the heavy cruisers Admiral Scheer and Prinz Eugen and several destroyers. Prinz Eugen had been torpedoed by a British submarine at the entrance to the Fættenfjord, and was temporarily out of action. In March 1942 Tirpitz and Admiral Scheer, along with the destroyers , Z5 Paul Jakobi, and and a pair of torpedo boats, were intended to attack the homebound convoy QP 8 and the outbound Convoy PQ 12 as part of Unternehmen Sportpalast (Operation Sports Palace). Admiral Scheer, with a design speed of , was too slow to operate with Tirpitz and was left in port, as was the destroyer Paul Jakobi. The two torpedo boats were also released from the operation. On 5 March, Luftwaffe reconnaissance aircraft spotted PQ 12 near Jan Mayen Island; the reconnaissance failed to note the battleship or the battlecruiser , both of which were escorting the convoy, along with four destroyers. Unknown to the Germans, Admiral Tovey was providing distant support to the convoys with the battleship , the aircraft carrier , the heavy cruiser , and six destroyers. Enigma intercepts again forewarned the British of Tirpitzs attack, which allowed them to reroute the convoys. Admiral Tovey attempted to pursue Tirpitz on 9 March, but Admiral Otto Ciliax, the commander of the German squadron, had decided to return to port the previous evening. An air attack was launched early on the 9th; twelve Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers attacked the ship in three groups, and Tirpitz successfully evaded the torpedoes. Only three men were wounded in the attack. Tirpitzs anti-aircraft gunners shot down two of the British aircraft. After the conclusion of the attack, Tirpitz made for Vestfjord, and from there to Trondheim, arriving on the evening of 13 March. On 30 March, thirty-three Halifax bombers attacked the ship; they scored no hits, and five aircraft were shot down. The RAF launched a pair of unsuccessful strikes in late April. On the night of 27–28 April, thirty-one Halifaxes and twelve Lancasters attacked; five of the bombers were shot down. Another raid, composed of twenty-three Halifaxes and eleven Lancasters, took place the following night. Two of the bombers were shot down by the German anti-aircraft defences. The actions of Tirpitz and her escorting destroyers in March used up of fuel oil, which greatly reduced the available fuel supply. It took the Germans three months to replenish the fuel spent in the attempt to intercept the