Landings
The naval task force known by the codename Rebel left Scapa Flow and headed towards the Faroes. They berthed in the Skálafjørður at 19:00 hours 1 March 1941 to take on fuel. Refuelling took five hours and the naval task force set out again heading northwards towards the Arctic to avoid detection by German air and sea patrols. They then turned east and headed towards Norway. They arrived at the Lofoten Islands during the early morning of 4 March 1941, just before 04:00 hours. Entering the Vestfjorden they were surprised to see all the harbour navigational lights illuminated, which they believed to be a sign that they were not expected and had achieved complete surprise.
During the planning for the operation, plans were drawn up that called for simultaneous landings at all their targets at 06:30 hours but on arrival they decided to postpone the landings by 15 minutes so they would not be landing in total darkness. When they did commence to disembark the landing force, they were all ashore by 06:50 hours.
On shore the landing force commenced their operations, unopposed and the only shots fired were by the armed trawler Krebs. They managed to fire four rounds at HMS Somali before being sunk. Other ships sunk by the landing forces were the merchant ships Hamburg, Pasajes, Felix, Mira, Eilenau, Rissen, Ando, Grotto and the Bernhardt Schltz which amounted to 18,000 tons of shipping.
Additionally the force that landed at Stamsund destroyed the Lofotens Cod Boiling Plant. Two factories were destroyed at Henningsvær and 13 at Svolvær. In total about 800,000 imperial gallons (3,600 m3) of fish oil, kerosene and paraffin were set on fire. They captured 228 prisoners of war, seven from the German Navy, three from the army, 15 from the Luftwaffe, two from the Schutzstaffel (SS), 147 from the Merchant Navy and 14 civilians.
Perhaps the most significant outcome of the raid, however, was the capture of a set of rotor wheels for an Enigma cypher machine and its code books. These were rescued from the sinking German armed trawler Krebs. Their capture enabled Bletchley Park to read all the German naval codes for some time, which provided the intelligence needed to allow allied convoys to avoid U-boat concentrations.
By 13:00 hours both the infantry landing ships HMS Princess Beatrix and HMS Queen Emma had embarked all their troops and were ready to sail. With them came 300 volunteers for the Free Norwegian Forces in Britain.
Read more about this topic: Operation Claymore