Convoy WS 5A

25 December 1940, North Atlantic, west of Cape Finisterre

British success; Admiral Hipper driven off the troop convoy

Admiral Hipper, out on her first Atlantic raid, found troop convoy WS 5A by radar 700 miles west of Cape Finisterre on Christmas Eve 1940. She had expected a merchant convoy, but WS 5A was carrying soldiers round the Cape to the Middle East, with the heavy cruiser Berwick, the light cruisers Bonaventure and Dunedin and two carriers ferrying aircraft. At dawn on Christmas Day, in rain and poor visibility, she opened fire. Berwick engaged her and was hit four times, on her after turrets and at the waterline, and the troopship Empire Trooper was damaged. Hipper, short of fuel and with engine trouble, broke away. She sank a lone merchant ship, Jumna, on her way to Brest, where she arrived two days later: the first big German warship to use a French Atlantic port.