Chapter 6 06. The "Lonely Queen of the North" dies

During this death voyage of the PQ-17 fleet, the German battleship "Tirpitz" saw its head and tail, and with its strong deterrence, the escort fleet of the British Royal Navy fled without a fight. Its power can be seen One spot. The "Tirpitz" is the second ship of the German "Bismarck-class" battleship, the sister ship of the "Bismarck", named after Alfred von Tirpi, the "Father of the German Navy" and Admiral of the German Empire. named after Z. When the "Tirpitz" was being assembled, the Wilhelmshaven shipyard was repeatedly attacked by British bombers. Although none of the bombs hit the "Tirpitz", the repeated bombing seriously affected the assembly progress, making it It was delayed until February 25, 1941 before entering service.

After the "Tirpitz" entered service, it has been hiding and hiding, constantly moving to various ports in Norway to deter and contain the naval forces of the allies, and has never fought an upright naval battle.In order to ensure that the "Tirpitz" can be blocked, the Allied forces dispatched a large number of ships. The "Tirpitz" pinned down the Royal Navy in the entire North Sea and two-fifths of the British strategic air force, and was blocked in the port alone for a long time.Therefore, the "Tirpitz" was called the "Lonely Queen of the North".

The "Tirpitz" made 3 sorties while in Norway. On March 1, 1942, the PQ-12 fleet set sail from Iceland, and at the same time, the QP-8 also set sail from Murmansk. On March 3, the "Tirpitz" was protected by three destroyers and left its home port to prepare to attack the two fleets near Bear Island.But in the following days, surface ships such as the "Tirpitz" only found a merchant ship and was sunk by a destroyer, and did not find any other ships.By March 9, the "Tirpitz" was spotted by a reconnaissance plane on the Royal Navy's "Victory" aircraft carrier, and the fighter planes that took off from the "Victory" immediately launched an attack on the "Tirpitz".In order to prevent the "Tirpitz" from being sunk by the Allied forces like the "Bismarck", the German Admiral Celias decided to suspend the operation.

In the summer of 1942, after the hunt for the PQ-17 fleet ended, the "Tirpitz" remained moored in the port of Trondheim until July 1943. In August 1943, the German army landed on the Spitsbergen Islands with the artillery support of the "Tirpitz", the "Scharnhorst" battlecruiser and 9 destroyers. The German army captured the island on September 9. the island.This was the only time the "Tirpitz" fired on an enemy target. Although the "Tirpitz" has been in a state of restricted operations, the Royal Navy is still quite afraid of the powerful combat power of the "Tirpitz" and is determined to sink it.

Operation "Waterhead" was the first British attack on the "Tirpitz".In this operation, the Royal Navy used the newly developed X-type pocket submarine and planned to sneak into the harbor to destroy the "Tirpitz".This is almost exactly the same as the tactic of the German U-boat sneaking into the British naval port and sinking the battleship "Royal Oak". It seems that the British are going to retaliate against the Germans with an eye for an eye. In September 1943, after two X-type pocket submarines passed the anti-torpedo net laid around the "Tirpitz", they placed 8 tons of explosives on the bottom of the "Tirpitz" and caused an explosion.The huge explosion shook the "Tirpitz" more than 2 meters above the water surface. The "Tirpitz" did not sink, but suffered serious damage and was paralyzed for 6 months before regaining its combat effectiveness.

In April 1944, the "Tirpitz" was repaired and ready for new operations.At the same time, the Royal Navy also began to carry out an attack code-named "Tungsten", sending a large number of carrier-based aircraft to bomb the "Tirpitz". On April 2, the air strikes began.Due to the haste of the German army and the lack of anti-aircraft weapons, the British army was hardly threatened throughout the air raid.In this operation, the British army only lost 3 aircraft, but caused 122 crew members on the "Tirpitz" to die and more than 300 people were injured.Although the hull and superstructure were not fatally hit, and the armor of the battleship was not penetrated, this operation caused the "Tirpitz" to take 2 months for repairs.

In July 1944, the British Royal Navy's air force launched the "Fukujin" operation.Previously, in order to protect the "Tirpitz", the German army established an effective early warning and smoke screen system.Therefore, in this operation, except for one bomb that exploded beside the "Tirpitz", all the other bombs missed the target. In order to completely sink the "Tirpitz", the Allied forces proposed several more plans, and carried out attacks again and again with perseverance. The first time was on September 15, 1944, when the British army dispatched a large number of "Lancaster" bombers, each of which carried a 5.5-ton "tall chest" super bomb specially designed to deal with large warships and 5,000 bombs. Pound of underwater torpedoes, took off from the Soviet air base to attack the "Tirpitz".During the bombing, although the "Tirpitz" was shrouded in smoke created by the smoke screen system, it was still hit by a bomb and lost its ability to sail.

As long as the "Tirpitz" has not been sunk, the British army will continue to drop bombs. On November 12, 1944, the British "Lancaster" bomber again carried the "Tallboy" bomb and took off from Scotland to begin the "Question Machine" operation.This time the Germans did not release a smoke screen. During the battle, three "high cabinet" bombs hit the "Tirpitz", two of which penetrated the armor of the "Tirpitz", blasting a nearly 70-meter Big mouth.Soon, the fire caused by the explosion detonated the ammunition depot and broke the No. C turret.The only surviving "Tirpitz" among the German "Bismarck-class" battleships capsized and sank quickly in the raging fire. Nearly 1,000 of the 1,700 officers and soldiers on board were killed.The "Lonely Queen of the North" of the German Navy finally died.

It can be said that in order to sink the "Tirpitz", the Allied forces mobilized a large number of troops and almost used all their strength, dispatching more than 600 sorties of aircraft and pocket submarines.But strength is everything. As the strength of the Allied forces continues to grow, no matter how powerful the German warships are, how good the commanders are, and how clever their tactics are, they cannot change the direction of the war.