The Tirpitz Raid

One of the first 'X Craft', on trials around Scotland.

Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord 1942.

The deployment of Tirpitz, 41,000 tons, by the Germans was as a result of a relatively low success rate against convoys to Britain from the USA. The U-boats had been very successful, but it just wasn't slowing down the re-supply of Britain quickly enough. The Bismarck had been lost and Germany desperately needed to keep up their anti-convoy campaigns against the USA-Britain and Britain-Russia routes.

The Tirpitz was one of a family of German Battleships built as surface raiders, and posed a dire threat to Allied convoys. Another sortie like that of the Bismarck in 1941 would again take massive Allied naval effort to contain, and leave the North Sea a happy hunting ground for German movements. Churchill had dubbed this 41,000 ton monster 'The Beast'. Her very existence engaged a huge commitment in the Royal Navy's heavy units in guarding against her, and her sisters Scharnhorst and Lützow, from breaking out into the Atlantic from their lairs, Kåfjord and Langefjord, in Northern Norway. (See map).

In these waters, surrounded by steep sided mountains, they were virtually invulnerable to attack. Even in the safety of the anchorage these capital ships had the ability - even without putting to sea - of making sure that the British Home Fleet couldn't move far away from its base at Scapa Flow. Churchill wrote of Tirpitz in early 1943, "It exercises a vague general fear, and menaces all parts at once. It appears and disappears, causing immediate reactions and perturbation on the other side. If she were only crippled and rendered unseaworthy the entire naval situation throughout the world would be altered and the naval command in the Pacific would be regained". His wish was about to be fulfilled.

The Lützow behind her anti-submarine nets in a Norwegian fjord.

Training for the projected attack on the German capital ships began as soon as the boats were delivered, with volunteer crews called for special and hazardous service. Most of the training was carried out at the secret wartime base known as Port HHZ, at Loch Cairnbawn, just north of Loch Ewe on the west coast of Scotland, under the command of Commander T.I.S. Bell, and then of Commander D.C. Ingram DSC RN who, as CO of the Clyde, had torpedoed Gneisenau in 1940. Large ships of the Home Fleet were occasionally called in for realistic training simulation. On 30 August, HMS Titania (Cdr W.R. Fell OBE DSC RN) arrived at Loch Cairnbawn to act as depot ship for the submarines taking part. She was followed two days later by the towing submarines (shown below). Additionally, the Sea Dog and Satyr stood by at Scapa Flow.

Frequent reconnaissance flights over the whole area of Alta Fjord brought back a constant succession of photographs, giving the positions of the German units and recording every movement. There were three capital ships to be attacked, all fairly widely separated, and soon it was discovered from the photographs that they were protected by double rows of anti-torpedo nets, instead of the single row ads had originally been thought. The reconnaissance was extended to cover Sørøy Sound, which leads to the Alten Fjord from the Arctic, and they enabled an accurate picture of the standard daily trawler patrols to be built up. The actual plans for the attack were worked out by Commander G.P.S. Davies, and in April 1943, the six boats were formed into a special flotilla under the command of Captain W.E. Banks. The final plan (Operation Source) allocated three of the X-craft (X5, X6 and X7) against the Tirpitz, two (X9 and X10) against the Scharnhorst, and one (X8) against the Lützow.

Inside an X-craft.

By September 1943, training was completed and the six boats were ready. To assist the attack a certain amount of moon was desirable to help the X-craft in the passage up the fjords by night, and eventually it was decided to sail from Port HHZ on 11th September to arrive off Söröy Sound by the 20th. The six boats had a journey of between 1000 and 1500 miles to make before reaching Altafjord. They did so in the tow of submarines, the six concerned being the Truculent, Syrtis, Seanymph, Thrasher, Stubborn and Sceptre. The X-craft were towed dived, coming up to the surface every six hours to ventilate their hulls. Each craft had two crews, one 3-man crew for the passage and one 4-man crew for the operation. The operational crews were onboard the towing submarines. The journey to Altafjord cannot be underestimated - even from the north of Scotland, the route covers the equivalent of about two and a half times the 'length' - i.e. north to south - of Britain, and for six submarines to make the journey while towing midget submarines called for enormous dedication from all individuals.

Officers and Men involved in Operation Source
	Operational Crew	Passage Crew
X5	Towed by HMS/M Thrasher (Lt. A.R. Hezlet DSC RN)
	Lt. H. Henty-Creer RNVR	Lt. J.V. Terry Lloyd SANF
	Mid. D.J. Malcolm RNVR	A/LSea B.W. Element
	Sub.Lt. T.J. Nelson RNVR	Stoker N. Garrity
	ERA4 J.J. Mortiboys
	Operational Crew	Passage Crew
X6	Towed by HMS/M Truculent (Lt. R.L.Alexander DSO RN)
	Lt. D. Cameron RNR	Lt. A. Wilson RNVR
	Sub.Lt. J.T. Lorimer RNVR	LSea J.J. McGregor
	Sub.Lt. R.H. Kendall RNVR	Stoker W. Oakley
	ERA4 E. Goddard
	Operational Crew	Passage Crew
X7	Towed by HMS/M Stubborn (Lt. A.A. Duff RN)
	Lt. B.C.G Place DSC RN	Lt. P.H. Philip SANF(V)
	Sub.Lt. L.B. Whittam RNVR	AB J. Magennis
	Sub.Lt. R. Aitken RNVR	Stoker F. Luck
	ERA4 M. Whitley
	Operational Crew	Passage Crew
X8	Towed by HMS/M Seanymph (Lt. J.P.H. Oakley DSC RN)
	Lt. B.M. McFarlane RNVR	Lt. J. Smart RNVR
	Lt. W.J. Marsden RANVR
	Sub.Lt. R. Hindmarsh RNVR	Stoker J.G. Robinson
	ERA4 J.B. Murray
	Operational Crew	Passage Crew
X9	Towed by HMS/M Syrtis (Lt. M.H. Jupp DSC RN)
	Lt. T.L. Martin RN	Sub.Lt E. Kearon RNVR
	Sub.Lt. J. Brooks RN	AB A.H. Harte
	Lt. M. Shean RANVR	Stoker G.H. Hollett
	ERA4 V. Coles
	Operational Crew	Passage Crew
X10	Towed by HMS/M Sceptre (Lt. I. McIntosh RN)
	Lt. K. Hudspeth RANVR	Sub.Lt. E.V. Page RNVR
	Sub.Lt. B.E. Enzer	ERA4 H.J. Fishleigh
	Mid. G.G. Harding RNVR	A/PO A. Brookes
	ERA4 L. Tilley

There were some mishaps during the passage, mainly due to tow-ropes parting. Both X8 and X9 broke adrift. X8, towed by Seanymph, eventually made contact again, but of X9 nothing more was seen and she was presumed damaged and sunk, and her transit crew lost. There was also trouble with the towing of X7 but this was rectified and she and the Stubborn eventually arrived safely off the entrance to the fjord. X8 was not so fortunate. She had to jettison her two explosive charges because of air leaks which developed in her high-pressure air system and one of them detonated with such force that X8 was badly damaged. Unable to dive, she was scuttled and her crew taken aboard the Seanymph.

On 19th September three submarines, each with their X-craft in tow, made their correct landfall off the mouth of Söröy Sound and the operational crews were transferred. The fourth, X7 in the tow of Stubborn, was delayed due to the towing trouble. On her way in, the Stubborn had sighted a floating mine and the mooring wire had fouled the tow, the mine sliding down the towing wire had become impaled on the bows of X7. Lt B.C.G. Place, the operational CO of X7, went forward on to the casing and cleared it with his foot. By 2000 on the 20th, the four remaining X-craft - X5, X6, X7, X10 - were slipped from their tows. They crossed over the minefield on the surface and then dived at dawn to continue their course, through Stjernsund and into Altafjord, reached by dusk on the 21st. From there they proceeded to the Brattholm group of islands to charge their batteries for the final run in to their targets. They were then only four miles from Kå Fjord, where the German ships lay behind their nets at the innermost part of the Altafjord, past the small town of Alta. (Perhaps it is worth mentioning now that the names 'Altafjord' and 'Altenfjord' are interchangeable in Norwegian - it's a gender-noun definitive thing. Also, that the 'Kå' in Kåfjord - or 'Kaafjord' - is pronounced to rhyme with 'jaw' - accept no substitute!).

Please read about the individual attacks before picking up the story again below.

Individual Attacks X5 X6 X7 X10

The first knowledge aboard the Tirpitz that more than one X-craft was attacking was when X7 was seen outside the anti-torpedo nets after laying her charges. That was just after 0730, some fifty minutes before all the charges were due to explode. Those on board the battleship realised at once the nature of the attack and that some sort of charge had been laid. In order to minimise the severity of the explosion, the Tirpitz began heaving in on her starboard cable and veering on her port in order to swing her bows away from the position where it was thought that X6 had laid her charges. This, in fact, happened, but there was still one charge from X7 under her engine-room. The movement of the ship's bows took her about 50 yards from both of X6's and one of X7's charges, but left the second of X7's under the ship in a very vulnerable position. All four charges weighed about two tons each.

The charges exploded about 15 minutes before the set time and before the Tirpitz had time to move completely out of danger. The explosion lifted the stern of the ship about six feet out of the water. Considerable damage was done and she took in 500 tons of water. Her main engines were put out of action and her after turrets damaged. Her casualties were one man killed and 40 wounded.

Both Lieutenants Place and Cameron, whose successful placing of their charges damaged the ship in the first instance, were awarded the Victoria Cross. Sub-Lieutenants Lorimer, Kendall and Aitken received the Distinguished Service Order, and ERA Goddard the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

In the German archives captured after the war was a report that "as a result of the successful midget submarine attack on heavy units of the Battle Group, the battle-cruiser Tirpitz has been put out of action for months". In fact, she did not move from her anchorage until April, 1944, after extensive repair work had been carried out in Kå Fjord. When she did at last come out, it was to the Tromsø Fjord that she moved. Here she was at last within range of heavy bombers and, after several attempts, she was finally destroyed by the 'Tallboy' attack from the air.  On 12 Nov.1944, it was again attacked while holed up in Norway. This time the RAF dispatched 32 Lancaster bombers from No. 9 and 617 Squadrons based at Lossiemouth, Scotland. Flying at 14,000 feet, they scored three direct hits with 12,000-pound Tallboy bombs tearing open her hull for a hundred feet. The Tirpitz turned completely over and sank taking 971 crewmen to their deaths. Only 76 men survived. Only once during the war had the Tirpitz fired its huge guns and that was in the bombardment of Spitzbergen in September, 1943, which destroyed the Allied supply bases there. In the overall story of the naval war, while the German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had done some damage to the Royal Navy, the Bismarck had been destroyed at sea, and the Tirpitz had been penned in to Norway, and finally destroyed, by the combined efforts of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. If the latter two giants had been allowed to roam the Atlantic, the lifeline from Canada and the USA would surely have been cut.