Promoted to "Konteradmiral" (Rear Admiral), on Christmas Day, 25 December 1943, Bey led a task force consisting of the battleship "Scharnhorst" and the destroyers Z29, Z30, Z33, Z34 and Z38 out of Alta Fjord in Operation Ostfront. The first and only surface sortie ordered by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, Bey's objective was to intercept the Allied Convoy JW 55B en route to Murmansk.