page_title: Operation Paravane
section_title: Preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Paravane / Preparations
caption_attribution_description: English: A No 617 Squadron Lancaster which crashed at Kegostrov in the USSR before the attack on the German battleship Tirpitz during Operation Paravane
context_page_description: Operation Paravane was a British air raid of World War II that inflicted heavy damage on the German battleship Tirpitz, at anchor in Kaafjord in the far north of German-occupied Norway. The attack was conducted on 15 September 1944 by 21 Royal Air Force heavy bombers, which flew from an airfield in the north of the Soviet Union. The battleship was struck by one bomb, and further damaged by several near misses. This damage rendered Tirpitz unfit for combat, and she could not be repaired as it was no longer possible for the Germans to sail her to a major port.
  The attack on 15 September followed a series of largely unsuccessful raids conducted against Tirpitz by Royal Navy aircraft carriers between April and August 1944, that sought to sink or disable the battleship at her anchorage, so that she no longer posed a threat to Allied convoys travelling to and from the Soviet Union. The first of these raids was successful, but the other attacks failed due to shortcomings with the Fleet Air Arm's strike aircraft and the formidable German defences. As a result, the task of attacking the battleship was transferred to the RAF's Bomber Command.
context_section_description: The attack force was placed on alert to launch what had been designated Operation Paravane on 8 September. Good weather was vital for the operation, and the airmen waited at their home bases for the next two days as forecasts proved unfavourable. Meanwhile, the Air Ministry, No. 5 Group and British military liaison officers in the USSR continued to work with the relevant Soviet headquarters to finalise the arrangements for Force A's flight from Norway to Yagodnik.
  Subsequent forecasts indicated that weather conditions at Kaafjord were changing rapidly, and during the morning of 11 September Harris judged that it would not be feasible to launch the bombers from Scotland with confidence that Kaafjord would be free of cloud by the time they arrived. Accordingly, he decided to change the plans for the operation, with all of the bombers now flying to Yagodnik first and mounting the attack from that airfield. Harris ordered the attack force to depart that afternoon, before advising the Air Ministry or Soviets of the change in plans.
  Both British bomber squadrons began to take off at 5 pm local time. No. 9 Squadron dispatched 18 Lancasters from RAF Bardney and 20 No. 617 Squadron Lancasters departed from RAF Woodhall Spa.
  A total of 26 Lancasters were armed with Tallboys and the remainder with JW mines. The Film Unit Lancaster also flew out of Bardney carrying three RAF cameramen as well as an Associated Press journalist and a radio reporter from the BBC. The Liberators departed Bardney just before the bombers, carrying McMullen, maintenance personnel and spare parts. The No. 540 Squadron Mosquito left Bardney the next day. Despite not being notified of the new plan until after all of the Lancasters were airborne, the Soviet military quickly agreed to the changed arrangements.
  The Lancasters' flight to Yagodnik initially went well. After departing their bases, the 39 aircraft flew north to Shetland before turning east. During the early stages of the flight one of the No. 9 Squadron Lancasters was forced to dump its Tallboy into the North Sea after it became decoupled from its mounting; the bomber returned to base. The remaining aircraft passed over neutral Sweden where the aircrew, most of whom had only conducted night flying over countries observing blackouts, were pleased to see towns lit up. After crossing the Gulf of Bothnia the Lancasters continued over Finland towards the USSR. Several aircraft were fired on by Swedish, Finnish and Soviet anti-aircraft defences, but only one suffered any damage.
  Despite pre-departure forecasts of good weather, the force encountered thick clouds after entering Finnish airspace; this continued for the remainder of the flight. The conditions made navigation difficult, and forced the pilots to fly at a low altitude so that they could use features on the ground to determine their location. Only 26 of the Lancasters were able to locate Yagodnik and land there during the morning of 12 September, the other 13 touching down at other airfields or crash landing in open spaces. Five or six of the latter aircraft were written off, and two of the seven which eventually reached Yagodnik were too badly damaged to be used in operations. Despite the number of crashes, none of the airmen on board these aircraft were injured. McMullen recorded that it was "extraordinary that so few crashes occurred" given the adverse circumstances, and that the majority of the aircraft dispatched could have been destroyed.
  After being concentrated at Yagodnik, the attack force was readied to strike Kaafjord. The Soviet personnel at the airfield provided considerable assistance, but the process of refuelling the aircraft could not be completed until 13 September due to inadequate facilities. The ground crew also repaired some of the damaged bombers, in some cases with parts salvaged from the aircraft which had been written off. The British officers and senior non-commissioned officers were accommodated in a boat, and all other personnel slept in overcrowded underground huts. Both the boat and the huts were infested with bed b
caption: A No. 617 Squadron Lancaster which made a crash landing near the settlement of Kegostrov during the unit's flight to the USSR
exif: {"Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "44", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4857"}