On February 22nd, 1940, six German Destroyers were sent out to intercept British fishing boats in
the North Sea. The Germans were suspicious that some British fishing ships were being used for
military operations, and planned to put a stop to whatever it was they were up to. The mission
was dubbed Operation Wikinger, or in English, Operation Viking and would become one of Germany's
greatest military disasters of the entire war. This video has been sponsored by Ekster. Stay
tuned till the end of the video to learn more about why you need to
get yourself one of their smart wallets. First though let's get into today's topic.
The flotilla sent to North Sea that day was composed of three Type 1934-class Destroyers;
Z1 “Leberect Maass”, Z3 “Max Schultz”, Z4 “Richard Bietzen”, and three Type 1934A-class-destroyers;
Z6 “Theodor Riedel”, Z13 “Erich Koellner”, and Z16 “Fredrich Eckoldt”. This was almost a third
of Germany’s Destroyers at the time, and they were relatively large fleet Destroyers at over a 2,000
ton displacement. These ships were considered individually stronger than Britain’s interwar
Destroyers in single combat, and had a combined weight higher than any single British Cruiser.
Of these six Destroyers, only four would be returning home from the operation.
For simplicity I will be referring to the ships by their number for the majority of this video.
The Luftwaffe had been ordered to provide a fighter escort to the Destroyers as they returned;
However, the message never arrived, as the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe generally had
poor communications. This was partially due to Hermann Goring’s efforts to keep aircraft
under the Luftwaffe’s direct control rather than allowing them to work under the Kriegsmarine,
along with the two branches constantly competing for funding. This led to difficulty
coordinating between the two branches. At the same time as Operation Wikinger,
two Heinkel 111 bombers were patrolling over the North Sea, scouting for enemy shipping vessels.
With neither side being aware of the other’s presence, disaster was imminent.
At 19:13 hours, lookouts aboard Z16 noticed the sound of a two-engine aircraft. It passed over
their formation, neither acting aggressively nor providing identification. A few minutes later,
the aircraft came back, flying over the formation again. Z4 and Z13’s crews assumed
the plane must be hostile, and opened up on it with 20-millimeter anti-air fire, which resulted
in the bomber firing back with its own machine guns. This engagement left little doubt as to if
the aircraft was hostile, and the Destroyer crews prepared to engage if the plane came back around.
At 19:43 hours, Z3 detected the bomber coming from the rear. Two 50-kilogram bombs impacted
into the water behind Z1, resulting in all six Destroyers opening fire on the unknown aircraft.
A third 50-kilogram bomb hit Z1 between the bridge and the foremost funnel,
causing the ship to break formation and signal the rest of the flotilla for assistance.
Then, at 19:56, Z1’s anti-air guns opened fire again. Moments later,
two more explosions occurred, one behind the ship, and the other at the rear funnel.
Following this a huge plume of fire shot up and out of the ship. When the smoke finally
cleared Z1 was revealed to be split straight down the middle. With its 330 crew aboard the
ship began sinking into the icy North Sea waters. After this attack, the unidentified aircraft flew
away and towards England. The five remaining Destroyers went towards Z1’s sinking wreck,
attempting to launch boats to save survivors. At 20:04, there was a second large explosion.
Z16 reported that it was another attack from the air, while Z6 reported that an enemy submarine
was present and detected on hydrophones. Z6 proceeded towards the perceived target,
dropping four depth charges atop it; However, Z6 was moving too slowly and accidentally
damaged its rudder with charges, crippling it until the rudder was put under manual control.
At 20:09, Z13 also detected an enemy submarine. The flotilla leader put out an order to focus on
hunting down the enemy submarine before attempting to rescue survivors from the wreck of Z1.
Z3 had also stopped responding to radio communications during this time,
after the second explosion. As the remaining four Destroyers hunted for the enemy submarine,
there were constant false identifications, be it wreckage being labeled as a periscope or torpedo
trails being seen in every direction. During this confusion, Z13 accelerated to maximum speed while
towing one of its boats, capsizing the smaller vessel. All hands aboard the boat were lost.
By 20:36, the flotilla leader put out an order to retreat. They picked up the boats that had been
rescuing survivors; Most of the survivors had died from injuries or due to the extremely cold waters,
and very few were saved. Of Z1 Lebercht Maas’s 330 crew, only 60 were rescued. Z3 Max Schulz,
the Destroyer that was taken out by the second explosion, had lost all 308 hands in
the sinking. Overall, Germany had lost 578 crew, two Destroyers, and damaged a third.
An inquiry into the incident was launched, Z3 Max Schulz’s destruction was deemed to be by
detonating a sea mine; however, it was never answered as to whether this mine was German
or British. Germany had placed many mines in the North Sea, but Britain had recently laid
their own mines in that specific section, so it’s impossible to say which of the
mines it was that took down Z3. Throughout the engagement no British forces had been present,
whether it be aircraft or submarines, so all of the casualties were from mines or friendly fire.
No officers were held responsible, as none of them could have known what was going on. While Germany
attempted to improve communication between the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe, the two would never
quite achieve the desired coordination, though no mistake as bad as this would take place again.
Overall, Operation Wikinger is one of the worst military failures Germany experienced throughout
World War Two and serves as a lesson in the importance of communication. The only mistake more
embarrassing than losing a third of your force to friendly fire would be to not get yourself an
Ekster smart wallet. You're probably thinking to yourself something along the line of "why
do I need some fancy wallet, I have one already and I've never had any problems with it." And
you're not alone because I was thinking the same thing until I started using the one they sent me.
Not only does the wallet look fantastic but it's almost half the size of my old traditional wallet
and can still hold all the cards I use for my normal purchases. In the top slot you have room
for 4-6 cards, depending on their thickness, which are easily accessible through the push
of a button. You can also fit a few additional cards underneath the expandable plate should you
need to, for me I needed this for my membership to the American Heritage museum and a couple
cards I use less often. Ekster also offers a special solar powered tracking device you can
add to your wallet. This allows you to never feel worried about losing your wallet ever again as it
can be tracked worldwide through your phone. If you ever misplace your phone or wallet you can
also use the tracker or app to call whichever you need to find. This is great for me since
I have a tendency to set things down in random places so being able to easily call my wallet or
phone will cut down on the time I spend wandering around trying to remember where I left it.
So go ahead and check out their entire line of smart wallets using the link down below and
take advantage of Ekster’s summer sale going on now to get 15% off your order. Not only are you
benefitting from all the things I just mentioned but by doing so you will be directly supporting my
future content through their affiliate program. Thanks so much for watching and to Flipped Stug
and Thomas 633 for their research and script writing. I hope to see you in my next video.