At 14,000 feet the bombers were all at battle stations. One last mountain shouldered up, and as
they lifted over the peak it lowered like a screen and there again, folded in the cliffs, lay Tromso
fiord and the black ship, squat in the distance. Like a spider in her web of torpedo nets. It was
like looking down from the 'gods' on a Wagnerian stage, a beetle in green water cupped in the
snowy hills, all coral and flame. There was no cloud. And no smoke screen.
Wing commander, "Willie" Tait opened the bomb doors and slid the pitch levers up to high revs; the engines bellowed and the exhausts glowed even in that cold light. Black puffs stained the sky among the gaggle as the flak reached them, and then the guns round the fiord opened fire. Tait watched for the smoke pots, but the smoke never came ( the pots were there, brought down from Altenfiord, but the Germans had not yet primed them). The bomb sight was on and the ship drawing nearer while the gunners in the rear turrets watched the ridges anxiously for the first fighters. It was all up to the rear gunners when the fighters came; there were no mid-upper gunners.
Now it was water, far below, sliding under the nose. The bomber was unswerving, shaking in the
'engines' thunder, and out of the cockpit Tait could see the bomb doors quivering as the airflow
battered at them.
One constant glare shone through the smoke. She was burning. There came another flash and a plume of steam jetted 500 feet into the air through the smoke as the magazine went up. Three minutes later, 9 squadron bombed the dark shroud over her, and then the 'black flies' crawling in the sky turned south-west and curved down toward the sea, picking up speed for the home run.
They never saw a fighter. The last thing they saw as the smoke lifted was the Tirpitz starting to list.
It's reported, that 1 Lancaster damaged by flak during the attack, subsequently crash-landed in Sweden, with all crew surviving, and were returned to the UK.
A reconnaisance aircraft, later radioed that Tirpitz was [upside down] in Tromso Fiord, her bottom humped
over the water like a stranded whale.
While the Germans were laying out the dead, a thousand men were trapped below when she rolled over.
There were survivers. A number of Tirpitz's crew, and/or rescuers
cut an escape hole through the overturned hull at the keel.
The death toll was reported at 900-1200 of her ~2500 crew ,
(also, reported that 1900
crew members were on board November 12, 1944).
Just after Tirpitz saw the bombers come over the mountain, a message came from Bardufoss that an enemy formation was over the airfield and the fighters could not take-off, but there were no Allied fighters for a thousand miles. No one seems to know quite what happened.
Some of the fighters are said to have taken off, but by some miracle they did not intercept...
It was not till after the war they had found it had all been unnecessary (regarding further attacks
against the Tirpitz). The bomb Tait and Daniels had dropped September 15, had
damaged Tirpitz beyond repair. The Germans relocated her to Tromso, not to repair her but to moor
her in shallow water as an unsinkable fortress. Powerful German forces in Northern Norway
meant to hold out there. They moored her in 50 feet of water and tried to repair the mistake by
filling in the sea-bed beneath her with dredges, but did not have time.
There was still enough water below to let her down..
The preceeding pages are, a tribute and remembrance, of all persons who did not survive during an operation against Tirpitz, and persons aboard Germany's largest battleship that perished from 1941-1944.
excerpts: 617 Squadron-- Dambusters at War,
Tom Bennett
Battleship Tirpitz,
Siegfried Breyer
Battleship Tirpitz,
Gerhard Koop & Klaus-Peter Schmolke
Tirpitz: Hunting the Beast, air attacks on the German Battleship 1940-44,
John Sweetman
..As witnessed by Flight Lieutenant Bruce Buckham, film unit
attached to 463 Sq Waddington and
the final attack on Tirpitz as described by John Troegers of the German Navy, serving
as a signaller.
Excerpt,
"Having spoken with Bruce Buckam and basically
re-visited that time, I have found that these two men eventually got
to meet each other. Many experiences, stories, and views were
exchanged and a friendship developed that has been longstanding".
Editor, Peter Johnson
http://www.467463raafsquadrons.com/Pages/TrueTales/sink_the_tirpitz.htm