Operation Paravane

15 September 1944, Kåfjord, Altafjord, northern Norway

British success; Tirpitz never seaworthy again

Kåfjord was out of range from Britain, so Lancasters of 9 and 617 Squadrons, carrying 12,000-lb Tallboy bombs and new mines, flew first to Yagodnik near Archangel in the Soviet Union and attacked from there. On 15 September 1944 they came in from the south, and the smoke screen covered Tirpitz just as they arrived. One Tallboy hit her bow and tore it open, flooding the fore part of the ship. Repair would take nine months. The Germans decided she would never go to sea again and moved her south to Tromsø as a floating battery against an Allied invasion.