“It must be the Hood, sir. Pilots reported it was breaking off from that British carrier we attacked earlier today.”
“Under the circumstances, I believe we should alter course and move north towards the cape. We know where they are going. Let’s get there first. With two British carriers on the scene, the few fighters we have on Peter Strasser will not be sufficient. We need to get back under our land based air cover. As for Admiral Scheer. I do not think it will be useful to make a run for the Denmark Strait. The Americans have another battleship there, and several cruisers. Their present course suggests that option, and so that alone will have an effect. Instead, I will order Kranke to come about and shadow that convoy, but he is not to engage until we learn more.”
At that moment, a messenger came up with a signal, and the Kapitan Topp took it with some interest. “Ah,” he said. “U-456 reports two groups of merchantmen escorted by a single destroyer. We’ve reacquired their position.”
Topp had a fleeting thought that the Admiral had suddenly lost his nerve. Earlier, he was talking about hunting for the Hood, but now he seemed in no way eager to engage, even though they had a good idea where the battleship was. Aside from HMS Invincible, no other ship in the British fleet had quite the reputation of the Hood. It’s Achilles heel had not yet been exposed, for it never fought that fateful duel with the Bismarck. It had fought well against Lütjens the previous year, and after being hit by Stukas off the Graf Zeppelin, it had gone in for a refit that saw its deck armor toughened up considerably.
Perhaps the Admiral was wise to give that ship the respect it was due, thought Topp. Most of the medals on his chest date to the first war—that’s when he won that Iron Cross. But like Hood, I must give the man his due respect as well. His reasons for turning east now are sound. And yet… we are standing on the bridge of the Tirpitz. One day we will meet that ship. I can feel it, and today is as good a day as any other.
A second message arrived at 06:50. “Rhineland and Westfalen also have a sighting south,” said Topp.
“Probably a pesky British cruiser trying to shadow us,” said the Admiral. “Signal Peter Strasser. Have them get a couple Stukas up to have a look, and let them know we still have a stinger. As for U-456, if he can close, perhaps we can take another bite out of the flock. Good for him. In the meantime, I want all our ships steering 045 and ahead full.”
Rhineland trained her guns on the distant silhouette, but at 06:30 they saw the pair of Stukas come in and the cruiser itself disappeared over the horizon. Once up at 12,000 feet, the pilots identified the shadow as a British heavy cruiser, and some 15 nautical miles behind it, there was a larger ship, undoubtedly the Hood. The news after that was not good. The two Stukas dove on the cruiser, but both were hit by flak and went down in the sea. One got a 500 pound bomb off, scored a near miss, but the pilots were still too green to make an effective attack, the British veterans behind those AA guns simply too good that day. The Admiral elected to keep his remaining Stuka’s ready, and instead put up fighters to try and find the British carrier. That was the most immediate threat in his mind, and with the long sleepless night passed, he turned the matter over to Böhmer and retired.
Thus far the British had done a splendid job in defending this valuable convoy. Hartlebury was badly damaged, though still seaworthy. It was decided to have that ship return to Reykjavik after the Convoy Master transferred to another vessel. As for the Richard Bland, It was dead in the water, its crew taken off by the destroyer Ashanti, and then the ship would have to be put down. Destroyer Ledbury was gone, and the light cruiser Newcastle had sustained enough damage to her boilers to force her to be detached and sent home to the Faeroes with the destroyer Leamington. Everything else was afloat, safe and still on course, and Admiral Holland aboard the Hood had maneuvered in such a threatening way that the Germans soon vanished to the east of his position.
The British were wise enough to know what the Germans were doing. Holland was well settled into the Captain’s chair on Hood, and musing inwardly, zombie thoughts circling in the mind of a man who should be dead now.
They’ve broken off east, he thought. Precisely what I would do. The question now is whether we should get after them with the two carriers. If we can hound them sufficiently, perhaps they’ll throw in the towel and head for a Norwegian port. That would certainly be good, but I think it unlikely, unless we really get lucky and hurt them. Yet we must try and drive them off. Otherwise, they’ll make for the North Cape, and then we’ll have the real battle on our hands.
Admiral Holland was a very wise man.
It was work for the carriers now, with each side laboring to improve their situational awareness. Ark Royal put up a seaplane and sent it northeast, with two fighters up on CAP. This carrier was leading a bit of a charmed life in this retelling of events. It should have met its fate at the end of a torpedo from U-81 in the Med during a run to support Malta. With that island in German hands, and Crete being supplied more easily from Alexandria, Ark Royal was reassigned to the Atlantic, and had spent most of her time in the Faeroes Gap. Now she was the second carrier Tovey had added to this convoy, coming up with Anson and Howe in the Home Fleet group to make PQ-17 one of the most heavily guarded convoys ever to set sail in the war.
Further north with the distant covering force, Victorious also put up a pair of fighters and sent them to keep an eye on the retiring German battlegroup. It was able to identify several ships, but there was no sign of the German carrier until 11:30. The seaplane off Ark Royal had just altered course to investigate an unknown ship, and so Fighter 1 off the Victorious, having completed its reconnaissance run, was vectored south to join the party. Amazingly, they spotted the carrier alone, without escort of any kind. German fighters were spotted, high above, slipping in and out of high clouds. The fighter’s climbed to look for them, but it was a shadow dance and the contact was lost. Meanwhile, the seaplane off Ark Royal confirmed the sighting, and soon both British carriers had the location of the enemy prize.
After damage sustained by that hit the previous day, Victorious had only 6 Albacores available for a possible strike, but they were ordered to take off immediately, receiving an escort of three fighters. On Ark Royal, there were 12 new planes, the British Buccaneer, which was next in line to replace the Albacore. All 12 were ordered up, with six fighters in escort, also new Fireflies replacing the older Fulmars. During all this time, the Germans had no idea the enemy was shadowing them, until that seaplane loitered just a little too long, and two Bf-109s on CAP spotted it. They swooped in, chasing the plane through one drifting cloud after another, before they finally got their quarry.