page_title: RAF Coastal Command during World War II
section_title: Norwegian Campaign
hierarchical_section_title: RAF Coastal Command during World War II / Western Europe / Norwegian Campaign
context_page_description: RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force. Founded in 1936, it was to act as the RAF maritime arm, after the Fleet Air Arm became part of the Royal Navy in 1937. Naval aviation was neglected in the inter-war period, 1919–1939, and as a consequence the service did not receive the resources it needed to develop properly or efficiently. This continued until the outbreak of the Second World War, during which it came to prominence. Owing to the Air Ministry's concentration on RAF Fighter Command and RAF Bomber Command, Coastal Command was often referred to as the "Cinderella Service", a phrase first used by the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time A V Alexander.
  Its primary task was to protect convoys from the German Kriegsmarine's U-boat force. It also protected Allied shipping from the aerial threat posed by the Luftwaffe. The main operations of Coastal Command were defensive, defending supplies lines in the various theatres of war, most notably the battle of the Atlantic. A limited number of detachments served in the Mediterranean, Middle East and African theatres under the Command from 1941, operating from a headquarters in Gibraltar.
context_section_description: On 16 February 1940, No. 220 Squadron RAF Hudsons were sent on a mission to hunt down the Altmark, a German tanker responsible for the Altmark Incident. The tanker had several hundred British prisoners of war on board. No. 233 Squadron RAF aircraft spotted the ship entering Jøssingfjord, in neutral Norway. HMS Cossack was dispatched and recovered the men.
  On 9 April 1940 the Germans launched Operation Weserübung. Poor visibility enabled most of the German invasion fleet to evade detection until it was too late. Reconnaissance aircraft of Coastal Command had sighted and reported movements of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 7 April. However, they were believed to be on exercise and not operations. They were sighted again the next day by No. 204 Squadron RAFs Sunderlands. Coastal Command was now ordered to carry out extensive reconnaissance operations in the North Sea and around the Norwegian Coast. It was the Command's reconnaissance operations that located the German cruiser Königsberg in Bergen fjord. Blackburn Skuas of No. 800 and 803 Squadrons FAA sank the vessel.
  On 17 April a miscommunication between Coastal Command Blenheims resulted in the loss of air support for the cruiser HMS Suffolk. It came under intense attack and was badly damaged. It was beached and recovered at Scapa Flow. On 20 April 1940 No. 233 Squadron damaged the 1,940 ton German ship Theodor in Grimstad fjord. Anti-shipping missions and bombing attacks against enemy occupied airfields were carried out by No. 224, 233 and 269 Squadrons without success. One aircraft was lost to flak. On 8 June, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank HMS Glorious and her two escorting destroyers. No. 22, 233, 224, 269 and 42 Squadron and their Hudson, Skua, and Fairey Swordfish aircraft attempted to counter strike. Scharnhorst was repeatedly attacked but only hit twice along with an unnamed supply ship. Submarine HMS Clyde damaged Gneisenau. During the course of the attacks, eight Skuas were lost on one mission to a staffel (Squadron) of Messerschmitt Bf 110s. Another four Beauforts and at least one other unidentified British type was lost to enemy aircraft and flak.
caption: Könisberg under attack at Bergen
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