PQ17 Arctic Convoy Disaster

[penton]

Well put Penton. The Naval Reservist on the armed trawler was Boys Own stuff. If you had made it up nobody would have believed it. The Arctic Star was well and truly earnt but awarded far too late for most.

Sadly too late for my Uncle Sam, truly a boys own hero to me

[cunninglinguist]

I couldnt understand why the Tirpitz wasnt being watched by the Norweigan resistance or reconnaisance aircraft to establish whether it had left port or not. A 47,000 ton battleship in a fjord is a bit hard to miss.

You would have thought that an entire invasion fleet, in Britain's southern ports, would have been easy to spot too!

[Corkhead]

Good point. However, as we all know, they knew exactly where the Tirpitz was when at least 10 attacks by either sea or air were launched against it between 43 and 44:

The German Battleship Tirpitz, launched in 1941, was thought to be unsinkable it was dubbed The Beast after ten attempts made by the British and Russian forces against it failed. It was one of the Nazis mightiest sea vessels and it posed an immense threat to convoys of ships that traveled from Scotland to Russia carrying weapons and supplies. September 22, 1943 is marked as the start of the fall of this great German floating fortress, along with two other warships.

On this said day, six Royal Navy midget subs called X-craft were hauled to the Norwegian Coast from Loch Cairnbawn to launch an attack against Tirpitz. And they succeed! Starting an explosive offense, the mini subs victoriously crippled the battleship leaving it susceptible to more attacks.

Finally, on November 12, 1944, the Royal Air Force finished the dee

[pompeygun]

You would have thought that an entire invasion fleet, in Britain's southern ports, would have been easy to spot too!

The Germans did spot an invasion fleet, the fake one based in Kent. With Inflatable aircraft & tanks. That plus the signals coming to them from double agent Garbo convinced them that the invasion point was almost certainly going to be Calais area.
The work of disinformation @ its best.

[Corkhead]

Yep, Operation Fortitude, our cunning plan of cardboard tanks and planes worked a treat.