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Operation Juno was a German naval offensive late in the Norwegian Campaign. The German ships involved were the battleships and , the heavy cruiser and the destroyers , , and . 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 minesweepeing trawler were sunk. Marschall ordered the ''Admiral 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. ==Sinking of HMS ''Glorious''== As a notorious sideline to Operation Juno, ''Scharnhorst'' under the command of ''Kapitän zur See'' Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann and ''Gneisenau'' sank the British aircraft carrier and her escorting destroyers and on 8 June at around 64° N off Norway. On the night of 7–8 June, the ''Glorious'', under the command of Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes (who was a submarine specialist and had only 10 months experience in aircraft carrier operations), took on board 10 Gloster Gladiators and eight Hawker Hurricanes from No. 46 Squadron RAF and No. 263 Squadron Royal Air Force, the first landing of modern aircraft without arrestor hooks on a carrier. These had been flown off from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation. ''Glorious'' was part of a troop convoy headed for Scapa Flow, also including the carrier . In the early hours of 8 June, ''Glorious'' requested permission to proceed independently, and at a faster speed. It is believed this was because D'Oyly-Hughes was impatient to hold a court-martial of his Commander (Air), J. B. Heath, who had refused an order to attack certain shore targets on the grounds that his aircraft were unsuited to the task, and had therefore been left behind in Scapa to await trial.〔("The Loss of HMS Glorious", An Analysis of the Action ), Vernon W. Howland Captain, RCN (Retd.)〕 It has been noted that ''Glorious'' was is a low state of readiness. The high crow's nest look-out position was not manned, leaving the observation task to the destroyers with much lower observing angles. Only 12 out of 18 of boilers were in use, so she could not develop full speed (from to ) as fast as was required. Most importantly, D'Oyly-Hughes failed to launch any aircraft to form a Combat Air Patrol around the carrier group, reportedly to give the aircrews a rest. The previous commander always had some aircraft in the air. Had he done so, ''Glorious'' might have been able to spot incoming threats, or have been able to either turn and run or fight. No aircraft were even on the deck for a quick launch. In her hangars were 10 Hurricanes and 10 Gladiators from the RAF, and her own nine Sea Gladiators plus five Swordfish. While sailing through the Norwegian Sea, the carrier and her two escorts, the destroyers and , were intercepted by the German battleships and . The carrier and her escorts were sunk in two hours, roughly west of Harstad, with the loss of 1,519 men; there were only 45 survivors. The single survivor from ''Acasta'' was rescued by the Norwegian steam merchant ''Borgund'' which also saved 38 men from one of ''Glorious lifeboats. All 39 men saved by ''Borgund'' were set ashore at Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands on 14 June.〔(www.warsailors.com on D/S ''Borgund'' )〕 ''Scharnhorst''s salvoes hit ''Glorious'' at 16:32, before her torpedo-bombers could be launched.〔''Glorious'' had been sailing home in a largely unprepared state〕 ''Scharnhorst''s second salvo, at 16:38, struck ''Glorious'' at the extreme range of , one of the longest range hits ever recorded. A ''Gneisenau'' salvo subsequently hit the bridge. The destroyers had started to lay smoke to protect ''Glorious'' and themselves. ''Ardent'' and ''Acasta'' made continual attempts to launch torpedoes at the German ships. At about 17:39, ''Scharnhorst'' was hit by one of four torpedoes launched by ''Acasta''.〔(Operation Juno )〕 Fifty sailors were killed, of water flooded into her and her aft turret was put out of action. ''Ardent'' was sunk at around 17:20 having made seven attacks with torpedoes. The approximate sinking position based on last transmission from ''Glorious'': . Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, aboard his flagship ''Gneisenau'' ordered ''Scharnhorst'' to cease fire and wasting ammunition on ''Glorious''. At this point, ''Gneisenau'' was closer to ''Glorious'' than ''Scharnhorst''.〔(Operation Juno )〕 ''Scharnhorst'' in company with ''Gneisenau'' made for Trondheim for repairs, due to their exposed position they were not able to stop to rescue survivors of any of the ships. On 13 June, Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua bombers from ''Ark Royal'' attacked ''Scharnhorst'' in harbour; only a single bomb struck her. As a result of the action, 1533 people on board were killed, 63 of them from RAF, the greatest military loss of life for Britain up to that time in the war.〔 Despite this notable success, damage from the torpedo attacks forced ''Scharnhorst'' to return to Trondheim, for emergency repairs. It was not until 23 June that she was able to reach Kiel and a dry dock. She remained there under repair for most of the rest of 1940. Although the sacrifice of ''Glorious'' was great, the withdrawal of these two powerful German warships allowed the remaining Allied convoys to reach Britain with a greatly reduced threat. In 1997, Channel 4 (UK) screened a documentary in its ''Secret History'' series entitled "The Tragedy of HMS ''Glorious''" and interviewed one of the surviving RAF pilots. There is a degree of mystery about the sinking of the ''Glorious'' because papers relating to the sinking have a "100 year rule" embargo on their release. The action is cometimes compared to the Battle off Samar (1944), in which a US Navy force of six small escort carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts encountered an ostensibly more powerful group of four battleships and eight cruisers belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy, including the largest battleship ever built, ''Yamato''. An US antisubmarine patrol spotted the Japanese force and the carriers had hundreds of aircraft aircraft ready to launch. Aggressive attacks by US aircraft and destroyer escorts sank three Japanese heavy cruisers and persuaded the remainder to retreat, for the loss of two US escort carriers, two destroyers and a destroyer escort. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Juno」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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