The German battleship, The Tirpitz, sister ship to The Bismarck, was launched in April 1939. In 1941 the ship began sea trials in the Baltic. She was an impressive fighting machine and the British Admiralty were concerned that she would pose a major threat to supplies reaching Britain if she was sent to the Atlantic.
Hitler, however, sent The Tirpitz to patrol waters off the Norwegian coast, believing that any allied invasion of Europe would be via Norway.
In 1942 The Tirpitz made two attempts to intercept Arctic convoys but both failed.
Between 1942 and 1944 the British made twelve attempts to sink the Tirpitz. All attempts failed to sink the ship although some missions did succeed in inflicting considerable damage taking the ship out of operation while she was repaired.
On 12th November 1944 Operation Catechism was launched. RAF 9 squadron and 617 squadron flying at 14,000 feet located and bombed The Tirpitz. The Lancaster bombers used in the attack were equipped with new Mark XIV bombsights which made precision bombing much easier than previously. A large hole (100 feet wide) quickly opened up. The blast caused a fire inside the ship which led to the explosion of magazines and ammunition. The ship was damaged beyond repair and sank killing all but 80 of the crew.
