'Zitronella' was a German naval raid and landing, otherwise known as 'Sizilien' and 'Eisfjord', on Spitsbergen island to the north of German-occupied Norway (6/9 September 1943).

Early on 25 August 1941 there had appeared off the western coast of Spitsbergen a group of British warships (the light cruisers Aurora and Nigeria, and the destroyers Antelope, Anthony, Eclipse, Icarus and Tartar) of Rear Admiral P. L. Vian’s Force 'K' together with the liner Empress of Canada (in service since the early days of the war as a troopship) and the oiler Oligarch.

This force had departed Scapa Flow in the Orkney islands group on 19 August in 'Gauntlet' and now, contrary to their expectations, the British found the island devoid of any German occupation forces, and the British then informed the local population of 2,000 Soviet coal mine workers that they would be evacuated within nine hours. During this time military engineers completely wrecked Spitsbergen’s economic infrastructure by the destruction of all mining equipment and other machinery, setting fire to the great coal dumps awaiting export, tearing up the tracks of the light railway used to move coal from the mines to the decks, blowing up the power station and cutting down all telephone poles.

As part of this 'Gauntlet' undertaking, moreover, British, Canadian and Free Norwegian troops then maintained an occupation of Spitsbergen to deny the Germans use of the islands and their rich coal deposits, and to set up weather stations.

After this the Germans decided to build and operate their own meteorological stations in the Arctic, and as early as 25 September 1941 the Luftwaffe flew a party of 10 meteorologists to establish a weather station near Longyearbyen. The party was supplied by air, and recovered during June 1942 by air. Another of the meteorological stations, forming part of Germany’s decision to enhance its weather forecasting in vital areas the better to undertake operations against Arctic convoys, was 'Knospe;, which had been established after the evacuation of the Soviet and Norwegian population in September 1941 in the interior of Crossfjord on the main island at the end of 1941. The Germans decided to evacuate this party in the summer of 1942 as a result of the possibility of Allied attack during the ice-free summer season. To carry out the evacuation of the six-man meteorological group, U-435 was allocated, and this boat extracted the party on 23 August without encountering any Allied interference.

In April 1942, Free Norwegian forces had landed at Barentsburg in 'Fritham' with the task of establishing a permanent presence on the islands. This operation faced significant difficulties, however, but by the summer of 1943 there was a small permanent Norwegian garrison on the islands under the leadership of Morten Bradsdorff Trond Astrup Vigtel.

The Germans responded to 'Fritham' and following occupation of Spitsbergen only in the autumn of 1943. The 'Zitronella' raid was undertaken, under the command of Vizeadmiral Oskar Kummetz, heading the Kampfgruppe 'Nordmeer', by the battleship Tirpitz, the battle-cruiser Scharnhorst, and the destroyers Z 27, Z 29, Z 30, Z 31, Z 33, Erich Steinbrinck, Karl Galster, Theodor Riedel and Hans Lody of Kapitän Rolf Johannesson’s 4^th Zerstörer-Flottille, Kapitän Max-Eckart Wolff’s 5^th Zerstörer-Flottille and Kapitän Friedrich Kothe’s 6^th Zerstörer-Flottille.

This force steamed out of the Altafjord in northern Norway on 6 September to attack Allied bases on Spitsbergen. The destroyers carried one battalion of the 349^th Grenadierregiment as a landing force.

At 03.00 on 8 September Kummetz detached Scharnhorst and the 5^th and 6^th Zerstörer-Flottillen, which then landed their troops in the Gronfjord and Advent Bay for a two-day land operation. Meanwhile, Tirpitz proceeded with the 4^th Zerstörer-Flottille to undertake a gunfire bombardment of Barentsburg. Coastal batteries were destroyed and coal and supply dumps, as well as water and electricity facilities, were blown up.

The German ships then returned to the Altafjord by 9 September. Out of a strength of two capital ships and nine destroyers, as well as 600 infantry, the Germans had suffered minor damage to three destroyers, and their casualties were nine men killed and 49 wounded; from a strength of 152 soldiers, the Norwegians had lost 11 men killed and 74 taken prisoner.

Under cover of 'Zitronella', the Luftwaffe installed a weather station on Hope island, and this survived and reported during the following winter before improving weather conditions allowed an Allied reaction.

It is worth noting that the British had received a radio report from Spitsbergen about 'Zitronella' on 8 September, the report saying that the Allied garrison was under attack by three cruisers and seven destroyers in the area of the Isfjorden. In the absence of any further communication, the British assumed that the Germans had made a seaborne landing and destroyed the garrison, after which the naval force would return as quickly as possible to the Altafjord.

Photo-reconnaissance of the Altafjord on 7 September had revealed only the heavy cruiser (ex-pocket battleship) Lützow and two destroyers, suggesting that the battleship Tirpitz and battle-cruiser Scharnhorst were the core of the reported attacking force. In response Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, commanding the Home Fleet, ordered the despatch of a major force (the battleships Duke of York and Anson, the US light fleet carrier Ranger, the heavy cruisers London and US Augusta and Tuscaloosa, and the destroyers Mahratta, Onslow, Orkan, Rocket, Canadian Huron and Iroquois, and US Bell, Corry, Forrest, Hobson and Isherwood) from Scapa Flow during the afternoon of 8 September, and the cruiser Belfast and the destroyer Impulsive to depart the Hvalfjörður in south-western Iceland at the same time to effect a rendezvous to the north-east of the island before proceeding to an attempted interception of the German force.

On 10 September, however, further photo-reconnaissance revealed that all the German ships had returned to the Altafjord, and the Home Fleet’s ships were ordered back to base. Subsequent reconnaissance of the Isfjorden showed that the settlements at Barentsburg, Longyearbyen, and Sassenfjord had been completely destroyed.

At the end of the month the submarine Seadog delivered a small relief expedition of five Norwegian officers and medical stores to Spitsbergen, and also managed to establish contact with the garrison’s survivors, who reported that five Norwegians had been killed and 20 taken prisoner, leaving about 60 escaped into the country. Replacement radio equipment, supplies and personnel were ferried to Spitsbergen on 19 October by the US cruiser Tuscaloosa and four destroyers, and these reinforcements, supplies and equipment were landed at Barentsburg by the ships, which then returned to the UK with the wounded, and an Allied base was thus re-established.

'Zitronella' was only a limited German success for it brought no lasting benefit as the Allies quickly re-occupied Spitsbergen island. On 19 October, the US heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa arrived at Barentsburg with relief and reinforcements for the Norwegian garrison. 'Zitronella' has been described as a political move by the Kriegsmarine to show Adolf Hitler that the German surface fleet still possessed some value.

Some 16 German sailors had been wounded, one of them dying of his wounds, and six Norwegians had been killed. Captain Morten Bredsdorff and 30 prisoners were sent to the Oflag XXI-C prisoner of war camp in Schildberg in the annexed Reichsgau Wartheland, joining 1,089 Norwegian officers interned there.

A German seaman from a destroyer was court-martialled and sentenced to death for cowardice as he had hidden on his ship rather than accompanying troops on shore: he was executed on the quarterdeck of Scharnhorst. This episode, together with a dispute over medal allocations whereby the crew of Scharnhorst received only 160 Iron Crosses against the 400 given to the crew of Tirpitz, further exacerbated an already poor relationship between the two ships' crews.