After Operation Rösselsprung,
Admiral Hipper was scheduled to participate in Operation Meisenbalz against convoy QP14, which was canceled due to lack of intelligence. On September 10th/11th, 1942,
Admiral Hipper (now flagship of Vice-Admiral Kummetz), together with
Admiral Scheer,
Köln and five destroyers transferred from Bogen to Altafjord. On the seas, the fleet came under attack by the British submarine HMS
Tigris, which fired five torpedoes, but all missed. However, the Germans mistook the torpedo detonations as bombs from high-altitude aircraft and allowed
Tigris to escape.
Shortly after that, from September 24th to September 27th,
Admiral Hipper and destroyers
Z23,
Z28,
Z29and
Z30 conducted Operation Zarin, a minelaying operation north of Nowaja Semlja. Despite the bad weather, the operation was successful. It was the first and also the only time in the war where
Admiral Hipper used her minelaying capabilities.
Finally it came to convoy JW51B, the second of two convoys bringing supplies to Russia and the famous Battle of the Barents Sea. After being detected by U-354, the bigger Navy ships prepared to strike, including
Admiral Hipper. Some Navy commanders were eager to prove the worth of the surface fleet, which had seen no action in the past months, other were still too frightened to put the few German capital ships at any risk. On the afternoon of December 30th, under the code-name Regenbogen (Rainbow),
Admiral Hipper,
Lützow and six destroyers set sail.
On December 31st, at 7:20,
Admiral Hipper made contact with the convoy and began moving into attacking position. One hour later and further North, German destroyers Z4
Richard Beitzen, Z16
Friedrich Eckolt and Z29 exchanged a few shots with British corvettes, but without results. The firefight was brief and the British ships retreated into the darkness while the destroyers, now together with
Hipper followed suit. The following firefight pitted the German heavy cruiser against British destroyers
Achate,
Onslow and
Orwell.
Admiral Hipper’ forward radar was damaged in the fight, which, combined with the icing of the lenses of the rangefinders, severely hampered her accuracy. Fighting the British flagship
Onslow with her heavy 203mm guns and
Orwell with her 105mm guns,
Admiral Hipper heavily damaged
Onslow and forced the British ships to retreat behind a smokescreen. The escorting British cruisers
Jamaica and
Sheffield were at this point only fifteen nautical miles away, but were unable to distinguish between friend and foe on their radar.
After the destroyers had escaped,
Admiral Hipper continued to pursuit and soon found the minesweeper
Bramble on the lookout for stray freighters. No match for the heavy cruiser,
Bramble was soon in flames, but
Hipper turned around to avoid a possible torpedo attack, mistaking
Bramble for a destroyer. Returning to look for the convoy, leaving her destroyers to finish
Bramble,
Admiral Hipper found and HMS
Achate and reduced her to a burning wreck. Returning from a defensive position against
Lützow, the British destroyers
Obedient,
Obdurance and
Orwell moved against
Hipper. The German cruiser moved north to escape against possible torpedo attacks – directly into the fire of
Sheffield and
Jamaica. In the incoming fire hit the German cruiser below waterline and armor belt, flooding a boiler room, another grenade hit workshops and quarters, a third hit destroyed the hangar and an aircraft, which caused
Admiral Hipper to retreat. Destroyer
Friedrich Eckolt was caught by the pursuing British cruisers and sunk.
Further south,
Lützow was now in an ideal interception position, as all escort ships were occupied by the German flagship. However, bad weather and icing on the rangefinders, as well as the lack to distinguish between friend and foe on the radar, prevented her from scoring any success – only one freighter was damaged. With the British cruisers coming in fast, the German fleet retreated,
Admiral Hipper having to limp home after the flooding of several of her engine- and generator rooms.
Despite the losses the British fleet had endured, the battle was an Allied success, even more so with the fallout on the German side: Hitler, expecting a victory, was furious about the defeat (the fact that he heard about the outcome first from
British new rather than his staff didn’t help). On January 6th, 1943, all bigger surface units were decommissioned and Admiral Raeder, resigned. All ships, except
Scharnhorst and
Tirpitz returned to the Baltic Sea and of those, only
Emden,
Nürnberg and
Prinz Eugen remained operational as training ships.
Admiral Hipper returned to Kiel on February 7th and was decommissioned on February 28th.
. Thanks for pointing that out, the entry will be fixed.
