Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-11-14
Tirpitz
Continued From First Page.)

previous air and midget submarine
assaults, had been a threat to the
Arctic supply lines to Russia and a
potential menace to any landing in
Norway.
Planes Land at Alien Base.
The successful mission of the big
bombers was led by Wing Comdr.
j. B. TAFT and Squadron Leader
A. G. Williams. Taking of from
Britain, the planes landed away
from base" presumably in Russia.
The bombers roared in before the
Germans could throw up their usual
protective smoke screen.
Her guns had been firing like
blazes when we first arrived" said
an Australian pilot, Flight 1t. B. A.
Buckham of Sydney. THE guns
stopped after the first bomb. Not
a shot came up after that. Smoke
began to pour up. 1t spiraled first
in column. Then it spread out
over the ship in the shape of a
mushroom.
"Afterward there were several ex-
plosions. One of them was very
big and one of my crew shouted out
over the inter-com, She's on fire,
skipper. She's on fire.
The fire did not seem to last very
long, not more than two or three
minutes, I should say. 1t was Diff
cult to see exactly what was hap
pening."
1.-The ship was already on its side
when we came off our rum" his tail
gunner said
Battleship Settles.
After capsizing, the Tirpitz settled
on the bottom of the shallow ford.
Only the keel and some parts Of the
bottom can be seen above water.
The Tirpitz was named after
Grand Admiral Alfred Won Tirpitz,
whose unrestricted submarine war
fare advocacy carried the United
States into the World War.
She had been bounded and at
tackled persistently, but the British
Navy was never able to bring her to
battle. She mounted eight 15-inch
guns in two turrets, twelve 6-inch
and sixteen 4-inch guns, carried four
planes and normal crew of 1900
men.
The Germans only other ship of
this class, the Bismarck, was sunk
by the Royal Navy on May u, 1871,
in 1,700-mile chase aftef the Bis
marck had sunk the British battle
cruiser Hood between Greenland
and Iceland.
Two other ships of the Tirpitz
class were under construction when
the war started, but they never were
completed.
Ship Called Unsuitable.
The Germans originally believed
the Bismarck and Tirpitz were "un-
sinkable"
The Tirpitz was christened April
l, 1899, when Adolf Hitler, standing
behind bullet-proof glass, delivered
another of his. derisive political
speeches before ordering his troops
into Poland. The ship was not COM
pleted, however, until 1941. It's keel
had been laid in 1896.
Admiral Adolf Won Trota. in his
christening speech at the time,
termed the 791-by-118-foot ship "a
messenger OF peace"
Much of the Tirpitz's life was
spent in repair docks and in hiding
She was not ready for action until
just after the Bismarck was sunk
and made. only two operational
sorties OF consequence.
She led the c..enlng of Tallinn,
Estonia, in the Gulf of Finland, in
August. 1941, and on September 9,
1913, in company with the Scharn-
horst and screening force of de-
stroyers, she raided Spitzbergen.
In July, 1912, the Tirpitz was at
sea in the vicinity Of Russian con-
voy, but on learning Of the presence
of a strong force Of escorting war
ships, she returned to her lair at
Narvik, Norway.
The Tirpitz and Bismarck were
vessels that Hitler had planned to
use as defenses against invasion,
while his pocket battleships would
scourge the seas as raiders.
Two German 26,000-ton battle
ships, the Gneisenau and the
Scharnhorst, have been written OF
within the last year. The Geneise-
nau was sighted by Raj planes on
February 16, 1914, in the Polish port