Norway, Renown, and the destroyers left at Narvik

Lutjens had privately doubted Operation Weserubung, while clear skies exposed his ships to two ineffective RAF Coastal Command attacks. Those attacks came while Coastal Command held a low institutional priority for aircraft and supplies. Lutjens nevertheless followed the invasion timetable so strictly that no rescue was attempted when sailors were swept overboard on two occasions. His task was to preserve Scharnhorst and Gneisenau while drawing British attention away from the destroyer landings at Narvik. After exchanging fire with Renown, he judged that turning back could expose Germany's only two operational capital ships to Renown, approaching destroyers, and a reported Rodney contact. Splitting the German ships to attack from opposite sides would also require gunnery coordination they had not practised together. As a lifelong torpedo-boat officer, he understood how dangerous British destroyer crews could be. He also knew that withdrawal left his protege Friedrich Bonte and the German destroyer force at Narvik without rescue. Preserving the capital ships meant abandoning the arm of the navy Lutjens had spent decades building.