Operation Zitronella
Encyclopedia
Operation Zitronella, also known as Operation Sizilien (translates to Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

) was an eight-hour German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 raid on Spitzbergen
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...

 on 8 September 1943.

Background

During the Second World War, the Svalbard
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...

 archipelago was the scene of a number of military operations.
In August 1941 British, Canadian and Free Norwegian
Free Norwegian Forces
The Norwegian Armed Forces in exile were remnants of the armed forces of Norway that continued to fight the Axis powers from Allied countries, such as Britain and Canada, after they had escaped the German occupation of Norway during World War II.-Background:...

 landed on Spitzbergen during Operation Gauntlet
Operation Gauntlet
During World War II, Operation Gauntlet was a Combined Operations raid by Canadian troops, with British Army logistics support and Free Norwegian Forces servicemen on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, 600 miles south of the North Pole, from 18 August 1941....

. This was aimed to destroy the rich coal mines there together with associated equipment and stores, which (it was correctly assumed) the Germans intended to make use of. No attempt was made to establish a garrison at this time and the civilian population was evacuated.
In April 1942 a Norwegian force landed at Barentsburg
Barentsburg
Barentsburg is the second largest settlement on Svalbard, with about 500 inhabitants , almost entirely Russians and Ukrainians. The Russian-owned Arktikugol has been mining coal here since 1932.-Status:...

 in Operation Fritham
Operation Fritham
Operation Fritham was a Norwegian operation with the goal of securing the rich coal mines on Spitsbergen and denying its use to Nazi Germany.-The mission:...

, to establish a permanent presence in the islands, but this operation met considerable difficulties. Nevertheless, by summer of 1943 they were well established.

Meanwhile Germany had established a number of manned meteorological stations in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic, to improve weather forecasts vital for the warfare against Allied convoys from UK to USSR. One of the first manned stations "Knospe" was established in the inner part of Krossfjorden
Krossfjorden
Krossfjorden is a 30 km long fjord on the west coast of Spitsbergen, which is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. To the north, the fjord branches into Lillehöökfjorden, Möllerfjorden and Kollerfjorden...

 in the main island
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

 late 1941 under command of H.R. Knoespel, following the Norwegian and Russian populations had been evacuated in September 1941.

It was decided to evacuate the weather station "Knospe" during the summer 1942, as the ice-free season made an Allied attack possible.The submarine appointed for evacuation of the group of 6 people was U-435 under Kapitänleutnant S. Strelow. The evacuation went according to plan on 23 August 1942, without Allied interference.

Action

In September 1943 it was decided by German Naval Command to attack and destroy the Allied facilities. A naval task force was assembled, comprising the battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

s Tirpitz
German battleship Tirpitz
Tirpitz was the second of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Imperial Navy, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and launched two and a half years later in April...

 (her only offensive action), Scharnhorst
German battleship Scharnhorst
Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of the German Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15...

 and nine destroyers (five Narvik class destroyer
Narvik class destroyer
The Zerstörer 1936A-class destroyers, or Narvik-class destroyers as they were known to the Allies, were a class of German destroyers of the Second World War...

s: Z27, Z29, Z30, Z31, Z33
German destroyer Z33
Z33 was a German that saw service during World War II. She was commissioned in the Kriegsmarine in February 1943 and served in Norwegian waters until March 1945. She was decommissioned from the Kriegsmarine in late April 1945 but was handed over to the Soviet Union in December that year...

, and Erich Steinbrinck, Karl Galster, Theodor Riedel, Hans Lody).
On 8 September a battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...

 of German troops was landed, supported by naval gunfire, seizing the facilities at Barentsburg
Barentsburg
Barentsburg is the second largest settlement on Svalbard, with about 500 inhabitants , almost entirely Russians and Ukrainians. The Russian-owned Arktikugol has been mining coal here since 1932.-Status:...

 and forcing the Norwegian garrison to withdraw into the hinterland.
After destroying the coal depots and other facilities, the German forces voluntarily withdrew from an untenable position.

Aftermath

Under cover of the attack, the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

installed a weather station on Hope Island
Hopen
Hopen is an island in the southeastern part of the Svalbard archipelago . Hopen was discovered in 1613, probably by Thomas Marmaduke of Hull, who named it after his former command, the Hopewell....

. At the war's end, the last German troops to surrender were weather teams on Spitzbergen, who gave up in September 1945.

Despite success on the ground, Zitronella/Sizilien was only a qualified success. It brought no lasting benefit; the Allies quickly relieved the men on Spitzbergen and re-established the garrison there. On 19 October the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa
USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37)
USS Tuscaloosa was a United States Navy New Orleans-class heavy cruiser.She was laid down on 3 September 1931 at Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Co., launched on 15 November 1933, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Lee McCann, the wife of Lieutenant Thomas L...

arrived at Barentsburg with relief and reinforcements.
The operation was dismissed by Morison as a political move, to show Hitler the surface fleet had some value. He suggested the effort was disproportionate to the results and that the same ends could have been achieved more simply.

External links

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