Mas Day. Sailing to meet them were the cruisers which had accompanied the first part of the convoy.
This time, the code-breakers let down the protection ships by failing to translate a vital enemy message in good time. Admiral Hipper and the pocket battleship Liitzow, in the company of six destroyers, put to sea on 30 December. The British had no idea of the threat in the absence of deciphered enemy messages.
The weather was poor, hampering visibility and therefore the identification of ships whose shadows suddenly appeared in the mist. The first the Allied destroyers knew of the imminent danger was when the destroyer Obdurate was fired on by one of the German destroyers.
While the convoy pulled back under the cover of a smoke screen, the destroyers set about repelling the advance. Four times the Hipper tried to break through to fire on the convoy and on each occasion the destroyers pushed it back. The only damage Admiral Hipper did was on the last attack when an eight inch shell ploughed into the Onslow. One other destroyer, Achates, was sunk along with the minesweeper Bramble before the Battle of the Barents Sea was over.
Hipper was forced to retire into a snow storm when it was hit three times. Liitzow, although in a prime position to attack the convoy, kept its guns silent. A German destroyer which suddenly emerged from a snowstorm close to the Sheffield, by now pursuing Hipper, was soon sunk. The convoy continued on its way.
World History
