in the early hours of April 10th 1940 Captain Bernard wton Lee LED his failler of Destroyers against a German Force twice its size at narvik in the far north of Norway without waiting for reinforcements the British ships caught their opponents completely unawares resulting in a furious exchange of torpedoes and gunfire as the German Crews scrambled to fight off their attackers and then tried to hunt down the British ships the German destroyers had arrived at na'vi Before Dawn on April 9th under
the command of commodore friedi Bonte the fatila of 10 destroyers was carrying three battalions of the third Mountain division to their Landing points in the Norwegian Port as the German invasion of Norway unfolded standing in the way of bony ships was only the old coastal defense ships norer and Idol which challenged the German ships and were promptly torpedoed and sunk with a loss of 343 lives at this point the British were lagging badly behind events across Norway the creek Arena had taken th
e raw Navy completely by surprise by launching Naval invasions at five different ports simultaneously British ships at Sea near narik under vice admiral William Whitworth have been aled West the previous day as the AR had believed that the German fleet was trying to break out into the at antic shipping lanes it took until 7:15 p.m. on April 8th for Whitworth to be ordered back to his station off naari the British Admiral sent destroyers under Captain Bernard wton Lee ahead of his main Force but
when they arrived at the entrance of the aat field the following day they were informed by Norwegian Lighthouse staff that German ships had long since passed by Keen to take the initiative and strike a blow against the Germans as quickly as possible wton lead decided to launch an attack that night hoping to catch the Germans by surprise even if that meant engaging a much larger force of Destroyers without any backup this video is sponsored by War Thunder the most comprehensive vehicle combat gam
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experience War Thunder has the game mode for you available to play free now on PC Xbox and Playstation captain wton Lee took his five destroyers into the AAL field at 13 30 a.m. April 10th in the lead was his Flagship HMS Hardy then Hunter Havoc Hotspur and hostile weather conditions were awful with blizzards high winds and very low visibility of just 400 yds this was a blessing in disguise as it meant the British ship steamed past two separate German new boats without being spotted or engaged b
y 3:40 a.m. the British ships were on a parallel course to the German G ship that night DEA Von Roda the German ship was returning to Harbor and was scarcely more than a mile north of Hardy but neither side had any idea the other was there Commodore Bon's force of Destroyers was not expecting an attack and the Germans were in the middle of refueling it was a task that was progressing slower than hoped as one of the two fuel tankers assigned to navik had been sunk on its way North and the other h
ad a low pumping capacity in the harbor Hans ludman and Herman Kuna were in the middle of refueling with Anton Schmidt awaiting its turn and vilam hi Camp having recently finished elsewhere three destroyers Wulf gang Zena Eric ker and Eric Geer were anchored in the hayang field to the north gor Tia and burn Von arim were in bingan Bay 8 mil Southwest of narvik commodore Bonte was asleep in his cabin as teon Roda returned to Harbor after its Patrol at 4:25 a.m. Hans ludman was supposed to replace
Von Roda Guard ship but was still refueling leaving the German failla without any eyes Outside The Harbor at almost that exact moment as the snow started to clear and the sky began to lighten with the first signs of dawn the British ships arrived commander wber and Lee made his first attack run with three ships the bay ahead was crowned with vessels more than 20 of the merchant ships trapped there following the German invasion the previous day Hardy's crew picked out the silhouette of two Germa
n destroyers at the far end of the bay and fired three Torpedoes one of these struck a merchant ship and won the vilhelm hi Camp bont's Flagship it struck the Destroyer Magazine and there was a huge explosion 80 German Sailors including bonti were killed almost instantly and hide Camp was destroyed Hardy turned hard to port and spotting de of on Roa to its East loosed four more Torpedoes and opened fire with its guns as Roda had its Stern facing the British these Torpedoes missed striking a jett
y used for loading iron ore on the shoreline the German ship fired back joined soon by Hans ludman as Hunter and Havoc came in for their own attack runs between them they launched 11 more Torpedoes into the harbor striking Anton Schmidt once as well as a number of merchant ships of mixed nationalities at 450 Hotspur and hostile began their own attack having returned from a scouting mission to the north Hotspur steamed in and fired four Torpedoes at 5:00 a.m. of what turned out to be a collection
of merchant ships hostile opened up with guns hitting the deavon Roda rupturing its fuel tank and causing a fire in a boiler room by this time roa's Captain Lieutenant Commander Eric htor had managed to maneuver his ship into a firing angle and loosed eight Torpedoes at the British ships crowding in the harbor entrance they were aimed well but torf was let down by the Torpedoes three of them ran straight underneath British destroyers but their magnetic detonators did not activate malfunctioning
due to the extreme Northern latitude of Navi a problem that affected German Torpedoes throughout the Norway campaign over the next hour wton Lee LED his ships in for second and third attack runs but found diminishing returns as the visibility worsened with the weather closing in and smoke from burning fuel oil filling the air just after 5:50 a.m. with his Fus Torpedoes mostly expended wton Lee began to withdraw steaming West at high speed just 2 minutes later though HMS Hardy spotted three host
ile destroyers emerging from the side field to the north this clutch of vessels under Lieutenant Commander Eric Bay had set off 10 minutes before and now closed on the escaping British destroyers a gun battle between the two sides swiftly began with the British ships ahead of their opponents and making good progress but just when Won Lee might have thought he was clean away peering Straight Ahead were two more enemy destroyers this was gor Tila and burn Von anim which had emerged from the south
to find themselves in the perfect firing position onto the British line they wasted no time a hail of fire from the two ships rained down on Hardy who could only reply with her Ford gun wton Lee turned sharply dep port to allow his rear guns to fire but the weight of German shell was too great at 5:56 a.m. a shell burst directly on Hardy's Bridge killing most of the officers there and mortally wounding the British commander Hardy's steering gear was wrecked and the Destroyer slew towards the sho
reline grounding itself shortly afterwards with Hardy out of the picture the German ship switched their fire to havoc and hostile with the range now widening they did not score any major hits guog and burn Von anim now steered around to the West engaging the British in A Renewed Gunnery duel HMS Hunter was soon on fire while guog suffered hits to its boiler room and had its Ford gun destroyed behind them all HMS hot spur was lagging behind suffering steering issues being harassed by Ba's three d
estroyers which by this time had turned to the east noticing this HMS Havoc turned back at 6:05 a.m. going to hotspur's Aid and firing on Bay's ship from long range meanwhile at the head of the German line gorg Tila loosed three Torpedoes and this time one of them claimed a hit on Hunter blowing a massive hole in its side and causing it to slow rapidly to a halt listing behind it hostile and Havoc now steaming West again were able to avoid Hunter but Hotspur still suffering from steering issues
was unable to avoid the sinking Hunter one British Destroyer slammed into the other sealing Hunter's fate and knocking Hotspur off course the Destroyer was able to recover control of its steering but was now lagging behind and Under Fire from multiple German ships hotspurn managed to put up a spirited resistance though evading enemy fire and inflicting seven hits on the burn Bon arim at close range forcing it to disengage at 6:30 a.m. the first battle of na'vi came to a close with the remaining
British ships withdrawing to the West each side had lost two destroyers with with 147 British casualties and 176 German both commanders have been killed and both will be decorated by their respective sides wton Lee's raid had done serious damage to the German Force but it still remained a stubborn obstacle determined to clear the way for an Allied Landing the raw Navy resolved to mount a second attack into the narrow Waters of the field but this time with a rather larger caliber of ship the 32,0
00 ton battle ship HMS War spite we'll be covering this Second Battle of Navi in the next episode make sure you are subscribed so you don't miss it remember to check out War Thunder free to play on Xbox PlayStation and PC it's the most comprehensive vehicle combat game ever made and you can check it out at the link in the description below thanks again to War Thunder for sponsoring this video
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