Tirpitz: Menace Unseen

Tirpitz in its former glory

If one should ask for the name of a battleship, the two most common answers might be Arizona and Bismarck. Arizona is, of course, known as the ship that sank in Pearl Harbor and still remains today. Bismarck is well known for its short tirade around the north Atlantic, sinking Hood, pride of the Royal Navy, and forcing Winston Churchill to order "Sink the Bismarck!" However, did you know that Bismarck had a sister ship? Tirpitz was just as powerful and threatening as Bismarck, but her career was not as action-packed as Bismarck. Still, her mere existence was enough to give the RAF as much concern as when Bismarck roamed the seas.

Tirpitz was commisioned into the Kreigsmarine on February 25, 1941. While her sister ship would end up at the bottom of the Atlantic in May 1941, Tirpitz was based in occupied Norway. The British knew that Bismarck had a sister ship, and like Bismarck she was almost unsinkable by ship. It was torpedo bombers from aircraft carriers that crippled Bismarck, so the RAF would take the lead in fighting Tirpitz.

Tirpitz was stationed in Norwegian waters because supply convoys to and from Russia had to pass by Norway, putting Tirpitz in a good position to raid the convoys, Bismarck's intended purpose. However, when a supply convoy actually went by, Tirpitz didn't sink any of them. When the British learned that Tirpitz was going to intercept the convoy, they ordered the convoy to scatter, knowing that a battleship attacking a cluster of defenseless cargo ships was a bad thing. Ironically, after the convoy scattered, U-Boats sank 24 ships from the convoy over the next ten days. This proved one thing: the British could not allow Tirpitz to continue to float.

From 1943 onward, the RAF planned numerous operations to sink Tirpitz. Many were cancelled due to fog around the fjords where Tirpitz was docked, or the Germans being forewarned of the attacks by scouts and laying down intense antiaircraft fire. Fourteen operations were planned, though not all were conducted. Those that were either missed their target, or only scored glancing blows. Tirpitz suffered major damage to her superstructure and many of her crew had been killed, but Tirpitz's armor was still intact, her guns were still useable, the ship still a threat.

Finally, on November 12, 1944, Operation Catechism was a go. This attack caught the Germans by surprise, mainly because the bombers  came from the east instead of the west, flying over neutral Sweden. This raid would prove to be the final victory. Tirpitz was hit hard, having two bombs pierce her top deck and explode, blowing a hole in her port side, and creating fires, which ignited an ammunition magazine in one of her turrets. Eleven minutes after the first hit, Tirpitz was sunk.

Tirpitz capsized after the attack

This removed the last major surface threat in Germany's navy. Britain could now send ships in reserve at home to the Pacific to make a seroius effort there. However, the ironic thing about Tirpitz's career is that her main guns, the same kind of guns that sank the pride of the Royal Navy, only fired on one mission, in a support role for a German invasion of Spitzbergen, Norway, and never at any enemy ship. After the war, the wreck was mostly cut up and scrapped, although a large piece of her bow is where it sank. Today, though, Tirpitz's armor is still used by Norway's Public Roads Administration as temporary road surfaces. It shows that a once feared battleship is reduced to nothing, and virtually forgotten or ignored. Until next time, take care, and thank you.