Erich Bey

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Erich Bey (23 March 1898–26 December 1943) was a German naval officer who most notably served as a commander of the Kriegsmarine's destroyer forces and commanded the battlecruiser Scharnhorst in the Battle of North Cape on 26 December 1943, during which the German ship was sunk. He was killed during that action.

Bey joined the Kaiserliche Marine on 13 June 1916 and served in its destroyer arm. Following the end of World War I, Bey stayed in the weakened German Navy, now known as the Reichsmarine. He continued his career with the rise of the Nazi Party in power in Germany, and by the start of World War II was a Commander.

As a Commander in the Kriegsmarine, Bey led the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, consisting of the destroyers Bernd von Arnim, Erich Giese and Erich Koellner, as part of Commodore Friedrich Bonte's force that carried General Eduard Dietl's mountain troops for the occupation of Narvik during the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940. In the following Battles of Narvik on 10 April and 13 April, Bey distinguished himself by leading a small group of destroyers in a brave though doomed action against a superior Royal Navy force that included the battleship HMS Warspite. Due to his distinguished service at Narvik, Bey was awarded with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 9 May 1940. The next day he was promoted to Captain and appointed commander of the German destroyer force (Führer der Zerstörer), succeeding Commodore Bonte, who had been killed on 10 April in the first Battle of Narvik.

Captain Bey then commanded the destroyer screen protecting the ships of the Brest Group (Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen) during Operation Cerberus (the “Channel Dash”) in February 1942.

Promoted to Rear Admiral, on 25 December 1943, Bey led a task force consisting of the battlecruiser Scharnhorst and the destroyers Z29, Z30, Z33, Z34, and Z38 out of Alta Fjord in Operation Ostfront. Intending to intercept the Allied Convoy JW-55B en route to Murmansk, but with his ship’s radar destroyed by lucky shot fired British screening force, Bey encountered a superior Royal Navy force led by the battleship HMS Duke of York. In the ensuing Battle of North Cape, the Scharnhorst was sunk after a long battle. Of her crew of 1,968, Royal Navy vessels fished 36 men alive from the icy sea, not one of them an officer. Bey was reported as having been seen in the water but was not rescued.

Bey received the admiration of his British counterpart, Admiral Bruce Fraser, who commander the British force during the Battle of North Cape, for his brave command against the superior odds. When Admiral Fraser briefed his officers on board Duke of York later on the evening of 26 December 1943 he said: "Gentlemen, the battle against Scharnhorst has ended in victory for us. I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as Scharnhorst was commanded today".

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