Operation Rubble

Operation Rubble (January 1941) was a British blockade running operation in which five Norwegian merchant ships escaped from Sweden to Britain. The ships involved were Norwegian steamships Elizabeth Bakke (5,450grt), John Bakke (4,718grt), Tai Shan (6,962grt), Taurus (4767grt) and Ranja (6,355grt). In addition to their cargoes also on board were many British and Norwegian sailors who had been in Sweden following the failure of the Allies' Norwegian campaign. The ships left Gotenburg on 23 January 1941 and ran the German blockade of the Skagerrak. They narrowly avoided being intercepted by the two German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau who were just starting Operation Berlin in the Kattegat. The ships navigated the North Sea with various warships being despatched from the UK to act as escorts. These escorts included HMS Naiad, HMS Aurora, HMS Edinburgh and HMS Birmingham and the destroyers HMS Escapade, HMS Echo, HMS Electra. John Bakke and Ranja were both under attack from the Luftwaffe when the cruisers found them. The ships reached Kirkwall in Orkney on 25 January 1941.

The ships successfully delivered approximately 18,600 metric tons of materiel including ball bearings, machine tools, spare parts, iron, ingots, and steels of various qualities. The operation was directed by George Binney who was a temporary attache to Stockholm representing the UK Ministry of Supply. He was on steamer Tai Shan. This operation was the first of a series which also included Operation Performance, Operation Bridford and Operation Moonshine.

Other sources

 * UK National Archive: FO 371/29410 1941, Operation "Rubble" - FO 371/29425, 1941, Operations "Rubble" and "Performance": Includes "Discussions with the Swedes (including Swedish financier and wartime diplomat Marcus Wallenberg) about moving Norwegian ships from Gothenberg in the face of German opposition."


 * warsailors.com:M/T Elisabeth Bakke (Accessed July 2011)