Target Tirpitz: X-Craft, Agents and Dambusters - The Epic Quest to Destroy Hitler’s Mightiest Warship. Patrick Bishop
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commanding officers before departure on Operation Source. (The Royal Navy Submarine Museum)
Tirpitz moored in Kaafjord. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
View from Tirpitz of the X-Craft attack. (ww2images.com)
X-craft survivor John Lorimer on board Tirpitz after capture. (ww2images.com)
Donald Cameron with Godfrey Place after their release from a German PoW camp. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
Wildcat on deck. (ww2images.com)
Barracudas landing on HMS Formidable, August 1944. (The Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London, A 25443)
Christmas in the seamen’s mess on Tirpitz, 1942. (The Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London, HU 50938)
Seamen drinking beer on Tirpitz. (The Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London, HU 50766)
Vice Admiral Oskar Kummetz on deck with Raeder and Admiral Otto Schniewind during an inspection trip to Norway. (akg-images/ullstein bild)
Aerial still of RAF attacks on Tirpitz, 15 September 1944. (ww2images.com)
Group photo of Flight Officer C. H. Giersch, Flight Lieutenant Bruce A. Buckham, Flight Officer D. A. Nolan, Squadron Leader A. G. Williams, Flight Officer D. A. Daniell and Wing Commander James B. Tait. (AP/Press Association Images)
James Tait with pipe. (Courtesy Peter Tait)
Woodsman’s picture of the final attack through trees, November 1944. (Private collection)
Aerial photo of final attack taken from Flight Lieutenant Knights’ Lancaster. (ww2images.com)
Tait pictured with Cochrane at the Tirpitz celebrations. (Courtesy Peter Tait)
Capsized Tirpitz with bomb crater in foreground. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publishers would like to apologize for any omissions and would be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in future editions.
| SEAMEN | |
| Matrose | Ordinary Seaman |
| Matrosen-Gefreiter | Able Seaman |
| Matrosen-Obergefreiter | Leading Seaman |
| Matrosen-Hauptgefreiter | Senior Leading Seaman |
| WARRANT OFFICERS | |
| Bootsmann | Boatswain |
| Oberbootsmann | Chief Boatswain |
| Stabsoberbootsmann | Senior Chief Boatswain |
| OFFICERS | |
| Fähnrich zur See | Midshipman |
| Oberfähnrich zur See | Sub-Lieutenant |
| Leutnant zur See | Lieutenant (Junior) |
| Oberleutnant zur See | Lieutenant (Senior) |
| Kapitänleutnant | Lieutenant Commander |
| Korvettenkapitän | Commander |
| Fregattenkapitän | Captain (Junior) |
| Kapitän zur See | Captain (Senior) |
| Konteradmiral | Rear Admiral |
| Vizeadmiral | Vice Admiral |
| Generaladmiral | No equivalent |
| Grossadmiral | Admiral of the Fleet |
The shortest memorandum in Winston Churchill’s vast wartime output of queries, instructions and exhortations is three words long. On Monday, 14 December 1942 he wrote to the First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound, demanding: ‘Where is TIRPITZ?’ The reply was reassuring. She was stuck safely in a Norwegian fjord near Trondheim undergoing repairs. Far from getting ready for a potentially devastating sortie, the crew was busy decorating the messes in preparation for Christmas.
The terse tone of the memo reveals a tremor of alarm. Churchill’s manner, both real and contrived, radiated unflappability, even in the face of towering danger. Yet throughout her life this one battleship, the last of Hitler’s fleet, could disturb his calm, nagging at his thoughts when it might be imagined he had bigger concerns to worry about. His wish to see it sunk, or at least disabled, bordered on the obsessive. The archives contain a stream of calls for action addressed to admirals and air marshals. A note from Churchill’s office dated 22 January 1942 reports that ‘the Prime Minister rang up the First Sea Lord and instructed him to see tonight the Chief of the Air Staff and concert means for making an attack on the TIRPITZ’. It goes on to record his opinion ‘that the crippling of this ship would alter the entire face of the naval war and that the loss of 100 machines or 500 airmen would be well compensated for’.
In the cruel ledger of war, this, at the time, would have counted as a bargain. The destruction of no other enemy asset would absorb so many resources and so much time and energy. As long as Tirpitz was afloat she cast a shadow over British naval planning, mesmerizing the Home Fleet and forcing its most powerful ships to keep a constant