another minefield of 170 magnetic mines was laid by "steinbrinck", "ihn" and "eckoldt" on the night of 6–7 january 1940 off the thames estuary. the destroyer and six merchant ships totalling 21,617 grt were lost to this minefield as well and another ship was damaged as well. the ship was under repairs during operation weserübung in april and did not leave the dockyard until may when she began working up as part of the 5th destroyer flotilla. her work up was cut short to escort the battleships and , as well as the heavy cruiser participating in operation juno, a planned attack on harstad, norway, to relieve pressure on the german garrison at narvik. the ships sortied on 8 june and sank the troop transport , the oil tanker and the minesweeping trawler en route. the german commander, admiral wilhelm marschall, then ordered the "admiral hipper" and all four destroyers to trondheim because of the heavy weather, where they arrived in the morning of 9 june. the two battleships continued the sortie and sank the aircraft carrier and her two escorting destroyers, although "scharnhorst" was badly damaged by a torpedo from the destroyer in the engagement. the battleship was escorted home by the destroyers "steinbrinck", "lody" and "hermann schoemann" for repairs. "steinbrinck" and "lody" then returned to trondheim to escort "gneisenau" home, after she been torpedoed by a british submarine.