Operation Berlin () was a raid conducted by the two German s against
Allied shipping in the
North Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...
between 22 January and 22 March 1941. It formed part of the
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allies of World War II, ...
during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The and sailed from Germany, operated across the North Atlantic, sank or captured 22 Allied merchant vessels, and finished their mission by docking in
occupied France
The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was established in June 19 ...
. The British military sought to locate and attack the German battleships but failed to damage them.
The operation was one of several made by German warships during late 1940 and early 1941. Its main goal was for the battleships to overwhelm the escort of one of the
convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...
s transporting supplies to the United Kingdom and then sink large numbers of merchant ships. The British were expecting this given previous attacks and assigned battleships to escort convoys, which proved successful, with the German force having to abandon attacks against convoys on 8 February as well as 7 and 8 March. The Germans encountered and attacked large numbers of unescorted merchant ships on 22 February and 15–16 March.
By the end of the raid, the German battleships had roamed widely across the Atlantic, ranging from the waters off
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
to the West African coast. The operation was considered successful by the German military, a view generally shared by historians. It was the last victory achieved by German
warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...
s against merchant shipping in the North Atlantic, with the sortie made by the battleship in May 1941 ending in defeat. Both ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships were damaged by air attacks while they were in France and returned to Germany in February 1942.
Background
Opposing plans
The (German Navy) developed plans before the outbreak of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
to attack
Allied merchant shipping in the event of war. Under these plans,
warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...
s were to be used against shipping on the high seas and
submarine
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
s and aircraft would attack shipping near the coasts of Allied countries. Surface raiders were to range widely, make surprise attacks and then move to other areas. They were to be supported by
supply ships that would be positioned before the start of operations. Grand Admiral
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder (24 April 1876 – 6 November 1960) was a German admiral who played a major role in the naval history of World War II and was convicted of war crimes after the war. He attained the highest possible naval rank, that of ...
, the commander of the , was determined to include the fleet's
battleship
A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...
s in these attacks. He believed that the decision by the
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy or the ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for ...
() not to use its battleships aggressively during the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
was a mistake, and wanted to avoid repeating this perceived error. To conserve the 's small number of battleships and other big ships for as long as possible, the navy's plans specified that raiders would target merchant vessels and avoid combat with Allied warships.
The
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
anticipated Germany's intentions, and adopted plans to institute
convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...
s to protect merchant shipping and deploy
cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...
s to detect attempts by German warships to break out into the Atlantic Ocean. These included initiating cruiser patrols of the waters between Greenland and Scotland through which German raiders would have to pass to enter the Atlantic following the outbreak of war. The
Home Fleet
The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet.
Before the First ...
, the main British battle force in the North Atlantic, was responsible for locating and intercepting German warships in the area. From 20 December 1940 it was commanded by Admiral
John Tovey.
Both s (sometimes called
battlecruiser
The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of att ...
s) and were combat ready at the start of the war in September 1939. The roles envisioned for these battleships when they were designed in the early 1930s included raiding convoys. They were heavily armoured and faster than the Royal Navy's battlecruisers. Their main armament was nine guns, which were inferior to the guns that armed most British battleships. The ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships were capable of sailing for at . This was insufficient for lengthy raids, and meant that they needed to refuel from supply ships.
German surface raids
The ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships conducted their first raid in late November 1939. During this operation they sank the
armed merchant cruiser
An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in lo ...
of the
Northern Patrol
The Northern Patrol, also known as Cruiser Force B and the Northern Patrol Force, was a naval force of the Royal Navy during the world wars. The Northern Patrol was part of the British "distant" Blockade of Germany (1914–1919). Its main task wa ...
between Iceland and the Faroe Islands on 23 November. Both battleships, accompanied by the heavy cruiser and two destroyers, sortied to attack convoys travelling between the
Shetland Islands
Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...
and Norway in
Operation Nordmark
Operation Northern Mark () was a sortie by a German flotilla of two battleships and a heavy cruiser against British merchant shipping between Norway and Shetland from 18 to 20 February 1940. The sortie was intended as a riposte to the Altmark inc ...
on 18 February 1940. This force was detected by the British soon after it sailed and the Home Fleet attempted to intercept it. There was no encounter and the German ships returned to port without having met British shipping on 20 February.
In April 1940 the ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships took part in
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung ( , , 9 April – 10 June 1940) was the invasion of Denmark and Norway by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign.
In the early morning of 9 April 1940 (, "Weser Day"), Ge ...
, the German invasion of Norway. They formed the most powerful element of the
battle group commanded by Vice Admiral
Günther Lütjens
Johann Günther Lütjens (; 25 May 1889 – 27 May 1941) was a German admiral whose military service spanned more than 30 years and two world wars. Lütjens is best known for his actions during World War II and his command of the battleship du ...
that served as a
covering force
A covering force is a military force tasked with operating in conjunction with a larger force, with the role of providing a strong protective outpost line (including operating in advance of the main force), searching for and attacking enemy forces ...
to protect the rest of the German invasion fleet from attack by the Royal Navy. On 9 April they encountered the British battlecruiser off the
Lofoten Islands. Both German ships were damaged in the
Action off Lofoten
The action off Lofoten was a naval battle fought between the German ''Kriegsmarine'' and the British Royal Navy off the southern coast of the Lofoten Islands, Norway during the Second World War. A German squadron under ''Vizeadmiral'' Günth ...
, leading Lütjens to disengage and return to Germany. The battleships made another sortie on 4 June to raid Allied shipping near
Narvik
() is the third-largest List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Narvik (town), town of Narvik. Some of the notable villag ...
in northern Norway in
Operation Juno. On 8 June they sank the empty troop transport as well as the British
aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...
and its two escorting
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
s. A destroyer
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...
ed ''Scharnhorst'' during this action, inflicting damage that took six months to repair. On 20 June ''Gneisenau'' took part in a sortie from the occupied Norwegian city of
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
. She was torpedoed that day by the submarine . The torpedo explosion blew large holes in her
bow that required lengthy repairs in Germany.
''Scharnhorst''s repairs were largely completed by late November 1940 and ''Gneisenau'' reentered service in early December. The ships trained together in the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
during December. After ''Scharnhorst'' completed the last element of its repairs, both battleships were assessed on 23 December as being ready for another raid.
In August 1940 the German leader
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
ordered an intensification of the attacks on Allied shipping in the Atlantic. The began dispatching its major warships that had survived the Norwegian campaign into the Atlantic in October. The
heavy cruiser
A heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in calibre, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Treat ...
sailed during that month, and conducted a successful raid that lasted until March 1941. ''Admiral Hipper'' went on the abortive
Operation Nordseetour from Germany into the Atlantic during December that ended with her docking at
Brest in
occupied France
The Military Administration in France (; ) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zone in areas of northern and western France. This so-called ' was established in June 19 ...
. During this operation, ''Admiral Hipper'' attacked
Convoy WS 5A on 25 December and damaged two transports before being driven off by escorting British cruisers. Six German
merchant raider
Merchant raiders are armed commerce raiding ships that disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels.
History
Germany used several merchant raiders early in World War I (1914–1918), and again early in World War II (1939–1945). The cap ...
s also operated against Allied shipping in the South Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. The attack on Convoy WS 5A demonstrated that raiders posed a serious threat to shipping in the North Atlantic, and from early 1941 the British
Admiralty assigned battleships to escort convoys that were bound for the United Kingdom whenever possible. Westbound convoys lacked this protection, and were dispersed in the middle of the Atlantic.
Raid
First attempt
The ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships were selected for the next raid, Operation Berlin. Its goal was for the ships to break out into the Atlantic and operate together to attack Allied shipping. Their primary objective was to intercept one of the
HX convoys that regularly sailed from
Halifax in Canada to the United Kingdom. These convoys were a key element of the Allied supply line to the United Kingdom, and the Germans hoped that the battleships could overwhelm the convoy's escort and then sink large numbers of merchant ships. Raeder directed the battleships to end their raid by docking at Brest, which had been selected as the 's main base in October 1940. The orders issued for the operation forbade attacks on convoys escorted by forces of equal strength, such as British battleships. This was because the raid would need to be abandoned if ''Scharnhorst'' or ''Gneisenau'' was significantly damaged. Lütjens, who had been appointed the 's
fleet commander
The Fleet Commander is a senior Royal Navy post, responsible for the operation, resourcing and training of the ships, submarines and aircraft, and personnel, of the Naval Service (United Kingdom), Naval Service. The Vice-Admiral incumbent is requ ...
in July 1940 and promoted to admiral in September that year, commanded the battle group.
Seven supply ships were dispatched into the Atlantic ahead of Operation Berlin to support the two raiders. The plans for the operation also called for ''Admiral Hipper'' to sortie from Brest and attack the convoy routes between
Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
,
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
and the United Kingdom. As well as inflicting further casualties, it was hoped that the cruiser would divert British forces away from Lütjens' area of operations. The German
signals intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...
service was providing raiders with general information about the locations of Allied ships. The service was generally unable to pass on useful intelligence though, as it was unable to
decrypt
In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plai ...
intercepted radio messages. Each raider embarked a detachment that monitored Allied radio signals and used
direction finding
Direction finding (DF), radio direction finding (RDF), or radiogoniometry is the use of radio waves to determine the direction to a radio source. The source may be a cooperating radio transmitter or may be an inadvertent source, a naturall ...
techniques to locate convoys and warships. The Germans had little intelligence on the dates on which Allied convoys sailed or the routes they took. This made it difficult for surface raiders to position themselves in the path of convoys.
Berlin was launched on 28 December 1940. ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' sailed from
Kiel
Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...
, with Lütjens commanding the force from the latter ship. The raid had to be abandoned before the battleships entered the Atlantic when ''Gneisenau'' was damaged by a storm off Norway on 30 December. Lütjens initially took the ships into
Korsfjord in Norway and planned to repair ''Gneisenau'' at Trondheim, but was ordered to return to Germany. Both ships reached
Gotenhafen
Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...
on 2 January. ''Gneisenau'' was transferred to Kiel to be repaired. The battleships received additional small calibre anti-aircraft guns during this period.
Breakout into the Atlantic

''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' sailed again from Kiel at 4:00 am on 22 January 1941. They proceeded north and passed through the
Great Belt
The Great Belt (, ) is a strait between the major islands of Zealand (''Sjælland'') and Funen (''Fyn'') in Denmark. It is one of the three Danish Straits.
Effectively dividing Denmark in two, the Belt was served by the Great Belt ferries fr ...
island chain in
German-controlled Denmark that morning. This exposed the battleships to Allied agents on the shore, but was necessary as the waterway was covered in ice thick. The battle group reached
Skagen
Skagen () is the northernmost town in Denmark, on the east coast of the Skagen Odde peninsula in the far north of Jutland, part of Frederikshavn Municipality in North Denmark Region, Nordjylland, north of Frederikshavn and northeast of Aalbo ...
on the northern tip of Denmark on the evening of 23 January where it was to meet up with a
flotilla
A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' ( fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet.
Composition
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same cla ...
of
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
s that would escort it through
minefield
A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...
s between Denmark and Norway. The torpedo boats were slow to leave port, and Lütjens' force did not resume its voyage until dawn on 25 January.
From intelligence obtained by
traffic analysis
Traffic analysis is the process of intercepting and examining messages in order to deduce information from patterns in communication. It can be performed even when the messages are encrypted. In general, the greater the number of messages observ ...
of German radio signals, the British had concluded that German capital ships were about to put to sea;
Ultra
Ultra may refer to:
Science and technology
* Ultra (cryptography), the codename for cryptographic intelligence obtained from signal traffic in World War II
* Adobe Ultra, a vector-keying application
* Sun Ultra series, a brand of computer work ...
intelligence obtained by breaking German codes did not provide any information on Operation Berlin as the British were unable to decrypt the codes. On 20 January the Admiralty warned the Home Fleet that another German raid was likely. Tovey immediately dispatched two heavy cruisers to reinforce the patrols between
Allied-occupied Iceland and the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
. On 23 January, the British
naval attaché
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations ...
in Sweden passed on a report from agents in Denmark that the German battleships had been sighted passing through the Great Belt. This intelligence was provided to Tovey during the evening of 25 January.
The main body of the Home Fleet departed its base at
Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow (; ) is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray,S. C. George, ''Jutland to Junkyard'', 1973. South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Its sheltered waters have played an impor ...
at midnight on 25 January bound for a position south of Iceland. It comprised the battleships (Tovey's
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
) and , the battlecruiser , eight cruisers and eleven destroyers. Air patrols of the waters between Iceland and the Faroes were stepped up. Some of the Home Fleet's ships were detached to refuel on 27 January. The had expected this deployment, and stationed eight submarines to the south of Iceland to attack the Home Fleet. Only one of these submarines sighted any British warships, and it was unable to reach a position from which they could be attacked.
The German battle group entered the North Sea on 26 January. Lütjens was inclined to refuel from the tanker ''Adria'' that had been positioned in the
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...
before attempting to enter the Atlantic. He decided to proceed directly to the south of Iceland though after receiving a weather forecast which predicted snow storms in that area; these conditions would hide the battleships from the British. Just before dawn on 28 January, the two German battleships detected the British cruiser and another cruiser by
radar
Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
to the south of Iceland. ''Naiad''s crew sighted two large vessels six minutes later. Lütjens lacked information about whether the rest of the Home Fleet was at sea, and decided to break off this attempt to enter the Atlantic. The battle group evaded the British by turning to the north-east and operating in the
Norwegian Sea
The Norwegian Sea (; ; ) is a marginal sea, grouped with either the Atlantic Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, northwest of Norway between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea, adjoining the Barents Sea to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separate ...
north of the
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle.
The Arctic Circl ...
. One of ''Gneisenau''s two aircraft was dispatched to Trondheim in Norway on 28 January carrying a report on the events of the day and did not rejoin its ship. Tovey ordered his cruisers to search for the raiders and moved his battleships and battlecruiser to intercept them but contact was not regained. After concluding that ''Naiad'' may have not actually sighted German warships, Tovey sailed west to protect a convoy and returned to Scapa Flow on 30 January. ''Admiral Hipper'' departed Brest on 1 February to begin its raid.
After refuelling from ''Adria'' in the Arctic Ocean well to the north-east of
Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen () is a Norway, Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: la ...
island, Lütjens attempted to enter the Atlantic through the
Denmark Strait north of Iceland. The battleships passed through the straits undetected on the night of 3/4 February. They refuelled again from the supply ship
''Schlettstadt'' off southern Greenland on 5 and 6 February.
Initial Atlantic operations
From 6 February Lütjens searched for HX convoys. He was aware that two British battleships had been based in Canada to escort eastbound convoys, but believed that they would only cover the first part of the journey before returning to pick up another convoy. Accordingly, the German force operated to the east of what Lütjens believed was the limit of the battleship escorts.
Convoy HX 106 was sighted at dawn on 8 February approximately east of Halifax. Unbeknownst to the Germans, this convoy's escort included the old battleship .

The German battleships separated to attack the convoy, with ''Scharnhorst'' approaching it from the south and ''Gneisenau'' from the north-west. ''Scharnhorst''s crew spotted ''Ramillies'' at 9:47 am, and reported this to the flagship. In accordance with his orders to avoid engagements with powerful enemy forces, Lütjens cancelled the attack. Before being instructed to break off, ''Scharnhorst''s commanding officer, Captain
Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann, brought his ship within of the convoy in an attempt to draw ''Ramillies'' away so that ''Gneisenau'' could make a separate attack on the merchant vessels. This violated the order against engaging warships of equal strength, and Lütjens reprimanded Hoffmann by radio when the two battleships met that evening.
The British battleship's crew sighted one of the German ships from a long distance, and misidentified it as probably being an . Tovey judged that the ship was either ''Admiral Hipper'' or ''Admiral Scheer'', and sailed with all available ships to intercept it if it returned to Germany or France. These ships were organised into three powerful forces from the evening of 9 February, and air patrols were also conducted.
Force H, a powerful task force based in Gibraltar that was commanded by Vice Admiral
James Somerville and included ''Renown'' and the aircraft carrier , was also ordered to protect convoys in the North Atlantic. It sailed from Gibraltar to do so on 12 February, and returned to that port on the 25th of the month.
On the morning of 9 February
Naval Group West informed Lütjens that intercepted British radio messages indicated that his ships had been sighted the previous day. Lütjens judged that the British would now assign strong escorts to all convoys in the area, and decided to break off operations for several days in the hope that attacks by ''Admiral Hipper'' would divert British forces elsewhere. The German battle group returned to the waters off southern Greenland and remained there until 17 February. It endured a severe storm on 12 February which damaged many of ''Scharnhorst''s gun turrets; it took three days to return them to service. ''Gneisenau''s engines also became contaminated with sea water and needed to be repaired. The battleships refuelled from ''Schlettstadt'' and the tanker ''
Esso Hamburg'' on 14 and 15 February. During this period, ''Admiral Hipper'' was involved in attacks on two convoys: on 11 February it sank a straggler from
Convoy HG 53 which was scattered after attacks by and
Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor long range bombers. The next day the cruiser attacked
Convoy SLS 64 which was supposed to merge with Convoy HG 53 on its way to the UK, and sank seven ships.
Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz (; 16 September 1891 – 24 December 1980) was a German grand admiral and convicted war criminal who, following Adolf Hitler's Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide, succeeded him as head of state of Nazi Germany during the Second World ...
, the
Befehlshaber der U-Boote
The ''Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote'' or BdU (Eng: "Commander of the U-boats") was the supreme commander of the German Navy's U-boat Arm (''Ubootwaffe'') during the First and Second World Wars. The term also referred to the Command HQ of the U ...
(BdU, commander of U-boats) was impressed with these results and sent the , and to
West Africa
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
n waters for possible combined operations with ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau.'' The cruiser then returned to Brest on 15 February. It was intended for ''Admiral Hipper'' to make another raid in support of Operation Berlin after loading more ammunition. This attack was cancelled after she damaged a propeller on a sunken barge in Brest's harbour and was unable to sail until a replacement was received from Kiel.
The German battle group returned to the route between Halifax and the United Kingdom on 17 February. Lütjens decided to operate between the
55th and
45th meridian west, which were to the west of where he had encountered Convoy HX 106, in the correct belief that Allied shipping there was not as well escorted. He hoped to find one of the regular HX convoys or a special convoy that the German naval attaché in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
had reported was expected to depart from Halifax on 15 February. ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' searched for convoys in line abreast but out of sight of each other. Two merchant ships sailing independently were sighted from a far distance on 17 and 18 February, but not attacked as there was a risk that these ships could manage to broadcast an alarm, and convoys would be re-routed out of the danger zone. Shortly after dawn on 22 February, ''Gneisenau'' found herself cornered between three merchant ships sailing west from a recently dispersed convoy east of
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...
. As detection could not be avoided, the German ships started operations against independent sailing vessels: ''Gneisenau'' sank four vessels totalling and ''Scharnhorst'' sank one for . A total of 187 survivors were rescued from these ships. The battleships
jammed radio transmissions from the merchant vessels as they closed with them. However, one of the ships was able to transmit a sighting report after being attacked by an aircraft that had been launched from the battleships. The signal was received by a radio station at
Cape Race
Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original Portuguese name for this cape, "Raso", mean ...
in Newfoundland and was quickly passed on to the Admiralty. This was the first it knew about the battleships' presence in the western Atlantic. Lütjens judged that the Allies would now divert shipping from the area and search for his ships. Accordingly, he decided to transfer his operations to the eastern Atlantic and attack the
SL convoys
SL convoys were a numbered series of North Atlantic trade convoys during the Second World War. Merchant ships carrying commodities bound to the British Isles from South America, Africa, and the Indian Ocean traveled independently to Freetown, Sie ...
that travelled between Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom.
West Africa
From 22 February the German ships sailed south. They refuelled from the tankers ''Ermland'' and ''Frederic Breme'' between 26 and 28 February and then turned to the south-east. The ships searched for a SL convoy that Lütjens expected to encounter on 5 March, but without success. The
Seekriegsleitung
The ''Seekriegsleitung'' or SKL (Maritime Warfare Command) was a higher command staff section of the Kaiserliche Marine and the Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of ...
had neglected to inform Dönitz about the movements of the battleships, so when in the night of 5 March ''U-124'' stumbled upon ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau,'' she prepared to attack. But as the battleships were lacking the destroyer escort which was standard for British battleships, ''U-124'' first sent a sighting report and asked confirmation from Dönitz. Intercepting these communications, the battleships started zigzagging at high speed and disappeared. In the morning of 6 March ''Gneisenau'' transferred her damaged seaplane by aircraft crane to ''Scharnhorst''. One of the three seaplanes of ''Scharnhorst'' was damaged as well and the idea was to use parts of the one seaplane to repair to other. During the afternoon the battle group rendezvoused with the German submarine ''U-124''. The submarine's commander, ''Kapitänleutnant''
Georg-Wilhelm Schulz, provided Lütjens with information about the situation in the area.
On 7 March, a seaplane from the battleship , which formed part of the escort for
Convoy SL 67, spotted the German battleships about north of the
Cape Verde Islands
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
. The battleships sighted the convoy later that day to the north-east of the Cape Verdes, but Lütjens decided to not attack it after ''Malaya'' was identified. Lütjens alerted nearby German submarines to the convoy's location. A plan was developed which involved the submarines sinking ''Malaya'' and the battleships then attacking the merchant ships. ''U-105 and U-124'' attacked the convoy that night, sinking five ships for a total of . They did not damage ''Malaya'', however. The German battleships searched for the convoy on 8 March, ''Gneisenau'' made contact at 1:30 pm. Lütjens attempted to attack at 5:30 pm, but broke off at high speed when ''Malaya'' was identified. The British tried to shadow ''Gneisenau'' but were unable to pursue the faster German ship. Force H sortied from Gibraltar on 8 March, made contact with SL 67 on 10 March and escorted the convoy until mid-March.
Return to the North Atlantic
Following the encounter with SL 67, Lütjens decided to return to the convoy route between Halifax and the United Kingdom. While sailing north-west ''Scharnhorst'' sank the unescorted merchant vessel
SS ''Marathon'' on 9 March. By this time both battleships were suffering from serious mechanical problems. Some of ''Gneisenau''s auxiliary systems needed maintenance that was estimated to take four weeks to complete. ''Scharnhorst'' was in worse condition, as her boiler
superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, in some steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. ...
s were defective and the pipes that moved steam around the engines had been damaged. The battleships refuelled and received provisions from the supply ships ''Ermland'' and
''Uckermark'' during 11 and 12 March. Lütjens retained both vessels as scouts with the battle group to extend the area it could search as it progressed north. Together, they were able to search for shipping along a front.
Ships of the Home Fleet sortied again in response to the presence of the German battleships in the Atlantic. The battleships and ''Rodney'' were assigned to escort convoys leaving Halifax on 17 and 21 March. Tovey put to sea on ''Nelson'' which, accompanied by the cruiser and two destroyers, took up a position south of Iceland to intercept any raiders that were attempting to return to Germany.
On 15 and 16 March, the two battleships, with the two tankers in company, encountered ships from dispersed westbound convoys south of Cape Race. ''Scharnhorst'' sank six ships totaling , whilst ''Gneisenau'' sank seven ships totaling , and captured another three tankers, the ''Bianca'', ''San Casimiro'' and ''Polykarp,'' totaling as
prizes. Alerted by the distress signals of the victims, ''Rodney'' which was close by escorting Convoy HX 114, sped to the scene. On the evening of 16 March ''Rodney'' sighted ''Gneisenau'' while she was rescuing the survivors of one of the ships she had sunk. ''Gneisenau'' managed to escape from the slower but better armed British battleship. ''Rodney''s crew spotted ''Gneisenau'' but did not identify her. They learned the warship's identity that evening from survivors of a sunken ship. Meanwhile, ''Admiral Hipper'' departed Brest on 15 March to return to Germany via the North Atlantic and Denmark Strait.
The British altered their dispositions following the attacks on 15 and 16 March. The Admiralty did not have any information about Lütjens' intentions, and judged that his force would probably attempt to return to Germany via one of the routes off Iceland. ''King George V'' was dispatched from Halifax to patrol the area where the merchant ships had been sunk, but did not encounter the German battleships. Tovey strengthened the Home Fleet's cruiser patrols of the possible German return routes, and remained to the south of Iceland with much of his fleet. Force H was also ordered by the Admiralty to operate in the North Atlantic. The
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
RAF Coastal Command
RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...
undertook intensive air patrols of the Denmark Strait and waters between Iceland and the Faroes between 17 and 20 March.
Voyage to France
Lütjens had received orders on 11 March to cease operations in the North Atlantic by 17 March to support ''Admiral Hipper'' and ''Admiral Scheer''s return to Germany. To provide this support, he was to make a diversion between the
Azores
The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...
and the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...
. The German
Naval Staff directed him to then return his ships to Brest in France so they could prepare to join a raid into the Atlantic that the battleship and heavy cruiser were scheduled to make in April. ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau'' refuelled again from ''Ermland'' and ''Uckermark'' on 18 March, and set course for France the next day.

At 5:30 pm on 20 March a reconnaissance aircraft flying from ''Ark Royal'' spotted the German battleships sailing north-east approximately to the north-west of
Cape Finisterre
Cape Finisterre (, also ; ; ) is a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia, Spain.
In Roman times it was believed to be an end of the known world. The name Finisterre, like that of Finistère in France, derives from the Latin , mean ...
in Spain. The aircraft's radio was defective, which prevented its crew from immediately reporting this sighting. Lütjens turned to the north in an attempt to deceive the British aircrew about his course. This proved successful, as when the aircraft returned to the carrier its crew reported that the German ships were headed north and did not mention their course when first sighted. Somerville's ability to act on this report was further hindered by ''Ark Royal''s failure to immediately pass it on to him. The ''Bianca'' and ''San Casimiro'' were also located by ''Ark Royal''s aircraft on 20 March and were
scuttled
Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull, typically by its crew opening holes in its hull.
Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vesse ...
when ''Renown'' approached them.
After ''Ark Royal'' reported the sighting, the British sought to regain contact with the German battleships and track them. At this time the carrier was about to the south-east of the Germans, which was too great a distance for it to be able to launch an immediate attack. Reconnaissance aircraft operating from ''Ark Royal'' searched for the battleships during the night of 20/21 March and the next morning, but were unable to find them again due to bad weather. Coastal Command reduced its patrols of the waters off Iceland and stepped up coverage of the approaches to the
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay ( ) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...
.
Tovey's force to the south of Iceland had by this time been reinforced by the battleship and battlecruiser . On 21 March the Admiralty ordered him to proceed south at full speed. Several cruisers were also ordered to head south, a destroyer flotilla sailed from
Plymouth
Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...
and
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...
established a force of 25
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...
bombers that could be sent against the battleships. By this time the only way for the British ships to intercept Lütjens' force before they came under the protection of land-based German aircraft in France was for ''Ark Royal''s aircraft to damage one or both of them. This was made impossible by the mishandling of the sighting on 20 March and poor flying weather on that and the subsequent day.
The crew of a Coastal Command
Lockheed Hudson
The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and ...
detected the German battleships by radar when they were within of the French coast on the evening of 21 March. By this time it was not possible for the British to attack them, and due to the evasive course Lütjens was taking the British were unable to anticipate which French port he was heading for. The torpedo boats and escorted the battleships into Brest, where they anchored on 22 March. The captured tanker ''Polykarp'' docked at
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
two days later. Allied seamen who had been captured from sunken ships were paraded through Brest before being sent to
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
camps in Germany. ''Admiral Hipper'' reached Kiel on 28 March, and ''Admiral Scheer'' docked there two days later.
Aftermath
Assessments
Operation Berlin was the most successful of the surface raiding missions throughout the war. Lütjens' force sank or captured 22 ships totalling . The Allied convoy routes across the North Atlantic were badly disrupted, which hindered the flow of supplies to the United Kingdom. By diverting the Home Fleet, the operation also allowed ''Admiral Hipper'' and ''Admiral Scheer'' to safely return to Germany.
The German Naval Staff and Raeder believed that the success of Operation Berlin and the other raids conducted by surface vessels during 1940 and early 1941 demonstrated that further such attacks remained viable. Raeder travelled to Brest on 23 March, and asked Lütjens to lead the next raid from the ''Bismarck''. Several changes were made to surface raiding tactics based on lessons learned from Operation Berlin. The prohibition against engaging forces of equal strength was softened to allow battleships to engage escorting warships while their accompanying cruisers attacked the convoy. As the intelligence on convoy routes and timings had proven unreliable and Lütjens experienced difficulty searching for convoys, it was decided to station submarines at strategic locations to scout for Allied ships. Tactics that had proven successful, such as keeping the ships of the battle group together and using supply vessels to search for convoys, were retained.
The British were disappointed by their performance during early 1941. While assigning battleships to protect convoys had prevented disastrous losses, the German surface raiders had greatly disrupted the convoy system and not suffered any losses. A key lesson was the need to strengthen patrols of the seas to the north and south of Iceland to detect German raiders as they attempted to enter the Atlantic. This led to additional cruisers being assigned to the area.
Subsequent operations

Coastal Command aircraft located the two German battleships at Brest on 28 March after six days of intensive searches of French ports. Once the battleships were confirmed to be in port, the Home Fleet returned to its bases for a brief period and the Atlantic convoy system returned to its normal routings. Due to the threat the force at Brest posed, the Home Fleet
blockade
A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force.
A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...
d the port and provided powerful escorts to convoys. Submarines were stationed off Brest, and Coastal Command closely monitored it. The Home Fleet maintained three or four naval task forces at all times to intercept the German battleships if they left Brest. Force H was also reinforced and patrolled the routes used by north and southbound convoys. Command of the forces operating west of France alternated between Tovey and Somerville.
The RAF repeatedly made large attacks that targeted the German battleships at Brest. The first raid took place on the night of 30/31 March. On 6 April a British aircraft torpedoed ''Gneisenau''. She was hit by four bombs during another raid on 10 April. It took until the end of 1941 for the damage inflicted by these attacks to be repaired. ''Scharnhorst'' required repairs to her
boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...
s which rendered her unable to participate in
Operation Rheinübung
Operation Rheinübung () was the last sortie into the Atlantic by the new German battleship and heavy cruiser on 18–27 May 1941, during World War II. This operation aimed to disrupt Allied shipping to the United Kingdom as the previously ...
, the raid into the Atlantic undertaken by ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' during May.
Lütjens led Operation Rheinübung from the battleship and sank HMS ''Hood'' in the
Battle of the Denmark Strait
The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a naval engagement in the Second World War, which took place on 24 May 1941 between ships of the Royal Navy and the ''Kriegsmarine''. The British battleship and the battlecruiser fought the German battlesh ...
on 24 May. He was killed when
''Bismarck'' was destroyed by the Home Fleet on 27 May. Guided by Ultra intelligence, the British also sank seven of the eight supply ships that had been sent into the Atlantic to support ''Bismarck''. Following this defeat Hitler forbade further battleship raids into the Atlantic. On 13 June RAF aircraft torpedoed the cruiser
''Lützow'' while she was trying to break out into the Atlantic. This was the last raid into the Atlantic that was attempted by the heavy warships. As a result, Operation Berlin was the final success against Allied shipping achieved by German warships in the North Atlantic. Submarines formed the main element of the German anti-shipping campaign for the remainder of the war.
After the repairs to her boilers were completed, ''Scharnhorst'' was transferred to
La Pallice on 21 July as it was further from the British bomber bases and believed to be at less risk of air attacks. She was hit by five bombs during an air raid on 24 July, and required repairs in Brest that were not completed until 15 January 1942. In line with a decision made by Hitler in September 1941 to concentrate the surface warships in Norway, the ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships were ordered to return to Germany via the
English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
. During the "
Channel Dash" they and ''Prinz Eugen'' departed Brest under heavy air and naval escort on 11 February 1942. Both battleships were damaged by
mines, but reached Germany.
While under repair at Kiel, ''Gneisenau'' was badly damaged by an air raid on the night of 26/27 February and never reentered service. ''Scharnhorst'' was deployed to Norway in 1943. As part of an attempted raid against an Allied
Arctic convoy, she was sunk by the Home Fleet on 26 December 1943 during the
Battle of the North Cape.
Historiography
Writing in 1954,
Stephen Roskill
Stephen Wentworth Roskill (1 August 1903 – 4 November 1982) was a senior career officer of the Royal Navy, serving during the Second World War and, after his retirement, served as the official historian of the Royal Navy from 1949 to 1960. He ...
the British
official historian stated that Operation Berlin "had been skilfully planned, well co-ordinated with the movements of other raiders and successfully sustained by the supply ships sent out for that purpose" and that the Germans were right to be pleased with the results. Roskill noted that the operations conducted by German surface raiders in the North Atlantic between February and March 1941 was the only period in the war in which surface warships were able to "threaten the whole structure of our maritime control". The British naval historian
Richard Woodman judged in 2004 that Operation Berlin did not have significant strategic implications as Lütjens was unable to cripple Allied shipping in the North Atlantic and attacked only one eastbound HX convoy. Angus Konstam noted in 2021 that the number of ships sunk by German surface raiders was dwarfed by those accounted for by submarines. He concluded that the strategy of sending surface raiders into the Atlantic was faulty as the resources required to build and crew these ships would have produced better results if they had been allocated to the submarine force.
Roskill attributed the British failure to intercept the raiders to bad luck. He judged that the Royal Navy's performance was superior to that in previous operations and demonstrated that it now posed a strong threat to surface raiders. Roskill also observed that assigning battleships to escort convoys "had certainly saved two of them from disaster". The historian Graham Rys-Jones reached a similar conclusion in 1999, noting that Lütjens' success in evading the British was "one of the less helpful lessons of Operation Berlin" as it convinced Raeder that ''Bismarck'' could safely operate in the North Atlantic.
Historians agree that Raeder's decision to send the two battleships to Brest was a mistake. Lisle A. Rose has noted that by doing so he "placed the big ships under the thumb of Royal Air Force bombers and divided the German battle fleet between the Channel and the Baltic at just the time that new construction cried out for a concentration of forces". Rose notes that this error led to ''Bismarck'' and ''Prinz Eugen'' lacking the support of the ''Scharnhorst''-class battleships during their sortie in May 1941. Lars Hellwinkel has noted that Brest lacked the facilities to rapidly repair the battleships at the end of Operation Berlin and the vulnerability of French ports to British air attack meant that none of the big warships based there would have been able to conduct any attacks after ''Bismarck''s loss. Raeder acknowledged his error after the war, noting that the forces needed adequately to defend the battleships at Brest had not been available.
References
Citations
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{{World War II
Conflicts in 1941
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
Maritime incidents in 1941
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
Naval operations of the Kriegsmarine
Maritime incidents in January 1941
Maritime incidents in February 1941
Maritime incidents in March 1941