escorted Admiral Scheer at the beginning and end of its mission to attack Soviet shipping in the Kara Sea. The ships also escorted the minelayer as it departed to lay a minefield off Cape Zhelaniya in mid-August. On 13–15 October, Z4 Richard Beitzen, Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt and the destroyers and laid a minefield off the Kanin Peninsula at the mouth of the White Sea that sank the . Three weeks later, the same four destroyers escorted Admiral Hipper as she attempted to intercept Allied merchant ships proceeding independently to Soviet ports in early November. During Operation Regenbogen, the attempt to intercept Convoy JW 51B sailing from the UK to the Soviet Union in late December, Z4 Richard Beitzen, Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt and the destroyer escorted Admiral Hipper as she attempted to divert the convoy escorts while Lützow and three other destroyers attacked. The three destroyers separated from Admiral Hipper to search for the convoy, which they found on the morning of 31 December. The destroyer spotted them in turn and closed to investigate when the German ships opened fire at a range of . Obdurate turned away to rejoin the convoy without sustaining any damage and the German ships did not pursue as they had been ordered to rejoin Hipper. The Germans found the minesweeper , which had been detached earlier from the convoy to search for stragglers, as they maneuvered to close with the convoy and the destroyers were ordered to sink her, while Hipper engaged the convoy escorts. This took some time in the poor visibility and Hipper was surprised in the meantime by the British covering force of the light cruisers and . After sinking Bramble, the German destroyers attempted to rejoin Hipper but had no idea that British cruisers were in the area. They confused Sheffield with Hipper when they spotted each other at range and were surprised when Sheffield opened fire on Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt with every gun she possessed, sinking her with the loss of all hands. Z4 Richard Beitzen was not engaged before she escaped into the darkness. Commander (Fregattenkapitän) Hans Dominik assumed command in January 1943 and the ship escorted the damaged Admiral Hipper and Köln down to Kristiansand at the end of the month. She began escorting convoys between that port and Aarhus, Denmark, before she escorted the battleship to Altafjord in early March. The following month she screened Nürnberg during