Konstam Angus - Sink the Tirpitz 1942-44: the RAF and Fleet Air Arm Duel with Germanys Mighty Battleship

In May 1941 the worlds attention focused on the German battleship Bismarck , and her brief but deadly sortie into the Atlantic Ocean. She was the most modern battleship afloat, and while the Nazi propaganda machine dubbed her unsinkable, she was eventually hunted down and destroyed by the Royal Navy. This victory, though, came at a terrible cost the loss of the battlecruiser Hood , and all but three of her crew. By then, the British Admiralty were uncomfortably aware that this formidable battleship had a sister ship the Tirpitz , which was undergoing sea trials in the Baltic. She was so powerful she was capable of sinking any capital ship in the British Home Fleet, and if she joined forces with other major German warships she could alter the course of the w ar at sea.

The Tirpitz , photographed during her brief stay in the Bodenfjord near Narvik, during the late summer of 1942. This picturesque fjord was used as a rendezvous and repair area by the Kriegsmarine, as it lay beyond easy reach of British bombers.

Air attacks against her had begun when she was still under construction, but these were both half-hearted and unsuccessful. Then, the threat she posed became more than just theoretical. This was a direct result of the German invasion of Russia in June 1941. Two months later the first Arctic Convoy arrived in Archangel. This maritime lifeline was as much a diplomatic enterprise as a military one, carrying military hardware and supplies from Britain, Canada and the United States to the Soviet Union, to help it stave off the German onslaught. When in January 1942 the Tirpitz sailed to Norway, she represented a major threat to this vital convoy route. So, Churchill ordered that she should be destroyed. The Royal Navy could only bring her to battle if she put to sea, so this meant she had to be attacked from the air, in her lair at the end of a remote Norweg ian fjord.

The British Home Fleet was forced to retain battleships and aircraft carriers in the area to protect the Arctic Convoys from attack by Tirpitz , the German battleship rarely put to sea. So, this would primarily be an air campaign, where the performance of the various types of aircraft used against her would be critical to the success of the operation. Even more important was the ordnance they could use against her, and the skill of the air crews who would direct it against the b attleship.

The intermittent air campaign against Tirpitz lasted for more than two and a half years. These desperate attacks involved hundreds of aircraft from both Bomber Command and the Fleet Air Arm, and a range of aircraft and ordnance. Attacking the Tirpitz in her various Norwegian lairs was never going to be easy. Planners had to contend with a number of problems, including the range to the target, the defensive capabilities of the defences surrounding Tirpitz , and the geography of her berth. Then there were the problems caused by the highly changeable weather over Norway, combined with huge seasonal variations in the amount of daylight. Even if all these challenges were overcome, any attacking force still had to deal with the ship herself, one of the best-protected warships in existence, and one which mounted a formidable array of anti-aircraft guns. Of all these factors, the biggest constraint was range. While Tirpitz s first base in the Faettenfjord near Trondheim was within range of British heavy bombers flying from airfields in the north-east of Scotland, her second lair in the Kaafjord, a spur of the larger Altenfjord at the northernmost tip of Norway, was out of range. So, innovative solutions had to be found to overcome these problems.

It was arguably the most sustained air operation of the war, but the mighty German battleship proved remarkably resilient. So, for much of the war she remained a fleet in being, forcing the Allies to tie down warships which were vitally needed in other theatres. Tirpitz finally succumbed in November 1944, sunk by mammoth bombs dropped by 617 Dambusters Squadron. While her career was not as spectacular as that of her famous sister ship, it was much longer, and her impact on the course of the war was considerabl y greater.

This photograph, taken from the highest crane in the naval yard, shows Tirpitz during the early stages of her fitting out in the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven. Her superstructure is being erected, on top of her thick armoured deck, which was located two decks below her upper deck. The barbettes of her main and secondary gun turrets are already in place.

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