Operation Juno was a German naval offensive late in the Norwegian Campaign. The German ships involved were the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the destroyers Karl Galster, Hans Lody, Erich Steinbrinck and Hermann Schoemann.
The mission was launched on 8 June 1940, as an attack on Harstad to relieve pressure on the German garrison at Narvik. After refuelling at Jan Mayen Island the mission became unnecessary as the Allies were evacuating from Norway. On his own initiative, however, the German commander, Admiral Marschall, decided to seek and destroy the Allied transports. The troop transport Orama, the tanker Oil Pioneer and the minesweeper HMS Juniper were sunk. Marschall ordered the Hipper and the destroyers to Trondheim, where they arrived in the morning of 9 June.
The next day, Admiral Hipper attempted to leave Trondheim, but was forestalled by the sighting of a British submarine.
Read more about Operation Juno: Sinking of HMS Glorious
Famous quotes containing the word operation:
“Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.”
—Francis Bacon (1560–1626)