Operation EF (1941), also the Raid on Kirkenes and Petsamo took place on 30 July 1941, during the Second World War. After the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Fleet Air Arm aircraft flew from the aircraft carriers and to attack merchant vessels in the northern Norwegian port of Kirkenes and the north Finnish port of Liinakhamari in Petsamo.
The War Cabinet and Admiralty pressed Admiral John "Jack" Tovey, commander of the Home Fleet, to attack, despite his reservations that the prospects for success were not commensurate with the risks. The operation was intended to be a surprise but in the far north, the midnight sun at that time of year made it unlikely that the raiding force would go undiscovered.
A German aircraft passed Force P and the carrier aircraft flew over a ship on their flights to Kirkenes and Petsamo, depriving the attackers of surprise. The Kirkenes force was intercepted by several German fighters as the aircraft attacked the few ships to be seen in the harbour, sinking one ship and setting another on fire. Eleven Fairey Albacores and two Fairey Fulmar fighters were shot down, for a loss of two aircraft.
The force attacking Petsamo faced less opposition, losing a Fulmar to engine failure on the flight to the target and a Fulmar and an Albacore shot down during the attack. Minor damage was caused to jetties, a shipyard and oil storage tanks. The operation has been called an "unqualified disaster"; twelve Albacores and four Fulmars had been lost with nine men killed and 27 taken prisoner for no appreciable result; two Fulmar crewmen reached Russian territory after two days at sea in a dinghy.
Background
Continuation War
In early September 1940, Germany and Finland promulgated a transit agreement for members of the to travel through Finland to Kirkenes in north Norway, despite a similar agreement being in force with Sweden from April 1940. In Directive 21, the instructions from Hitler for Operation Barbarossa, Murmansk was to be isolated by a military operation to cut the Murmansk–Leningrad railway. The attack was to prevent the Red Army from moving forces from the interior and attacking iron ore mines in northern Sweden and nickel mines around Pechenga, only from Murmansk; the base at Kirkenes was only another further on. reconnaissance revealed a considerable garrison at Murmansk and excellent rail marshalling yards and port facilities.
On 3 February 1941, the German Army of Norway received its operation order for the coming campaign, making the defence of northern Norway its priority. (Mountain Corps Norway) was to operate in Finland in defence of Pechenga in Operation Rentier until Finland declared war. The Finns were to cover the deployment of German troops in central Finland and to recapture Hanko, then operate to the south-west, either side of Lake Ladoga, when Army Group North had reached the Dvina River, meeting the German forces at Tikhvin. The German invasion of the Soviet Union began on 22 June 1941 and the German offensive against the Murmansk railway Operation Platinum Fox (29 June – 21 September) began, part of the larger Operation Silver Fox (29 June – 17 November).
Prelude
Naval operations
The German submarines U-81 and U-652 began operations off the Kola Inlet in July and five destroyers transferred to Kirkenes to join the training ship Bremse and other vessels. Before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Home Fleet was mainly concerned with the exits of the North Sea from Norway to Greenland. After 22 June 1941, the emphasis of the Home Fleet began to shift northwards, from Norway to the Arctic. The Soviet leadership pressed the British to attack Axis sea traffic from Petsamo and Kirkenes. The governments in London and Washington were aware of the importance of Murmansk as a entrepôt for Allied war material. The Admiralty pressed Admiral John "Jack" Tovey to use the aircraft carriers and in operations against Axis shipping off northern Norway and Finland. Tovey stressed the risk in operating carriers so close to airfields, in conditions of the midnight sun, which in northern Norway lasts from about 14 May to 29 July. The Admiralty over-ruled Tovey and ordered him to conduct Operation EF with Force P.