The battle was the Royal Navy's last battleship action, against
the last major surface threat to the fraught Russian convoy
route between Scotland and Murmansk via Iceland. Each convoy had
three layers of protection: a close escort of destroyers,
intermediate cover by cruisers and the distant support of
battleships of the home fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir Bruce
Fraser. The Germans' occupation of Norway enabled them to
threaten passing convoys with aircraft, U-boats and surface
ships separately or simultaneously, which made the route
uniquely dangerous for the allies even without the appalling
weather. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, commander of the German
Navy, persuaded a reluctant Hitler in December 1943 to sanction
a new surface foray against the Russian convoys. Rear-Admiral
Erich Bey left the Altenfjord in north Norway in the
Scharnhorst, escorted by five destroyers. Admiral Fraser had
anticipated the move as he organised the distant cover for one
westbound and two eastbound convoys aboard his flagship Du