The Ships of Battlegroup: Germany Tirpitz (BB)
 |
|||
| Displacement | 45,200 tons | Belt Armor | 12.6 inches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Length | 813 feet | Deck Armor | 8.7 inches |
| Beam | 118 feet | Main Turret Armor | 14.2 inches |
| Speed | 29 knots | Main Guns | 8 × 15″ |
Laid down on October 20, 1936, launched on April 1, 1939 and commissioned in February 1941, the ship carried a main armament of eight 15 inch main guns mounted in two centerline superfiring twin turrets forward and two aft. Tirpitz was the second and final vessel of the infamous Bismarck class. Supposedly built to treaty limits of 35,000 tons displacement, the Tirpitz was much larger, although, under new agreements, by the time she was launched the additional tonnage was “legal”. She was named after Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930), the father of the modern German Navy.
Whereas Bismarck’s career was short and dramatic, Tirpitz’s was long and drawn-out, although equally tragic in the end. After completing her acceptance trials in the Baltic, she was sent to the havens of the Norwegian fjords from whence she was to threaten the convoy-lines to Russia. Just lurking in Norway forced the Allies to employ powerful forces to counter her possible sorties. In a March 1942 sortie, Tirpitz missed a pair of convoys and a possible gunnery duel with the U. S. S. Washington. In July 1942, another sortie that failed to make contact scattered Murmansk convoy PQ-17, which was subsequently slaughtered by German U-Boats and air strikes. Tirpitz was the target of numerous operations by the Royal Navy and Air Force in their effort to remove her as a threat. Smoke pots placed around the ship made her hard to hit from the air and the defenses in the narrow fjords made conventional naval attacks all but impossible. When the limpet mines from British midget submarines and “normal” bombs from the Fleet Air Arm failed to put her permanently out of action, the Royal Air Force attacked with specially modified four-engine Lancaster heavy bombers of the famed 617 “Dam Busters” Squadron. Direct hits from three huge 12,000 pound “Tall Boy” bombs along with numerous near misses caused catastrophic damage and she capsized and sank at her moorings on November 12, 1944. The overturned hulk was scrapped after the war.
For contemporary foreign battleships, see: Alabama, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Washington .
Where did we get all these fascinating historical tidbits and factoids? See the Bibliography for the list of sources.
