Operation Juno facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Operation Juno
Part of Norwegian Campaign of World War II
Hans Lody rescuing survivors from the troop transport Orama
Date 8 June 1940 Location Norwegian Sea Result German victory
Belligerents
Germany	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Wilhelm Marschall	Guy D'Oyly-Hughes  †
Strength
2 battleships 1 heavy cruiser 4 destroyers	1 aircraft carrier 2 destroyers 1 minesweeper 1 troopship 1 oil tanker 1 hospital ship
Casualties and losses
50 killed 1 battleship damaged	1,612 killed 1 aircraft carrier sunk 2 destroyers sunk 1 minesweeper sunk 1 troopship sunk 1 oil tanker sunk

Operation Juno was a German sortie into the North Sea during the Norwegian Campaign. The most notable engagement of the operation was the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sinking the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and its two escorting destroyers. Several Allied vessels were sunk in other engagements.

Operation

The German ships involved were the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the destroyers Z20 Karl Galster, Z10 Hans Lody, Z15 Erich Steinbrinck and Z7 Hermann Schoemann. The operation began on 8 June 1940, as an attack on Harstad to relieve pressure on the German garrison at Narvik. After refuelling at Jan Mayen island the operation became redundant as the Allies were evacuating from Norway. The German commander, Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, took the initiative to seek and destroy the Allied transports. The troop transport Orama, the tanker Oil Pioneer and the mine-sweeping trawler HMT Juniper were sunk. Marschall ordered Admiral Hipper and the destroyers to Trondheim, where they arrived on the morning of 9 June. The next day, Admiral Hipper attempted to leave Trondheim but was prevented by the sighting of a British submarine.

Sinking of HMS Glorious

On the night of 7/8 June, the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious (Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes, took on board ten 263 Squadron Gloster Gladiators and eight Hawker Hurricanes of 46 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF), the first landing of modern aircraft without arrestor hooks on a carrier. These fighters had flown from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation. Glorious was part of a troop convoy headed for Scapa Flow, also including the carrier HMS Ark Royal. In the early hours of 8 June, Glorious requested permission to proceed independently with her escorting destroyers HMS Acasta and Ardent, at a faster speed. According to Alan Beith, this was because D'Oyly-Hughes was impatient to hold a court-martial of his Commander, Flying, J. B. Heath and Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Slessor. Heath had refused an order to attack certain shore targets on the grounds that his aircraft were unsuited to the task and had been left behind in Scapa to await trial. It has been noted by Beith that Glorious was in a low state of readiness. The crow's nest look-out position was not manned, leaving the observation task to the destroyers with much lower observation angles. Only 12 out of 18 boilers were in use, so she could not develop full speed [from 17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph) to 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)] as fast as was required.

Scharnhorst firing her forward 283 mm guns during the engagement with Glorious and her escorts

D'Oyly-Hughes failed to launch aircraft for a Combat Air Patrol around the carrier group, reportedly to give the aircrews a rest. The previous commander always had some aircraft in the air. Had he done so, Glorious might have been able to spot the danger sooner and have been able to turn and run or fight. No aircraft were even on the deck for a quick launch. In her hangars were ten Hurricanes and ten Gladiators from the RAF, her nine Sea Gladiators and five Swordfish.

While sailing through the Norwegian Sea on 8 June, the carrier, Acasta and Ardent were intercepted by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at about 69°N 00°E / 69°N 0°E / 69; 0, off Norway. The carrier and her escorts were sunk in two hours, roughly 170 nmi (310 km; 200 mi) west of Harstad, with the loss of 1,519 men; there were only 45 survivors. The survivor from Acasta was rescued by the Norwegian steam merchant ship Borgund which also saved 38 men from one of Glorious' lifeboats. All 39 men saved by Borgund were set ashore at Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands on 14 June. Scharnhorst's salvoes hit Glorious at 16:32, before the latter's torpedo-bombers could be launched. Scharnhorst's second salvo, at 16:38, struck Glorious at the extreme range of 26,300 yd (24,000 m), one of the longest-range hits recorded. A salvo from Gneisenau subsequently hit the bridge. The destroyers had started to lay smoke to protect Glorious and themselves. Ardent and Acasta made continual attempts to launch torpedoes at the German ships. At about 17:39, Scharnhorst was hit by one of four torpedoes launched by Acasta. Fifty sailors were killed, 2,500 long tons (2,500 t) of water flooded into her and her aft turret was put out of action.

Ardent was sunk at around 17:20 having made seven attacks with torpedoes. The approximate sinking position based on last transmission from Glorious is 69°0′N 04°0′E / 69.000°N 4.000°E / 69.000; 4.000. Marschall, aboard Gneisenau, ordered Scharnhorst to cease wasting ammunition on Glorious. Gneisenau was 4,374 yd (4,000 m) closer to Glorious than Scharnhorst.

Aftermath

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau made for Trondheim for repairs. Due to their exposed position, they were not able to stop to rescue survivors of any of the ships. On 13 June, 15 Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua bombers from Ark Royal attacked Scharnhorst in harbour. One bomb struck her for the loss of eight Skuas. The Skua was withdrawn from operations in 1941 and retired in 1945. As a result of the action, 1,519 men on board Glorious, Acasta and Ardent were killed, exceeding any of the other great British naval disasters of the war, along with the three warships, two RAF fighter squadrons were lost. Damage from the torpedo attacks forced Scharnhorst to return to Trondheim for emergency repairs, reaching Kiel on 23 June to go into dry dock. She remained there under repair for most of the rest of 1940. Although Glorious was a great loss, the withdrawal of these two powerful German warships allowed the remaining Allied convoys to reach Britain with a greatly reduced threat.

See also

• List of Kriegsmarine ships
• List of classes of British ships of World War II