While all this was going on, as the Admiralty had noted as earlier, the German Navy was not idle. At 0800 4 June, Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, flying his flag on schlachtschiff Gneisenau (Kapitan zur See Harald Netzbandt), leading schlachtschiff Scharnhorst">Scharnhorst (Kapitan zur See Caesar Hoffmann) and schwere kreuzer Admial Hipper (Kapitan zur See Hellmuth Heye) and escorted by the only four operational destroyers in the fleet [Hans Lody (Korvettenkapitän Huberts Freiherr von Wangenheim) , Karl Galster (Korvettenkapitän Theodor Freiherr von Bechtolsheim), Erich Steinbrinck (Korvettenkapitän Rolf Johannesson), and Hermann Schoemann (Korvettenkapitän Theodor Detmers, later captain of the raider Kormoran)] as well as two torpedo boats [Falke (Kapitänleutnant Hansen-Nootbaar) and Jaguar (Kapitänleutnant Hartenstein)], had departed Kiel for Operation Juno a foray into the waters off Northern Norway.
On the 5th, the two short legged torpedo boats returned to Wilhelshaven while the rest
continued Nort, Hipper and the destroyers refuelling off the Loftens on the 6th. The
initial plan had been to attack targets off opportunity in and around Narvik. However, the
situation remained unclear, and finally, aware of several Allied convoys at sea travelling
between Norway and England, Marschall opted to go for them.
At 0555 on the 7th, Hipper and Gneisenau sighted the British tanker Oilpioneer (5,666 BRT)
escorted by the anti-submarine trawler HMS Jupiter. While the former was gunned under by
Gneisenau's secondary battery, the latter was simple pulverized by Hipper, who managed to
pick up 29 survivors from both ships.. Several hours later, after being spotted by
Gneisenau's plane the force found (and let pass) the Hospital Ship Atlantis, and then sank
the trooper (former liner) Orama (19,840 BRT) travelling empty to England. The cruiser and
destroyers, now low on fuel, were detached to Trondheim to refuel while Marschall, with
the two battleships, stayed at sea looking for more targets.