Narvik Losses:

Ships Sunk:

Heavy Cruiser Blucher.
Light Cruiser Karlsruhe.
............. Konigsberg.
Gunnery Training Ship Brummer.

Destroyers Sunk:

Anton Schmitt.
Bernd von Arnim.
Dieter von Roeder.
Erich Giese.
Erich Koellner.
Georg Thiele.
Hans Ludemann.
Herman Kunne.
Wilhelm Heidkamp.
Wolfgang Zenker.

U Boats Sunk:

U 1
U 13
U 22
U 44
U 49
U 50
U 54
U 64

Torpedo Boats Sunk:

Torpedo Boat: Albatros.

Transports Sunk:

Antares.
August Leonhardt.
Bahia Castillo.
Buenos Aires.
Curityba.
Florida.
Friedenau.
Hamm.
Ionia.
Kreta.
Rio-de-Janeiro.
Rode.
Wigbert.

Ships Damaged:

Pocket Battleship Lutzow.

Battle Cruiser Gneisenau.

Scharnhorst.

Gunnery Training Ship: Bremse.

Heavy Cruiser: Hipper.

Light Cruiser: Emden.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Carl, the destroyer actions by the British in Narvik where some of the best boys own actions of the war in my view.

Have read some of the action reports from the crews of various destroyers and although we never want to use the word glorious battles in wars as most of us on this forum know they are not glorious, the actions were inspiring.

Hms Hotspur.. I hope memory serves me correctly had a grand story to tell...

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Prepare to repel borders.
William L. McGonagle, MOH, U. S. Navy, Commanding Officer, USS LIBERTY 1967.

Early on the morning of April 9, 1940 German forces attacked and captured the strategic iron ore port of Narvik in the neutral nation of Norway. Two thousand alpine troops deployed from eleven destroyers, and supported by a number of disguised merchant vessels, surprised and overwhelmed Norwegian resistance. During the attack the Norwegian coastal defense ships Norge and Eidsvold were sunk with the loss of 276 lives.

The British responded the following morning with an attack by destroyers Hardy, Havock, Hostile, Hotspur, and Hunter. The ensuing battle left Narvik harbor a graveyard of ships. The Germans lost the destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp and Anton Schmitt, and the merchant vessels Jan Wellem, Ravensfeld, Neuenfels, Aachen, Altona, Hein Hoyer, Bockenheim, Martha Hendrick Fisser, and Frielinghaus. The British lost the Hardy and Hunter.

On April 13th the British return with a stronger force led by the Battleship HMS Warspite. By the end of the day the German naval forces had been decimated. All of the remaining destroyers had been sunk or run aground and several more merchant ships had been sunk.

And including pics:

http://pweb.interquest.de/~boring/na...istorical.html

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Some data on battle of Norway:

On April 8th, one of the destroyers, HMS Glowworm , met the Hipper and was severely damaged. With tremendous courage, her captain used his doomed ship to ram the Hipper, radioing as he did so that the German Fleet was at sea.

As a result, the British Admiralty did exactly what the Germans hoped it would do by instructing Admiral Forbes not to follow the German fleet into Trondheim, which would have been tactically sound, but to intercept the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , which were operating as an independent battle squadron, and were in fact functioning as bait to keep the Royal Navy away from the landings in Norway. By the evening of April 9th, Germany was in control of the most important strategic positions in Norway and Denmark, and Hitler had achieved his easiest bridgehead yet. In Britain, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who only days earlier had announced that Hitler had missed the bus, was in deep trouble.

On April 10th, the First Battle of Narvik brought five British destroyers into conflict with 10 German destroyers, and cost each side two destroyers and one senior commander. The Royal Navy also sank eight German merchant ships and the ammunition carrier Rauenfels . On the 11th, the RAF attacked Sola airfield, Stavanger, and lost one Wellington out of six. On the 13th came the Second Battle of Narvik, and a significant victory for the Royal Navy. HMS Warspite and nine destroyers attacked eight German destroyers and sank or disabled all of them. By the 14th, the British North Western Expeditionary Force had begun to land at Harstad, the 24th Guards Brigade arriving on the island of Hinnoy, near Harstad, some 96km from Narvik, and separated from the port by a sea channel and snow-covered mountains, on the 15th. On the 16th, the 146th Infantry Brigade landed at Namsos, and on the 17th the 148th landed at Andalsnes. The Germans were now isolated in Narvik, although with plenty of captured Norwegian weapons in addition to their own, and with a "Mountain Marine" unit of 2,600 men, survivors of the annihilated destroyer fleet, to use the Norwegian rifles and machine guns. This force was ordered to "hold out for as long as possible".

On the 19th, the British 146th Infantry Brigade, advancing South from Namsos, reached Verdal, 80km from Trondheim, and the French Chasseurs Alpins - fully trained mountain troops - landed at Namsos. The plan was that these forces would advance on Trondheim and link up with the Norwegian forces retreating northwards, but the arrival of substantial reinforcements for General von Falkenhorst's army, despite the attempt at a blockade of German shipping by Allied submarines in the Skaggerak, made the Allies look again at the weaknesses of their position.

Allied efforts were now concentrated on Narvik, and the blocking of the vital route for iron resources through the port. British and French troops withdrew from Andalsnes and Namsos, King Haakon and General Ruge (and the Norwegian gold reserves) headed for Tromso, and the final phase of the Norwegian battle began on April 26th. It lasted effectively until May 28th, when the French 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade finally recaptured Narvik, although by then other events in the Low Countries and France had captured the news. The Germans expected the Allies to try to make their stay in Narvik permanent - but on June 7th the French and British departed, having covered the evacuation of the Allied armies from Norway.

http://www.what-if-you.com/ww2memori..._chapter_3.htm

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HMS Glowworm, burning severely after receiving hits from the mighty Admiral Hipper, is depicted turning to begin her heroic sacrifice off the Norwegian coast on 8th April 1940. Hugely out-gunned and already crippled, Glowworm's captain, Lieutenant-Commander Roope rammed his destroyer into the side of the Admiral Hipper, inflicting a 40 metre rip in its armour belt before drifting away and exploding. 38 (?) British sailors were rescued from the sea and Roope was awarded a posthumous VC for his bravery, the first earned by the Royal Navy in WWII.

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8:50 „Hans Lüdemann“ reports contact with a canadian destroyer wrongly identified as „Restigouche“.(„Glowworm“) „Hans Lüdemann“ identifies itself as swedish destroyer „Goeteborg“ and steams away.

“Glowworm” fires a savlo after the german destroyer at 80hm distance without success.

At 9:00 the „Bernd von Arnim“ spots again the british destroyer „Glowworm“ which had fallen behind the destroyer force assigned to mine the West Fjord entrance.

02:02 “BvA” opens fire at “Glowworm”

„Hipper“ turns around to help „Bernd von Arnim“

9:57 „Admiral Hipper“ fires the first rounds.

10:13 Heavily damaged the „Glowworm“ rams „Hipper“ opening the hull 40m wide.

„Glowworm“ sinks at 10:24 with loss of 111 men.

The 31 (?) survivors are rescued by „Admiral Hipper“

http://www.geocities.com/chrisawende...pril40see.html

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Admiral Hipper with HMS Glowworm crossing her bow

http://www.warships1.com/GERca05_AHipper_pics.htm

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Some good Norway stuff here too Kai..

http://hem.fyristorg.com/robertm/norge/

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Prepare to repel borders.
William L. McGonagle, MOH, U. S. Navy, Commanding Officer, USS LIBERTY 1967.

Well, as we all know, the battle for Norway was an extremely intrepid and difficult one. The German posibilities of achieving something were very few, but the Führer's idea of invading Norway from the air and with fast war ships worked, thanks to the effectiveness of Student's and Dietl's troops, even if the Kriegsmarine was severely damaged. This is one of the ocassions that show that the Führer was no dump.

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Hi Urgh--sorry I hadnt seen your reply sooner on this thread. I have to agree with you and, if you dont mind--I would like to hear more of those after action reports when you have the time.

Thanks for the great info and sites Kai--ill have to wait till tomorrow to be able to look.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.