Yet Hood and the heavy cruiser Kent had the range now, and began pouring on fire. The dark form of the lead German ship was unmistakable, the Tirpitz. Holland sat in the Captain’s chair, a sudden queasy feeling coming over him. He had already faced this ship once before, and under the withering assault of Stukas that seriously damaged his ship. But there was something more, an unaccountable feeling of presentiment clawing at him now. It was as if he could somehow sense that his fate had been decided in a very similar duel at sea against a ship in this class, the Bismarck. It was an unreasonable fear, but he could feel it nonetheless, a coldness in his chest, a sense that doom was nigh at hand.
Then Kent laid down a beautiful straddle of the German ship with her 8-inch guns and one of them got lucky. The range was about 20,000 yards, at the outer limit of what her guns could make. The sighting had been perfect, with calm seas, clear skies, and the wind fallen off to near zero. At that range, the plunging angle of fire was enough to penetrate the aft deck armor, and the resulting explosion below decks did serious damage to the main propulsion conduits when a secondary magazine went up as part of the bargain. It was a critical hit, most unexpected, certainly unlooked for given the toughness of a ship like Tirpitz at sea. But damage to propulsion meant sudden loss of speed, and that could be fatal.
It was some minutes before Captain Topp got the bad news, the main turbines were seriously damaged, and within minutes the ship would be dead in the water… And Hood had the range. Westfalen and Rhineland could see the big battleship slowing, and knew there was trouble. They immediately began to concentrate fire on Kent, hoping to take that ship out of the fight quickly. Added to the fire by Tirpitz, which was still engaging both Kent and Hood, the British cruiser was soon awash in tall geysers from shellfall.
A serious fire amidships was enough to prompt Captain Angus Graham to come about and attempt to withdraw to the northwest. He had put in his magic hit aft on Tirpitz, but now he was taking serious damage, with the fires expanding and difficult to control. He soon found that he could make no more than 8 knots, limping away from the fight, as was Sheffield. That cruiser had recovered speed to 14 knots, controlled her fires, and was now moving due west
Holland could see what the Germans were trying to do. Tirpitz had lost propulsion, and the three other German heavy ships were now moving rapidly to positions where they could cover that ship and aid its withdrawal. In the meantime, there was nothing wrong with those 15-inch guns on Tirpitz, and added to the 11-inch guns of Scharnhorst and those of the other German ships, Holland decided he would do better here to maneuver with those cruisers to the west. The action ended at little before 06:00, with the Germans clustering around their stricken battleship, and the British falling off to the west. There would come Cumberland and Nigeria, and Holland had a mind to reconstitute his covering force, and possibly effect a rendezvous with the Americans.
Captain Topp was lucky in that. It was reported that the damage to the propulsion shaft was so bad, that the ship would have to be towed. Admiral Carls ordered Scharnhorst to do the job, with the two heavy cruisers on either flank. Destroyers Grimhild, Gondul, and Odin were hovering as a screen. The cruisers Hipper and Koenig brought up the rear, and the entire formation lumbered off at 5 knots as Scharnhorst labored to get his stricken charge to safe water. A flight of five Me-109s off Peter Strasser were overhead for added protection, but both sides had had enough that day. Now it would be up to the U-Boats and German land based planes in the next layer of the defense.
It was then that the freighter Hartlebury radioed that it was under fire from what looked like a German heavy cruiser. That ship had been detached from PQ-17B, and ordered back to Iceland, but it would never get there. That ‘cruiser’ was the Admiral Scheer, and Krancke finally had some solace for his lot in life, notching his belt with yet another merchantman. But he was still missing the Lutzow, and that wound festered.
At 11:06 local time on the 17th, spotters aboard Hood detected a periscope wake. The formation had been slowly assembling and preparing to move north to meet the American close covering force, but Holland immediately ordered Hood ahead full and into an evasive zig-zag course to the east. Destroyer Meteor was closest to the scene, and it went to flank speed, its sonar actively pinging out a warning as it searched. Both Kent and Sheffield were detached, heading south to join the wounded destroyer Marne en-route to Scapa Flow. They would make easy prey to any lurking U-boat. Low on fuel, minesweeper Halcyon was also detached to join them.
The boat was U-251 under Kapitan Heinrich Timm, a cautious commander who never shirked from a combat opportunity, but one who valued his boat and the lives of his crew as well. He heard that destroyer pinging, and the rapid churn of its screws, and immediately dove deep, altering course to 218. His Sonarman heard the destroyer sweep by behind him, and then Timm came around to 308, intending to try and get behind the covering forces where the real meat was. He knew he would have to surface again soon to recharge his battery, so the last thing he needed now was a bothersome destroyer. This was the beginning of the next phase of the game, for the Ice Devils were still out there, in a widely dispersed wolfpack.
One of his brothers, U-457, was only about 18 nautical miles to the south, and its Kapitan, Karl Brandenburg, was fortunate to be right in the path of those detaching British cruisers. Sheffield was making 14 knots, so he let that ship pass. Kent was limping along at just 8 knots, a perfect target, and he began to slowly maneuver into position, moving to periscope depth. It was then that he spotted a destroyer, but after watching it cautiously for some time, he determined it, too, was moving very slowly. There was no active sonar, and so after lining up on an intercept course for the British cruiser, he dove shallow, retracting his periscope to avoid any chance of it being spotted. It was going to be very close.
The destroyer suddenly increased speed and turned, making a high speed run, its sonar starting to ping. It was a complete bluff, for the ship was a minesweeper, with no ASW depth charges aboard at that time. Yet her Captain, Collin Singleton, was determined, immediately executing another turn, and ordering his deck guns to fire at the water. He wanted to add the sound of those rounds exploding to his screw noise, and see if he couldn’t frighten this U-boat off. It worked.
Rattled by those explosions, Brandenburg went deeper, just over the layer, but his speed at that depth was no more than 4 knots on battery power. He executed a ten point turn, adjusting to 185 south, and running as quietly as possible. He could hear the enemy ship right on top of him, wincing inwardly, but no depth charges fell. Again it turned, hunting him very skillfully. The sound of the screws slowed considerably, as if the ship was trying to match his speed. Halcyon was right on top of him, but no attack came. Then he heard yet more explosions from above, thanking his stars that he had chosen to go deep.