10. The surface raiders of early 1941 strained the British capacity to protect convoys
While Admiral Scheer was in the Atlantic in December 1940, it allowed a captured ship to broadcast its position deliberately. British ships turned to pursue the cruiser, allowing another heavy cruiser, Admiral Hipper, to break into the Atlantic via the Denmark Strait. Admiral Hipper sank seven ships out of a convoy of 19 it encountered in February, scattering the rest. In January the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst entered the Atlantic. The Royal Navy was obliged to provide battleships as escorts for convoys when possible. The German battleships could easily outrun British battleships, and outgun British cruisers.
The German battleships remained at sea for 60 days, steaming over 17,000 miles. They ranged from the North Atlantic to the Azores, and returned up the western Atlantic. During the short cruise, they twice encountered British battleships, HMS Malaya and HMS Rodney, though both times they followed orders and did not engage. The two ships sank or captured over 113,000 tons of shipping, accounting for 22 ships. The German Admiral in charge of the operation, Gunther Lutjens, transferred his flag to the battleship Bismarck upon return to Germany. He led the ship on another surface raiding mission in May, in company with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.
