 Richard Beitzen was held in reserve for the German invasion of Norway on 9 April . Two days later , she escorted the light cruiser Köln home to Wilhelmshaven . The ship helped to lay a minefield in the Kattegat from 28 April to 20 May and then began a refit that lasted until September . She was transferred to Brest , France , in October . On the night of 24 – 25 November , Richard Beitzen , Z10 Hans Lody and Z20 Karl Galster sortied from Brest , bound for the Land 's End area . En route they encountered some fishing ships south @-@ west of Wolf Rock and engaged them with gunfire with little effect . The German ships then spotted a small convoy and sank one of the three merchantmen and damaged another . The flash from the guns alerted the five destroyers of the British 5th Destroyer Flotilla , but they could not intercept the German destroyers before dawn . Three nights later the German ship sortied again for the same area . They encountered two tugboats and a barge , but only sank one of the former and the barge , totaling 424 GRT . This time the 5th Destroyer Flotilla was able to intercept around 06 : 30 on 29 November . The Germans opened fire first , each destroyer firing four torpedoes , of which only two from Z10 Hans Lody hit their target , HMS Javelin . The torpedoes hit at each end of the ship and blew off her bow and stern , but the British were able to tow her home . Sometime in 1939 – 41 the ship was fitted with a FuMO 21 or FuMO 24 radar set above the bridge . 
