Target Tirpitz by Patrick Bishop

‘Where is Tirpitz?” thundered Churchill in a challenging missive to his First Sea Lord. The answer lay deep in the Norwegian fjords where the battleship lay like a “beast” — a threat to convoys even when cloaked in silence. Her sister ship Bismarck had already been an immense danger prowling the Atlantic, sinking the battle cruiser Hood with tremendous loss of life in one of the Second World War’s greatest tragedies, before being finished off in a classic naval ambush.

Target Tirpitz is an extraordinary story of the many attempts to destroy the new battleship before it could reach the open seas and unleash devastating attacks on allied shipping. Bishop, known for his superb narratives on fighter and bomber pilots, serves up another brilliant story on wartime heroism.

Tirpitz was a 42,000-ton giant, the pride of Nazi Germany, which tied up a lot of naval vessels guarding against her break-out. To destroy her became an obsession with the Admiralty. Bombs did not have the power to harm her, deep in her lair, so the navy used “human torpedoes” and midget submarines in bold strikes that failed to match the gallantry of the men involved.

A raid on the docks at St Nazaire, itself is a story of massive bravery, showed the Allies’ determination to destroy the “iron castle”, but in the end it was the attack by the “Dambuster” 617 squadron led by Wing Commander “Willie” Tait with bombs designed by Barnes Wallis that completed the mission.

Throughout this stylish narrative there is a never-ending supply of courageous men willing to give their lives to sink the Tirpitz. Some 24 air and sea operations targeted this shadowy menace of Hitler’s navy and this is a gripping testimony to every one of them.