With RAF bombers diving on them and Spitfires and Messerschmitts batding overhead, the German commanders were so worried about the aerial threat that Captain Fein now commanding the squadron aboard the leading ship, Gneisenau, was unaware the British destroyers were approaching at high speed.
At 3:45 p.m., standing on the bridge of Gneisenau, he saw shells bursting near with the greenish-yellow smoke typical of British ammunition. For a moment he was uncertain what was going on, but suddenly a look-out shouted, 'Enemy in sight on port bowl' As a line of grey silhouettes came steaming out of the mist, Fein ordered his gunnery officer Kahler to open fire. He also radioed Group North at Kiel: 'Am in action with enemy destroyers.'
But was the destroyer attack a feint? He ordered the German destroyers forward to see if there were any bigger ships waiting to attack as soon as he went into battle against Pizey's destroyers. He also ordered his own ship and the Prinz Eugen to zigzag. This was mainly because the RAF were delivering a fierce attack on Prinz Eugen, whose flak guns were blazing away at the planes diving on her. The attack was so intense that Commander Paulus Jasper, her gunnery officer, had gone himself to the main flak position to direct operations.
At 3:43 p.m. the operational telephone rang from the bridge warning him that British destroyers were approaching on the port side at top speed. He ran to the fbretop and gave the preliminary order to the big guns: 'Prepare to open fire.' Then Jasper made out a line of shadowy shapes which he took to be four destroyers.
At the same time, Senior Midshipman Bohsehke, in charge of the forward heavy gun position, saw four British destroyers steaming from the stern on a parallel course. Campbell came on with flashes coming from all her guns, and Bohsehke and Petty Officer Gustav Kuhn tried to identify her. Both thought Campbell had such a high superstructure that she was probably a cruiser. Commander Jasper thought she had three funnels.
Then British destroyer shells began to explode around Prinz Eugen, their red-hot shrapnel hissing into the water. As Campbell ran parallel to Prinz Eugen at full speed, Bohsehke managed to get a 'fix' on her. When Jasper gave the order, there was a tremendous flash and crash as Bohsehke opened fire with a full 8-inch salvo. As the big shells burst around her, Campbell still came on, taking advantage of the smoke screen laid down by the German escort vessels.
There came a series of further blinding flashes as the Gneisenau began to fire her big 11-inch guns as well as the 5.9s of her secondary armament, which alone were big enough to deal with the destroyers.
At the same time, Captain Brinkmann of Prinz Eugen signalled, 'Am in action with cruisers and destroyers.' An action signal of this nature is always given top priority in any navy. But in this case there was such confusion in her signal room that it was not transmitted. Signals were in the hands of a first lieutenant assisted by a midshipman, neither of whom were very experienced. During the voyage, the signals room dealt with 800 messages, but there was such trouble decoding that important messages were reaching the bridge hours late. As a result of this, German Admiralty did not know Prinz Eugen was in action.
When the destroyers approached, Gneisenau was 5,500 yards ahead of Prinz Eugen. Fein, obeying his orders to save his ship at all costs, fired his guns at the shadowy shapes of the destroyers. Although Gneisenau was still in the fight she disappeared from Prinz Eugens sight, which led Captain Brinkmann to believe he was fighting the battle alone.
Aboard Prinz Eugen, while Bohsehke's heavy guns were firing, the flak guns were also in continual action. In the Luftwaffe fighter operations room, Lt. Rothenberg and Lt. von Kuhlberg kept reporting RAF aircraft on all sides. The specially installed quadruple 2-cm guns scored many hits. Their shells were seen to explode against several RAF aircraft, but they continued to fly despite being filled with holes. They seemed to absorb the small shells but Lt. Paul Schmalenbach, the flak commander, wondered if they all got back.
Meanwhile Pizey s five destroyers were still racing forward at thirty knots, replying with their own guns and firing pom-poms at attacking German aircraft. Shells began to fall very close, straddling them. Pizey held his course, waiting for the right time to launch his torpedoes. He stood on the bridge of Campbell watching the German aircraft and ships as calmly as if he were on manoeuvres, leaning forward every second or so to give orders to his navigator or the yeoman of signals.
Aboard Whitshed, Ted Tong, being one of the tallest men in the crew, stood on a steel table with one arm round a stanchion hauling up shells for the 4.7 after-gun. He had hoisted up several dozen shells when he heard a yell from the gun crew above. 'There they are!' and the guns started firing. The ship rumbled and rocked with explosions, but Tong still could see nothing. Even those on deck could see very little through the blinding spray and splashes of bursting shells, but as Mackay turned towards the Germans, Hutchings on duty above her bridge saw two shapes glinting a beautiful silver in a sudden patch of sunlight.
It was getting towards dusk as the destroyers went into open battle order to attack. Waves broke green fore and aft and even officers on the bridge were drenched with spray. The torpedo crews, knee deep in water as the destroyers rolled heavily, tried to train their tubes. Flotilla-leader Campbell was followed by Vivacious with Worcester last of the line.
On their starboard beam were Mackay and Whitshed, who were to attack first. As he hauled round to starboard to launch his torpedoes, Captain Wright in Mackay saw a big German ship steering directly towards him. He recognized the Prinz Eugen. But she was not going to attack. Her commander, Captain Brinkmann, had altered course thinking Mackay was a German destroyer. For two minutes Whitshed, rolling in the great seas, followed Mackay towards the German ships under heavy fire. Visibility was still bad and the destroyers came under attack from everything the Germans had, but by a miracle there were no hits. Neither Kahler on Gneisenau nor Jasper on Prinz Eugen had their range. The nearest German shells fell a quarter of a mile away from Mackay and Whitshed.
It was 3:45 p.m. when Mackay and Whitshed launched their torpedoes together from 4,000 yards. As Mackay launched hers, Prinz Eugen again altered course. This was not to avoid what she still thought was a German destroyer, but to dodge an RAF plane that was trying to bomb her.
Hutchings watched Mackay's torpedoes drop into the sea like a diver making a belly flop, and as they began to run she swerved sharply away. With the ship shuddering and turning at full ahead, Hutchings had to cling to the two brass handles of his sight-setter to keep upright.
Aboard Whitshed, Tong heard the gun crews shouting, 'We are attacking the Prinz Eugen. We can see her. I think we have hit her!' But Whitshed's torpedoes also missed Prinz Eugen, as German shells fell into the sea around the destroyer, the near-misses rocking the ship. Immediately after she had fired, cloud descended to nearly sea level and the German battleships disappeared from the destroyers' view in a rain squall.
At this moment Pizey decided to attack. In his report he said, 'As we closed to 3,500 yards I felt our luck could not last much longer. The ships were being well straddled.'
What finally decided him was a heavy shell fired by Kahler's guns aboard Gneisenau which failed to explode, bounced off the waves and then dived under Campbell like a porpoise. Pizey turned to navigator Fanning and said, 'Pilot, we are turning. What retiring course do you recommend?' Fanning had already worked this out, and the course was instantly radioed to the two destroyers astern. This was so that the ships would all turn together, firing their torpedoes simultaneously to give the greatest arc of fire. There was hardly a second's interval between Pizey's decision on the bridge of Campbell and the information being received by the other destroyers. As the torpedo gunners waited tensely to receive their orders by voice pipe and telephone, Pizey, half-blinded by spray on the bridge, said tersely, 'Torps, we go in to attack the enemy with torpedoes… now!' The yeoman of signals on the bridge called down to the radio room, 'Give the executive signal.' This was three short dots and a long in Morse. As
