Second Battle of Narvik

13 April 1940, Ofotfjord, Herjangsfjord and Rombaksfjord, near Narvik

British victory; all eight German destroyers and a U-boat destroyed

Three days later the British came back in strength. Vice-Admiral Whitworth took the battleship Warspite up the Ofotfjord with nine destroyers. Warspite's Swordfish floatplane, scouting ahead, found U-64 at anchor in the Herjangsfjord and sank her with bombs, the first U-boat sunk by an aircraft in the war, and reported the German destroyers waiting in ambush. One by one they were found and sunk or driven ashore: Erich Koellner, lying as a floating battery, was the first; Warspite's 15-inch guns echoing round the mountains finished several more. The last four, out of ammunition, fled up the narrow Rombaksfjord, where Georg Thiele blew Eskimo's bow off with her last torpedo before running herself ashore, and the others were scuttled. Their 2,600 sailors went ashore to fight beside Dietl's troops. With the Narvik destroyers and the losses of 9–10 April, Germany had lost half of its destroyers in a week.