The Last Big Gun: At War & At Sea with HMS Belfast by Brian Lavery

Author:Brian Lavery [Lavery, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Naval
ISBN: 9781910860076
Publisher: Pool of London Press
Published: 2015-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

The Saumarez went within nine cables or 1,800 yards of the target to release her torpedoes. For the crew of the Norwegian Stord it was more personal, so close to their occupied country, and they went within six cables, arousing fears that they might try to ram. Twenty-eight torpedoes were fired and four hits were claimed.

So far the torpedo crew of the Belfast under Lieutenant ‘Andy’ Palmer had been spectators.‘Only once, early in the afternoon, did we get into a good torpedo firing position and the Norfolk fouled the range! So that we sat back hopefully right through the long action. We had a grandstand view of the gunfire and the very gallant attack by the destroyers in to Oerlikon gun range!’ Perhaps they remembered the humiliating day, exactly a year ago, when one of the practice torpedoes went round in circles and then sank. At 1919 Fraser signalled the Jamaica to ‘sink her with torpedoes’. Palmer and his torpedomen were ‘a bit sick. We felt the prerogative of the cruiser flagship to do that …’ But a minute later Fraser issued the same order to the Belfast, and Palmer was delighted. ‘We had to fire from just outside 6,000 yards and that’s rather long to be certain of hitting.’ The depths of the torpedoes were set at 22 and 18 feet to match the Scharnhorst’s estimated draught of 26 feet. All three of the 21-inch Mark IX** torpedoes on the starboard side were fired on a bearing of 170 degrees against a target that was regarded as practically stationary. They waited four minutes and heard a single explosion. Palmer was convinced it was their torpedo: ‘The tube’s crews had a better view of her than I, being low down they saw the Scharnhorst silhouetted against the clear sky and both saw and felt the explosion when the torpedo hit.’ He wrote to Petty Officer Moule who had left the ship, ‘One of your torpedoes finally sank her’. But the authorities disagreed, ruling that ‘The claim by Belfast cannot be upheld as the settings used should have precluded any possibility of hitting.’

In any case, they had to make sure. The Belfast had been the first to find the Scharnhorst on her radar, her admiral had predicted the enemy’s movements, and she had shadowed her alone for nearly an hour, doing a superb job in the cruiser’s main role of guiding the guns of capital ships on to the enemy. It would be fitting if she was able to administer the coup de grâce, like the Dorsetshire had done against the Bismarck in 1941. She turned around and got ready to fire her port tubes, but five more destroyers were going in to launch nineteen more torpedoes. As Burnett put it, ‘At 1935 there appeared to be such a mêlée of ships and fire round the target, and you [Fraser] appeared to be approaching me, that I considered it prudent to withhold torpedo fire for a more favourable opportunity.’ He headed to the south to find a different line of approach.

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