Battle of the Atlantic · United Kingdom vs Germany
Battle of the Barents Sea
31 December 1942
The cruiser Admiral Hipper, pocket battleship Luetzow and six destroyers attacked convoy JW 51B in the Arctic twilight. The destroyer escort held them off until the cruisers Sheffield and Jamaica arrived, and the Germans withdrew without sinking a merchant ship. Hitler's fury at the result led to the ordered scrapping of the surface fleet and Raeder's resignation.
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Day by day
— Sherbrooke's destroyers
Admiral Kummetz takes the cruiser Admiral Hipper and the pocket battleship Luetzow with six destroyers to catch convoy JW 51B, fourteen ships bound for the Kola Inlet, in two hours of Arctic twilight: Hipper from the north to draw off the escort, Luetzow round to the south to get among the merchantmen. Captain Sherbrooke turns his five destroyers at Hipper and keeps between her and the convoy, making smoke and threatening torpedoes he does not fire; Onslow is hit at 10:20 and Sherbrooke, blinded in one eye, holds on and is given the Victoria Cross, while Luetzow comes up at 11:42 and, ordered not to risk the ship, does nothing. At 11:35 Burnett's cruisers Sheffield and Jamaica come out of the murk to the north, hit Hipper and sink the destroyer Friedrich Eckoldt at close range, and the Germans break off without touching a merchant ship. Hitler, who heard the result first from a BBC bulletin, ordered the heavy ships scrapped, and Raeder resigned.
