Operation Wunderland

The Kriegsmarine press into the Arctic

Operation Wunderland was a German Naval operation in 1942 into the Artic to disrupt Soviet convoys and shipping led by the Heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer.

Admiral Hubert Schmundt was to oversee a task force consisting the Scheer, Hipper (commanded by Kommodore Meendsen-Bohlken), the Destroyers Friedrich Eckoldt, Erich Steinbrinck and Richard Beitzen and supported by the U-boats U601, U251 from Norway. On 16th August they slipped out of Narvik harbour.

The force entered the Kara Sea via the Cape Zhelaniya on the 19th August before sending out an Arado on the 20th to scout out as far as Kravkova Island where it spotted three concentrations of Soviet shipping and reported back to Scheer.

Ice flows and fog slowed the German advance and when they arrived there were no Russians present so Scheer turned North east to Nordenskiöld Archipelago.

On 24th August Kapitanleutnant Peter-Ottmar Grau's (pictured) U601 sank the Russian steamer Kujbyshev at 73° 52'N, 77° 40'E - Grid AS 4137 and the tug Medvezhonok she was towing was sunk by deck gun fire.

The following day the Scheer fell upon a Russian ice breaker A Sibiryakov which was armed with several 3 " 2 " guns and a solitary 4 " gun. Although one sided the Russian held the German cruiser for an hour and reported her position on the convoy routes. Only one Russian survivor made it to shore and was picked up by Russian ships later and 19 fell as POWs to the Germans.

Unable to find any ships around Mona Island Scheer turned back for Nordenskiöld Archipelago where it hoped by straddling two seperate trade routes it would be able to catch something but no ships were sighted.

Frustrated the Germans moved to Dikson Island where they shelled military instillations and damaged the vessels Semyon Dezhnev and Revolutsioner. With the weather on the turn and with no shipping to be found Schumndt ordered a return to Narvik arriving on the 30th August

During Wunderland in the Barents sea on the 17th August Kapitanleutnant Heinrich Brodda on U-209 chanced upon a NKVD convoy carrying political prisoners without the Russain Navy's knowledge. Between 5am and 9 am they hunted and sank several vessels.

At 5:26 U-209 opened fire on tugs that were pulling barges with shells setting the barge P4 on fire before chasing the tug Komsomolets who had cut her line and fled.

Kosmolets was hit at 5000 yards and began to sink in flames so the U-boat moved away and tried to topredo the P4 but missed both times at 7:10 and 7:15

Brodda then moved to find the tug Nord which had been pulling the barge SH=500 and tug Komiles at anchor having been left by their tug Nord off Mateev Island. Komiles was sunk by deck gun at 8:00 and after another missed torpedo run the SH-500 was sunk fired on by deck gun until her coal cargo burst into flame and left to sink. At 9:24 the U-boat returned to P-4 and sank her with a torpedo as they had run out of ammunition for the deck gun. In total 23 people of 328 survived the attack and the survivors reported the Germans shooting men in the water.