Story 0145 Battle of Narvik Part 3
April 10, 1940 Narvik 0417
The waterfront was on fire. Norwegian reinforcements had started to trickle in after sundown. Men would arrive and be shuffled to a safe house fifty meters behind the front line where tired, bloody and angry men who were now veterans briefed them on the dangers of house to house fighting with the well armed German mountain troopers. The defenders had been pushed back two more blocks but the line stabilized at midnight as the second battalion of the regiment arrived and the local militia had time to equip itself from the regimental depot located north of the city.
There was no will yet to counterattack.
The defenders knew the toll they had inflicted on the Germans as the defenders withdrew one house at a time. They knew the Germans could do the same to them. If anything, the Germans had more grenades and more importantly more automatic weapons than the rifle armed Norwegians so they would be even stronger in the defense. The four destroyers refueling and resupplying along the docks still had some ammunition left and they could be counted on to break up any large rush.
Five destroyers had glided into the fjord overnight. They were challenged and stopped by a Norwegian patrol boat that was not seen when the Germans sank Eidsvold. A pilot hopped aboard the lead ship, HMS Hardy and led them through a channel that he knew had been cleared. The burning waterfront highlighted the four German destroyers whose crews had been at action stations for over twenty seven hours straight and had seen three fifths of their command sink in the past day.
Hardy, Hotspur, Havock, Hunter and Hostile closed to decisive range as the German lookouts had their night vision blinded by the fires and the ships silhouetted by the infernos onshore. Hardy called for a torpedo launch over the radio. Within a minute thirty seven torpedoes were in the water, bearing in on their targets from a range of 2,900 yards. Full broadsides were fired rapidly within seconds of the torpedo launch being completed. Each destroyer engaged their opposite number with the last destroyer, Hostile, doubling up on Hunter’s target. The Germans were completely shocked. In the few minutes for the torpedoes to run, only two ships were able to fire at the flashes in the light. No hits were achieved even as 4.7 inch shells wrecked the upper works of the German large destroyers. The shellfire was overkill and incidental. All four ships were torpedoed. One was hit five times, the best off ship was hit twice.
The German mountain troopers were cut off and their heavy support was now sitting at the bottom of Narvik harbor.
Hotspur and Havock withdrew to screen the remaining three destroyers. Within an hour, a Norwegian shore party was able to get Hotspur’s attention and they sent a boat with a simple request. Would the British destroyers close to point blank range and shell the strong points the Germans had been setting up?
Forty minutes later, two destroyers began a steady rotation along the waterfront. Norwegian army officers pointed out the houses and strong points that would hold up attacks. Four or eight guns would send fire repeatedly and rapidly for a minute or two until the strong point was a charnel house of broken bleeding limbs and young boys crying for their mothers or lovers as they laid dying.
After an hour of this duty, two more destroyers took their place so that no ship would run critically low on ammunition.
By noon, Norwegian infantry had started to see white flags raise whenever a strong point was hit with the first two or three ranging shots. By nightfall, the port was firmly in Norwegian hands. Eleven hundred German prisoners sat on the docks. Five hundred would be loaded onto the British destroyers to be taken back to the United Kingdom while the rest were to be held in the basement of three surviving churches to avoid the cold of the night.
The waterfront was on fire. Norwegian reinforcements had started to trickle in after sundown. Men would arrive and be shuffled to a safe house fifty meters behind the front line where tired, bloody and angry men who were now veterans briefed them on the dangers of house to house fighting with the well armed German mountain troopers. The defenders had been pushed back two more blocks but the line stabilized at midnight as the second battalion of the regiment arrived and the local militia had time to equip itself from the regimental depot located north of the city.
There was no will yet to counterattack.
The defenders knew the toll they had inflicted on the Germans as the defenders withdrew one house at a time. They knew the Germans could do the same to them. If anything, the Germans had more grenades and more importantly more automatic weapons than the rifle armed Norwegians so they would be even stronger in the defense. The four destroyers refueling and resupplying along the docks still had some ammunition left and they could be counted on to break up any large rush.
Five destroyers had glided into the fjord overnight. They were challenged and stopped by a Norwegian patrol boat that was not seen when the Germans sank Eidsvold. A pilot hopped aboard the lead ship, HMS Hardy and led them through a channel that he knew had been cleared. The burning waterfront highlighted the four German destroyers whose crews had been at action stations for over twenty seven hours straight and had seen three fifths of their command sink in the past day.
Hardy, Hotspur, Havock, Hunter and Hostile closed to decisive range as the German lookouts had their night vision blinded by the fires and the ships silhouetted by the infernos onshore. Hardy called for a torpedo launch over the radio. Within a minute thirty seven torpedoes were in the water, bearing in on their targets from a range of 2,900 yards. Full broadsides were fired rapidly within seconds of the torpedo launch being completed. Each destroyer engaged their opposite number with the last destroyer, Hostile, doubling up on Hunter’s target. The Germans were completely shocked. In the few minutes for the torpedoes to run, only two ships were able to fire at the flashes in the light. No hits were achieved even as 4.7 inch shells wrecked the upper works of the German large destroyers. The shellfire was overkill and incidental. All four ships were torpedoed. One was hit five times, the best off ship was hit twice.
The German mountain troopers were cut off and their heavy support was now sitting at the bottom of Narvik harbor.
Hotspur and Havock withdrew to screen the remaining three destroyers. Within an hour, a Norwegian shore party was able to get Hotspur’s attention and they sent a boat with a simple request. Would the British destroyers close to point blank range and shell the strong points the Germans had been setting up?
Forty minutes later, two destroyers began a steady rotation along the waterfront. Norwegian army officers pointed out the houses and strong points that would hold up attacks. Four or eight guns would send fire repeatedly and rapidly for a minute or two until the strong point was a charnel house of broken bleeding limbs and young boys crying for their mothers or lovers as they laid dying.
After an hour of this duty, two more destroyers took their place so that no ship would run critically low on ammunition.
By noon, Norwegian infantry had started to see white flags raise whenever a strong point was hit with the first two or three ranging shots. By nightfall, the port was firmly in Norwegian hands. Eleven hundred German prisoners sat on the docks. Five hundred would be loaded onto the British destroyers to be taken back to the United Kingdom while the rest were to be held in the basement of three surviving churches to avoid the cold of the night.
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