Naval History Forums

There was a brief mention in Geirr Haar’s book The Gathering Strom that during the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau’s break back from the raid on the Northern Patrol some German scout planes braved terrible weather to provide them some reconnaissance of the path home and even reported some BR cruisers.
I had never read this before and was curious if anyone had any more info on.
Haar’s is one of my favorite naval historians, but he didn’t provide any footnote on source.

Just to coincide on Haar, both books about Norway are unequaled.

Regards

Agreed!

Hi gflotron,

Looking at other books on the Rawalpindi Raid, it is suggested that Marschall's greatest consideration was waiting for a forecast storm, based on a weather-ship warning. Vuillez and Mordal "Battleship Scharnhorst" say he loitered north of 65N until he was sure of heavy weather protection on the 26th when he headed south down the Norwegian coast. The track shown has them reversing course to the north for a bit, around 1700 on the 25th before turning south at 2300 and heading for home. Roskill's War at Sea says "German seaplanes" (maybe He 115s?) aided them in avoiding a Home Fleet cruiser line spotting British ships on the 25th. They must have been operating at extreme range from German waters, and may have contributed the info before the weather front hit, as visibility was very poor. Marschall made a sharp diversion east towards the Norwegian coast mid morning on the 26th, a little north of Bergen, maybe that was reacting to a warning.

However the B-Dienst service had broken British naval codes so this may also have been a factor as well.

V & M say the two sisters required 6 to 7 weeks in dockyard hands to remedy weather damage and defects after this sortie.

Geir Haar = definitely excellent books, need to get "Gathering Storm"

All the best

wadinga