Happy and Glorious (Part One)

By Sean Devitt

Happy and Glorious is an alternate history novel set in World War Two. It is based on the premise that the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious wasn't tragically lost with heavy loss of life in June 1940 but survived and went on to take part in future battles. In this book we will show how this old and now largely forgotten aircraft carrier changed the war. The book is written in the style of a history book as it would appear in this alternate reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sean Devitt
• Release date: Mar 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311093202

Book preview

HAPPY AND GLORIOUS

by Sean Devitt

Published by Sean Devitt at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 by Sean Devitt

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

On the 8th of June 1940 the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious was sunk off the coast of Norway by the German warships KMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. It was one of those military disasters that seemed to plague the British so often in the early years of World War Two.

In this story I will speculate about what might have happened if the HMS Glorious had lived to fight another day. Did the HMS Glorious have the potential to be one of the most influential warships in modern history? Did Britain lose something more than just a ship on that day in 1940?

As you have probably guessed, this is an alternate history novel set during the Second World War but unlike many famous stories of this genre, this is not about the Nazis winning or about the dramatic impact of some new wonder weapon turning the tide of the conflict. Instead this is a story that gives the British Royal Navy a lucky break early in the war in this case a minor historical battle from April 1940 (two months before the Glorious was originally lost) in which I altered one small detail.

The point of departure from normal history will be the naval skirmish that was fought close to the Lofoten Islands off the coast of Norway on April 9th 1940 between the Royal Navy and the German Navy (from now on referred to as the Kriegsmarine). The detail I’ve altered is that a German shell that originally failed to explode when it hit the British battlecruiser HMS Renown actually detonates. The result of this explosion will provide the catalyst for a chain of events that leads to the survival of the carrier HMS Glorious two months later.

If this book has a main ‘character’ it’s the HMS Glorious. For World War Two history buffs the HMS Glorious needs no introduction, but for everyone else the HMS Glorious was an old British aircraft carrier that served in the early part of World War Two. Her wartime career was tragically cut short in June 1940 when she was intercepted and sunk by gunfire from the German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau under circumstances that remain controversial to this day. The loss of the Glorious and her two attendant destroyers the HMS Acasta and HMS Ardent cost the lives of 1,519 men. In this timeline the Glorious survives and goes on to change the world in ways that no one in 1940 could have imagined.

Hopefully the reader will see that the ‘butterfly effect’ of the changes will be grounded in reality and I feel that I’ve done a reasonable job in avoiding the use of deus ex machina to make things happen.

To help those not totally familiar with the original Second World War timeline, the changes start to occur on the morning of April 9th 1940 during the sea battle between the HMS Renown and the German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. After that time we start to enter an alternate reality.

My goal is to write this story as though it were a standard history book written by a historian in a parallel universe. A universe that was identical to ours until April 9th 1940.

The title ‘Happy and Glorious’ is obviously taken from the lyrics of the British national anthem as well as from the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious.

I used a variety of sources to gather facts about ships, orders of battle and officers involved. I would like to single out Naval-history.net for special mention as well as the valuable though admittedly not always perfect Wikipedia.

CHAPTER ONE

Norway April 1940

By April 1940 the Second World War was already seven months old and as far as the people of the western democracies were concerned little had happened since the fall of Poland during the previous autumn. The titanic land battles that most expected on the Western Front failed to materialize and there was a feeling that neither side really wanted to continue the war now that Poland was conquered. One American Senator had remarked that there was something phoney about the war and so the term ‘Phoney War’ to describe this period stuck. Others suggested that perhaps the political leaders of Europe had learned their lesson from the tragedy of the Great War and would do all they could to find a way to make an honourable peace and thereby spare the lives of millions of young men. Unfortunately, these hopes would go unfulfilled as the belligerents had other plans and the Phoney War was simply the calm before the storm.

At sea however, the ‘Phoney War’ never existed. The passenger liner SS Athenia was sunk by the German U-boat U-30 within hours of Britain’s declaration of war and within the first month the Royal Navy had lost the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous to another U-boat and perhaps most humiliatingly of all, the battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk in the supposedly safe naval anchorage of Scapa Flow. By the end of 1939 the death toll was already in the thousands and this included Germans. The pocket battleship Graf Spee had been damaged in battle with three Royal Navy cruisers in the South Atlantic and then scuttled itself outside Montevideo harbour in Uruguay rather than resume the fight. This gave the Royal Navy an excellent propaganda as well as material victory.

The First Lord of the Admiralty in the early months of the war was Winston Churchill a post he had also occupied during the Great War and just like the previous war he preferred an aggressive strategy on the peripheries of Europe rather than fighting costly frontal battles on the Western Front. For many months he had his eyes fixed on Norway and had agitated for action to be taken to mine the waters and deny their use to German cargo ships carrying valuable iron ore from Sweden via Norway. There were also more ambitious plans to occupy Norway itself and shut down Germany’s winter iron ore traffic completely. It was hoped that this would tighten the blockade of Germany and bring the war to an early end.

There were of course legal and ethical concerns about violating Norwegian neutrality but advocates of the policy argued that the risks were outweighed by the benefits. They also assumed that Norway would put up no more than token resistance to the Allies and could easily be persuaded to join them. Over the months many plans were discussed one of which was to send an expeditionary force to help Finland (which at the time was resisting an invasion launched by the Soviet Union in late 1939) by landing in Northern Norway but then use the forces to seize the Swedish iron ore fields. It was perhaps a reflection of the horror with which the Allies viewed a repeat of the First World War bloodbath on the Western Front that they seriously considered invading two neutral Scandinavian countries and clashing with the Soviet Union just to avoid fighting the main German army in the West.

Fortunately for the future of the Allied cause Finland agreed to an armistice and so an excuse for sending troops had disappeared. This left few options when it came to finding a legitimate reason for intervention in Scandanavia and so in the end the decision was taken to sow mines in Norwegian waters and thereby provoke a German response. The Allies could then intervene under the pretext of protecting Norway from the Nazis. So it was against this background that the Royal Navy commenced Operation Wilfred in early April 1940. The Germans of course were only too aware of the vulnerability of their iron ore supplies coming from Scandinavia and it was pretty much an open secret that the Allies were planning ways of cutting them off. The Germans had responded by drawing up their own plan under the code name Operation Weserubung which was nothing less than the full scale invasion of Norway (Denmark was also to be occupied). To succeed, the Germans would have to somehow land their troops on Norwegian soil and seize the main ports before the larger British Navy could intervene.

In one of those coincidences that seem to happen so often in history both Operation Wilfred and Operation Weserubung took place simultaneously. Some of the German naval forces that put to sea in early April were spotted by the British but they mistakenly believed that they were either planning a break out into the Atlantic to do commerce raiding or launching some kind of naval action in the North Sea. Hardly anyone considered that the Germans would dare to launch a full scale invasion of Norway right under the noses of the Royal Navy. This assumption delayed the response of the Allies as troops that were originally bound for Norway were suddenly disembarked so that the British fleet could prepare for a classic sea battle. When the Allies belatedly realized what was happening there were already German troops ashore and capturing ports. This confusion among the Allies had allowed the Germans to seize the initiative and they pretty much kept it for the rest of campaign.

It was in the midst of this unfolding drama that one of the British minelaying groups that were carrying out Operation Wilfred received orders to break off and rendezvous with the main Home Fleet once its mission was complete. This group was led by Vice Admiral William Whitworth sailing from the veteran battlecruiser HMS Renown. This ship had originally entered service in 1916 but was largely modernized and reconstructed before war broke out in 1939. After its modernization it had a full load displacement of approximately 36,000 tons and was armed with 6 x 15 guns equipped with improved shells and 20 dual purpose 4.5 guns in twin turrets. Along with the Renown were ten destroyers (HMS Hotspur, Hardy, Havoc, Hunter, Glowworm, Esk, Greyhound, Ivanhoe, Icarus and Impulsive) four of which were primarily equipped for mine laying operations with the other six acting as fleet escorts.

The weather conditions on April 6th were very rough and one man from the destroyer HMS Glowworm was swept overboard. Risking his whole ship in the mountainous waves the commander of the Glowworm, Lieutenant Commander Roope turned his vessel around and searched for his lost crewman. They scoured the grey surface of the cold ocean for many hours but found nothing. So with a heavy heart Roope abandoned the search and ordered his ship to make its way back to the fleet. This proved easier said than done as the Glowworm had fallen far behind the main British force and would have to mount a herculean effort through the rough seas to catch up.

Then on April 8th with almost unbelievable bad luck the Glowworm encountered a force of German destroyers that included the powerful heavy cruiser KMS Admiral Hipper (18,000 tons fully loaded with eight x 8" guns). Like the British, the Germans were also hampered by the weather and their ships were more scattered than they would have liked which meant that at first the Glowworm only saw the enemy destroyers and not the Admiral Hipper. Despite being outnumbered Glowworm attacked the enemy destroyers and seemed to be doing just fine despite the odds. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the Admiral Hipper emerged from the gloom and opened fire on the hopelessly outgunned Glowworm. The end result was a brief unequal action in which the Glowworm fired off 8 torpedoes and then rammed (others claimed collided with) the Admiral Hipper. The wrecked destroyer then sank beneath the stormy sea and her commanding officer was lost despite the best efforts of the Germans to rescue as many as they could. Later Roope was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

In response to the Glowworm’s plight the battlecruiser HMS Renown and her nine remaining destroyers altered course to investigate only to swiftly be ordered to head north and return to the area close to their earlier mine laying operation.

It was while pursuing this course that at 3.30am on the morning of April 9th Admiral Whitworth aboard the Renown was told that two large German ships had been spotted in the midst of a snow squall. At first it was believed that one of the ships was the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and Whitworth immediately ordered a pursuit. In actual fact the ships turned out to be the KMS Scharnhorst and her sister ship, the KMS Gneisenau (both 38,000 tons fully loaded and armed with nine 11 guns). It took a while before the German radar spotted the British and because of the bad weather it took another 30 minutes before action commenced. Finally at 04.05 with the range down to 18,600 yards the HMS Renown was able to open fire on the Gneisenau. The weather conditions made battle very difficult as the waves crashed over the bows of the Renown and hampered the ability of her forward turrets to fire. This gave the advantage to the Germans who had fired first but initially scored no hits with their 11 guns. Another result of the weather was that the Renown soon found herself to be pretty much alone as her nine accompanying destroyers started to fall behind due to the heavy seas.

At 04.14 a 15 shell from the Renown finally struck the Gneisenau and knocked out the forward range finder while another shell rendered one of its 11 turrets (Anton) inoperable. Soon after this another shell struck amidships and this seemed to be enough to persuade the captain of the Gneisenau to increase speed and try to escape to the north. As he did this the Scharnhorst made smoke to obscure visibility even further. Meanwhile the Germans had replied with two 11" shell hits on the Renown one of which was a dud while the other had plunged into the sailors’ baggage handling room, exploded and caused a large fire. The damage to the Renown wasn’t significant and only one man was killed but the fire produced a lot of smoke and made things look worse than they actually were. The sight of so much smoke billowing from the Renown led the German observers to mistakenly believe that they had badly damaged the Renown and had achieved the upper hand in the battle.

The German commander Vice Admiral Guther Lutjens, looked through his binoculars to confirm what he was being told. Unfortunately, the poor weather plus the gloom made it practically impossible for him to make out the true condition of the ship as the grey outline of the Renown was blurred against the gloomy sky. The spray from the waves crashing over the bows added to his problems and he soon found the need to ask for advice from the commander of the Scharnhorst Captain Hoffmann. The officer was reluctant to jump to any hasty conclusions and so tried to give a suitably vague answer but without sounding too evasive. Later it was said that he seemed to focus more on striking the right balance between caution and belligerence than on giving a straight answer that may have been useful. After once again scanning the grey blur of the Renown and then conferring with some officers he finally expressed his opinion.

Admiral, my considered opinion is that the Renown appears to be struggling. How much of it is due to the weather and how much is result of damage inflicted by our guns is difficult to say at this moment. What is clear is that there are definitely fires on board the ship producing lots of smoke. I would suggest this shows that she has been heavily damaged.

Lutjens listened calmly and nodded his head as Captain Hoffmann gave his opinion. It was as vague as any report a subordinate could give but the gist matched his own feeling and that was good enough. As though destiny wished to give him a further nudge, it was reported that another shell had possibly struck the Renown close to the stern.

Your assessment is in agreement with mine Captain answered Lutjens But we should remain cautious and keep our distance. If the enemy shows himself to be as badly damaged as you suggest then we should be prepared to exploit the situation and finish him. However, for the time being we will maintain our present course and speed. Continue firing in steady salvos.

The Admiral knew he was taking a risk as his orders were to avoid engaging enemy capital ships and if he encountered any he was to draw them away from the invasion force. Technically, he could argue that he was following instructions by engaging in a running battle to the north and so drawing the British away but the truth was that with two of Germany’s most powerful ships at his disposal facing an aged British battlecruiser, he felt that providence had gifted him a great opportunity. He was especially pleased to find that the bad weather had slowed down the enemy destroyers to the point that they were starting to recede from view. It was the threat from the destroyers that he feared most as he knew that even a single torpedo hit this far from home and under such conditions could have serious consequences. With the destroyers falling behind the Renown he knew that he would never get a better chance than the one he now had to strike a blow at the enemy.

As a proud officer of the Kriegsmarine, he already possessed supreme confidence in the quality of his ships and in the training of his men and he felt that together with the Gneisenau he could defeat the Renown and possibly even sink her. Another factor that may have been at the back of his mind was the knowledge that the Renown had a reputation for being prone to mechanical problems that was widely believed to be the result of faulty design. He was also aware that in the last war three British battlecruisers blew up at the Battle of Jutland after being struck by just a few shells in the right place. Perhaps they would blow up in this war too!

Lutjens was far too professional to allow such thoughts to dictate his actions but they all played their role in his fateful decision making process that morning. He felt certain that at worst he would force the Renown into a retreat and this would be enough for him to claim a moral if not a literal victory. He would also finally avenge the loss of the pocket battleship Graf Spee the previous December and the world would finally see that the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) was just as effective in war as the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht had proved to be. So as his blood coursed faster through his veins, his remaining doubts began to diminish and he ordered the Scharnhorst to increase her rate of fire while the Gneisenau with one damaged turret maintained its station immediately ahead to give supporting fire when needed.

Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Whitworth showed no signs of concern to his fellow officers as heavy shells fell around the HMS Renown. He knew he commanded an old ship, older than many of its crew but he also knew it had been extensively modernized and was one of the most capable ships in the Royal Navy at that time. He also knew that his ship carried bigger guns and the Renown was famous for its marksmanship. At first he believed one of the ships facing him was the heavy 8 gun cruiser Admiral Hipper but as the range closed and the fall of heavy shell became apparent his officers checked their silhouette cards and he was told that he was facing the ‘sisters’ the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which meant he was up against eighteen 11 guns to his six 15. That was a most unpleasant thought but he knew that his fire control was as good as anything the Germans had and he also knew his heavy shells wouldn't be breaking up on impact like they many would have done in the First World War. This time his 15 shells would hurt the enemy when they landed and he hoped that a few well placed hits would help even the odds. He had already witnessed the orange flash of hits on the Gneisenau, possibly three of them. This resulted in it increasing speed and moving on ahead of the Scharnhorst as the latter made smoke to obscure the target. Whitworth knew he must have damaged her significantly in order for that to happen. With rising confidence he felt he now had the enemy on the run and he wondered if he could hurt the Scharnhorst too.

The Admiral issued orders for the Renown to increase speed (which turned out to be a difficult task) and close the range even though he knew this would cause further damage to the bows in the rough seas. He also ordered Bernard Warburton-Lee and his four ‘H’ class destroyers to detach from the other escorts and try to mount an attack when the opportunity presented itself. Warburton-Lee responded immediately although he was doubtful that his ships would be able to overcome the mountainous waves and get into a favourable position.

The battle was now becoming a classic stern chase gunnery duel although both sides found it difficult to maintain accuracy in the poor visibility for more than a few minutes at a time. In order to maintain a steady gun platform the Scharnhorst was forced to slow down to 24 knots and this obviously made her an easier target too. As the battle intensified some of the officers on the bridge of the Scharnhorst who had been quite sanguine in the earlier stages couldn’t help but start dwelling on the fact that Admiral Lutjens original orders were simply to escort the invasion convoy to the Norwegian port of Narvik and then draw the enemy forces away. By slowing down to allow the Renown to catch up and fight he was technically disobeying orders and now his ship was starting to take damage with the result that the earlier confidence was slowly giving way to anxiety.

Meanwhile the outnumbered Renown fought on as though oblivious of the odds facing her. The German Admiral believed he had seen 11 shell after 11 shell hit home but under the weather conditions it was difficult to be certain which shells were striking home and which were straddling thanks to the spray and the general gloom of the cold grey dawn sky. With the British ship outnumbered two to one by ships a generation younger and with a greater combined firepower than herself Lutjens couldn’t help but wonder why the British Admiral didn’t just break off the action while he still had the chance.

Vice Admiral Whitworth however, had no thoughts of withdrawal. Whatever personal fears he may have had he showed no signs of them to his fellow officers as the damage reports flooded in. At the start of the battle the Gneisenau had hit the Renown close to the stern that killed a crewman in addition to the shell that hit the baggage room. Then the Scharnhorst started scoring hits from 04.54 onwards. One hit struck ‘A’ turret and temporarily knocked it out reducing the Renown to just one forward firing turret with the rear turret not in the fight yet. At 05.09 another 11 shell struck a stockpile of 4.5 anti-aircraft ammunition causing a fire that wreaked havoc on deck killing more than a dozen men and producing a long column of smoke to trail from the ship.

From the deck of the Scharnhorst it looked like the Renown was taking a beating. So far the British had failed to score any hits on the Scharnhorst but there was one near miss that caused concussion shock to the engines that temporarily reduced her speed to 24 knots. The range was now down to 16,500 yards and Lutjens was starting to feel that victory could be his at virtually no cost. He immediately tried to dispel this thought from his mind and as if to warn against any premature celebrations a 15 shell hit struck the ship close to the stern at 05.15. The damage was negligible and caused no casualties but did blow a small hole in the unarmoured section of the hull allowing water to leak in. It was a sign that the Renown had acquired her target. At 05.18 a near miss landed close to the Renown’s bow adding to the flooding that was already taking place due to storm damage. The Renown responded at 05.22 with another direct hit between the rear 11 turret and the port side 5.9 gun penetrating the deck and killing two men and rendering the 5.9 turret inoperable.

Captain Hoffmann began to feel uneasy at the thought of his ship taking damage so far from home base but with the Renown apparently losing the battle he kept these worries to himself. The ensuing battle was punctuated by short lulls as the weather conditions prevented the turrets from firing accurately. This gave time for periods of reflection and opportunities to break off the action but neither side took the chance.

By 06.00am, the Renown had suffered 23 killed, 31 wounded and most seriously of all, only had one 15" turret capable of firing forward. There was also over 200 tons of seawater inside the ship and its speed was reduced to 25 knots. For the Scharnhorst things weren’t nearly so bad. The damage from the near miss plus the weather meant that its top speed was also 25 knots and storm damage was causing the ship to leak in water too. The ranged had opened again to almost 19,000 yards and visibility was poor.

To Vice Admiral Whitworth the main concern was that the enemy might escape rather than the condition of his own ship, an attitude that was typical of the Royal Navy and something which often proved difficult for German admirals to understand. He was told that Warburton Lee’s destroyers were still having a difficult time with the weather but had taken advantage of the twists and turns of the battle to cut a few corners and close the range a little. His other destroyers were trying to do the same but were still a little way behind.

At least there will be plenty of destroyers to pick us up if we sink he joked. The officers around him chuckled nervously and hoped they would live to tell everyone about the Admiral’s gallows humour.

Lutjens in contrast was starting to feel unhappy about the condition of his ship. The Gneisenau was initially unaware of the reduction in speed of her sister and had opened the distance to over 2,500 yards before slowing down. The earlier damage to her fire control and loss of turret meant that she wasn’t much use at 21,000 yards in such weather conditions. She did fire a few salvoes but they fell far wide of the Renown. At 06.34 the action resumed with the Scharnhorst hitting the Renown below the waterline but the shell failed to explode which led Whitworth to think that maybe today could be a lucky day for the Royal Navy. At 06.47 a 15 shell from Renown plunged through the stern of the Scharnhorst and exploded tearing a small hole below the waterline. Soon the Scharnhorst was taking in more water and would soon be leaking as much as the Renown. To make things worse another 15 shell then hit the rear 11" turret and knocked her out of action.

For Lutjens this was enough. The battle had been fun but it was time to go. He signaled to the Gneisenau to turn to broadside to cover the withdrawal of the Scharnhorst so that both ships could effectively swap places. By 06.57 she had shipped about 300 tons of seawater and her speed was effectively 24 knots. To add to his concerns there were also the enemy destroyers to be considered. He believed that there were perhaps six, although one report earlier in the battle said there may be seven enemy destroyers. Now he was being informed that there were five destroyers slowly catching up with the Renown but still too far away to be considered a threat. Lutjens asked what class of vessel they were and after a few minutes they were identified as ‘I’ class with perhaps an ‘E’ class too. This was much better news than he expected. Earlier in the battle he thought the more capable ‘H’ class destroyers were with the Renown but he now believed that report to be an error.

Meanwhile Warburton-Lee and his four ‘H’ class destroyers had performed minor miracles of seamanship and had used the poor weather and the mayhem of battle to their advantage by working their way around the damaged and preoccupied German battlecruisers without being observed. This almost superhuman effort had already cost the life of one seaman washed overboard. With both enemy ships sailing at 25 knots and suffering from battle damage the British knew that they stood a reasonable chance of being able to mount an attack but it would have to be soon if the badly battered Renown was to survive.

Lutjens was now desperately looking for a face saving way to withdraw from the battle. The Renown was not behaving in a way that he considered irrational. What could the British admiral possibly hope to achieve by allowing his ship to be pulverized and then sunk in the cold God forsaken ocean off Norway? He was sure no one would possibly criticize him if he withdrew from the battle. He could cite the weather conditions which had deteriorated a lot in the previous few days, he could draw attention to being outnumbered, to the lack of air reconnaissance, he could even make up a story but no, he just kept attacking. For all his logic he failed to understand that British admirals rarely retreat if they think they have a chance of hurting the enemy. It was possibly a legacy that stretched back to the Eighteenth Century and the execution of the unfortunate Admiral Byng for ‘failing to do his utmost’. Since that time British admirals rarely withdrew from the field of battle. Lutjens was learning that Nazis weren't the only people who could be unreasonable.

Why doesn’t the fool make smoke and withdraw? Lutjens whispered to himself through clenched teeth.

Captain Hoffmann was the only one who overheard him. He fully understood the admiral’s frustration and he shared his disquiet. At 07.01 a 15 shell pierced the armour and crashed into the number one boiler room and exploded. This temporarily reduced the Scharnhorst’s speed to 15 knots. By 07.30am the Scharnhorst had been hit seven times by 15 shell and another five times by 4.5 shells. There were now a couple of fires onboard filling the air with smoke. He had just been told that the number of dead had passed the 30 mark and there were many others wounded. One 11 turret had been knocked out with its roof blown in while another turret was beginning to develop mechanical problems. The weather was also causing severe problems as the forward 11" turret became flooded by water crashing over the bow while more water to leak through the shell holes. Finally her radar was now out of action.

Lutjens was in a quandary. By withdrawing after giving battle he risked humiliation not just for himself but for the Kriegsmarine. First the Graf Spee and then Germany's two finest ships would have run away from supposedly weaker British forces when things got too hot for them. The enemy propaganda machine would have a field day and the world would laugh at the German Navy. On the other hand if he stayed and fought it out then his precious ships would continue to take damage. How would he explain all this to Admiral Raeder? How would the Fuhrer feel? He felt that there was only one thing to do in this situation. He had to sink the Renown or force her to retreat and have a medal pinned to his chest and then no one would talk about the damage to his ships. He realized that before any of that could happen he first had to ensure that his ship would be in a good enough condition to continue the fight so he issued a new set of orders to his captain.

Captain Hoffman, turn 10 degrees to the northwest and increase speed to 27 knots. These fires when added to the weather are obscuring our ability to target the enemy. We need to deal with the fires first and then return to the fight once our situation has improved. Order the Gneisenau to take up the strain and wish them success.

The captain was more than happy to comply and passed on the order. A few moments later however, came a reply that no one onboard wanted to hear.

Admiral, we are still having some problems with the starboard turbines. They are doing their best but for the time being all they can give us is 22 knots.

Meanwhile Admiral Whitworth was glad that the Renown had been extensively modernized and had re entered service just a month before war broke out. Unlike her cousins at Jutland she had not blown up. On the other hand things were still looking grim. The ship had just suffered her tenth 11" hit but fortunately three had failed to explode. Had the Germans lost their edge in shell design? At least one of the unexploded shells would have severely reduced Renown’s speed if it had detonated. Was destiny intervening on the side of the angels?

Despite this the Renown was having problems keeping up with the German ships. From the conning tower they watched with growing dismay as the range opened, first to 20,000 yards and then 22,000 yards. The Renown had shifted fire to the Gneisenau and quickly scored a hit on her main 12" armour belt doing little damage but enough to keep the Germans from trying to close the range. By this stage of the battle the Renown was making just 21 knots and had shipped 900 tons of water while the Scharnhorst was trying to maintain 22 knots as frantic repairs were carried out in number one boiler room. At 08.10 the Gneisenau struck Renown again on ‘A’ turret but this was already out of action and added little extra damage. Four minutes later the Renown scored a hit on the Gneisenau below the waterline close to the front turret that soon led to 300 tons of water flooding in. The captain of the Gneisenau checked that the Scharnhorst had changed course to the northwest and had moved away from the battle. Satisfied that the ship was safe he decided to increase speed to 27 knots and pull away from the British battlecruiser and open the range. It was at this stage that the ‘I’ and ‘G’ Class British destroyers began to catch up with the action and further convinced the captain of the Gneisenau to withdraw.

Meanwhile by 08.54, the four ‘H’ class destroyers the Havoc, Hardy, Hotspur and Hunter were able to take advantage of the change of course of the Scharnhorst to finally manoeuvre into a position to launch an attack. The flotilla leader Captain Warburton-Lee knew that a successful torpedo attack depended on timing and above all luck. He saw the Scharnhorst make another small turn that brought her closer to their position. To his surprise she failed to open fire and seemed oblivious to the presence of his ships. This was the piece of luck he needed and he quickly deduced that the poor weather conditions, low visibility plus the fires aboard Scharnhorst meant that they had failed to spot his destroyers. Warburton-Lee instinctively knew that this was an opportunity that only comes along once in a World War and so with his heart beating so loudly he could hear it pounding in his ears he ordered the attack to begin.

The destroyers made their turn and attempted to raise speed to as close to 36 knots as weather conditions would allow. This proved to be impossible but luck remained on their side as the Scharnhorst didn’t open fire until the destroyers had closed to within 20,000 yards. Due to heavy battle damage and the knocking out of its radar the accuracy of the first few salvoes were poor and this gave the British time to close the range before taking hits. HMS Havoc was struck first by a 5.9 shell and soon the HMS Hardy was hit three times. The destroyers returned fire with their 4.7 guns and succeeded in hitting the Scharnhorst five times and killing a crewman operating the single 5.9 gun on the port side before they finally unleashed their torpedoes at the almost suicidal range of 6,500 yards. The captain of the Scharnhorst ordered evasive action as fourteen 21 torpedoes were launched at his ship. The gallant charge of the destroyers had cost Warburton-Lee (who would receive a posthumous Victoria Cross) his life and had left the HMS Hardy burning and dead in the water but their efforts were rewarded as two torpedoes hit home one of which struck close to the unarmoured bow section. Soon the amount of water caused Scharnhorst to tilt towards the bow increasing her effective draught in the rough sea and reduced her speed to 14 knots.

The Gneisenau was also having problems. Its fire control had been damaged earlier in the battle with one 11" turret out of action. The weather conditions were also against it. The Scharnhorst Class vessels weren’t very good ocean going boats and this was becoming a factor in the battle. The initial 27 knots fell back to 25 knots as storm damage and leaking water hampered its ability to come to the aid of the Scharnhorst.

Meanwhile aboard the battered HMS Renown Vice Admiral Whitworth was given two pieces of news. He was asked if he wanted the good news or bad news first.

Give me the bad news first he sighed. It was clear that the Admiral was exhausted by the morning battle.

'B' turret has definitely had it and there's no way she can be brought back into action.

I see. That is pretty bad news. So what's the good news? Are they going to bring back the cricket this year?

Well I’m not sure about whether we will be watching cricket this summer Admiral but I can give you one prediction I can be sure of. The Scharnhorst won’t be going home today or any other day.

In better weather the Scharnhorst would probably have escaped but the two torpedo hits had torn huge holes in the hull that allowed large amounts of seawater to flood in and increase her draught. This combined with the concussion caused by the torpedo hits reduced her speed to 14 knots and made her a comparative sitting duck as the other destroyers slowly caught up and delivered the coup de grace by putting three more torpedoes into her. In a final act of defiance a 5.9" shell from the Scharnhorst landed on the British destroyer HMS Greyhound killing 3 of her crew before the great ship keeled over and sank beneath the stormy ocean taking all but 113 of her crew to a cold watery grave. Vizeadmiral Gunther Lutjens wasn’t among the survivors.

The forlorn Gneisenau had opened fire on the destroyers but failed to score hits and then turned away as the destroyers altered course towards it. The German captain Harald Netzbandt was unaware that the destroyers had already fired all their torpedoes and that the attack was a bluff. Meanwhile the Renown was finally able to increase its speed to 24 knots and after a brief exchange of salvoes the Gneisenau withdrew and the battle ended. Vice Admiral Whitworth knew his ship was in no condition to pursue as the Renown was leaking a lot of water, had two turrets out of action and 64 men dead. They were also running low on 15 ammunition. It was later discovered that she had fired 402 15 shells and 1101 4.5" shells.

The Battle of Lofoten had ended in a British victory. The Scharnhorst had been sunk and the Gneisenau forced to flee but the victory had not been without cost. The destroyer HMS Hardy had been lost and Warburton Lee killed with the total number of British deaths at 206 (64 on the Renown, 137 on the Hardy, 3 on the Greyhound and 2 on the other destroyers) compared to German losses of 1,821 killed and 113 captured. A small memorial to the victory was erected at Henningsvaer in the Lofoten Islands after the war bearing the names of the British dead. The names of those lost on the Scharnhorst were added in 1953.

After making its escape the Gneisenau rendezvoused with the damaged heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and both returned to Wilhelmshaven. Gneisenau had suffered a total of five 15" hits and five smaller calibre hits and lost 9 crewmen dead and 8 wounded. Questions were soon asked about why it had suffered so little damage while its sister was resting permanently off Norway. It didn’t take long for the captain to be made the scapegoat and he was relieved of his command. Hitler had wanted a court martial but Raeder successfully dissuaded him and Netzbandt was reassigned to shore duties. Both the Gneisenau and the Hipper were sent for repairs and remained out of action for the rest of the campaign.

The German invasion of Norway continued as planned under the noses of the British and the damage sustained by the Royal Navy at the ‘Battle of Lofoten’ meant that the ‘H’ class destroyers were unable to take part in any early attack on the German invasion force in the Norwegian port of Narvik on April 10th. As a result the exits to the fjords were blockaded by light cruisers until April 13th when the battleship HMS Warspite with Vice Admiral Whitworth aboard was joined by other destroyers in a successful attack on the German destroyers and ships still in the Fjord.

In the end the efforts of the Royal Navy were to no avail. The Norwegian campaign in general was handled poorly by the Allies as the Germans spread their control over most of the country. The campaign seemed to highlight just how poorly prepared Britain was for the war and the storm of criticism became so strong that on May 9th 1940, after a bitter debate in the House of Commons, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain felt that he no choice but to resign.

Churchill was spared serious criticism even though as First Lord of the Admiralty he was more responsible for the confusion and mess than any other single politician. Instead he was chiefly remembered for the glowing tribute to the magnificence of the Royal Navy that he delivered from the battered deck of the HMS Renown. He emerged from the campaign as a man of action, as a hero and as Chamberlain’s successor as Prime Minister.

CHAPTER TWO

Winston Churchill took office on May 10th 1940. That morning the Germans unleashed their Blitzkrieg on France and the Low Countries. As with Norway, the Allies were slow to react effectively and their armies were outmaneuvered by the well trained and well prepared Wehrmacht. For the Germans the campaign succeeded beyond their wildest dreams (there were even cases of the senior German commanders feeling nervous because it all seemed too easy) and within days they reached the Channel Coast cutting off the British Expeditionary Force as well as the best units of the French army. The speed of the German advance had thrown the Allied High Command into confusion and attempts to organize counter attacks against the exposed enemy supply lines floundered as the stream of orders from Allied Supreme Command were frequently rendered out of date by the pace of events. Facing the prospect of annihilation and with demoralization spreading through the British as well as the French army the British commander, Lord Gort received permission from London to withdraw his forces to the coast without consulting the French Supreme Commander. Soon the Allies were in a shambles and only a controversial pause in the German advance saved the British Expeditionary Force from destruction by allowing the Allies time to organize a defensive perimeter around Calais and Dunkirk. From there the Royal Navy supported by the French commenced a highly successful evacuation called ‘Operation Dynamo’ in which 338,000 Allied troops were rescued.

For the Germans the ignominious evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk at the end of May and early June provided the icing on the cake to a great victory. In fact, the surrender of France in June 1940 and the sheer scale of the victory overshadowed the serious mistake the Germans made in not destroying the small British army before it escaped. With Italy entering the war on Germany’s side on June 10th in a blatant attempt to seize spoils before the expected peace conference, many believed that the British would soon see sense and negotiate as honourable a peace as possible while it still could.

Contrary to expectations June turned to July without any clear signs of Britain and her Empire suing for peace. As if to show the world how serious the British were about fighting on the Royal Navy acting under Churchill’s orders, attacked some capital ships of the French Navy in their North African port of Meirs-el-Kebir rather than