Tirpitz
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The
German battleship Tirpitz was a grave threat to Allied
shipping, but saw little action under second world war.
She was often bombed by the Allied, and tho these attacks
were somewhat successful, they had little effect on her
fighting abilities. Sir B. Wallis designed a special bomb
for the job. In 1944 he devised the bomb" Tallboy", a
weapon capable of piercing her armor plating. After an
attack which wasn't seen as an success by the British, but
in fact had damaged her, forced the Germans to move her
down to Tromsø. Several air raids were sent but to little
or no effect. 12.November 1944 thirty Lancaster's from 9
and 617 "Dambusters" squadron again took off from
Scotland. Wing Commander Tait led the bombers on a detour,
approaching her from inland, confusing the fighters at
Bardufoss who were late to take off. Tirpitz began to
sparkle with muzzle flashes as the anti-aircraft guns
opened up. She was hit by at least two Tallboys and
suffered an explosion when the ammunition ignited. She
capsized and approximately thousand men of her crew
perished. After the war most of the wreck was blown up and
salvaged on site, but lots of wreck debris still remains
outside the island Håkøya on a depth of approx 10 to 15
meter. Several salvaged parts from her has been used up
through the years in construction work and road
maintenance. Also see her sister ship Bismarck, who went down in the
Atlantic in 1941.
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| 69° 38' 37" N, 18° 47' 32" E  Picture: Tirpitz Wikipedia, Public domain Last updated: January 2021
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