Battles of Narvik
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The Battles of Narvik were naval battles fought between the British Royal Navy and the German Kriegsmarine in April 1940, during the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War.
On the foggy morning of the 9th April, The German destroyers Anton Schmidt and Wilhelm Heidkamp crept into the fijord leading to Narvik. In the harbour were the two old coastal defence battleships HNoMS Norge and HNoMS Eidsvold, whose duty of patrolling the entrance to the fijord made them targets of torpedoes from the German ships. Both sank rapidly with 343 lives. Following this, troops from the German destroyers and accompanying transport ships rapidly took the town and surrounding area from the few Norwegian soldiers stationed in the area.
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First Battle of Narvik
{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=First battle of Narvik
|image=Image:UK-NWE-Norway-2.jpg
|caption=
|partof=World War II
|date=April 10, 1940
|place=Narvik, Norway
|result=British victory
|combatant1=United Kingdom
|combatant2=Germany
|commander1=Bernard Warburton-Lee
|commander2=Friedrich Bonte
|strength1=-
|strength2=10 destroyer
|casualties1=2 destroyers sunk
1 destroyer damaged
|casualties2=2 destroyers sunk
7 cargo ships sunk
4 destroyers damaged,
|}}
Template:Campaignbox Nazi occupation of Norway
The First Battle of Narvik occurred on 10 April 1940.
The day after the German invasion, the Royal Navy saw an opportunity to damage the Kriegsmarine, and so despatched six H-class destroyers to Narvik. As they entered the harbour of Narvik, they engaged a German force in the entrance to the harbour, where sank two destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp and Anton Schmidt, heavily damaged the Diether von Roeder and inflicted lesser damage on two more. Seven other German or German-seized cargo or transport ships were also sunk, including the supply ship Rauenfels. They also exchanged fire with German shore batteries and damaged facilities, but did not have a landing force, and so turned to leave. As they did so, they were surprised by several German reinforcements, which sank two British destroyers HMS Hardy, which was beached in flames, and Hunter. Both the German commander, Friedrich Bonte, and the British commander, Bernard Warburton-Lee, were killed in the battle. Warburton-Lee was later posthumously awarded with the Victoria Cross.
Second Battle of Narvik
{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=Second battle of Narvik
|image=Image:HMS Warspite, Norway 1940.jpg
|caption=Warspite engaging shore batteries during the Second Battle of Narvik.
|partof=World War II
|date=April 13, 1940
|place=Narvik, Norway
|result=British victory
|combatant1=United Kingdom
|combatant2=Germany
|commander1=William Whitworth
|commander2=Erich Bey
|strength1=1 battleship
9 destroyers
small number of aircraft
|strength2=8 destroyers
2 U-boats
|casualties1=1 destroyer heavily damaged
|casualties2=8 destroyers sunk or scuttled
1 U-boat sunk
|}}
Template:Campaignbox Nazi occupation of Norway
The Second Battle of Narvik occurred three days after the First Battle of Narvik on 13 April 1940.
Realising that it was imperative that the Germans in Narvik be defeated for morale and strategic purposed, the Royal Navy despatched Vice Admiral William Whitworth with the battleship HMS Warspite and nine destoyers of the Tribal and H-Classes to finish the job accompanied by aircraft from the aircraft carrier HMS Furious. His forces arrived at the Ofotfjord to find the eight remaining German destroyers were virtually stranded due to lack of fuel, as a consequence of the first battle.
During the opening stages of the battle, a Fairey Swordfish launched from Warspite sank the German submarine "U-64", which was docked in a side-fijord. This was the first U-boat to be sunk by an aircraft during the Second World War.
In the ensuing debacle, all eight remaining German destroyers were either destroyed by Warspite and her escorts or were scuttled by their own crews when they ran out of fuel and ammunition. Shore batteries and installations were also very badly damaged by the huge guns of the battleship. On the allied side, the destroyer HMS Eskimo lost her bow to a torpedo and could not leave Norway for home until 31 May 1940.
The Germans lost over 1,000 men and the destroyers Hermann Kunne, Wolfgang Zenker, Erich Koellner, Georg Thiele, Hans Ludemann, Erich Giese, Bernd Von Arnim and Diether von Roeder in the battle, in addition to the U-64, and the Kriegsmarine's destroyer forces never recovered from the disaster.
Later naval operations
After the naval battles of Narvik, the port itself and its neighbourhood remained in the German hands, due to the overstretched allied forces being unable to land there. Naval operations were limited at this stage to shore bombarding, as Narvik town was not a primary allied objective.
Among others, the Polish Navy destroyers - ORP Grom, ORP Burza and ORP Błyskawica took part in these operations, during which the Grom was sunk by the German aircraft on May 4.
Land battle
During the Norwegian Campaign, the town of Narvik and its neighbourhood were the area of fighting between Allied and German forces, initially conducted by the Norwegian Army and subsequently by Allied expeditionary corps from April 9 until June 8 1940. Initial British involvement was reinforced by the French expeditionary corps, led by the General Berthouard, who fought there from April 28. From May 8 the Polish Independent Highland Brigade also operated in the area. On May 28 the town was taken by the Allies but due to the strategic situation in Europe following the collapse in France, meant that an evacuation operation was started on June 4 which lasted until June 8.
Three Polish passenger ships - M/S Sobieski, M/S Batory and M/S Chrobry took part in the evacuation operation.de:Schlacht um Narvik fr:Bataille de Narvik pl:Bitwy morskie o Narwik