ALLIED FIGHTBACK

Britain and France race to Norway’s aid as the two nations suffer their first defeats and score their earliest victories of the war

At dawn on 10 April 1940, the Royal Navy’s 2nd Destroyer Flotilla steamed up Ofotjord in the middle of a snowstorm. The five ships, under the command of Captain Warburton-Lee, had been part of a force laying mines off the Norwegian coast. At 4.20am, they attacked the German ships moored at Narvik harbour, including ten destroyers, catching them by surprise. A fierce battle followed. By the time the British force limped away, it had sunk nine vessels, including two German destroyers, while leaving another four with heavy damage. Two of the five British destroyers had been sunk, however, while a third had been badly mauled. Both the German naval commander Kommodore Friedrich Bonte and Captain Warburton-Lee were killed in the fighting.

Narvik now became a key target for the Royal Navy. A second, more powerful force led by Vice Admiral William Whitworth was dispatched to dislodge the occupiers. On 13 April, a fleet of nine destroyers, led by the battleship HMS Warspite and supported by aircraft from HMS Furious, attacked the harbour. Running low on fuel and ammunition, the eight remaining German destroyers moored there were in bad shape. In the battle that followed, three of the German ships were sunk and the other five were scuttled by their crew. The cost to the British force was three British destroyers damaged and two aircraft lost.