Monday, 3 April, 1944, was a red letter day for the Naval Air Arm. On that day powerful forces of Bombers and Fighters attacked the German battleship named after Admiral Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz1 in her strongly defended anchorage at Kaa Fjord, Norway, mauled her severely and returned to their carriers, having lost but three of their number.
The KMS Tirpitz had been damaged by midget submarines the previous September (1943), and since then had not moved from Kaa Fjord, but it was believed that temporary repairs had been effected by March, and though she was probably not 100 per cent fit for operations, she constituted a potential threat to the North Russian convoys. It was therefore “highly desirable to put her out of action again,”2 and plans were put in hand for an attack by carrier borne aircraft.
Her berth was known to be strongly defended by nets, A/A guns, flak ships and smoke generating apparatus. In addition, five Narvik3 class destroyers were stationed at Alten Fjord (see Plan 2), and a considerable number of submarines – normally employed against the North Russian convoys – were maintained at Narvik, Hammerfest and other northern ports. The air forces based in the immediate neighbourhood were small, but they could be rapidly reinforced in an emergency (see Appendix F). Three routine reconnaissance flights – in the Faeroes, Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen areas – were flown almost daily.