Operation Wilfred - Operation

Operation

On 3 April, four cruisers—HMS Berwick, York, Devonshire, and Glasgow—sailed to Rosyth to embark units of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, troops that would be transported to Norway as part of the Plan R4 if deemed necessary. Additional troops embarked onto transport ships in the Clyde with further troops held in readiness until indications of German intentions justified sending them to Norway.

On 5 April a large force of warships, escorted by the battlecruiser HMS Renown and the cruiser HMS Birmingham and comprising elements of both Operation Wilfred and Plan R4 set out from the main British naval base at Scapa Flow and sailed towards the Norwegian coast.

The plan was to lay two minefields. The first was to be just below the Lofoten Islands in the mouth of the Vestfjorden — the channel leading directly to the port of Narvik where the iron ore was shipped (Operation WV). The second was to be approximately 3/4 of the way down the western Norwegian coast, immediately adjacent to the Atlantic port of Stadtlandet, on a line of latitude roughly midway between the Faroes and Iceland (Operation WS). As a diversion, laying of a third minefield would be simulated just off the Bud headland south of Kristiansund (Operation WB). On 7 April, the force split, one to carry on to Narvik, the others to carry out the operations to the south. The ships allocated to the individual operations were as follows.

Force WV (Mouth of Vestfjord)

• Renown – Renown-class battlecruiser
• Glowworm – "G"-class destroyer
• Greyhound – "G"-class destroyer
• Impulsive - minelaying destroyer
• Esk - minelaying destroyer
• Icarus - minelaying destroyer
• Ivanhoe - minelaying destroyer
• Hardy - escort destroyer
• Havock - escort destroyer
• Hotspur - escort destroyer
• Hunter - escort destroyer

Force WB – (Bud headland)

• Birmingham – Town"-class light cruiser
• Hyperion - "H"-class minelaying destroyer. Initially part of Renown escort screen
• Hero – "H"-class minelaying destroyer. Initially part of Renown escort screen

Force WS (Off Stadtlandet)

• Teviot Bank - 5,087 ton auxiliary minelayer
• Inglefield - "I"-class minelaying destroyer leader
• Imogen – "I"-class minelaying destroyer
• Ilex - "I"-class minelaying destroyer
• Isis - "I"-class minelaying destroyer

In the event only one minefield was actually laid. As the WS force sailed to its destination on 7 April, German ships were sighted in the Heligoland Bight on passage to Norway and the minelaying off Stadtlandet was cancelled. Early the next day, 8 April, the designated day for the mining to be carried out, Britain informed the Norwegian authorities of their intention to lay the mines inside their territorial waters. Soon after, Force WB simulated minelaying off the Bud headland using oildrums, and patrolled the area to "warn" shipping of the danger. Force WV duly carried out its task and laid the minefield in the mouth of Vestfjord. At 05:15 that morning, the Allies broadcast a statement to the world justifying their action and defining the minefield areas. The Norwegian government issued a strong protest and demanded their immediate removal, but by this time the German fleet was already advancing up their coastline and from that point onward events moved so quickly that the issue of the minefields became largely irrelevant.

Later that day. an iron ore ship—the Rio de Janeiro, travelling from Stettin in northern Germany—was sunk in the Skagerrak by the Polish submarine Orzeł. The ship was carrying troops, horses and tanks for the German invasion of Norway, part of Operation Weserübung. Around half of the 300 men on board were drowned, with the survivors telling the crews of the Norwegian fishing boats who picked them up that they were on their way to Bergen to save it from the British. A few hours later, two other German ships—the Posidonia and Krete—were also sunk in the same area.