His Majesty's British battlecruiser RENOWN in storm conditions engaged at the Battle of Stromvaer, in the Norwegian Sea, 9th April 1940.  Given the backdrop of an evolving crisis whereby German intentions to invade Norway were becoming clear, the necessity of a British counteroffensive was quickly taking precedent over any respect for Norwegian neutrality.  In step with German movements a powerful force of British naval units was amassing in Norwegian waters, with heavy surface units of the Home Fleet sortieing across the North Sea from Scapa Flow to stand off Norwegian shores.  RENOWN was joined in theater by His Majesty's ships REPULSE, VALIANT, WARSPITE and RODNEY, along with cruisers and attached destroyer squadrons.  RENOWN would initially, and for this action, carry the flag of Vice-Admiral William Whitworth, who was in overall command of the operation and acting under Admiralty orders to intercept German heavy surface units known to be operating in the area to prevent a breakout into the Atlantic.  Whitworth had his squadron standing off Western Lofoten, poised just off the entrance to Vesfjorden.  This was before it had become completely clear that a German fast invasion force, comprising heavy destroyers laden as troopships, was forcing Vesfjorden and making high speed for Narvik.  Notwithstanding the invasion force, Whitworth was primarily concerned with its heavy cover; and, had good intelligence that it was at sea.  Late in the evening of April 8th RENOWN's radar sets had first picked up suspect contacts lurking in the murk.  Early in the morning of April 9th, the dim twilight of the sun just below the horizon permitted visibility enough for RENOWN to engage.  The German squadron, although aware of the presence of another large ship, had failed to identify RENOWN as foe until she fired at them through the squalls.  Whitworth, a fighting Admiral, had given battle to a larger enemy squadron, having met with the two sister German battleships GNEISENAU and SCHARNHORST.  The former carried the flag of Vice Admiral Günther Lütjens, of later fame during the BISMARCK actions of the following year.   RENOWN being deprived of her destroyer screen, which was unable to keep station in the atrocious conditions, and probably of little use even if it could engage anyway, faced off alone against a combined total of eighteen 11-inch guns.  Bringing to bear herself broadsides of six fifteen-inch, and ten 4.5-inch guns.  In spite of long odds against her the venerable battlecruiser gave chase to the two German ships, warding them off in a ranged gunnery duel.  In the melee both sides would suffer hits, but with decidedly worse outcomes for the German side who saw fit to disengage.  In any case, poorer seakeeping in the German ships had restricted their rates of fire, with resulting electrical failures in their turrets making the situation more serious.  This was further not helped when a 15-inch shell from RENOWN clipped a turret in GNEISENAU and opened it to the sea.  RENOWN rode the seaway better; her flared forecastle shouldering the swell as she was driven into it.  She was also affected however, with the force of racing seaway rending a thirty-foot section of outer plating from her torpedo-bulges upward from below her waterline, resulting in a sort of second bow wave, visible in this motif cresting abreast the forward bridgework.  There is anecdotal evidence of RENOWN having fired partial salvoes during this action; and with the interference of seastate and probably yawing to bring firing arcs forward, I have taken the license and liberty to depict a rolling broadside from her main battery.  The Battle of Stromvaer would ultimately demonstrate the ongoing necessity of old conventional firecontrol optics in a naval gunfight, given the fledgling state of naval radar at the time.  Accordingly and as a direct result of this action, RENOWN would be refitted with a 30-foot rangefinder atop B-Turret.  All of her original 30-foot optics had previously been landed in refits, having been struck in favour of a fuller radar suite which was to be added.  In matter of fact RENOWN was caught between refits with neither a full radar suite, nor adequate firecontrol optics when she fought this action.  If caution and a measure of luck had favored Lütjens at Stromvaer, the fortune of other German naval units inshore at Narvik was less cheerful.  Whitworth transferred his flag to the battleship WARSPITE the following day, and in perhaps one of the most brilliant surface actions of the war, inflicted near total losses upon the German invasion force, in what would become known as the Second and Third Battles of Narvik.