On this day in aviation history, 82 years ago (November 12, 1944), the Royal Air Force conducted Operation Catechism, the final Allied attack against the German battleship Tirpitz. Twenty-nine Avro Lancaster heavy bombers from Nos. 9 and 617 Squadrons attacked the battleship at its anchorage near Tromsø, Norway. Armed with massive 12,000-pound Tallboy bombs, the Lancasters succeeded in sinking one of Nazi Germany’s most formidable warships. Commissioned in 1941, Tirpitz was the sister ship of the famous battleship Bismarck. Stationed in Norwegian waters, she posed a significant threat to Allied Arctic convoys supplying the Soviet Union. Numerous attempts were made to destroy the battleship, including attacks by carrier aircraft, submarines, and RAF bombers. In September 1944, Operation Paravane severely damaged Tirpitz, leaving her unfit for combat. The Germans subsequently moved the battleship to shallow waters near Tromsø, where she was intended to serve as a stationary defensive battery.
On November 12, the Lancasters departed airfields in northern Scotland and approached Tirpitz under favorable weather conditions. The bombers attacked with Tallboy bombs, scoring at least two direct hits and several damaging near misses. The explosions caused catastrophic flooding, and the battleship capsized within minutes. Between 940 and 1,204 German sailors were killed, while the attacking RAF force suffered no fatalities. The destruction of Tirpitz eliminated a longstanding threat to Allied shipping and brought years of operations against the battleship to an end. The Avro Lancaster B Mk I measured 69 feet 6 inches in length with a wingspan of 102 feet and was normally powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines producing approximately 1,280 horsepower each. It could reach a maximum speed of around 282 mph, had a standard range of approximately 2,530 miles, and a service ceiling of 21,400 feet. For Operation Catechism, the Lancasters were specially modified with additional fuel capacity and reduced defensive equipment to carry the 12,000-pound Tallboy bombs over the long distance to northern Norway.
