1941 1942 1943 1944 1942 1943 1944 1945 The Battle of the Barents Sea was a World War II naval engagement on 31 December 1942 between warships of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) and British ships escorting Convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR.

[1] Force R (Rear-Admiral Robert L. Burnett), with the cruisers HMS Sheffield and Jamaica and two destroyers, were independently stationed in the Barents Sea to provide distant cover.

[2] On 31 December, a German force, based along Altafjord in northern Norway, under the command of Vice-Admiral Oskar Kummetz, began Unternehmen Regenbogen (Operation Rainbow).

[3] The force comprised the heavy cruisers Admiral Hipper, Lützow, and the destroyers Friedrich Eckoldt, Richard Beitzen, Theodor Riedel, Z29, Z30 and Z31.

[7] At 08:00 on 31 December, the main body of Convoy JW 51B, twelve ships and eight warships, were some 120 nmi (220 km; 140 mi) north of the coast of Finnmark heading east.

The destroyer Friedrich Eckholdt was ordered to finish off Bramble, which sank with all hands, while Admiral Hipper shifted aim to Obedient and Achates to the south.

Achates was badly damaged but continued to make smoke until eventually she sank, the trawler Northern Gem rescuing many of the crew.

Sheffield and Jamaica approached unseen and opened fire on Admiral Hipper at 11:35, hitting her with enough six-inch shells to damage (and cause minor flooding to) two of her boiler rooms, reducing her speed to 28 kn (52 km/h; 32 mph).

Kummetz initially thought that the attack of the two cruisers was coming from another destroyer but upon realising his mistake, he ordered his ships to retreat to the west.

This failure nearly made Hitler enforce a decision to scrap the surface fleet and order the German Navy to concentrate on U-boat warfare.

[14] Dönitz saved the German surface fleet, although Admiral Hipper and the light cruisers Emden and Leipzig were laid up until late 1944; repairs and rebuilding of the battleship Gneisenau were abandoned.

[citation needed] At the memorial for Bramble, Captain Harvey Crombie said of the crew They had braved difficulties and perils probably unparalleled in the annals of the British Navy, and calls upon their courage and endurance were constant, but they never failed.