raf sinks the tirpitz FACES OF DEATH

tirpitz was the second Bismarck class battleship of the German Kriegsmarine, sistership of Bismarck. She was named after Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz. Tirpitz was launched 1 April 1939 and deployed in a manner similar to Bismarck, as a commerce raider to be sent against Allied merchant shipping in the North Atlantic. She was dubbed the "Lonely Queen of the North" ("Den ensomme Nordens Dronning") by the Norwegians. As a result of the Arctic convoys and the Commando raid on Vågsøy, Tirpitz was sent to Norwegian waters where she spent most of World War II in the fjords. She made three offensive sorties; an attempt to interdict convoy PQ12 in March 1942 (Operation Sportpalast), a similar attempt against PQ17 in July 1942 (Operation Rösselsprung) and a raid on Spitsbergen in September 1943 (Operation Sizilien). She acted as a fleet in being, tying up Royal Navy resources and the decision was taken to sink her while she was in port. Several separate operations were needed to achieve this objective completely. Operation Source The first attempt to destroy the Tirpitz was a very risky operation. As part of Operation Source, British X class midget submarines planted explosive charges beneath Tirpitz in September 1943. Lieutenant Basil Place commanding Midget Submarine X.7, and Lieutenant Donald Cameron commanding Midget Submarine X.6, both received a Victoria Cross for their part in the action. The submarines had to travel at least 1,000 miles from base, negotiate a minefield, dodge nets, gun defences and enemy listening posts. Having eluded all these hazards they finally placed the charges underneath the ship where they went off an hour later, doing so much damage that the Tirpitz was out of action for several months. The story of this attack is told in the 1955 film Above Us The Waves. y April, 1944, Tirpitz had been repaired and posed a renewed threat. In response, the British executed Operation Tungsten, an attack by carrier-borne aircraft of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. A significant part of the Home Fleet took part, including 2 battleships, 2 fleet aircraft carriers, 5 escort aircraft carriers, 2 cruisers, 16 destroyers with support from 2 oilers. Steps were taken, including phoney wireless traffic, to hide their departure from Scapa Flow. The air attack was launched a day earlier than planned, catching Tirpitz preparing for departure on trials. Operation Tungsten The air attacks were in two waves of Fairey Barracuda torpedo bombers with escorting fighters. A variety of bombs were carried: anti-submarine bombs that would cause damage even if they exploded in the water around her, armour piercing bombs capable of penetrating deck armour, smaller bombs that could penetrate superstructure armour and general purpose bombs that would be effective against the crew and the anti-aircraft weapons they were manning. The defences were poor and ill-organised and the attack had little disruption. Some of the fighters contributed by strafing the decks with machine gun fire. The first attack was at 05:30; by 08:00 the Royal Navy had landed all but three planes that had been lost. The Tirpitz had lost 122 crew with a further 300 wounded, but damage was limited to the superstructure and the ship's armour was not penetrated, though near misses caused some flooding. Overall the damage done was significant and took 2 months to repair. Operations Planet, Brawn, Tiger Claw and Mascot The threat remained and further operations were planned. Three air attacks (Operations Planet, Brawn and Tiger Claw) were cancelled, in April and May, 1944, due to poor weather. The next carrier-borne attempt was Operation Mascot, in July,1944. By this time, however, the Germans had set up effective warning and smoke systems which effectively obscured the Tirpitz from the attacking aircraft. Apart from one near-miss, the raid was a failure. Operations Goodwood I, II, III and IV Tirpitz underwent sea trials in early August 1944 and three weeks later the Fleet Air Arm launched more attacks. These had mixed success, none dealing the hoped for coup-de-grace. Operations Goodwood I and Goodwood II took place on 22 August. Low cloud obscured the Tirpitz and there were no hits. Goodwood III, on 24 August, successfully confused the air defences by their approach tactics and scored 2 hits on the Tirpitz. One caused damage to a turret. The other pierced the ship's armour belt but failed to explode - 'an exceptional stroke of luck'. Had it done so, the German report said: '... the effects of that explosion would have been immeasurable.' It is likely that Tirpitz would have sunk. The escort aircraft carrier HMS Nabob returned to Scapa Flow after being seriously damaged by a torpedo hit from a U-boat (U-354). The final Fleet Air Arm attack was Goodwood IV, on 29 August. Once more, low cloud prevented any hits. After this, the fleet withdrew on convoy duties and the Tirpitz was left to the Royal Air Force.