on 6 march, the battleship , escorted by "ihn" and three other destroyers, sortied to attack the returning convoy qp 8 and the russia-bound pq 12 as part of operation sportpalast (sports palace). that night the weather worsened and "ihn" suffered some damage to her bridge and forward gun mount from high waves. the following morning, admiral otto ciliax, commanding the operation, ordered the destroyers to search independently for allied ships and they stumbled across the soviet freighter , a straggler from qp 8 later that afternoon and sank her. "tirpitz" rejoined them shortly afterwards and ciliax ordered "ihn" to harstad to refuel. the destroyer rejoined the battleship in the morning and was able to shoot down one of five fairey albacore torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier that unsuccessfully attacked the german ships at 10:20. two hours later both ships arrived back in port.