Operation Zitronella
Operation Zitronella, also known as Unternehmen Sizilien, was an eight-hour German raid on Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard Archipelago, on 8 September 1943. The battleships German battleship Tirpitz and German battleship Scharnhorst, plus nine destroyers, sailed to the archipelago, bombarded settlements in Isfjorden and covered a landing party. Six Norwegians were killed and 31 were taken prisoner; one German died of wounds and fifteen were wounded.
Background
Svalbard
The Svalbard Archipelago is in the Arctic Ocean, from the North Pole and a similar distance to Norway to the south. The islands are mountainous, with permanently snow-covered peaks, some glaciated; there are occasional river terraces at the bottom of steep valleys and some coastal plains. In winter, the islands are covered in snow and the bays ice over. To the west, Spitzbergen Island has several large fiords along its west coast; Isfjorden being up to wide. The Gulf Stream warms the waters and the sea is ice-free during the summer. In the 1940s, there were settlements at Longyearbyen and Barentsburg, in inlets along the south shore of Isfjorden, in Kings Bay further north along the coast and in Van Mijenfjorden to the south.The settlements attracted colonists from many places; the treaty of 1920 neutralised the islands and recognised the mineral and fishing rights of the participating countries. Before 1939, the population consisted of about mostly Norwegian and Soviet workers in the mining industry. Drift mines were linked to the shore by overhead cable tracks or rails and coal dumped over the winter was collected by ship after the summer thaw. By 1939 production was about a year, split between Norway and the USSR.
Second World War
During the Second World War, the Svalbard Archipelago was the scene of several military operations. In August 1941, British, Canadian and Free Norwegian Forces landed on Spitzbergen during Operation Gauntlet to destroy the coal industry, associated equipment and stores. No attempt was made to establish a garrison and the civilian population was evacuated. Nazi Germany set up manned meteorological stations in the Arctic to improve weather forecasts, vital for the warfare against Allied convoys from the UK to the USSR. Dr Erich Etienne, a former Polar explorer, commanded an operation to install a manned station on the islands. Advent Bay was chosen for its broad valley, a safer approach and landing ground for aircraft. The subsoil of alluvial gravel was acceptable for an airstrip and the south-eastern orientation of the high ground did not impede wireless communication with Banak in Norway; the settlement of Longyearbyen was close by. The site received the code-name Bansö and ferry flights of men, equipment and supplies began on 25 September.The British followed events from Bletchley Park through Ultra and four British minesweepers were diverted to investigate and reached Isfjorden on 19 October. A Wekusta 5 aircraft crew spotted the ships and the thirty men at Adventfjorden quickly were flown to safety by the aircraft and two Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft. Adventfjorden was deserted when the British arrived but some code books were recovered; the Germans returned once the ships had departed. Dr Albrecht Moll and three men arrived to spend the winter of 1941–1942 transmitting weather reports. On 29 October 1941, Hans Knoespel and five weathermen were installed by the Kriegsmarine at Signehamna, a small bay on Lilliehöökfjorden, a branch of Krossfjorden in the north-western Spitzbergen. An automatic weather station with a thermometer, barometer, transmitter and batteries arrived at Banak, to be flown to Bansö and the Moll party brought back. It took until 12 May for favourable weather and a Heinkel He 111 and a Junkers Ju 88 were sent with supplies and the technicians to install the Kröte. In April 1942, Operation Fritham the landing of a Norwegian force at Barentsburg to occupy the islands. The operation met disaster but by the summer of 1943, the later Allied Operation Gearbox and Operation Gearbox II secured control of the islands.
Prelude
The Kriegsmarine decided to evacuate the Knosp weather station during the summer of 1942, since the ice-free season made it vulnerable to Allied attack. The submarine was ordered to recover the six men. On 23 August 1942, Strelow took aboard the party at Ebeltofthamna in Krossfjorden on the Mitra peninsula, without Allied interference and arrived at Narvik on 31 August. After the replacement of Grand admiral Erich Raeder by Karl Dönitz in January 1943, command arrangements in northern waters were changed. The posts of Flag Officer Northern Waters at Narvik was merged with Group North, which brought the commander of the German ships at Alte Fjord under the command of General Admiral Otto Schniewind at Kiel. Dönitz persuaded Hitler not to scrap the surface fleet and made plans to demonstrate the value of the ships and raise the morale of the crews.German plans
The battleships German battleship Tirpitz and German battleship Scharnhorst and nine destroyers of the 4th, 5th and 6th destroyer flotillas, with the Narvik class destroyers: Z27, Z29, Z30, Z31, Z33, and German destroyer Z15 Erich Steinbrinck, German destroyer Z20 Karl Galster, German destroyer Z6 Theodor Riedel and German destroyer Z10 Hans Lody, embarked a battalion of the 349th Grenadier Regiment, 230th Infantry Division. The ships sailed for Svalbard on 6 September. Tirpitz led Scharnhorst, with Karl Galster, Theodore Riedel and Hans Lody providing an anti-submarine screen ahead, Erich Steinbrinck, Z27 and Z30 to starboard and Z29, Z31 and Z33 to port, as the ships sailed past Stjernsundet. By on 7 September, the force was half way to Bear Island. During the evening a message was received that a British reconnaissance aircraft had flown over Alte Fjord at when the ships were only from Svalbard, with the British fifty hours away, even at full speed.Action
At on 8 September, Scharnhorst and the 5th and 6th Destroyer Flotillas landed troops in Advent bay, while Tirpitz and the 4th flotilla sailed to Barentsburg, Tirpitz flying a white ensign as a ruse. Just before the ships opened fire, a wireless message from Grønfjord was intercepted by the ships that three cruisers and seven destroyers had arrived; Tirpitz began to jam the frequency but could not tell if the message was blocked. At a reply from Reykjavik suggested that the message had been received and Tirpitz silenced the transmitter with shells from its main armament. Supported by the gunfire of the eight 15-inch guns of Tirpitz at Barentsburg and the nine 11-inch guns of Scharnhorst at Longyearbyen, against the two 3-inch guns of the defenders, the destroyers landed the battalion of fortress troops. The Norwegian guns were put out of action and coal heaps, supplies of food, water and electricity generators were destroyed. When Z29, Z31 and Z33 manoeuvred into Grønfjord, to land troops at Barentsburg, they sailed in front of Tirpitz and the gunners of the two Bofors 40 mm guns took advantage and fired about at the destroyers, which moved aside to give Tirpitz a clear field of fire. Z29 and Z33 were both damaged, with Z33 having to be taken in tow. A broadside of twelve shells silenced the Bofors guns. Tirpitz fired its main guns at a coal mine at Heerodden and set it on fire. A message from Z29 led Tirpitz to sail further into Grønfjord, fire another twenty shells and at Johannesson reported that the troops had landed as planned.The surviving Norwegians fled into the hinterland, using a blazing coal dump for cover as the landing party seized the installations at Barentsburg. Kummetz was apprehensive about the wireless message sent by the Norwegians, in case the Home Fleet was already at sea and wanted the infantry back on board his ships by Scharnhorst had sailed further into Isfjorden to Longyearbyen and reported by that the Norwegians had been overrun and at, the infantry commander, Colonel Wendte, reported that the demolitions would be complete by After a methodical bombardment, the German ships re-embarked the landing party and their prisoners by and put to sea, Tirpitz firing another eight shells at ammunition and fuel dumps outside Barentsburg. Recovering the last of the floatplanes caused a delay to Tirpitz until and then the German ships left at The Norwegians repaired their wireless and got off a sighting report, which led to the Home Fleet sailing from Scapa Flow but too late to intercept the German ships, which reached port on 9 September.
Aftermath
Analysis
Unternehmen Zitronella/Sizilien was a qualified success; it brought no lasting benefit, since the Allies quickly re-occupied Spitzbergen island. On 19 October, the cruiser arrived at Barentsburg with relief and reinforcements for the Norwegian garrison. Samuel Eliot Morison, the official historian of the US Navy, described Zitronella as a political move on the part of the Kriegsmarine, to show Hitler that the German surface fleet had some value. Morison judged the effort disproportionate to the results, suggesting that the same ends could have been achieved more simply. In 2013, Niklas Zetterling and Michael Tamelander called the operation insignificant, apart from useful training for the crews.Casualties
Sixteen German sailors were wounded, one dying of his wounds and six Norwegians were killed. Captain Morten Bredsdorff and 30 prisoners were sent to Oflag XXI-C in Schildberg in the annexed Reichsgau Wartheland, joining officers interned there.A German Leading Seaman from a destroyer was court-martialed and sentenced to death for cowardice and was executed on the quarterdeck of Scharnhorst. This episode, along with a dispute over medal allocation, when the crew of Scharnhorst received only 160 Iron Crosses against 400 for the crew of Tirpitz, exacerbated an already bad relationship between the crews.