BASH: Sinking of the Tirpitz

2009 oct 6

The October BASH meeting, at The Brigg & District Servicemen's Club was given by Jim Shortland on 'The Demise of the Tirpitz'.

It was a very interesting talk illustrated by slides and included a short film of the launching of this Bismarck-class battleship in 1939. The Tirpitz operated from Norwegian waters where she spent most of World War 2 intercepting and sinking many of the Arctic Convoys bringing much needed supplies to the U.K.

There were many attempts to sink her including those using 2 man and then 4 man submarines but, on 12th November 1944, the RAF successfully sank her when they dropped, 'Tall Boy', 500 lb bombs on her.

Picture: from left to right: 617 Squadron veteran Colin Cole, Jim Shortland (speaker) and IX Squadron veteran Tom Andrew. (Both veterans were on the Tirpitz raid.)

The next talk, on 3rd November will be given by Sue Allan on an extraordinary woman of courage, who survived the reign of 2 Tudor kings an 9 Tudor queens, 'Lady Rose Hickman'

- Report by Pat Parkinson