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Operation Zitronella
| Operation Zitronella | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The Arctic Campaign of the Second World War | |||||||
 Map of Svalbard with Spitsbergen in the west in red | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Germany |
 Free Norway | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Friedrich Hüffmeier |
Morten Bredsdorff (POW) Trond Astrup Vigtel † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
2 battleships 9 destroyers 1 battalion fortress infantry |
152 soldiers 2 coastal guns 2 AA guns | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
2 dead (one executed, one died of wounds) 15 wounded |
6 killed 31 (POW) | ||||||
Operation Zitronella, also known as Unternehmen Sizilien (Operation Sicily), was an eight-hour German raid on Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard Archipelago, on 8 September 1943. The battleships Tirpitz (in its only offensive action) and Scharnhorst, plus nine destroyers, sailed to the archipelago, bombarded Allied-occupied settlements in Isfjorden and covered a landing party. Six Norwegians were killed and 31 were taken prisoner; sixteen Germans were wounded, one dying of his wounds.
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