When the
Germans invaded Norway on 9 April 1940,
Nordkapp was stationed in
Northern Norway, belonging to the
Royal Norwegian Navy's 3rd Naval District and commanded by
Lieutenant Commander Jon Seip. of
Bremen The
Kriegsmarine support tanker had sailed to Norway from
Wilhelmshaven on the German
North Sea coast on 3 April in preparation for the invasion. While the other tanker, the 11,766-ton whale oil
factory ship Jan Wellem, had reached Narvik from the German
Basis Nord at the Bolshaya
Zapadnaya Litsa inlet on the
Kola Peninsula in
Russia before the German attack, the
captain of
Kattegat had been warned of a British
naval mine field in the
Vestfjorden (
Operation Wilfred) and refused to continue, choosing instead to anchor up in Sandlågbukta, Neverdal at
Ørnes in
Meløy Municipality. Before he confronted the German ship,
Nordkapp's commander had been instructed by the 3. Naval District to take her as a
prize, but after speaking with two Norwegian pilots who had guided the German tanker a short time earlier he decided that this would be too hazardous an undertaking. As the pilots, who had entered
Nordkapp during the patrol boat's signal exchange with
Kattegat, reported that the tanker's thirty-nine-man crew were all armed and wearing naval uniforms, Seip considered it impossible to
board and seize the ship, since his own 22-man crew had a total of only four
rifles amongst them.
Sinking In response to the aggressive signals received from
Kattegat, Seip signalled back a short message telling the German crew to abandon ship within 10 minutes or face the consequences. At the end of the ten minutes no reaction from the German crew had been observed and
Nordkapp fired a warning shot. The 34 PoWs from the German tanker were brought to
Mosjøen and handed over to military authorities there. the German destroyers at Narvik could only be refuelled two at a time, instead of the planned four at a time. Also,
Jan Wellem did not hold enough fuel for all 10 of the German destroyers. Consequently, the German warships at Narvik failed to make their escape in time and were destroyed by the Royal Navy in the
Battles of Narvik.
Kattegat was later
salvaged by the Norwegian military, with 1,400 tons of diesel and 207 barrels of grease unloaded at
Svolvær. On 15 May, before
Kattegat was ready to sail to
Tromsø, she was bombed and damaged by a German aircraft. As the damaged ship still held 5,000 tons of oil, the local
fishing boat fleet helped themselves to the cargo until the Germans arrived to retake the ship after the capitulation of mainland Norway in June. The short time
Kattegat was in Norwegian hands she served under the name MT
Bodø. From 16 to 22 April
Nordkapp was deployed with a Royal Navy squadron of 14 warships and two
troopships that had arrived at
Sjonafjord north of
Sandnessjøen. As the force split up and some of the destroyers sailed south,
Nordkapp followed the main force north. During the time she followed the British vessels, the force was subjected to several German air attacks without the Norwegian ship suffering any damage. to the
Leirfjorden to try to stop the advance of the enemy by sea. The two ships
bombarded German forces in the area before splitting up and heading north,
Nordkapp sailing to Svolvær. In the evening of 7 June German aircraft bombed and destroyed an oil tank facility in the town. At around 0200hrs, before
Nordkapp was ready to sail west and start five years of service
in exile, two ships arrived at Svolvær and started destroying the remaining oil tanks with artillery fire. Assuming the ships to be German the second in command of
Nordkapp, Ensign Andersen, who was in command of the ship as Lieutenant Commander Seip was in a conference on land at the time, sailed out and attacked the two unknown ships. As he opened up on the two ships with his single cannon, they quickly returned fire and a 45-minute artillery duel ensued. Neither side managed to hit their adversary during the fight, and eventually the two sides discovered each other's true identity. The ships
Nordkapp had been battling for three-quarters of an hour were
Ranen and the 655-ton Royal Navy
ASW trawler Northern Gem.
Ranen had been bombarding German positions together with
Nordkapp just four days previously. The passengers included 19 Royal Norwegian Navy personnel, many of whom were crew members of vessels sunk in the preceding two months. On 9 June
Nordkapp joined the
British evacuation convoy. During the journey west the ships were attacked by German bombers but avoided suffering any damage. After four days at sea
Nordkapp reached
Tórshavn on the Faroe Islands on 12 June, resupplying before continuing on to the United Kingdom. ==Service abroad==