Operation Wikinger

Operation Viking / Unternehmen Wikinger
Part of the Phoney War of the Second World War
The German destroyer Leberecht Maass, c. 1 January 1938
Location	North Sea 54°43′N 2°46′E / 54.717°N 2.767°E / 54.717; 2.767
Planned by	Kriegsmarine
Commanded by	Fritz Berger Alfred Saalwächter Hans Geisler
Objective	Attack British fishing trawlers at the Dogger Bank
Date	19 February 1940
Executed by	6 destroyers 4 Staffel, II./KG 26
Outcome	German friendly-fire incident
Casualties	606 German sailors killed 60 survivors[1] 2 destroyers sunk 1 destroyer slightly damaged

Operation Viking (German: Unternehmen Wikinger) was a German naval sortie into the North Sea by six destroyers of the Kriegsmarine on 22 February 1940 during the Second World War. Poor inter-service communication and co-operation between the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe resulted in the loss of two German warships through friendly fire bombing and German or British mines. Only sixty survivors were rescued and the operation was called off.

Fliegerkorps X had sent several signals to the naval Marinegruppe West with information about air operations over the North Sea but had not been informed about the naval operation. A request by Marinegruppe West for air support on 23 February led Fliegerkorps X to ask if destroyers were at sea but the reply came too late; a Kampfgeschwader 26 bomber attacked the destroyers.

An inquiry exonerated the bomber crew because they had received no warning and no recognition flares had been fired from the ships. Reports of submarines, indiscriminate firing and general excitement on the destroyers caused uncertainty but the committee ruled that the destroyer Leberecht Maass was bombed and that around 7:56 p.m. there was a big explosion amidships. At 8:04 p.m. there was a bigger explosion on the destroyer Max Schultz, which broke up and sank.