed the sailors on the ship who narrowly escaped death. The Norwegian Navy dispatched a marine research ship to conduct a careful search at the site of this fierce maritime battle in World War II. In early October this year, it finally located 28.16 degrees east longitude and 72.72 degrees north latitude. The exact location of the wreckage of the "Scharnhorst" was detected on 3 degrees. With its bottom turned upside down, it lay quietly at a depth of 290 meters on the seabed, about 66 nautical miles away from the North Cape of Norway. It was 14 nautical miles northward than the position previously estimated by battle historians.
Under the illumination of the lighting, the technicians saw that "the ship was very seriously damaged. It seems that the German ship commander really fought until the last moment."