Sinking of the Koenigsberg

[Imad]

Hello
The cruiser Koenigsberg was sunk on the 9th of April off Bergen by British planes. Does anyone know if Swordfish were used for this operation?

[Tiornu]

Only Skuas: eleven from 803 Squadron and five from 800 squadron. The confines of the harbor precluded torpedo attack.

[Benoit Douville]

That's right. On the night of 8th/9th April 1940 German forces invaded Norway. In the early morning of the 9th German naval force landed troops in Bergen harbour, support being given by the two cruisers Königsberg and Köln. The Kvarvan battery guarding the entrance to the harbour did score hits on the Königsberg, the Königsberg's engines were damaged and was put out of action.

Regards

[phylo_roadking]

....then they later tried exactly the same on the Scharnhorst and Hipper - and look what happened THAT time...

[Mark E Horan]

It is not at all correct to say that "they" tried the exact same thing in the June attack on the battleship Scharnhorst in Trondheim. Although the Air Staff on HMS Ark Royal was very aware that the significant differences between the highly successful April mission and that currently being proposed, BOTH squadron commanders, particularly Acting Major Richard Thomas Partridge, DSO, MiD, RM of 800 Squadron (who had participated in the first attack) went to great extremes to point out the significant differences that, in his opinion, placed the success of the proposed mission in great peril:

1. The April attack had occurred in spring at a time when target experienced roughly equal periods of daylight/night. This had allowed the aircraft to takeoff and cross the North Sea at night, cross the coast just after dawn, pass just to the east and then almost immediately attack the target from out of the rising sun. The Trondheim attack would occur during the height of summer during which there was virtually 24 hours of daylight.

2. Bergen harbour was virtually on the coast, requiring very little flight time over the enemy occupied countryside before the attackers could begin their attack. Trondheim, on the other hand, was some 60 miles inland from the closest coastline.

3. Bergen had little (in fact absolutely no) anti-aircraft defenses and was nowhere near an operational German airfield at the time of the attack. Trondheim, on the other hand, had significant AA defenses, and virtually adjacent to the largest German airbase outside of Germany, which was home to a significant number of high performance single-engine and twin-engine fighters.

4. The largest available ordnance was the 500 pound SAP bomb, which by the admission of the ordnance experts, could not penetrate the armoured decks of the target and, thus were, for all practical purposes, incabable of seriously damaging the main target even if the aircraft were able to succed in getting hits.

Having pointed out the radically different conditions that, in his opinion would doom the attack, which was done after his fellow Squadron Commander Lieutenant-Commander John Casson, RN had prophetically predicted that the attack would suffer more than 50% casualties, Vice-Admiral Aircraft Carriers, Lionel Victor Wells, CB, DSO, RN made it clear that their lordships were unwilling to consider cancelling the attack, though he was able to convince them that the proposed inclusion of a torpedo striking force was simply not practical, the Air Staff made its best effort at devising a workable plan.

In the event, as we all know, significant aspects of the plan fell apart, the striking force met with everything Partridge & Casson had predicted, and only 7 of the 15 attackers returned home. The only bright spot concerning the 8 losses was the fact that 9 of the 16 missing aircrew had, in fact, survived, and all of them survived the war as PoWs to return home in 1945.

Hope this is of interest.

Mark E. Horan

[Simon Orchard]

Thanks Mark, that was an informative post.


I feel the sinking of the Königsberg, or rather the manner of her sinking was of huge significance in the history of both air and naval warfare yet has received comparatively little attention.

[Andy H]

4. The largest available ordnance was the 500 pound SAP bomb, which by the admission of the ordnance experts, could not penetrate the armoured decks of the target and, thus were, for all practical purposes, incabable of seriously damaging the main target even if the aircraft were able to succed in getting hits.

Hi Mark

I thought that there was a larger bomb available at just over 1100lbs but I'm more than likely wrong?

Regards

[Tiornu]

I thought that there was a larger bomb available at just over 1100lbs but I'm more than likely wrong?

Not for the Skua. How did they feel about using Swordfish as bombers?

[phylo_roadking]

Tiornu - I've read about it but I can't remember where, as in what operation. But something is jogging my memory about a mixed sortie with torpedoes and bombs....

[Mark E Horan]

Andy;

I don't doubt the RAF had a bomb larger than 500 pounds - but I don't think the FAA did at that time anyway. The Skua was limited to a 500 pounder plus some 20 pounders. The Swordfish could carry at 2,000 pounds of bombs, but during the Norwegian campaign the largest bomb carried by any Ark aircraft were 500 pounders, of which the Swordfish didn't vcarry more than three (I seem to recall they could carry four, but they didn't off Norway).

Mark

[phylo_roadking]

That's where I read it - Johan Waage's "The Narvik Campaign" mentions a bombing raid by Swordfish.

[Mark E Horan]

Phylo et al;

Most certainly both the Skuas and Swordfish from Ark Royal launched a number of bombing attacks both on targets around Narvik in May and the landing sites for the foray to take Trondheim in April. The Swordfish did not make any bombing attacks on shipping though.

The Swordfish of 810 & 820 Squadron were supposed to attack Scharnhorst at Trondheim in June, but Ark was incapable of ranging more than 15 fully loaded strike planes in a single deck-load. Thus, if the Swordfish were to be included, it would require a second range which could, at best, have been launched a half-hour after the first range. Even the most "gung ho" types realized that any type of surprise would have been nullified when the first strike hit and the second strike would have arrived in the provebial "hornet's nest". Further, the cruising speed of the Swordfish was significantly less than the Skua, and would have necessitated a far longer time period approaching, and retiring from, Trondheim, and losses would have increased accordingly. Thus, it was left to the Skuas to pay the price for the RN's "pound of flesh" after the loss of Glorious, Ardent, and Acasta.

Mark

[phylo_roadking]

Agreed on the location of the strikes, Waage outs them on the AA defences and the shore defences the Germans were establishing in and around the town, particularly - by chance - on those manned by the scratch "marine" battalion formed from the destroyer crew survivors.