TIRPITZ IN NORWAY X-craft midget submarines raid the fjords, Operation Source 1943 ANGUS KONS TAM TIRPITZ IN NORWAY X-craft midget submarines raid the fjords, Operation Source 1943 ANGUS KONSTAM CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 4 INITIAL STRATEGY 6 The Arctic Convoys 6 The German response 9 The Tirpitz 10 THE PLAN 17 Chariots and Midgets 17 Operation Title 20 The X-craft 21 Preparing for Operation Source 28 THE RAID 35 The passage 35 Through the fjord 43 The approach 48 The attack 55 AFTERMATH 72 The straggler 72 The battleship 74 ANALYSIS 76 CONCLUSION 78 FURTHER READING 79 INDEX 80 INTRODUCTION In September 1943, the British Home Fleet’s most pressing task was the protection of the Arctic Convoys. Earlier in the war, this maritime lifeline between Britain and Russia’s northern ports played a vital role in containing the German invasion of the Soviet Union. American and British aircraft, guns, tanks and trucks shipped to Murmansk or Archangel helped stem the German tide. Now, in mid-1943, the Soviets were on the offensive, and while the convoys were less important militarily, their strategic import was immense as a tangible display of Allied cooperation. So the Home Fleet continued to protect these vital convoys, particularly as they passed within reach of German-occupied Norway. During 1940 the Germans had developed air and naval bases in Norway, so when the Arctic Convoys began the following summer, the German navy, or Kriegsmarine, was well-placed to attack them. The number of air and U-boat attacks increased steadily during 1941–42. Then, to step up the pressure, the battleship Tirpitz, the sister-ship of the ill-fated Bismarck, was ordered to Norway. While she only made the occasional sortie, the very presence of Tirpitz posed a serious latent threat to the Allied war effort. Urged by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the British made several attempts to neutralise Tirpitz, first through air attacks and then by ‘human torpedoes’. These were all unsuccessful, and in early 1943, when Tirpitz moved further north to the Altenfjord, her new base lay beyond the reach of British-based heavy bombers. Another way had to be found to put the mighty battleship out of action. Fortunately for the Royal Navy, it now had the craft and the men needed for just this kind of operation. A small batch of midget submarines, known as X-craft, had been developed for just this sort of mission, and their crews had been training hard. The decision was made to launch Operation Source – an underwater attack on the Tirpitz using the X-craft. In September 1943, six X-craft were towed across the Norwegian Sea by submarines, with four of them released off the entrance to the Altenfjord. The X-craft then crept 4 Introduction up the heavily guarded fjord towards the battleship’s lair. However, only The midget submarine two of the midget submarines were able to breach the Tirpitz’s underwater X-10 under tow by the defences. They were then able to lay their underwater explosive charges submarine Sceptre, with her passage crew commander before being forced to the surface and their crews captured. However, their Sub-Lieutenant Page charges detonated soon afterwards, and the resulting blast put the Tirpitz standing on the coaming. out of action for several critical months. It also ended the latent threat the The photograph was taken battleship posed to the Arctic Convoys. Despite being costly in both boats during towing trials in Loch lost and crew killed or captured, the raid was therefore deemed to be a Cairnbawn, during the major success. It was also one of the greatest submarine attacks of the war final days before Operation Source began. – even the German admiral in charge of the stricken battleship praised the courage and enterprise of the British submariners. This is the story of that daring operation, and of the men who risked all to sink the Tirpitz. 5 INITIAL STRATEGY At 3.15am on 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany and its allies launched Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were singularly unprepared for the assault, and for the scale of the air attacks which accompanied it. The Red Air Force was all but destroyed, and with complete air superiority the German tanks rolled eastwards, breaking through all lines of resistance and surrounding huge pockets of Russian troops as they went. The infantry following them mopped up these pockets and dealt with any Soviet attempts to counter-attack, or to escape destruction. In just over two months the invaders had swept through the Baltic States, Byelorussia and large parts of the Ukraine. Novgorod and Smolensk had been captured, and the Germans were poised to do the same to both Leningrad and Kiev. However, the advance was slowing. Despite spectacular German advances and the staggering Russian losses, Soviet resistance was stiffening, while the Germans were running short of supplies. The Arctic Convoys By August the Soviets were also running short of the military tools they needed. The situation was fast becoming critical, as the Russians found themselves unable to replace the thousands of tanks, guns and aircraft they had lost. By then many Soviet production centres were overrun, while many others were being transported eastwards beyond the Urals, out of the path of the German advance. It would take time for these to start producing war materiel again. In the meantime, Soviet soldiers and airmen were having to stem the German tide with the limited weaponry they had left. It was at this point that Stalin demanded that the Western Allies do what they could to help. Prime Minister Churchill agreed to provide essential war materiel – tanks, aircraft, guns and trucks – although ammunition and fuel were also provided. Tanks and aircraft were especially welcomed. The British were desperately short of war materiel themselves. While the imminent threat of a cross-Channel invasion had receded, British troops 6 Initial Strategy The midget submarine X-5 being prepared for the operation on board HMS Bonaventure. This was done on 5 September, while the support vessel was anchored in Loch Cairnbawn. The X-craft’s port side charge can be clearly seen, containing 2 tons of Amatex explosive. X-5 was sunk with all hands in the Kaafjord during the attack. were heavily involved in the war being waged in North Africa, and in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. Still, Churchill realized the vital strategic importance of supporting the Soviet Union. If Russia could be kept in the war, then Germany would be increasingly drawn into a fight which ultimately it would be unable to win. In mid-1941, Britain was unable The submarine depot ship to spare the troops needed to provide direct military support. However, HMS Titania (Commander William Fell), anchored in Churchill was determined to provide whatever help he could in the form of Loch Cairnbawn before war materiel. While these could be shipped through Persia, this roundabout the commencement of supply route would take time to establish. A more direct link was needed, Operation Source. She first one that took advantage of Britain’s main strategic asset – its control saw service during World of the sea. War I, and between the wars The decision was made to establish a maritime supply line between she was stationed in Hong Kong. She joined the midget Britain and the Soviet Union. This meant the ports of northern Russia – submarine flotilla to provide Archangel and Murmansk – the first of which was icebound for part of support for the towing the year. The original intention was that Soviet-registered merchant ships submarines. would carry the goods, but there simply weren’t enough of them to do the job. British merchant ships were used instead, augmented by a handful of ships operating under the flag of other European countries. The result in August 1941 was the establishment of the Arctic Convoys – a strategic lifeline that demonstrated a joint Allied commitment to prevail in the struggle to the death with Nazi Germany. Four months later, when the United States entered the war, they wholeheartedly 7 TIRPITZ IN NORWAY The principal target of supported the enterprise. Eventually, American ships would outnumber Operation Source – the British ones in the convoys, while American war materiel made up the bulk German battleship Tirpitz, of the cargo carried by the convoys. seen here shortly before The first Arctic Convoy sailed from Iceland on 21 August 1941. Operation Source as she lay Codenamed Operation Dervish, this was a limited undertaking, the convoy behind her anti-torpedo net consisting of just five merchant ships and a tanker. The escort consisted of enclosure in the Kaafjord. It can be seen, forming a destroyers, minesweepers and armed trawlers, with distant support provided box-like enclosure, secured by a task force from the Home Fleet. The merchant ships carried rubber, tin, to the shore in two places. A fuel and 15 Hawker Hurricane fighters, accompanied by a Royal Air Force gate off the battleship’s port detachment to operate the aircraft and to train the Russians in their use. This bow provided easy access in first Arctic Convoy arrived in Archangel on 31 August without suffering any and out of the enclosure for small boats. losses. It would be the first of many such convoys, either outward bound from Iceland and later from northern Scotland, or homeward bound, sailing from either Archangel or Murmansk. Eventually 78 convoys would make this hazardous voyage, running the gauntlet of attacks from German aircraft and warships based in occupied Norway. 8 Initial Strategy It was certainly a hazardous voyage – Churchill dubbed it ‘the worst journey in the world’. First of all, these convoys were seasonal, as the long summer hours of daylight made them too vulnerable to attack from German aircraft. The convoys would keep as far from Norway as they could, but far beyond the Arctic Circle they encountered the edge of the pack ice, which crept southwards with the onset of winter. It also meant that as they entered the Barents Sea beyond Norway, they had no option but to come within range of German airfields. Essentially, the pack ice and the Norwegian coast acted as a funnel which constricted the convoys. This was where the air attacks took place, or where the U-boats lay in wait. These dangers increased when the Germans deployed a powerful group of surface warships in northern Norway – ships that included the Tirpitz. The convoys remained in extreme danger until they reached the Kola Inlet, marking the seaward approaches to Murmansk. Then there was the weather. Setting aside the risk of being bombed or torpedoed, these Allied sailors faced an equally dangerous threat from nature itself. First there was the bitter cold, where the build-up of ice threatened to make ships capsize or stopped guns from working. Conditions on the upper deck could be brutal, but it was often little better below decks, where both water and plumbing pipes froze, and the ships’ heating rarely kept the men warm. The seas themselves were treacherous, with gales all too frequent, while the near-perpetual darkness of the winter months was disorientating. If anyone ended up in the icy sea, their chances of survival were minimal, while even those who made it into a lifeboat faced a lingering death from hypothermia unless they were rescued quickly. Still, the fate of the Allied cause was at stake, so most sailors faced these dangers with a stoic determination. They saw it as their job, and they knew the high stakes. The German response The Germans were slow to react to the creation of these convoys. The first seven outward-bound convoys made it to Archangel or Murmansk without incident. So too did the first few homeward-bound ones. The Kriegsmarine had already stationed U-boats in northern Norway, but at first these were focused on the campaign in the Atlantic. It took time to reposition the boats into the likely path of these new convoys. It had been almost a year since the Germans completed the conquest of Norway, but they had been slow to develop it as a forward base for both the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe (German Air Force). Strategically, they needed control of Norway’s inland waterways to ensure the flow of Swedish iron ore from Narvik to ports in Germany. That, though, could be protected by a few aircraft and light naval forces. The capture of Norway also forced the British to abandon their blockade line between Norway and Scotland. That placed a significant burden on the Home Fleet, re-establishing a much longer patrol line beyond the reach of the Luftwaffe. That meant patrols between Greenland and Iceland, as well as from Iceland to the Faroes, and from there to the mainland of Britain by way of Orkney and Shetland. It also made it easier for German 9 TIRPITZ IN NORWAY U-boats and surface warships to slip through these patrol lines, and so enter the North Atlantic. However, it was the commencement of the Arctic Convoys that really opened German eyes to the full strategic importance of Norway. The only way either the Kriegsmarine or Luftwaffe could disrupt this new sea route was to attack it using aircraft, U-boats and surface warships based in Norway. That was the reason why, in January 1942, Germany’s largest battleship arrived in Norwegian waters. The Tirpitz An X-craft surfacing in Scottish waters after a The arrival of the German battleship Tirpitz off the Trondheimsfjord in training dive. Visible in this mid-January 1942 marked a new strategic direction for the Kriegsmarine. photo is the small night She had been sent there to form the core of a powerful naval surface group, periscope, protected by a whose task was to disrupt the Arctic Convoys. Her first Norwegian base periscope guard which also was in the Faettenfjord, some 75 miles from the open sea and 16 miles served as an extra handrail. Astern of it is the base of north-east of Trondheim. This was still around 700 miles from the convoy the attack periscope, which route, but it was close enough to pose a major threat. Later, in March 1943, is fully retracted in this the battleship would move further north, to the Kaafjord, a spur of the photograph. In Operation larger Altenfjord near North Cape, the most northerly tip of Norway. It Source the mooring eye at was also 75 miles from the sea. This, of course, provided security, as the the bow was used to secure the towing rope during the approaches to the battleship’s lair could be protected by booms, nets and passage to Norway. patrol boats, as well as by flak guns, shore-based radar stations and smoke generators. In both anchorages, the steep-sided narrow fjord the battleship used as an anchorage also made it extremely difficult to attack from the air. The result was the creation of two forward naval bases which both sides saw as all but impregnable to attack from the sea or air. The Tirpitz, however, wasn’t the only major German warship to be sent to Norway. The battleship Scharnhorst was also there, and while she lacked the Tirpitz’s firepower and armour, she was still a fairly formidable capital ship. So too were the armoured cruisers Lützow (formerly the Deutschland) and the Admiral Scheer, which were what the British called ‘pocket battleships’, with the armour of a heavy cruiser but the guns of a capital ship. Then there were the heavy cruisers Prinz Eugen and Admiral Hipper, as well a supporting flotilla of destroyers and other smaller craft such as minesweepers and patrol vessels. It all amounted to a powerful naval force, and one based within easy striking range of the Arctic Convoys. The Tirpitz, though, was the deadliest of all of these. Like her sister ship the Bismarck, the Tirpitz was a modern 10