The Hunt for Tirpitz, 42-44 - Animated

Between 1942 and 1944, the Royal Navy and the RAF duel with the mighty German Battleship Tirpitz in the Norwegian Fjords to protect the vital Arctic Convoys. Carrier-borne aircraft can't deliver the knockout blow, but will the new 12000lb "earthquake bomb" do the job?

Special thanks to my Patreons: Alex Pickworth, imfromthe808, John Smaha, omega21, Casual Observer, Chris Roybal, Escipio Sumski, Gil Ho, Orde, Robby Gottesman, Zac W, genericwolf, Riley Matthews

[TheOperationsRoom]

A question for public debate - Was the effort to sink Tirpitz worth it? Discuss..

[GaldirEonai]

Fun detail about the smokescreens that stopped so many air attacks:

It wasn't all smoke. At some point the germans got the idea to pour chemicals into the water to create thick, long-lasting fog. That stuff is still causing environmental issues today. There's a layer of toxic mud at the bottom of that fjord and every time it's disturbed, aquatic life in the area suffers.

[fastguy]

I actually live in Tromsø, the city where Tirpitz sank. The tallboy craters are still visible on the closest island. Despite the fact that i live so close, i actually learned a lot from this video!

[roythompson]

My grandfather Sam Thompson was with squadron 9 as a gunner on this raid , he was also part of the dam buster raids with squadron 9 dropping the tall boy in one of the raids . He passed away last week at the age of 99 . RIP grandad, a true hero x

[PCSheepy]

Brilliantly done as expected. I’ll be honest. I didn’t realise how many raids there were on it.

[pittsky]

My grandfather served on the HMS Nabob(D77) an escort aircraft carrier in Operation Goodwood to sink the Tirpitz. He was a diver. He wore one of those huge metal diving helmets with the windows and was supplied air by a line (Often spoofed in Bugs Bunny cartoons). The Nabob was torpedoed by U-354 but did not sink. I have the helmet he wore on Operation Goodwood. Thanks for this video!

[CenturionPrimipilus]

After the war they sell it on a parts.
Even today you can see a small steel sheets from Tirpitz used in the construction jobs here in Norway.
It's a high quality steel!

[JT-szxc]

Amazing how much effort went into sinking one battleship.

[Norninja]

Local here.
When visiting my grandmother when she was in an retirement home some weeks before her passing, there was a 98 year old woman there that loved to talk to the younger generations.
She told us how she remember the planes coming over the mountains to attack Tirpitz and the massive booms that were heard when the bombs fell.
Excellent and informative video!

[jamesharmer]

I was working in a shop a few years ago and an old boy came in and told me it was the anniversary of the day he and his friends attacked the Tirpitz with Barracuda torpedo bombers. He said he lost a lot of his friends that day. Hats off to him, they were very brave guys.

[SteveMHN]

It's unbelievable how much damage these ships can take and how fast they are able to recover.

[colinwoellhof]

Thanks for doing a video on the Tripitz. I feel like everyone only does the Bismarck. I just learned about the Tripitz's fate!

[KillerOrca]

Britain: (Proceeds to throw everything and the kitchen sink at the Tirpitz)
Germany: (Desperatly patching holes and draining flooding with buckets) STOP BLOWING HOLES IN MY SHIP!

[presstodelete]

My Dads cousin got his VC for the minisub mission. The only NI VC of WW2.

[Mrtweet]

The trees around Kåfjord still shows sign of the chemicals used to cover the fjord in smoke and the shoreline is still littered with debris from bombs and pieces of the Tirpitz. And she isn’t still there, she was chopped up between 1948 and 1957, there are just about 20% of her left but those pieces are 18-20 meters under the surface.

[captccklap]

I love the thinking that went into Tallboy.

"hmm... Why don't we just make one really big bomb?"

[gravyboat]

The final raid on tirpitz was helped by the local luftwaffe commander. He delayed the order to send up fighters as he was an allied sympathiser.

[rexgoodheart]

It just staggers me how expensive it was to sink a single battleship.

[FrasierCraft]

So I know this is confusing, but you have kåfjord municipality which has a fjord itself (lyngenfjord), and then you have kåfjord which is a fjord about 20km north east of kåfjord municipality. Lyngenfjord lies in kåfjord municipality, and kåfjord lies in Alta municipality.
You got the map right, as this actually happend in kåfjord in Alta municipality. Great attention to detail, a lot of historians get this wrong.

[fasthracing]

Good video. My father was an officer on HMS Trumpeter an escort carrier that was involved in one of the Operation Goodwood missions. R.I.P.