The most notable engagement of the operation was the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sinking the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and its two escorting destroyers.

The battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were in dry dock with storm and battle damage after their encounter with HMS Renown at the Action off Lofoten on 9 April.

[2] No capital ships were available to oppose the Allied landings but at the end of May, a battle group was assembled, comprising the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which had completed their repairs, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the destroyers Z20 Karl Galster, Z10 Hans Lody, Z15 Erich Steinbrinck and Z7 Hermann Schoemann.

[3] The ships departed from Kiel on 4 June and steamed undetected at high speed through the Skagerrak, along the Norwegian coast and into the Arctic.

The tanker was sunk by a torpedo from Hermann Schoemann, the destroyer rescued eleven survivors but twenty crew were killed.

[8][9][10] The first ship was the empty troop transport Orama (19,840 GRT) which was sunk by Admiral Hipper and Hans Lody at 12:10, nineteen members of the crew were killed and 280 men were taken prisoner.

[16] The weather was excellent with unlimited sight and at 16:45 a lookout at the highest platform on Scharnhorst reported a faint cloud, and upon investigation with the optic rangefinder the top of a mast was noticed at a distance of 46 km.

[17][18][19] On the night of 7/8 June, the aircraft carrier Glorious (Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes), took on board ten 263 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF) Gladiator fighters and eight Hurricane fighters of 46 Squadron RAF, the first landing of modern aircraft without arrestor hooks on a carrier.

Glorious was part of a troop convoy headed for Scapa Flow, also including the carrier Ark Royal.

In the early hours of 8 June, the captain of Glorious requested permission to proceed independently with her escorting destroyers Acasta and Ardent, at a faster speed because D'Oyly-Hughes was impatient to hold a court-martial of his Commander, Flying, J.

[23] A Swordfish and three Sea Gladiators were at ten minutes' notice below deck but the previous commander always had some aircraft in the air.

D'Oyly-Hughes failed to launch aircraft for a Combat Air Patrol around the carrier group, reportedly to give the aircrews a rest.

At about 18:39, Scharnhorst was hit by one of four torpedoes launched by Acasta; fifty sailors were killed, 2,500 long tons (2,500 t) of water flooded into her and her aft turret was put out of action.

Between 10 and 12 June Marschall sortied with Gneisenau, Admiral Hipper and the four destroyers; due to a lack of air reconnaissance and the presence of the British fleet he returned to Trondheim.

[30] After emergency repairs in Trondheim of the torpedo damage, Scharnhorst departed for Germany escorted by the four destroyers, reaching Kiel on 23 June to go into dry dock.