page_title: Operation Stonewall
section_title: The operation
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Stonewall / The operation
caption_attribution_description: English: The Free Art licence authorises you to freely copy, spread, and transform creative works while respecting the author's rights. This applies only to the low-resolution image. Copyright remains on the original image. - - - - This is a low resolution copy of a drawing. It was created by a member of the crew of Z72 while interned in the Curragh (which dates it to 1944) It is among a group of sketches presented to the National Maritime Museum of Ireland in May 1994, where it remains on display You are free to distribute this low resolution image. If doing so, please make reference to the Museum. 29 December 1943. It shows a view from the Z27 of the torpedo boats T25 and T26. The German cyphers were broken, so HMS Enterprise and HMS Glasgow knew their location and were able to shell them from over the horizon and out of range of any returned fire. T25 and T26 were sunk. Z27 was scuttled.
context_page_description: Operation Stonewall was a World War II operation to intercept blockade runners off the west coast of German-occupied France. It was an effective example of inter-service and international co-operation.
context_section_description: The Royal New Zealand Navy light cruiser HMNZS Gambia joined the operation in December 1943, operating from Horta in the Azores. The Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Glasgow patrolled an area north of the islands.
  On 23 December aircraft from the United States Navy escort carrier USS Card sighted a suspected runner, and there were further reports of a flotilla of destroyers escorting another merchantman west from France. Gambia,  Glasgow, and the light cruiser HMS Enterprise formed a cordon to intercept. Aircraft attacked the flotilla, now escorting a large incoming merchantman, the 6,951 GRT Osorno, and reported a hit and a near-miss on her.
  The light cruiser Penelope, minelayer HMS Ariadne and four Free French destroyers joined the patrol to intercept another runner. RAF Coastal Command aircraft acted in close cooperation.
  On 27 December at 1535 hrs Liberator GR Mk V heavy bomber of Coastal Command's Czechoslovak-crewed No. 311 Squadron RAF sighted a smaller blockade runner, the 2,729 GRT refrigerated cargo ship Alsterufer. The Liberator made a diving attack with eight wing-mounted SAP60 semi-armour piercing rocket projectiles, five of which hit the cargo ship above her waterline. The Liberator also dropped one 500 lb (230 kg) bomb, and one 250 lb (115 kg) bomb one of which hit the ship aft of her funnel. The ship immediately caught fire.
  Alsterufer defended herself with anti-aircraft fire and rockets that released parachute cables. The Liberator's starboard outer engine was hit, but the aircraft successfully returned to base at RAF Beaulieu in England. Later that day two more RAF Liberators and four RAF Halifax heavy bombers attacked the ship, but claimed no hits. Alsterufer sank on the afternoon of 28 December. 74 members of her crew were rescued by four Canadian corvettes.
  Kriegsmarine destroyers and torpedo boats had set out to meet and escort Alsterufer in an operation codenamed Bernau. Now Glasgow and Enterprise sought to intercept them. Guided by shadowing aircraft, the cruisers intercepted eight destroyers early in the afternoon of 28 December and exchanged fire with them. Despite accurate German gunfire and torpedoes, effective German evading action and an attack with guided bombs by a Luftwaffe aircraft, the Royal Navy ships maintained contact.
caption: View from Z27 of T25 and T26 being shelled. Drawn by Hans Helmut Karsch, a German sailor, while interned in the Curragh Camp. (National Maritime Museum of Ireland)
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