The Whale Has Wings Vol 1 - Rebirth (26 page)

That night, the RAF sends 24 aircraft to lay mines in the Great and Little Belt areas. Only 9 succeed due to bad weather.
The FAA are even more scathing - 'only the RAF could miss the bloody OCEAN!'. The Navy, and the FAA in particular, are fast losing what faith they had in RAF Bomber command, and after their own successes off Norway aren't shy about making the point to the First Lord.

Despite his success in Norway and Denmark, General Jodl note
d that the Fuhrer is suffering a ‘nervous crisis’ and ‘terrible excitement’, after he receives news of the naval losses off Norway.

The Danes (who are, technically, not defeated by Germany) bring 90% of Danish shipping into allied and friendly ports, a welcome addition to the allies merchant shipping.

On the 15th, the RAF redoubles its efforts to attack Stavanger airfield. This time six aircraft bomb the airfield, with little effect.

A single Hudson, flying off the Norwegian coast, is attacked by two Me110's. One of the fighters crashed into a mountain while trying to attack the Hudson. An Admiral is heard to remark, perhaps only half-jokingly, that the Hudson should be re-specified as a fighter.

After the losses due to allied air attacks, in particular those from the FAA, the Luftwaffe increases its commitment in Norway, establishing Luftlotte 5's HQ in Hamburg under Milch to oversee operations.

16th April.

It is considered fortunate that the German commander was persuaded to abandon Narvik earlier, as only part of the British force has arrived there before heavy snowstorms strand the rest of the force north of the town. The commander, General Macksey, has already been criticised for his caution, and this new delay doesn't help that reputation. The British and Norwegian force start preparations for heading south on the railway line to attack Trondheim.

The submarine HMS Porpoise makes an attack on the U-3 southwest of Stavanger, without success.

The RAF this time raids four airfields with small forces of bombers, again without any noticeable results.

A reconnaissance is made of Bergen by a flight of Goshawks; the navy suspects that after the last two raids it isn't in use, so send some fighters to check (they reason that if they were in command there would be fighters there now, so don't want to risk strike planes unless there are targets). The Goshawks spot a submarine making its way unconcernedly up the fjord on the surface(the U-58); accordingly, a strike of 12 Swordfish escorted by 9 fighters is authorised; this takes off 40 minutes later. When they arrive at the fjord, they are happily surprised to see the submarine still on the surface - apparently it hadn't seen the earlier Goshawks
, or maybe it had misidentified the fighters as German planes.

The Swordfish glide bomb the submarine with the new shallow depth charge bombs (these have now replaced the old, ineffectual RAF 100lb antisubmarine bombs). The results are satisfying, the submarine is left sinking as her crew abandon her. All the planes return without loss. One other result of the raid is that the Germans stop using the fjord (at least in daylight) for the time being.

As a result of the actions of Germany, Iceland declares its independence and the Icelandic government appeals to the USA for recognition and aid.

The news of the Narvik garrisons retreat finally reaches Germany. Hitler has a fit of hysteria, demanding that Goering evacuate the troops by air. It is pointed out that this cant now be done (in any case, there isn't anywhere for Ju52's to land), but is assured that they will be repatriated speedily from Sweden. Jodl note
d in his diary 'Every piece of bad news leads to the worst fears'.

While the rest of the British force north of Narvik slogs its way there through the snow, the two battalions t
hat arrived on the cruisers (now having received their full equipment and supplies from the UK, and an equal force of Norwegian infantry head down the railway line south towards Trondheim. Their mission is to make sure the Germans don't advance past Trondheim, and to aid the British forces about to land outside the port. As soon as the rest of the British force at Narvik has reorganised itself, it will follow with more Norwegian forces. The sailors landed from the battlecruisers and destroyers have been re-embarked, as Narvik is now fully occupied by the Allies.

British troops land at Aandalsnes and Namsos. These locations are not close to Trondheim (100m and 80m respectively), and the need to transfer troops to destroyers at Namsos (the fjord being too winding and narrow for the troop transports) leads to delay and confusion. The force has no transport, and will have to get closer to Trondheim by rail. The force commander, General de Wiart, is not happy about what he considers the lethargic speed of the force coming down from Narvik, and insists his own troops should press on as fast as possible, before Trondheim can be reinforced.

Royal Navy destroyers, operating off Trondheim, have intercepted a couple of small ships over the last couple of days, apparently trying to run supplies to Trondheim. However since the raids on Bergen, the Kriegsmarine seems to have given up on using any surface forces north of Stavanger, due to lack of air cover. In order to keep the pressure on Bergen, a raid is staged from the UK using Cormorants. At this distance, they can only carry 500lb bombs, but in the event they find no shipping in the harbour.

In order to try and reduce the German air presence, the Admiralty decide to use the heavy cruiser Suffolk to bombard the airfield at Stavanger. While more dangerous than an air raid, the intention is to give the Germans another threat to worry about. It is planned to c
over the ship with a flight of six Goshawks, which will be sent as soon as requested (it is hoped that the Suffolk's arrival will be a surprise, so the intent is to ask for cover once the bombardment starts).

While the bombardment goes off reasonably well (although it does not close the airfield), the cover finds the ship under heavy attack from the Luftwaffe, and when they try to intervene they are intercepted by fighters, making it very difficult to protect the ship from the dive
-bombing. They do shoot down two Me109's and a Ju88, but for the loss of three Goshawks. The Suffolk continues to make her escape, but due to her distance from the carriers it is not practical to keep more than six fighters available (the fleet has to keep a reserve in case it too is spotted). The Suffolk is hit by one bomb right aft, after 88 misses. The bomb destroyed her rudder and left her very low in the water aft. Fortunately by this time she was out of range of cover from the short ranged Me109's, and when the next attackers met the covering fighters the attacks were broken off. The ship arrived at Scapa half sinking, her stern nearly under water. It drove home the lesson that ships were in grave danger if in range of enemy air attack and without fighter cover, as the ships AA had only shot down one plane. The FAA fighters had shot down another four, as well as driving off a number of attackers. However it was noted that it had taken considerable effort by the Luftwaffe to damage her, and that it wasn't impossible to use lighter warships in these situations, just dangerous.

Most of the heavy home fleet units returned to Scapa to refuel, except for the carriers. It is intended to use three carriers to keep two permanently on station, supported by at least one battleship or battlecruiser.

That night, news is received that the Scharnhorst, making her way back to Kiel to repair her torpedo damage, has been torpedoed by a Polish submarine, who hit her aft with one 21" torpedo. The Scharnhorst will be in dock for some time.

Bomber command again darkens the skies over Norwegian airfields. Three planes to Kjeller and three to Fornebu, followed by three more split between the two airfields. None of the planes bomb due to poor weather.

The British 148th Brigade and the French 5th Chesseurs Alpines are landed at Narvik. The original plan had been to land them at Andalsnes and Namsos, but the paucity of port facilities and the possession of the rail lines south has changed their destination, As their supplies are still being loaded rather randomly, they will not be able to move south for at least a day, although advance parties go south to talk with the command. The current allied plan is to move on Trondheim from the east, with the forces landed to the west and north blocking their escape.

The Norwegian defence in the south is slowly being defeated and driven north. General Ruges plan is to try and take back Bergen and hold as far south as possible; if this fails, he intends to withdraw north to a position south of Trondheim, which he hopes will have been recaptured.

HMS Colossus has been refuelling at Tromso. While transiting the Grotsund fjord she is surprised in poor weather by a single Fw-200 plane, which drops two 250kg bombs, neither of which hits. The British are becoming concerned at the way the fjords diminish the effectiveness of radar, which the carriers have been depending up. It is the Royal Navy's first encounter with the big four-engined Fw200.

Four days after sinking the gunnery training ship Brummer, submarine HMS Sterlet is presumed lost in the Skagerrak to A/S trawlers. Allied troops occupy the Faeroe Islands north of Scotland.

HMS Colossus had to return to sea without having fully fuelled due to air attacks on Tromso. While effective, it is becoming clear that radar has limits, sometimes severe limits, over land, especially when attacking planes have high mountains to use in their approach. It is decided to refuel at Scapa where possible; the number of carriers available makes this practical, though it is a concern that it reduces the available air cover by 1/3. Pressure is again put on the RAF to deploy some modern fighters in defence of the army and the ports. The result of this seems to be a reconnaissance of Hamburg, which leaves both the Army and Navy puzzled as to how this is supposed to help them.

An attack on Trondheim has to be postponed due to the urgent need to reinforce the Norwegians southwards; unless this is done it is feared they will collapse, which would render the capture of the port pointless. Accordingly the 148th Brigade is ordered south to Lillehammer, taking up positions to the south of the city.

The 146th Brigade, which has encountered the German forces based at Trondheim at the town of Steinker, is forced to retreat back towards Namsos.

It is hoped to start an attack on Trondheim from the east in the next day or so, weather permitting.

RAF Bomber command finally mount a sizeable raid - 35 Wellingtons attack Stavanger airfield, reporting heavy damage to parked aircraft and to the runways.

The Luftwaffe mounted
large scale raids against Namsos. The wooden houses were set alight and the jetty damaged. Aandalsnes was bombed three times. Steinkjaer is reduced to ruins.
Using 150 bombers (He-111's and Ju88's) and 60 Ju87's, Fliegerkorps X mounted an attack on the Allied landings that was so intense that it prevented supplies from being landed to reinforce the troops already on Norwegian soil. The FAA were unable to intercept due to bad weather. Renewed demands are put on the RAF for land-based fighter support, and the RAF finally agreed to deploy two squadrons of Hurricanes and Gladiators.

The German air attacks ignore Narvik, possibly because of the proximity of the carriers (the main fleet carrier force is actually to the west of Trondheim rather than to the north, the planes seen over Narvik belonging to the Venerable and Colossus.

On his 51st birthday, Hitler ordered a new SS regiment to be set up containing Norwegians and Danes as well as Germans.

The troops hurriedly rushed to Lillehammer are pushed out of the town by a German attack. Meanwhile a German
column of mountain troops moved overland from Trondheim by road and rail to attack the British troops at Steinker. This was probably a mistake, as the attack by the British and Norwegian units east of Trondheim begins. While not as well organised as the defenders, they number the best part of a division and steadily pushed the Germans back towards the town. As a result of this increased pressure, the attack towards Steinker was called off; the troops will be needed at Trondheim.

The weather wa
s better, and possibly as a result there was no major raid mounted by the Luftwaffe, although the RAF visit Aalborg and Stavanger airfields again.

Allied forces continue to press on Trondheim, aided by Royal Navy destroyers and a cruiser giving heavy gunfire support from the fjord. The better weather allows the carriers to maintain a CAP of 9 Goshawks over t
he area, and as a result there was no Luftwaffe activity. Reconnaissance reveals a number of German planes on a frozen lake - Ju-52's Ju-87's and He-111's They did not appear to be in use, but a raid was mounted anyway, 24 SeaLance glide bombing with 250lb bombs. The frozen lake surface was broken up and a number of aircraft destroyed.

The German forces in Trondheim we
re now running very low of ammunition and supplies; due to the control of the air and sea around the port, no supplies have reached them by ship, as was the original plan. Some limited supplies have arrived by air, but nothing near enough. By the end of the day the allied forces are close to the east of the town.

The
British troops at Lillehammer were forced to fall back along the east bank of the Lagen River to a bridge at the village of Trettin. The bridge had to be held until the Norwegians and British west of the river could retreat across it. Little support was available from the exhausted Norwegian forces