Patrick Bishop - Target Tirpitz - X-Craft, Agents and Dambusters - The Epic Quest to Destroy Hitler’s Mightiest Warship

Tait pictured with Cochrane at the Tirpitz celebrations. (Courtesy Peter Tait)

Capsized Tirpitz with bomb crater in foreground. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)

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Maps Contents Cover Title Page TARGET TIRPITZ X-CRAFT, AGENTS AND DAMBUSTERS – THE EPIC QUEST TO DESTROY HITLER’S MIGHTIEST WARSHIP PATRICK BISHOP Dedication List of Illustrations List of Maps Plans of Tirpitz Diagrams of X-Craft Ranks of the Kreigsmarine Prologue Chapter 1: The Belly of the Beast Chapter 2: Wilhelmshaven, Saturday, 1 April 1939 Chapter 3: Swordfish Chapter 4: Trondheim Chapter 5: ‘A wonderful chance’ Chapter 6: ‘A somewhat desperate venture’ Chapter 7: Smoke and Fog Chapter 8: Provoking Nemesis Chapter 9: ‘A heart-shaking decision’ Chapter 10: A Ha’porth of Tar Chapter 11: The Iron Castle Chapter 12: Enter the Lion Chapter 13: Madmen Chapter 14: The Great Adventure Chapter 15: ‘A bloody great bang’ Chapter 16: North Cape Chapter 17: Tungsten Chapter 18: The Third Man Chapter 19: ‘My God Mac, they’ve had it today’ Epilogue Picture Section Notes Index Acknowledgments Also by Patrick Bishop Copyright About the Publisher

Northern Waters

The Northern Front

Trondheim Area

Loire Estuary and St Nazaire

Convoy PQ.17

Operation Source

The Battle of North Cape

The Final Attack

Ranks of the Kreigsmarine Ranks of the Kreigsmarine Prologue Chapter 1: The Belly of the Beast Chapter 2: Wilhelmshaven, Saturday, 1 April 1939 Chapter 3: Swordfish Chapter 4: Trondheim Chapter 5: ‘A wonderful chance’ Chapter 6: ‘A somewhat desperate venture’ Chapter 7: Smoke and Fog Chapter 8: Provoking Nemesis Chapter 9: ‘A heart-shaking decision’ Chapter 10: A Ha’porth of Tar Chapter 11: The Iron Castle Chapter 12: Enter the Lion Chapter 13: Madmen Chapter 14: The Great Adventure Chapter 15: ‘A bloody great bang’ Chapter 16: North Cape Chapter 17: Tungsten Chapter 18: The Third Man Chapter 19: ‘My God Mac, they’ve had it today’ Epilogue Picture Section Notes Index Acknowledgments Also by Patrick Bishop Copyright About the Publisher

Prologue Prologue Chapter 1: The Belly of the Beast Chapter 2: Wilhelmshaven, Saturday, 1 April 1939 Chapter 3: Swordfish Chapter 4: Trondheim Chapter 5: ‘A wonderful chance’ Chapter 6: ‘A somewhat desperate venture’ Chapter 7: Smoke and Fog Chapter 8: Provoking Nemesis Chapter 9: ‘A heart-shaking decision’ Chapter 10: A Ha’porth of Tar Chapter 11: The Iron Castle Chapter 12: Enter the Lion Chapter 13: Madmen Chapter 14: The Great Adventure Chapter 15: ‘A bloody great bang’ Chapter 16: North Cape Chapter 17: Tungsten Chapter 18: The Third Man Chapter 19: ‘My God Mac, they’ve had it today’ Epilogue Picture Section Notes Index Acknowledgments Also by Patrick Bishop Copyright About the Publisher

The shortest memorandum in Winston Churchill’s vast wartime output of queries, instructions and exhortations is three words long. On Monday, 14 December 1942 he wrote to the First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound, demanding: ‘Where is TIRPITZ?’ The reply was reassuring. She was stuck safely in a Norwegian fjord near Trondheim undergoing repairs. Far from getting ready for a potentially devastating sortie, the crew was busy decorating the messes in preparation for Christmas.

The terse tone of the memo reveals a tremor of alarm. Churchill’s manner, both real and contrived, radiated unflappability, even in the face of towering danger. Yet throughout her life this one battleship, the last of Hitler’s fleet, could disturb his calm, nagging at his thoughts when it might be imagined he had bigger concerns to worry about. His wish to see it sunk, or at least disabled, bordered on the obsessive. The archives contain a stream of calls for action addressed to admirals and air marshals. A note from Churchill’s office dated 22 January 1942 reports that ‘the Prime Minister rang up the First Sea Lord and instructed him to see tonight the Chief of the Air Staff and concert means for making an attack on the TIRPITZ’. It goes on to record his opinion ‘that the crippling of this ship would alter the entire face of the naval war and that the loss of 100 machines or 500 airmen would be well compensated for’.

In the cruel ledger of war, this, at the time, would have counted as a bargain. The destruction of no other enemy asset would absorb so many resources and so much time and energy. As long as Tirpitz was afloat she cast a shadow over British naval planning, mesmerizing the Home Fleet and forcing its most powerful ships to keep a constant watch against a breakout into the Atlantic where, in the anxious eyes of those watching her, she might cut Britain’s trans-atlantic lifeline.