Battle of the Barents Sea

Painting depicting the sinking of German destroyer Friedrich Eckoldt by HMS Sheffield at the Battle of Barents Sea.

Date	31 December 1942
Location	Barents Sea, north of North Cape, Norway
Result	Strategic British victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Germany

Commanders and leaders

Robert Burnett

Robert St Vincent Sherbrooke

Oskar Kummetz

Strength

2 cruisers (after 3 hours)
6 destroyers
2 corvettes
1 minesweeper
2 trawlers

2 heavy cruisers
6 destroyers

Casualties and losses

1 destroyer sunk
1 destroyer damaged
1 minesweeper sunk
250 killed

1 cruiser damaged
1 destroyer sunk
330 killed

The Battle of the Barents Sea was a naval engagement on 31 December 1942 between warships of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR. The action took place in the Barents Sea north of North Cape, Norway. The German raiders' failure to inflict any significant losses on the convoy infuriated Hitler, who ordered that German naval strategy would focus on the U-boat fleet rather than surface ships.

Convoy JW 51B comprised fourteen merchant ships carrying war materials to the USSR — some 202 tanks, 2,046 other vehicles, 87 fighters, 33 bombers, 11,500 short tons (10,400 t) of fuel, 12,650 short tons (11,480 t) of aviation fuel and just over 54,000 short tons (49,000 t) of other supplies. They were protected by the destroyers HMS Achates, Orwell, Oribi, Onslow, Obedient and Obdurate; Flower-class corvettes HMS Rhododendron and Hyderabad; the minesweeper HMS Bramble; and trawlers Vizalma and Northern Gem. The escort commander was Captain R. St.V. Sherbrooke RN (flag in Onslow). The convoy sailed in the dead of winter to preclude attacks by German aircraft like those that devastated an earlier Arctic convoy, PQ-17.

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