The Naval War Against Hitler by Macintyre Donald

Author:Macintyre, Donald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2025-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

9: DISASTER IN THE BARENTS SEA

THE ARCTIC — PHASE I

Operation ‘Pedestal’ was the last major encounter between the opposing naval forces in the Mediterranean. Before the re-supply of Malta became critical again the situation on land had been transformed by the defeat of the Panzer Army at the Battles of Alam el Haifa and El Alamein, followed by its eviction from Libya, leaving the key to sea power in the eastern Mediterranean — the Cyrenaican airfields — in Allied hands. From that time onwards the maritime part of the campaign was no longer a struggle to establish sea power in the area, but the application of it by the dominant Allied navies. The classic way of doing this was, of course, by amphibious assault behind the enemy’s front on land. We shall see in later chapters how this was done.

Elsewhere, however, Allied sea power was still being vigorously challenged, not least in the Arctic, storm-swept and dark in winter, or shrouded in icy fog; in summer mostly calm under the midnight sun with extreme visibility alternating with dense fog.

On 22 June 1941, three weeks after the evacuation of Crete was completed, the uneasy, false friendship between the two dictators, Hitler and Stalin, had dissolved as the legions of Nazi Germany rolled across the Russo-German frontier. The relief that the launching of Operation ‘Barbarossa’ had brought to the hard-pressed British in the Mediterranean had been immense.

But while ‘Barbarossa’ had thus brought some easement of the situation in the Mediterranean, elsewhere it had imposed a new commitment on the Royal Navy. For Russia, caught unprepared, if left to her own resources would go down in defeat before the splendidly equipped, veteran armies of Germany as she had done 23 years before.

Alternatively, if Russia could be kept in the ring, Hitler’s defeat was now certain. Military aid by Britain, the only country still in the fight and striving desperately to renew her strength after the disasters of 1940, was out of the question. But, by taking advantage of her one great asset, command of the sea, Britain could, in spite of her own desperate needs, send material help, particularly in the two weapons of which Russia was most urgently in need — tanks and aircraft. Sympathy for a country treacherously attacked by the common enemy, combined with self-interest, led to an offer of such help, which was readily, though hardly gratefully, accepted.

Thus to the Royal Navy, its resources already stretched almost to the limit by world-wide, unaided responsibilities, an additional burden was assigned — that of opening and protecting a new shipping route which, unlike the trans-Atlantic, was exposed for a great part of its length to enemy-held territory on its flank.

The original understanding was that Russian merchant ships would carry the cargoes but, in the event, these proved quite inadequate in numbers. Britain’s merchant navy, already being decimated by the U-boat attacks in the Atlantic, was called on to make up the deficiency.

The offer made and accepted, no time was lost in getting to work.

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