In late December 1943, Vice Admiral Robert Burnett was at Murmansk in Soviet Russia
on board HMS Belfast, having escorted the recently arrived Arctic convoy,
JW55A. Burnett’s warships were preparing to escort the next returning convoy back to Britain,
when highly significant intelligence reached them from the Admiralty in
London. British Intelligence had intercepted German naval signals that revealed the battleship
Scharnhorst and five destroyers had left their Norwegian base at Altenfjord. They were planning
to intercept the next Arctic convoy heading out from Britain as it crossed the one returning
from Russia. This was exactly the opportunity that the Admiralty had been waiting for. These convoys
had baited out one of the most dangerous German warships of WW2. HMS Belfast and the rest of the
convoy were no longer embarking on a return journey home, they were heading for battle.
The whole story of the Scharnhorst battle hinges on the passage of a British convoy to Russia.
One of the cruisers protecting the convoy keeping a sharp lookout for that very German battleship
which fell right into the trap. The action took place off the north cape a way up in
the arctic circle admiral Robert Burnett found himself in Russia waiting to return to Britain
when word came to him that the Scharnhorst was out and would be available to draw to battle.
Now Burnett was very excited by this prospect. He was a true fighting admiral and he relished
the prospect of finally being able to bring the Scharnhorst to battle
the Scharnhorst was one of Nazi Germany's last great battleships and one of the best-known
fighting ships of the second world war the admiralty had been conscious for some time of
the threat posed by the Scharnhorst to the arctic convoys and to other merchant and naval ships in
northern waters they had been watching carefully for an opportunity to engage the Scharnhorst
draw it into battle and sink it Bismarck had been sunk in 1941 September 1943 the Tirpitz had been
damaged and the Scharnhorst was the last one that was left and so they really wanted to take out the
Scharnhorst and eliminate the threat so that they could proceed safely without having to think about
this massive ship coming out and threatening their convoys.
The arctic convoys started in August 1941 within weeks of Germany invading the soviet union.
Britain realized it needed to stand firm with its new soviet ally
the convoys quickly became a way for the British to show their solidarity with the soviet people
and gained increasing importance in the way the allies fought the war in eastern Europe.
But every convoy was a treacherous mission overshadowed by bleak inhospitable conditions.
Every hour of the day and night through icy gales and lashings spray the ships of the allies plough
steadily northward in the storm-tossed Atlantic in the arctic sea they bring food and supplies
to the theaters of war supplies without which Britain could not possibly continue the fight.
Conditions within the arctic convoys were probably some of the most difficult and exacting
experienced by any allied servicemen during the war. It was impossible to undertake these
in the summer because it was almost constant daylight and the ships could be threatened
by aircraft and submarines and ships all the time but during the winter it meant that it was mostly
in perpetual darkness. It was freezing cold, the weather was bad, there was rain, there was snow.
Living inside the mess decks of metal warships became extremely inhospitable.
What were the conditions like in the arctic? Oh it was terrible really, it was very very rough
it was very very cold of course I believe I'm right in saying that if one went into the sea
their lifespan or time is only a matter of seconds before you freeze to death.
HMS Belfast joined the arctic convoys at the beginning of 1943.
As well as the treacherous conditions, the convoys were also under perpetual threat of enemy attacks.
The arctic convoys were very dangerous for all the shipping both the merchant shipping and the
royal navy shipping. This is shown most clearly by the fate of HMS Edinburgh which is HMS Belfast's
sister ship Edinburgh was escorting a convoy back from Russia in may 1942 when it was attacked
and eventually sunk and the fact that it was almost a carbon copy of Belfast
shows how vulnerable these ships were and the courage of the sailors who undertook these
missions taking these vital supplies to the soviet union cannot be overestimated.
Frederick Parham had been Captain of HMS Belfast since 1942, and the ship’s company
worked very well under him. But Belfast was also a flagship, with Vice Admiral Robert Burnett on
board. Burnett was the flag officer commanding the 10th Cruiser Squadron, which gave him command of
Force 1, consisting of HMS Belfast, and the two cruisers HMS Norfolk and HMS Sheffield.
Vice Admiral Burnett was the man responsible for this success
there was a long gun at the end of 1943 Admiral Burnett and HMS Belfast were Murmansk preparing
for the return convoy to Britain when word reached them about Scharnhorst's movements.
Scharnhorst had been ordered out to engage these two allied convoys the German high command wanted
to attack the escorts and sink the merchant ships. Scharnhorst was to get amongst the
convoy disperse it and make the merchant ships vulnerable to individual attack. But the weather
conditions were appalling and the German admiral on board Scharnhorst felt uneasy about the plan.
The senior German officers in command of the ships of the Norwegian coast didn't really want to go
out at the end of 1943 because the conditions were so bad, but direct orders were issued from
Berlin and they went out to try and engage both the convoy leaving Russia and returning
to the United Kingdom and the one coming from the United Kingdom into Russia and the Soviet Union.
First contact with Scharnhorst was made by Allied ships just before 9am on 26 December, when HMS
Belfast detected the German ship on its radar sets, just 30 miles away.
By the early morning of the 26th of December, Boxing Day, HMS Belfast and the returning convoy
from the soviet union were lodged somewhere between the north cape right at the north of
Norway and Bear Island and Belfast itself is then set to hunt around to see if they can
find any trace of the Scharnhorst and it's about 8.40 in the morning that a blip appears on the
radar of HMS Belfast and they work out that this must be the Scharnhorst and battle is on.
The British cruisers of Force 1 closed on the Scharnhorst at around
9.40. Norfolk engaged and hit the battleship, disabling Scharnhorst's main fire control radar
and leaving it almost blind. It turned away to the north, hoping to circle round Burnett's force and
re-approach the convoy from a new direction. Burnett was left with a choice – to give
chase or stay and protect the convoy. He decided to break contact and wait.
And this is where my Admiral had to make his really big decision
and i am absolutely convinced this is the right one.
The choice that Admiral Burnett made not to pursue directly the Scharnhorst
but very cleverly to sit and wait for it to return to a predicted position where he believed
it would return to them this was a very very bold decision but because he had to wait for some time
and increasingly felt under pressure both from admiral Bruce Fraser and from the admiralty in
London he began to lose confidence and he turned to Frederick Parham the captain of Belfast
and said am I doing the right thing and Parham said I think you are you must trust your judgment
and this is exactly what Burnett did and so it's greatly to his credit that the battle unfolded
as it did the risk paid off shortly after noon Scharnhorst appeared again on the radar
all three British cruisers quickly returned to the attack and resumed fire
Scharnhorst was hit again but Norfolk too was badly damaged the German ship turned south for
Norway this time Burnett stayed in contact shadowing his prey using his superior radar.
The Scharnhorst and the British cruisers are engaged in a running battle which gradually
brings the Scharnhorst south but as they proceed Norfolk and Sheffield both drop out of the chase
and this means that by just after four o'clock HMS Belfast is effectively left alone.
Now the Scharnhorst would outgun the Belfast and if Scharnhorst had turned to engage and tried to
attack this one sole pursuer it would have been disastrous for HMS Belfast. But fortunately
Belfast kept the Scharnhorst at sufficient distance that this didn't come about.
Action stations within a warship were always extremely tense. The crew were closed down,
everything was secure, and it was very difficult to know what was going on around you. Each member
of the ship’s company focused on their job and performed to the best of their
ability. This was the case in any action, but particularly at the Battle of North Cape.
The performance of the ship's company is perhaps best reflected in the story of Larry Fursland.
Larry Fursland was a leading stoker and right at the beginning of the battle as Belfast began to
fire its first broadsides it knocked out two of the cooling pumps on Larry Fursland's generator
and so he realized that what he was going to have to do is find another way of cooling it down
and he was able to connect the fire hose to his generator in order to put cooling sea water
to stop it from seizing up as it overheated
and when the list of decorations was put forward Larry Fursland was at the top of the list.
And the first broadside of the Belfast fired the vibration of the ship and the guns
not the two circulating pumps out of action I've seen the temperatures rising up i got all good
Christ, i have no tools to do it I had to do it with my hands and i circulate water from the salt
water pump the mains through that engine for eight or four 12 hours right now 12 hours out there
the formidable partner part of us is that
you could hear all the repercussions of the show fire and torpedoes and
everything striking the cell of the ship and i was down down the bottom right you know.
Just after 4 o’clock, everything changed. HMS Duke of York and other powerful elements of the
Home Fleet arrived on the scene as planned. Duke of York’s massive fire power, under the direct
command of Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser dramatically turned the fortunes of the battle in favour of the
Royal Navy. The Scharnhorst went from being the dominant factor to the victim. British
gunfire turned upon the Scharnhorst, and for the next two hours, although the Scharnhorst
continued to move away as best it could, it was continually hit by the guns of the British fleet.
This is the Duke of York which slowed up the enemy enabling the destroyers
to make their brilliant and daring torpedo attack at very close range
thus finishing off the Scharnhorst no wonder the CNC looks pleased.
Towards the end of the British fleet action the Scharnhorst is slowing because his has
been hit and his engines are suffering and at this particular point torpedo attacks begin
and these come both from the large capital ships like HMS Belfast and the other cruisers but also
principally from the British destroyers which are able to close upon the Scharnhorst and file
directly at it as Fraser closed in Belfast fired starshells these bright flares illuminated the
target as duke of York's heavy guns opened fire after a running battle under hammering gunfire
and hit by torpedoes from British and Norwegian ships Scharnhorst was sunk just after 7 30.
From a crew of nearly 2 000 men only 36 survived.
The loss of life is enormous and every sailor in a warship
will retain a very strong degree of sympathy sailors are particularly aware of the peril
of being thrown into the sea and the fact that if you fall into
the freezing waters of the arctic in the dark with the oil on the top of the surface there
is almost no chance of survival and so there would have been no celebration really aboard a
HMS Belfast simply a job well done and there but for the grace of God would have been myself.
The sinking of the Scharnhorst was a significant victory for the Allies,
taking out the last of Germany’s operational capital ships. It would also prove to be
the last ship to ship gun battle of the old-fashioned kind fought in European waters.
The era of the big battleship the capital ship engaging one another with gunfire was already
passing over aircraft submarines torpedoes all had already threatened the supremacy of the battleship
and this was in many ways the end of an era and it stands an interesting place within the history
of the royal navy and the development of naval warfare in the 20th century.
Thanks for watching don't forget to like and subscribe for more videos from IWM.