"Unternehmen Zitronella...!"


Today it's the Navy's turn again - with an almost completely forgotten naval warfare operation of German "thick ships" in World War II...:

On September 8, 1943 at around 3:30 a.m., the two largest ships that Hitler's navy still had, the "Tirpitz"...



... (Commander Kapitän zur See Friedrich Karl Topp)...



.. as well as "Scharnhorst"...



... (Commander, Kapitän zur See Fritz Hintze)...



...totally surprisingly in front of the island Spitsbergen, which belongs to Norway!





The formation had left the Norwegian Altafjord at the North Cape two days earlier - covered by nine destroyers...:



The combat group is commanded by Vizeadmiral Oskar Kummetz...:



The purpose of the company with the camouflage names "Operation Sicily" (navy) and "Operation Zitronella" (army) is the destruction of the radio and weather station, the power plant and the coal extraction systems on Spitsbergen.



The German combat unit separates before Spitsbergen. "Scharnhorst" and six destroyers head for the Grønfjord and the Adventfjord, where 600 men of Grenadier Regiment 349 are disembarked to attack the targets from land.

Then "Scharnhost" starts shelling the land targets with its nine barrels of heavy 28cm artillery.





Meanwhile, "Tirpitz" has arrived with three destroyer escorts in front of the village of Barentsburg...



... and fired at the village with their eight 38 cm guns...:





The village used by the Norwegians as accommodation...

... is completely destroyed...:



But the Norwegians shoot back with a few small-caliber anti-aircraft guns...



...and a few decrepit coastal guns ...



...especially targeting the three lightly armored escort destroyers.

And they shoot not bad!

"Z 29" received four 10 cm caliber hits, two of them into the outer skin, and suffered three fatalities. "Z 31" gets 8 or 10 hits, one sailor falls.

"Z 33" got it the hardest, the ship was hit 36 times and also had three casualties.



When the German infantrymen arrive, the Norwegians retreat into the mountains. The demolition squads destroyed important facilities such as the radio mast...



... set the coal heaps on fire and are embarked again after almost three hours.

The German association returns to the Altafjord, where it arrives on September 9th.

Incidentally, the German success did not last long:

As early as October 19, 1943, the American heavy cruiser USS "Tuscaloosa"...



...and three British and one American destroyers drop Norwegian troops on Svalbard to restore the base.

In the winter of 1943, the Allied weather station was up and running again.