Barents Sea submarine campaign in 1941 | |||||||
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Part of the Arctic naval operations of World War II of the Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||
HMS Trident | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Germany |
Soviet Union United Kingdom | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Anti-submarine forces |
23 Soviet submarines 4 British submarines | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1 minesweeper damaged 2 submarine chasers sunk, 1 damaged 1 tanker sunk 11 freighters sunk, 1 damaged 2 fishing vessels sunk | none |
The Barents Sea campaign in 1941 was a submarine operation in the Arctic waters of the Barents Sea during World War II. It was a combined Soviet and British campaign, with boats departing from Polyarny to harass German shipping along the Norwegian coast.
At the beginning of war, the Soviet Navy (Voyénno-morskóy flot SSSR [VMF, Military Maritime Fleet of the USSR]) operated fifteen submarines from Polyarny near Murmansk, later augmented by eight vessels of the Baltic Fleet (Baltiyskiy flot). The Royal Navy attempted to attack German shipping which rounded the North Cape, bound for Petsamo but routine surface ship patrols could not be maintained and Operation EF (30 July 1941) an attack by aircraft carriers on the northern Norwegian port of Kirkenes and the north Finnish port of Liinakhamari in Petsamo was something of a fiasco. In August 1941 the Admiralty sent HMS Tigris and Trident to Polyarny. The submarines were to attack the German coastal traffic and by the end of September the Soviet Navy had eleven submarines operating in the same area.[1] The British boats were later relieved by the S-class submarines HMS Sealion and Seawolf.[2]
The ocean-going Soviet K-class submarine K-1 laid a minefield off the North Cape on 27 October. Between 2 and 12 November, K-1 laid minefields in Mageroysund and Breisund.[10] On the first and third fields sunk respectively:[11]
Soviet submarine K-23 of the oceanic K class laid minefields in Sørøysund and off Hammerfest on 5 November.[12]
Soviet submarine K-21 of the ocean-going K class laid a minefield on 11 November.
The Soviet results achieved from the campaign were modest, despite losing no vessel, the Soviet submarine effort was hampered by the harsh Arctic climate and inexperience, in contrast with the British vessels, which gained more success. The Kriegsmarine lacked the escorts adequately to protect the coastal traffic, which was vital to German army units operating in the far north and was stopped by the British–Soviet campaign. The Germans had to send supplies through the Baltic Sea and overland through Finland, substantially hampering German land operations in the far north.[1] The British officers instructed the Soviet submarine D-3 to follow their own tactics but despite many victories claimed, none was real.[14]