the terrible story of how the royal navy attempt to sink the German battleship Tirpitz at its anchorage in kaafjord, Norway.

On 24 August 1944, Royal Navy Home Fleet aircraft carriers launch Operation Goodwood III, another attempt to sink the German battleship Tirpitz at its anchorage in Kaafjord, Norway.

Even though the RN Home Fleet's carrier strikes during Operation Tungsten, which we covered in our 3 April post, killed almost a third of Tirpitz's crew, the ship remained a threat in the eyes of the British Admiralty.

The departure of Operation Tungsten's experienced aircrew, poor weather, improved German air defenses, and additional smokescreen generators covering Tirpitz led to a series of operations being canceled or aborted between late April and mid-July.

Operations were paused as Home Fleet ships were assigned to protect the Arctic convoys. But the intelligence that Tirpitz was out for sea trials with her destroyer escorts in Altafjord on 31 July and 1 August caused the Admiralty to order renewed strikes.

After escorting Arctic Convoy JW 59, Admiral Moore's force consisting of the battleship HMS Duke of York, fleet carriers HMS Indefatigable, Furious, and Formidable, escort carriers HMS Nabob and Trumpeter, cruiser HMS Kent, and their escorts, prepared to launch Operation Goodwood on 21 August.

The two strikes launched following a weather delay in the morning and evening of 22 August; Operations Goodwood I and II failed to score significant hits.

Early afternoon today, 33 Barracudas, 24 F4Us, 10 F6Fs, 10 Fireflies, and 8 Seafires take off from HMS Indefatigable (the only carrier remaining in the area after Goodwood I).

Despite taking an alternate flight path, when they reach Kaafjord at 1600 hours, German radar stations have detected them, and they find Tirpitz partially covered in a smokescreen.

The aircraft conduct blind bombing attacks and only score two hits. One, a 730 kg (1,600 lbs) armor-piercing bomb from a Barracuda, penetrates five decks but fails to explode due to a faulty fuse, sparing Tirpitz from catastrophic damage.

After waiting for the weather to clear, Indefatigable's aircraft will conduct Operation Goodwood IV on 29 August, with similarly disappointing results.

don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Comments

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF LT. COL.RONALD SPEIRS.

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF LT. COL.RONALD SPEIRS. Lt. Col. Ronald Speirs, one of the toughest soldiers in Easy Company (Band of Brothers) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, April 20, 1920. His family moved to Boston, Mass, when he was 7. He enlisted in 1942 & trained as a paratrooper, becoming a platoon leader in Dog company and later company commander of Easy Company, both of 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. In January 1945, when Easy Company's initial attack on the German-occupied town of Foy bogged down due to the commander 1st Lieutenant Norman Dike, being wounded, battalion executive officer Captain Richard Winters ordered Speirs to relieve Dike of command. The selection of Speirs was incidental; Winters later stated that Speirs was simply the first officer he saw when he turned around. Speirs successfully took over the assault and led Easy Company to victory. During this battle, Lt. Dike had ordered a platoon to go on a flanking mission around the rear of the town. To countermand th

femina agabbadòra hammer

“In Sardinia, the use of the "femina agabbadòra hammer" was a women's practice. Whenever an elderly man or woman of a given family was dying and in great pain, the family would call for the Accabadòra or Lady of the Good Death. She would usually be a widow dressed entirely in black, who likely inherited her role from her own mother or grandmother. The title Accabadora means "She is the One Who Ends." She arrives with a large hammer of carved olive wood wrapped in heavy wool, and is left alone with the individual who may yet be screaming in agony and terror. A witness testimonial of the practice translates: "It was dark. The room was illuminated by a single wick in mastic oil. The Accabadòra entered the house -- the door had been left open for her. She passed no one as she enters her patient's room at at the bedside. "She caressed the face of the dying person, chanted the rosary, sang one of the many lullabies usually sung to children. Finally s

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years.

US executes first woman Lisa Montgomery on federal death row in nearly 70 years. Montgomery was the first female prisoner to be executed in by the US government since 1953. Montgomery, 52, was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital. The US government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on Wednesday, after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle by overturning a stay. Challenges were fought across multiple federal courts on whether to allow the execution of Montgomery, 52, who was put to death by lethal injection of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate in the Justice Department`s execution chamber at its prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. The U.S. Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, cleared the way for her execution after overturning a stay by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kelley Henry, Montgomery`s lawyer, called the execution "vicious, unlawful, and unnecessary exercise of authoritarian power." &quo

WORLD OF ALL

Search This Blog