Quiz #5
The port of Narvik was seized by a group of 10 German destroyers, including the Georg Thiele, on the first day of the invasion of Norway, 9 April 1940. The British counterattacked early the next morning, 10 April 1940, in what became known as the First Battle of Narvik. Captain Warburton-Lee in flotilla leader HMS Hardy (distinguished by a fifth 4.7" gun between the funnels) led four other H-class destroyers into Narvik. The Hardy torpedoed the German destroyer Wilhelm Heidkamp, killing the German commander, Kommodore Bonte. The Anton Schmitt was also sunk, and three other German destroyers in the harbor proper badly damaged. As the British attempted to withdraw, the five other Germans arrived from other parts of the fjord and the tide turned. Georg Thiele scored numerous hits on Hardy, killing Warburton-Lee, and driving the ship on shore. She then torpedoed and sank HMS Hunter. The other three British destroyers escaped.
The British returned a few days later on 13 April for the Second Battle of Narvik with a powerful force including the battleship HMS Warspite. The Georg Thiele blew the bows off the Cossack-class destroyer HMS Eskimo with a torpedo before she was herself driven ashore. The remaining German destroyers were all sunk or beached.
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