German battleship Tirpitz: Difference between revisions

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'''''Tirpitz''''' was a [[battleship]]Bismarck ofclass thebattleship|''Bismarck'' Germanclass [[Kriegsmarinebattleship]], aand the sister ship toof the [[German]] [[Kriegsmarine]] [[battleship]] [[German battleship Bismarck|''Bismarck'']], and named for Admiral [[Alfred von. ''Tirpitz]]. She'' was launched [[1 April]] [[1939]], and named after ''Bismarck'',[[Admiral]][[Alfred butvon Tirpitz]]. She was deployed in a similar to the Bismarck manner, beingas a [[commerce raider]] to be sent against Allied merchant shipping in the North Atlantic.

As a result of the [[Arctic convoys]] and the [[British_Commandos#Return_to_Norway|Commando raid on Vågsøy]] ''Tirpitz'' was sent to [[Norway|Norwegian]] waters where she spent most of [[World War II]] in the [[fjord]]s. She made three offensive sorties; an attempt to interdict convoy PQ12 in [[March]] [[1942]] (Operation Sportpalast), a similar attempt against [[Convoy PQ-17|PQ17]] in [[July]] [[1942]] (Operation Rösselsprung) and a raid on [[Spitsbergen]] in [[September]] [[1943]] (Operation Cicilien). The threat that she might put to sea, tied down [[Royal Navy]] resources and the decision was taken to sink her while she was in port. The first attempt was a very risky operation. British [[X class submarine|X class]] [[midget submarine]]s planted explosive charges beneath ''Tirpitz'' in September [[1943]]. This succeeded in disabling ''Tirpitz''. After she was repaired she was attacked by carrier born aircraft of the [[Fleet Air Arm]], which only did superficial damage. She was finally sunk immediately to the west of [[Tromsø]], in the bay of Håkøybotn, on [[12 November]] [[1944]] by [[Avro Lancaster]]s of [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] [[No. 617 Squadron RAF|617]] and [[No. 9 Squadron RAF|9]] Squadrons equipped with the [[Barnes Wallis]] [[tallboy bomb]]s on their third attempt, the first of which had been launched from Russia. Close to 1000 German sailors died.