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Operation Wonderland () was an operation from 16 to 30 August 1942 by the ''
Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...
'' in the
Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...
and the
Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...
off the Arctic coast of the Soviet Union. The operation was an attack on Soviet shipping using the
Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...
which ran along the Soviet Arctic coast from the
Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...
, westwards along
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
to the Kara Sea. The operation was the first part of a campaign to dominate the seas of the western Arctic. Reports from Japanese naval intelligence alerted the Germans to the sailing of a convoy, EON-18. The German cruiser supported by five U-boats and reconnaissance aircraft sailed on 16 August for the Kara Sea where it encountered pack ice. The cruiser carried an Arado Ar 196 reconnaissance floatplane which found several groups of ships. ''Admiral Scheer'' sank the icebreaker '' A. Sibiryakov'' and bombarded the Soviet base at Dikson before returning to its base at
Kirkenes (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ), (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami; , or is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town lies on a peninsu ...
in northern Norway. The meagre result obtained by ''Admiral Scheer'' was exceeded by the U-boats in the operation.


Background


German plans

In 1942, the (SKL) of , the high command of the German Navy () looked for fairly safe operational possibilities for its heavy units. On 5 May, Admiral
Rolf Carls Rolf Hans Wilhelm Karl Carls (29 May 1885 – 24 April 1945) was a high-ranking German admiral and deputy to Kriegsmarine commander-in-chief Erich Raeder during much of World War II. Carls served as ''Flottenchef'' (Fleet commander (Kriegsmarine ...
, the commander of (Naval Group North), ordered Admiral Hubert Schmundt, the commander of the German naval forces in northern Norway, to study the feasibility of sending the heavy cruisers , or , based in the north of Norway, on a sortie against convoys using the
Northern Sea Route The Northern Sea Route (NSR) (, shortened to Севморпуть, ''Sevmorput'') is a shipping route about long. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is the shortest shipping route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region. Ad ...
. In July, Naval Group North had suggested a plan to send ''Admiral Scheer'' into the
Kara Sea The Kara Sea is a marginal sea, separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and from the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Ultimately the Kara, Barents and Laptev Seas are all ...
, to attack Soviet merchant ships on the Northern Sea Route. Because
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 ...
had refused permission for ''Admiral Scheer'' to sortie into the Atlantic, Raeder agreed to this "makeshift operation". was the first part of a plan to gain control over the western Arctic Sea, to be followed by Operation Zar. The Germans had polar ice information and aerial photographs of parts of the Kara Sea and its
littoral The littoral zone, also called litoral or nearshore, is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely i ...
from the airship '' Graf Zeppelin'', which had made a Polar Flight in July 1931. The crew of gleaned information on ice conditions and took photographs of
Franz Josef Land Franz Josef Land () is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. It is inhabited only by military personnel. It constitutes the northernmost part of Arkhangelsk Oblast and consists of 192 islands, which cover an area of , stretching from east ...
(), Northern Land (the archipelago) and parts of the coasts of the
Taymyr Peninsula The Taymyr Peninsula ( ) is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of the mainland of Eurasia. Administratively it is part of the Krasnoyarsk Krai Federal subject of Russia. Ge ...
( and
Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; , ; ), also spelled , is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, considered the extreme points of Europe ...
(New Land). Accurate maps had been drawn by the use of
Photogrammetry Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant ima ...
on the aerial photographs. Information on ice conditions and navigational problems was also available from the report by Robert Eyssen, commander of the auxiliary cruiser and raider , which navigated the northern route, escorted by a Soviet icebreaker, in 1940. On 5 May 1942, the (MND, Naval Intelligence) received information from a prisoner of war that the settlement of Amderma, on the Kara Sea, south of Novaya Zemlya, had been expanded into a big port and that it had a railway link to
Vorkuta Vorkuta (; ; Nenets languages, Nenets for "the abundance of bears", "bear corner") is a coal-mining types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle in the Pechora coal basin a ...
, thence to the
hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning the 'land behind' a city, a port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated wi ...
of the Soviet Union. On 29 June, spies in Canada reported that 18,000
bushel A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an Imperial unit, imperial and United States customary units, US customary unit of volume, based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel was used mostly for agriculture, agricultural pr ...
s of wheat had been loaded on ships in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, bound for
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
. On 1 July, Carls submitted a plan to send ''Admiral Scheer'' and ''Lützow'' into the Kara Sea against ships using the Northern Sea Route, to bombard Amderma and to attack any fishing craft which were found. SKL accepted the plan but on 8 August, limited it to ''Admiral Scheer'', because of a fuel shortage. The sortie was set for the middle of August, when ice conditions would be at their least obstructive, during a lull in Allied Arctic convoys, after the victory over Convoy PQ 17 (27 June – 10 July 1942).


''Admiral Scheer'' was a
Deutschland-class cruiser The class was a series of three (armored ships), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The ships of the class, , , and , were all stated to displace in a ...
of welded construction, with diesel engines capable of , a range of and a maximum speed of . The ship carried six guns in two triple turrets, eight guns, eight guns, ten machine-guns and eight torpedo tubes. The ship had a belt of armour -thick along the water line and of armour on the turrets. Two Arado Ar 196 floatplanes were carried for reconnaissance but one was left behind during the Kara Sea sortie; ''Admiral Scheer'' had a crew of 1,150 men. Wilhelm Meendsen-Bohlken, the captain of ''Admiral Scheer'', was given a considerable measure of discretion in the operation. Meendsen-Bohlken was to attack Soviet convoys coming from the east via the northern route in the Kara Sea. A bombardment of Amderma was desirable but left to the captain to decide. Trawlers were to carry out an ice reconnaissance but this was later changed to two U-boats. The destroyer escorts would not accompany ''Admiral Scheer'' into the Kara Sea because of their limited endurance and thin hulls. It was vital to surprise the Soviet authorities and ''Admiral Scheer'' was to remain beyond sight of land and to keep radio silence. To help find Soviet convoys, staff from the B-Dienst ( Observation Service), the wireless interception service, commanded by Diesterweg were embarked on the ship.


Intelligence reports

During July, Japanese Naval Intelligence reported that on 16 July, twenty merchantmen were said to have arrived at Petropavlovsk and on 26 July the Japanese reported the sailing of a large convoy, including Soviet destroyer escorts, northwards from the port. (In 2020, E. P. Guriev wrote that Convoy EON-18 consisted of six merchant ships with the destroyers ''Baku'', ''Razumny'' and ''Razyashchy'' with the icebreakers ''A.'' ''Mikoyan'' and ''L''. ''Kaganovich''.) By 1 August, the convoy was reported to have reached the
Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...
. SKL estimated that the convoy would enter the Kara Sea via the Vilkitsky Strait, south of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, on 15 or 16 August. German spies notified SKL that an eastbound convoy was due to depart from Arkhangelsk on 15 August.


Prelude


Kara Sea settlements

In 1942, there were 18 settlements on the shores of the Kara Sea, comprising weather stations, ice survey stations and wireless stations. The stations were civilian but were important for the Northern Sea Route yet had few defences. Merchant ships and icebreakers carried guns and anti-aircraft armament but the polar stations were undefended. Precautions at the polar stations were limited to emergency radio stations hidden away from the base where they were not visible from the sea, equipped with supplies, fuel, sleeping bags, tents and other essentials in case of attack. Amderma was not part of the Northern Sea Route but a defunct mine with a small settlement and no railway or port. The Kara Sea terminus of the Northern Sea Route had a local centre on Dikson Island. There was a wireless station, a geophysical observatory, an airstrip and the regional headquarters of the Chief Administration of the Northern Sea Route. Dikson harbour was on the mainland opposite and there was a large coal depot in the middle of the anchorage on Konus Island. Because of its role as the western terminal of the Northern Sea Route, modest defensive works had been installed before the war. Two artillery batteries, one of 152 mm and one of 130 mm guns and an anti-aircraft battery had been placed there to cover the harbour and the outer approaches.


Preliminary operations

On 26 July the submarine ( Peter-Ottmar Grau) bombarded a Russian polar station at Karmakuly on Novaya Zemlya and sank the Soviet merchant ship ''Krestyanin'' () near the Matochkin Strait off
Yuzhny Island Yuzhny Island () is the southern island of Russia's Novaya Zemlya archipelago, lying north of mainland Russia. It has an area of , which while smaller than the northern island of Severny, still makes it one of the largest islands in the world. I ...
, the southern island of Novaya Zemlya on 1 August. For concealment, ''Admiral Scheer'' would have to enter the Kara Sea by a northabout route past Cape Zhelaniya and on 11 August, ''U-601'' departed from
Kirkenes (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ), (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami; , or is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town lies on a peninsu ...
for the waters north of Novaya Zemlya, to check the ice limit. ( Heinrich Timm), was to enter the Kara Sea from the south, via the Yugorsky Strait, which separates
Vaygach Island Vaygach Island () is an island in the Arctic Sea between the Pechora Sea and the Kara Sea. Geography Vaygach Island is separated from the Yugorsky Peninsula in the mainland by the Yugorsky Strait and from Novaya Zemlya by the Kara Strait. ...
from the Yugorsky Peninsula on the mainland. On 14 August, Carls ordered the operation to begin; a
low-pressure area In meteorology, a low-pressure area (LPA), low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. It is the opposite of a high-pressure area. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with incle ...
was on its way and it was intended that ''Admiral Scheer'' should exploit the poor visibility common in low-pressure areas to cross the Barents Sea without detection. The lull in Allied convoys released more submarines for . ( Heinrich Brodda) was dispatched to watch the western entrance of the
Kara Strait The Kara Strait or Kara Gates () is a wide channel of water between the southern end of Novaya Zemlya and the northern tip of Vaygach Island. This strait connects the Kara Sea and the Barents Sea in northern Russia. Hydrography and climate T ...
and ( Max-Martin Teichert) to the west end of the Matochkin Strait. From 11 to 17 August, ( Reinhart Reche) and a BV 138 flying-boat, fitted with extra fuel tanks, reconnoitred the Svalbard Archipelago and ( Siegfried Strelow) delivered the weather station party (Bud) to the islands, to provide weather information for ships operating against the Northern Sea Route. On 15 August, U-601 reported that the ice limit was north of Cape Zhelaniya.



16–19 August

''Admiral Scheer'' left
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 ...
on 16 August 1942, escorted by the destroyers , and . The ships sailed southwards to mislead the British and then the destroyers made for
Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...
. The weather conditions were excellent for concealment, with storms and poor visibility but ''Admiral Scheer'' was nearly spotted by a Soviet merchant ship on 18 August. A rendezvous with ''U-601'' had been planned for just after midnight on 18/19 August at . Grau said that the route eastwards into the Kara Sea was ice free and that no aircraft or ships had been seen. Grau sailed south to patrol off the mouths of the river Ob and the
Yenisey The Yenisey or Yenisei ( ; , ) is the list of rivers by length, fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean. Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course through Lake Baikal a ...
, the largest river to empty into the Arctic Ocean. ''Admiral Scheer'' passed Cape Zhelaniya at the north end of Novaya Zemlya, the boundary of the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. ''Admiral Scheer'' sailed eastwards for the Vilkitsky Strait through pack ice and two sorties were flown by the Arado to find the clearest route. The ice increased and at about north of Uyedineniya Island, Meendsen-Bohlken turned the ship around, apprehensive of damage to the propellers. After heading west to get clear of the ice, the cruiser turned to the south-east along the edge of the pack ice. On the morning of 20 August, ''Admiral Scheer'' rendezvoused with U-251; Timm went on board the cruiser to report and said that no ships had been seen but noted that funnel smoke from ''Admiral Scheer'' was visible for in the clear, calm, Arctic air. ''U-251'' turned south and ''Admiral Scheer'' continued towards the south-east for the
Laptev Sea The Laptev Sea () is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with ...
, to ambush coastal traffic. In these unfamiliar coastal waters, Meendsen-Bohlken found his charts to be unreliable; skerries (rocky islets) were found in what were supposed to be open waters and
shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...
s (underwater ridges and banks) appeared where deep water was marked.


20–24 August

On 20 August the Arado crew spotted three groups of Soviet ships, including the
icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...
s and near Kravkov Island in the
Mona Islands The Mona Islands or Mohn Islands () is a group of a few scattered small islands covered with tundra vegetation. They are located in the Kara Sea, about 30 km north of the western coast of the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia, Russia. Etymology ...
, roughly north of the west coast of the Taymyr Peninsula. On 23 August more ships were seen in the Vilkitsky Strait, between the Taimyr Peninsula and Bolshevik Island in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. From 20 to 25 August, the Kara Sea was searched north and east towards the Vilkitsky Strait and as far west as Uyedineniya Island, to find the convoys discovered by the Arado or uncovered by the party. The search was thwarted by thick fog and ''Admiral Scheer'' lost track of the convoys, then had to sink the Arado after a landing accident. While searching to the north of
Russky Island Russky Island () is an island in Peter the Great Gulf in the Sea of Japan, in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is the largest island in the Eugénie Archipelago, separated from the Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula immediately to the north by the Eastern ...
in the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, ''Admiral Scheer'' was enveloped by fog so thick that Meendsen-Bohlken was forced to anchor amidst drifting ice, which began to pack, potentially trapping the ship. Visibility improved and Meendsen-Bohlken managed to navigate out of the ice. Fog and ice floes prevented the ship from approaching and on arrival at the Mona Islands, the Russian ships had gone.


25 August

On 25 July, two masts were spotted at and Meendsen-Bohlken approached the ship to seize its codes and cyphers to eavesdrop on Russian wireless messages on ice conditions around the Vilkitsky Strait. The ship was the icebreaker 1,384 GRT ( Anatoli Kacharava), armed with two and two guns. When spotted, ''Sibiryakov'' was bound for the Arctic Cape, at the north end of Severnaya Zemlya, to visit the weather station. More personnel had been embarked for the station, bringing the ship's complement to 104 men. The Russians mistook ''Admiral Scheer'', which was approaching head-on, for the cruiser . Kacharava then became suspicious, ordered action stations and turned towards Beluga Island south of Cape Dikson and north-east of the Vkhodnoy Strait near Vkhodnoy Island. The Russians tried to get off a distress signal "Have sighted an unknown auxiliary cruiser which is closing with us; please watch this channel" to Dikson but the operators on ''Admiral Scheer'' managed to jam the signal. The Russian captain was ordered to "Lower your flag and surrender", followed by a warning shot. The gunners on ''Sibiryakov'' replied quickly but were hopelessly outgunned; ''Admiral Scheer'' fired six salvoes and obtained four hits, setting ''Sibiryakov'' on fire. The Germans launched a boat with a boarding party to recover codebooks and other papers as ''Sibiryakov'' began to sink but Kacharava had ordered Engineer Bochurko to open the seacocks; Bochurko carried out the order and went down with the ship. Lifeboats had been lowered and most of the survivors including Kacharava, who had been wounded, made for Beluga Island but were intercepted by the launch. (There are conflicting reports over the number of prisoners taken, which vary from 19 to 28.) Some of the Russians refused to be rescued, preferring to drown or die of exposure; one man managed reach the island, where he was rescued a month later.


26 August, attack on Dikson

heard a warning broadcast to all Soviet shipping in the Kara Sea that an unknown German ship was at large, which meant that the element of surprise was forfeit. Fearing attack by aircraft, Meendsen-Bohlken sailed away from the Taymyr Peninsula. North-westerly winds continued to pack the ice into the mouth of the Vilkitsky Strait and after the loss of the Arado, an attack on the convoy near there had to be abandoned. The volume of wireless transmissions from Dikson to ships and ports intercepted by the B-Dienst party had shown that it was an important base for the western end of Northern Sea Route. To interfere with these convoys and to capture ice data, which could help gain the objectives of ''Wunderland'', Meendsen-Bohlken decided to attack the port and headed south on 26 August. Meendsen-Bohlken had information that Dikson was protected by sixty Frontier Guards equipped with small-arms. The Germans did not know that when the war began, Ivan Papanin, the head of the
Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route The Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route (), also known as Glavsevmorput or GUSMP (), was a Soviet government organization in charge of the maritime Northern Sea Route, established in January 1932 and dissolved in 1964. History The organiz ...
() had asked for the defences of Dikson to be reinforced. The 226th naval battery with two guns and the 246th anti-aircraft battery with two guns were dispatched to Dikson, followed later by the 569th heavy battery with two 1910-vintage siege guns. Ships at Dikson were ordered south to the Golchikha river to wait on events. On 26 August the officers at Dikson met on board SKR-19/ (Senior Lieutenant A. S. Gidulyanov) and decided to form two militia units commanded by Sidorin and Statov, the heads of the polar station. The border guards had two 37 mm anti-tank guns, a 76 mm anti-aircraft gun and a 75 mm howitzer. The 300 militia, carrying rifles, hunting pieces and carbines, patrolled the port. Women and children were evacuated to a settlement on the river Lembrovka, along with confidential documents. The guns were being removed and loaded onto for transfer to Beluga Bay on the south island of Novaya Zemlya, which was under frequent German air attack. The commander of the 569th heavy battery, Lieutenant Kornyakov ordered the unloading of 152 mm ammunition and picked volunteers for the guns from the dock workers. Commissar Babintsev of the White Sea Naval Group and Gidulyanov set off on a reconnaissance to Cape Kretchatik, with ''Molokov'', a tug pulling a barge with the 226th naval battery and its ammunition, to decide where to site it. ''Dezhnev'' was armed with four 76 mm guns, four 45 mm guns and four 20 mm Oerlikon guns. ''Revolyutsioner'' (Captain Panfilov of ) armed with a 76 mm gun, a 45 mm gun and two Oerlikons, carrying a cargo of wood arrived. The third ship in port was ''Kara'', unarmed and carrying hundreds of tons of explosives used for mining and clearing paths through ice fields. At on 27 August, lookouts near the former 226th battery emplacement in the north-west of the port spotted ''Admiral Scheer'' to the south along the west shore of Dikson Island. The alarm was raised and the wireless station began broadcasting warnings in clear. Two lookouts, with a rifle and five rounds followed the ship, ready to engage a landing party. upright=1.4, ''Dezhnev'' was near the Konus Island coal terminal in the inner harbour and Gidulyanov ordered the ship away from the terminal closer to the shore. About thirty minutes later ''Admiral Scheer'' passed a navigation station at Skuratov near the south harbour, from the port. Meendsen-Bohlken had prepared a landing-party of 180 men, to be covered by the main and secondary armament, for a landing as close as possible to the offices, minimising the time when the party could be engaged before it landed. Little opposition was expected, perhaps some light artillery fire from merchant ships and the shore garrison. ''Dezhnev'' had got under way and Gidulyanov ordered full ahead, intending to attack the port side of ''Admiral Scheer'' so that if damaged he could sink ''Dezhnev'' in the gap between Pirozhok Island and shallow water, obstructing access to the inner harbour. As the German ship came closer, Gidulyanov played for time by signalling an identification demand but as soon as ''Admiral Scheer'' came in sight of the Russian ships it opened fire, as did ''Dezhnev'', aiming at the bridge, fo'c's'le and the rangefinders and seeing explosions. ''Dezhnev'' was hit several times but the armour-piercing shells went through the hull. High explosive ammunition was substituted which soon caused severe damage, including holes below the waterline. Six members of the crew were killed, one mortally wounded and twenty wounded. ''Dezhnev'' began to make smoke, sought shelter by heading for Samoletnaya Bay but at Gidulyanov tried to prevent the ship from capsizing, damage control reporting that it would need three hours to make repairs and bail out the ship. ''Admiral Scheer'' changed aim and quickly hit ''Revolyutsioner'' three times, despite the smoke-screen, setting it on fire, cutting the steam pipe and jamming the winch for raising the anchor, keeping the ship stationary. ''Kara'' was fairly well protected by the shore and the smoke but then the 152 mm guns began to fire, sending up columns of water next to ''Admiral Scheer''. The guns had been emplaced near the pier against a background of the land, in a haze and the smokescreen. The heavy shells were a surprise for the Germans but the guns, in weight, rolled back after each shot and a lorry had to be used to return the guns to their firing positions. The gunners and volunteers got some logs to block the spade trails of the guns, which allowed them to increase the rate of fire. At by when the 569th battery had fired forty rounds, ''Admiral Scheer'' made smoke, sailed round Cape Anvil and moved northwards along Dikson Island, bombarding the weather station on Great Bear Island for five minutes. The 569th battery fired blind at the sound of the guns but had no success. Meendsen-Bohlken received reports that the oil depot and coal on Konus Island were on fire, wireless masts had been knocked down, the wireless station, its power plant and other buildings were burning. Having fired 20 per cent of the ship's ammunition, with the bombardment from the heavy Russian guns continuing and needing to conserve ammunition, Meendsen-Bohlken decided to lay more smoke, turned starboard and headed back into the Kara Sea. intercepted a Soviet signal that ''Kuibyshev'' had been sunk and mistakenly thought that it had been in the harbour; the ship had been sunk on 24 August by ''U-601'' at a position to the north-west of Dikson. The damage caused by the bombardment was far less extensive than the Germans assumed. ''Revolyutsioner'' was operational in three days and ''Dezhnev'' three days later. the icebreakers ''Litke'' and ''Taimyr'' sailed to Port Dudinka and three days later brought back fuel enough for the next convoy.


27–30 August

Although ''Admiral Scheer'' had been only superficially damaged, if at all, the Russians had only to suspend convoys for a short time and the icing of the Kara Sea would force the raider to withdraw or risk being trapped. Early on 28 August, Carls signalled orders for Meendsen-Bohlken to start for home at noon on 29 September. Meendsen-Bohlken broke wireless silence to request permission for a delay, to make a sweep south of the Franz Joseph Archipelago to Svalbard but this was refused and ''Admiral Scheer'' began its return voyage. On 29 August, the destroyers ''Friedrich Eckoldt'', ''Erich Steinbrinck'' and ''Richard Beitzen'' sailed to meet ''Admiral Scheer'' near Bear Island and escorted the cruiser back to Kirkenes by 30 August. Not long after the return of ''Admiral Scheer'', it was seen by British reconnaissance aircraft and the Soviet authorities were informed that shipping in the Kara and Barents seas were no longer endangered by surface ships.


U-boat operations

On 17 August, west of the Yugorsky Strait, the narrow sound between the Pechora Sea and the Kara Sea, at the south-eastern end of the Barents Sea, ''U-209'' spotted a Soviet Secret Service (NKVD) convoy, comprising the tugs ''Komsomolets'' and ''Nord'' towing the lighter ''Sh-500'', ''P-4'' and ''Komiles'', a tug with an unserviceable engine. The convoy was bound for Naryan-Mar up the
Pechora River The Pechora (; Komi: Печӧра; Nenets: Санэроˮ яха) is the sixth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Northwest Russia and into the Arctic Ocean, it lies mostly in the Komi Republic but the northernmost part crosses the Nenets A ...
. The lighter carried building materials and ''P-4'' held 300 Gulag prisoners. At about ''U-209'' surfaced and engaged the convoy with its deck gun. ''P-4'' was attacked first and the prisoners, in black uniforms, were taken for Red Army troops. The barge caught fire and the guards jumped overboard; ''Komsomolets'' had cast off its tow and ''U-209'' changed target, sinking it. ''P-4'' was torpedoed and ''Nord'' escaped, later to return with a couple of Soviet minesweepers but found only 23 of the 328 men, none of them prisoners. On 20 August, ''U-456'' attacked the Soviet icebreaker SKR-18/ off Whale Bay, a settlement on the Gusinaya Zemlya peninsula of Yuzhny Island (Novaya Zemlya) but its torpedoes missed. The U-boat was depth-charged by four escort vessels and escaped by diving under the ice. On 24 August, ''U-601'' sank the merchant ship ''Kuybyshev'' (2,332 GRT) and the tug ''Medvezhonok'' (bear cub) near Cape Zhelaniya (Cape Desire). ''U-255'' destroyed the Soviet wireless station at Cape Zhelaniya with gunfire on 25 August. On 28 August ''U-209'' bombarded the wireless station and lighthouse at Khodovarikha on Zavorot Island. ''U-589'' laid mines the west end of the Matochkin Strait and on 7 September, a U-boat bombarded the wireless station on Uyedineniya Island. Post war investigation found evidence that there had been a German observation post on Vardroper Island the outermost of the Minina Skerries during . The survey ship ''lsledovatel'', on a voyage to the navigation beacon on the island, found an abandoned camp with German labels on discarded tins and a wireless aerial on the beacon.


Aftermath


Analysis

Operation Wonderland () was a modest success. Owing to adverse weather conditions and the abundance of ice floes, ''Admiral Scheer'' did not venture beyond the Vilkitsky Strait. only affected shipping in the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. By the end of August the voyage of ''Admiral Scheer'' was over and by mid-September, U-boat operations were over because of the freezing of the sea surface with thick pack ice, especially in the Kara Sea, which not being affected by the warmer Atlantic currents, freezes much earlier. The Soviet navy had failed to intercept ''Admiral Scheer'' because , which administered shipping in the Kara Sea, did not inform the Northern Fleet HQ for 36 hours.


Subsequent operations

Operation Wonderland II was planned for 1 August 1943 with the heavy cruiser but the raid was cancelled. Despite the end of Wonderland II on 4 October 1943, operations in Kara Sea resumed the following year until 4 October 1944.


Notes


Footnotes


References

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Further reading

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External links


Russian Military History
(in Russian)

(in Russian)
History of the Northern Sea Route
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wunderland, Operation Arctic convoys of World War II Arctic naval operations of World War II August 1942 Barents Sea Conflicts in 1942 Kara Sea Military operations of World War II Naval battles of World War II involving Germany Naval battles of World War II involving the Soviet Union Naval operations of the Kriegsmarine October 1942 September 1942