On one memorable occasion, he wrote to the First Sea Lord: 'The crippling of this ship would alter the face of the war, and the loss of 100 machines or 500 airmen would be well compensated for.' I regard the matter as of the highest urgency and importance.'įor four years, he urged the service chiefs into finding and attacking this symbol of Nazi might. For many years, it was.Ĭhurchill was obsessed with the Tirpitz, declaring: 'The whole strategy of the war turns on this ship. The hull was protected by 13in armour plating while 5in thick decks protected the engine rooms and magazines. The length of 2½ football pitches, it was crewed by 2,600 men and armed with an astonishing array of weapons including 58 anti-aircraft cannons. Launched in 1939, Tirpitz was a truly monumental military machine. It took an incredible 24 operations over five years to destroy the Tirpitz. They didn't realise it was there or what it was.įilm Above Us The Waves told the story of the allied effort to sink the Tirpitz using human torpedoes and mini submarines Professor Martin Ludvigsen, of the marine technology department at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said: 'It was a construction company which found the plane initially. They were handed over to the Germans when they came ashore and spent the rest of the war in PoW camps in Germany. They drifted for three hours until two Norwegian men rowed out to rescue them. Tail gunner Sgt Pomroy went to look for his two missing comrades but had to retreat into the dinghy as the plane quickly sank. The pilot managed to ditch it in a fjord and three of the six crew got out and climbed into the life raft. It's port wing was hit and caught fire at 4,000ft, causing the aircraft to rapidly lose height. It is known that W7656 has been unable to release its mines when over the target and the pilot, Flight Liuetenent Petley, came around again for a second attempt. In all, 23 Halifaxes and 11 Lancasters took part in the sortie, with two being shot down by German anti-aircraft defences. The ship was positioned off Norway to deter an Allied invasion of the Nazi-occupied country as well as to intercept Arctic convoys. The bomber was part of 35 Squadron and took off from RAF Kinloss on April 28, 1942, to find and sink the Tirpitz, which was the heaviest ship in the world at the time. The sunken bomber will be protected as a war grave because of the likelihood of the remains of the two airman still being on board. Professor Martin Ludvigsen, who lead the searchĪlthough they could not find the aircraft's serial number, given its location it is likely to be Halifax W7656. Video footage beamed back to their vessel on the surface revealed the Halifax bomber that had suffered barely any visible damage over the last seven decades. The marine technology department at a local university was tipped off about it and a team of six students visited the fjord and sent a remote control submarine down to inspect the object. There have been numerous attempts to find Halifax W7656 over the years with no joy until engineers laying a pipeline stumbled upon a mystery underwater object. The pilot of the bomber, Fl Lt Petley, survived the war and died two years ago in Eastbourne, East Sussex. As he was the oldest member of the Halifax crew, his comrades nicknamed him 'Pops'. Sgt Columbine was a carpenter for Boots before the war and volunteered for the RAF. 'It is a wonderful thing what they have done but that is their final resting place and that is where they should remain.' Mrs Ireland, 75, said: 'When I found out the aircraft had been found I was quite upset from my mother's point of view. 'In 1999 someone pinpointed roughly where the Halifax came down and our family went out there to pay our respects and lay some flowers.' 'There is the prospect of his body being recovered and a funeral with full military honours taking place but it is a war grave and is his final resting place and maybe it should remain that way. In 1999 the two siblings made a pilgrimage to the fjord where the Halifax crashed and laid flowers there, although they didn't know where exactly it was in the water.ĭavid Columbine, a 72-year-old retired policeman from Nottingham, said: 'I am pleased and relieved it has now been discovered. Sylvia Ireland was aged five when her father was killed in the raid on the Tirpitz in 1942 while her brother David was not born as the airman's widow, Elsie, was two months pregnant at the time.
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