Swinemünde on 29 September and was again the flagship of the FdT by 30 November, but rejoined 2. Zerstörerflotille on 22 December. In retaliation for the Altmark Incident where the Royal Navy seized captured British sailors from the in neutral Norwegian waters on 16 February 1940, the Kriegsmarine organized Operation Nordmark to search for Allied merchant ships in the North Sea as far north as the Shetland Islands. 2. Zerstörerflotille, including Leberecht Maass, escorted the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as well as the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper during the initial stage of the sortie on 18 February, but Leberecht Maass and Z5 Paul Jacobi were detached the following day on an unsuccessful search for enemy shipping in the Skagerrak. A few days later, the Kriegsmarine planned Operation Wikinger in cooperation with the Luftwaffe in the erroneous belief that the British fishing trawlers off the Dogger Bank were cooperating with submarines. They believed that sinking or capturing the trawlers would force the British to spread themselves thin to defend the fishing fleet and might result in some useful auxiliary ships for the Kriegsmarine. The Luftwaffe promised fighter cover for the ships engaged in the operation as well as bomber support. Loaded with prize crews, Leberecht Maass and five other destroyers, Max Schultz, Richard Beitzen, Z6 Theodor Riedel, Z13 Erich Koellner and Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt, sailed on 22 February. En route, the flotilla was mistakenly attacked by a Heinkel He 111 bomber from Kampfgeschwader 26. Leberecht Maass was hit by at least one bomb, lost her steering, and broke in half, sinking with the loss of 280 of her crew, including the ship's captain. Only 60 of her crew were saved. During the rescue effort, Max Schultz hit a mine and sank with the loss of her entire crew. Hitler ordered a court of inquiry to be convened to investigate the cause of the losses and it concluded that both ships had been sunk by bombs from the He 111. The Kriegsmarine had failed to notify its destroyers that the Luftwaffe was making anti-shipping patrols at that time and had also failed to inform the Luftwaffe that its destroyers would be at sea. Postwar research revealed that one or both ships may have struck a British minefield laid by the destroyers and . Footnotes Notes References External links Zerstörer 1934 German Naval History website Type 1934 destroyers Ships built in Kiel 1935