194-589: 1942 1943 1944 1945 Associated articles Operation Paravane was a British air raid of World War II that inflicted heavy damage on the German battleship Tirpitz , at anchor in Kaafjord in the far north of German-occupied Norway . The attack was conducted on 15 September 1944 by 21 Royal Air Force heavy bombers , which flew from an airfield in the north of the Soviet Union . The battleship
388-659: A Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron , promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies. In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria , again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on
582-578: A cautious French probe into the Saarland . The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany , which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic . On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw . The Polish counter-offensive to
776-542: A Liberator was inadvertently shot down by a Soviet fighter during a follow-up operation to Finnmark shortly after the insertion of Moe and Arild. A meeting involving Großadmiral Karl Dönitz , the commander of the German Navy, was held in Berlin on 23 September to discuss the damage to Tirpitz . Dönitz was informed that it would take nine months to repair the ship, and that all the work had to be done at Kaafjord as
970-459: A boat, and all other personnel slept in overcrowded underground huts. Both the boat and the huts were infested with bed bugs , and almost all of the airmen were bitten before the accommodation was fumigated by the detachment's medical officer. By the morning of 14 September, 26 Lancasters from the attack forces and the Film Unit aircraft were ready; 20 of the bombers were armed with Tallboys and
1164-459: A column of black smoke rising through the smokescreen. Some of the bombs and mines landed up to a mile from the battleship. Tirpitz ' s anti-aircraft guns and a further 98 guns located in nearby shore batteries and warships fired on the bombers throughout the attack, but only four Lancasters suffered any damage. All of the Lancasters had completed their attacks by 11:07 am GMT, and
1358-470: A loose formation and the journey to northern Norway went as planned, though six Lancasters were forced to abort and return to Yagodnik. Despite passing near several German bases, the British force was undetected and no German fighters were airborne over Kaafjord at the time of the attack. Kaafjord's defenders detected the Lancasters approximately ten minutes before they arrived, and the protective smokescreen
1552-537: A meeting on 28 August between the head of Bomber Command, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris , and Vice-Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Douglas Evill , to discuss the feasibility of dispatching Mosquitos against Kaafjord, Harris stated that he had ready a plan to attack the battleship with Lancaster bombers. Under this plan, 24 Lancasters were to depart a base in the far north of Scotland, bomb Tirpitz , and return to an airstrip in
1746-830: A powerful force of warships with the British Home Fleet to counter the threat she posed and capital ships accompanied most convoys part of the way to the Soviet Union. Royal Air Force (RAF) heavy bombers conducted a series of abortive raids on Tirpitz shortly after the battleship arrived in Norway from Germany in January 1942. Tirpitz was initially based at Fættenfjord near Trondheim , which lay within range of British bombers flying from Scotland. The first raid on 30 January involved nine Handley Page Halifax and seven Short Stirling bombers. Owing to cloud over
1940-475: A pre-expansion strength of just five squadrons, four of which were flying boats, the figure of maritime squadrons rose to 18 by September 1939, with a strength of just 176 aircraft. Some 16 of these were allocated to trade defence but given Trenchard's policy (which was still in place after his retirement) of developing bombers for the maritime arm which could bolster the air offensive, most were not specialised anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. The Air Ministry
2134-552: A presence near Tirpitz occurred in August 1944, when a Norwegian Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) agent was dispatched to the nearby village of Alta . The agent infiltrated with a radio transmitter codenamed "Sinding" from neutral Sweden , but only managed to begin transmissions to the United Kingdom on 22 September, too late for the preparation stage for the operation. In a second attempt at establishing an agent group in
SECTION 10
#17328018186922328-524: A pretext to initiate the invasion. The first German attack of the war came against the Polish defences at Westerplatte . The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of
2522-726: A pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig , and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador Nevile Henderson , Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as
2716-446: A reconnaissance sortie over Kaafjord on the afternoon of 15 September, arriving at about 1:30 pm GMT. Its crew found that the fjord was covered with cloud and smoke. They could briefly see Tirpitz , and reported that no damage was evident to the battleship, which remained afloat. The Mosquito conducted further reconnaissance sorties on 16 September, but the fjord was completely obscured on all occasions. McMullen considered launching
2910-472: A second attack, but decided against doing so as only two Tallboys and one load of JW mines were available. Tirpitz was rendered unfit for combat by Operation Paravane. The Tallboy bomb that struck the battleship passed through the foredeck and hull, and exploded in the water on the starboard side of her bow . This damage wrecked the bow, and left the battleship's forward compartments flooded with 2,000 tons of water. The explosions of several other Tallboys in
3104-475: A secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland , Finland, Estonia , Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of
3298-713: A similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this crime of aggression. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the Winter War was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory . In June 1940,
3492-542: A single Tallboy each, was to continue to Yagodnik after bombing. Force B was to comprise six Lancasters from each of the squadrons armed with twelve JW mines and return directly to either Scotland or the Shetland Islands. A Lancaster from the RAF Film Unit, which was attached to No. 463 Squadron RAAF , would accompany Force B and also return to the United Kingdom after the bombers completed their attack. It
3686-405: A smokescreen by the time they arrived over the target area. The only attack made against Tirpitz at Kaafjord by land-based aircraft prior to September 1944 was a small raid conducted by 15 Soviet bombers on the night of 10/11 February 1944, but it did not inflict any damage on the battleship. The Royal Navy attacked Tirpitz at Kaafjord from September 1943 until August 1944. On 23 September 1943,
3880-422: A static artillery battery to protect the town of Tromsø . The Allies were unable to confirm the extent of the battleship's damage, and conducted two more heavy bomber raids against her in late 1944, Operation Obviate on 29 October, and Operation Catechism on 12 November. Tirpitz was sunk with considerable loss of life during the second of these attacks. From early 1942, Tirpitz posed a significant threat to
4074-467: A two-front war, as it had in World War I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it. In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as
SECTION 20
#17328018186924268-610: The Admiralty line that U-boats were no longer a threat. When Admiral Sir Dudley Pound enquired about aerial assets in trade and commerce defence, Chief of the Air Staff Cyril Newall , replied that there was not enough " jam " [resources] to go around and stated it was more advisable to risk losses on trade routes than weaken the RAF's ability to protect Britain from air attack and bomb its enemies. In March 1937,
4462-806: The Allied convoys transporting supplies through the Norwegian Sea to the Soviet Union. Stationed in fjords on the Norwegian coast, the battleship was capable of overwhelming the close-escort forces of Arctic convoys or breaking out into the North Atlantic. Owing to the superiority of the Allied navies, Tirpitz rarely put to sea and only conducted three brief combat operations into the Norwegian Sea during her career. The Allies needed to keep
4656-526: The Allies and the Axis powers . Nearly all the world's countries —including all the great powers —participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of total war , blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. Tanks and aircraft played major roles , with the latter enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and delivery of
4850-604: The Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression . The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled. This pact had
5044-459: The Atlantic Gap , which was a stretch of water in the central Atlantic beyond the range of most Allied aircraft. The covering of the gap by very-long-range aircraft equipped with radar helped reduce the effectiveness of U-boats. In May 1943 the campaign reached a peak, when a large number of U-boats were sunk with little loss to Allied shipping; Coastal Command had gained the initiative and it
5238-562: The Avro Lancaster was finally phased out of Coastal Command service. The Command was too expensive to maintain and cost cuts were made during the 1950s which caused a reduction in strength. By mid-1957 the Command had been cut to 82 aircraft. By mid-1958 it had shrunk to just 67. The Shackletons dominated the core of this force, numbering 54 aircraft. The Neptune was cut from the service altogether, beginning on 31 August 1956. There
5432-673: The Battle of the Atlantic , as well as the Mediterranean, Middle East, and African theatres. It operated from bases in the United Kingdom, Iceland , Gibraltar , the Soviet Union , West Africa and North Africa. It also had an offensive capacity, in the North Sea , Arctic , Mediterranean and Baltic , strike wings attacked German shipping carrying war materials from Italy to North Africa and from Scandinavia to Germany. By 1943 Coastal Command finally received sufficient Very Long Range [VLR] aircraft and its operations proved decisive in
5626-689: The British Empire , with fighting in the Balkans , Mediterranean, and Middle East , the aerial Battle of Britain and the Blitz , and naval Battle of the Atlantic . Through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany took control of much of continental Europe and formed the Axis alliance with Italy , Japan , and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis in an invasion of
5820-581: The German Revolution of 1918–1919 , and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic , was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into
6014-801: The German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France 's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria , on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor , who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and
Operation Paravane - Misplaced Pages Continue
6208-576: The Italian mainland , and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France at Normandy , while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany and its allies westward. At the same time, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled
6402-553: The Japanese Navy and captured key islands . The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories ; the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops; Hitler's suicide ; and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 . Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration ,
6596-695: The League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant . The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria . When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to
6790-731: The Nationalist rebels , led by General Francisco Franco . Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic . More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades , also fought against
6984-690: The Rome–Berlin Axis . A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact , which Italy joined the following year. The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies and new regional warlords . In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan , which had long sought influence in China as
7178-737: The Royal Navy (RN) and RAF over the ownership, roles and investment in maritime air power. The Admiralty's main concern until 1937 was the return of the Fleet Air Arm to the Royal Navy while the RAF concentrated on the development of a bombing force to provide a deterrent. Coastal Command was referred to as the "Cinderella Service" by A V Alexander , the First Lord of the Admiralty in November 1940. Soon after RAF Coastal Area
7372-508: The Shetland Islands . If the return trip was judged impossible, the bombers would instead land at Murmansk in northern Russia before returning to the United Kingdom. Bomber Command's staff had contacted Soviet officials about the latter element of the plan, and concluded that it would be feasible. Owing to the complex nature of the mission, Bomber Command's two elite special duties units, No. 9 and No. 617 Squadrons , would conduct
7566-590: The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border. Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that
7760-598: The Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation ; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe , drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-Soviet pact
7954-709: The Sudetenland , an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement , which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed
Operation Paravane - Misplaced Pages Continue
8148-707: The Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria , and Chahar and Suiyuan . After the 1936 Xi'an Incident , the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with
8342-466: The Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia. Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded
8536-506: The Treaty of Craiova . The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu , with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war. In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden , which
8730-401: The United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , in which they had agreed on " spheres of influence " in Eastern Europe. In 1940, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania . After the fall of France in June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and
8924-426: The Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment. On 10 June, Italy invaded France , declaring war on both France and
9118-451: The aftermath of World War I and the rise of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan . Key events leading up to the war included Japan's invasion of Manchuria , the Spanish Civil War , the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , and Germany's annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland . World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany , under Adolf Hitler , invaded Poland , prompting
9312-543: The only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million deaths , more than half being civilians. Millions died in genocides , including the Holocaust of European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, Germany , Austria , Japan , and Korea were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders . The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in
9506-404: The reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post–World War II issues. No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed, although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 , which also restored full diplomatic relations between them. World War I had radically altered
9700-405: The "Aslaug" transmitter left the area, sending their last transmission to the United Kingdom on 22 October. Moe and Arild made their way on foot across the Finnmarksvidda plateau to Kautokeino and from there through Finland to Karesuando in Sweden, arriving on 5 December. The agents carried out the march without resupplies of food, as Operation Carpetbagger had ceased using Soviet airbases after
9894-400: The "Cinderella service" until about 1943. The situation would not improve until 1942. Coastal Command did operate with effect alongside RAF Bomber Command in disrupting enemy shipping during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Coastal Command attacked shipping and mined waters around invasion ports. The German invasion of Britain in 1940, Operation Sea Lion , was eventually cancelled owing to
SECTION 50
#173280181869210088-440: The "Highball" bouncing bombs during the year were unsuccessful and the plan was abandoned in September. Tirpitz was transferred to a new base at Kaafjord in the far north of Norway in late May 1943. This anchorage was well protected, with the defences including equipment capable of rapidly generating an artificial smokescreen as well as many anti-aircraft guns located in shore batteries and warships. During June 1943, consideration
10282-461: The 21 bombers began the return journey to Yagodnik. The Force A aircraft which had not been able to bomb brought their Tallboys back. This flight proved uneventful, and all 27 Lancasters landed at Yagodnik in the evening. The Film Unit aircraft flew directly from Kaafjord to the United Kingdom, and arrived at its home station after a fifteen-and-a-half hour flight; this was the longest operational Lancaster mission of World War II. The Mosquito conducted
10476-464: The Air Ministry. The saving grace for both services was the construction of the Combined Headquarters which enabled rapid collaboration in maritime operations. This was one of the few successes in organisation and preparation made before the outbreak of war. When the review of the role Coastal Command was to play in war was assessed in 1937, the AOC Sir Frederick Bowhill was informed by his Senior Air Staff Officer, Air Commodore Geoffrey Bromet , that
10670-457: The Allied airmen were disturbed to see political prisoners being beaten by overseers while undertaking forced labour. Work on repairing the damaged Lancasters also continued on 14 September, and an additional Tallboy-armed aircraft was ready by the next morning. The plans for the raid were further adjusted while No. 9 and No. 617 Squadrons were waiting at Yagodnik. The Lancasters were to take off together, and fly at low altitude until they reached
10864-409: The Allies were attempting to cut off . Denmark capitulated after six hours , and despite Allied support , Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940. On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France . To circumvent
11058-468: The Atlantic shipping lanes. German medium bombers could also reach British ports on the westernmost and northernmost coasts. The advantage enjoyed by the Germans, allowed them to interdict merchant shipping supplying food and war materials to Britain much more effectively, which had the potential to starve Britain. While merchant shipping was suffering these losses, Coastal Command had proven ineffective at countering German air and sea attacks on shipping. But
11252-419: The Atlantic shipping routes and thus contributed half of the Allied forces available. The events of April to June 1940 overturned the balance of naval and air power , as the Germans conquered Denmark , Norway , The Netherlands , Belgium and France . The occupation of these countries permitted the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine to operate from French ports on the Atlantic coast, hundreds of miles closer to
11446-400: The Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union . In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta , a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt . In October, Italy attacked Greece , but the attack
11640-421: The Blitz , but largely ended in May 1941 after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy , using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic . The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck . In November 1939,
11834-585: The British aircraft arrived over the target area. Moreover, the Barracudas were unable to carry bombs large enough to significantly damage Tirpitz when hits were achieved. As a result, before and after Operation Goodwood, further consideration was given to using Mosquitos to attack the battleship; under initial plans developed in mid-August these aircraft would have been launched from aircraft carriers and attacked Tirpitz with 2,000-pound (910 kg) or 4,000-pound (1,800 kg) armour-piercing bombs before landing in northern Russia. These proposals came to nothing as
SECTION 60
#173280181869212028-410: The Command's two elite squadrons flew to their staging airfield in the Soviet Union on the night of 11/12 September, and attacked on 15 September using heavy bombs and air-dropped mines. All of the British aircraft returned to base, though one of the Lancasters later crashed during its flight back to the United Kingdom. Following Operation Paravane, the German Navy's commander decided to use Tirpitz as
12222-474: The Command, comprising 5,721 Allied crew members, 277 enemy personnel and 4,665 non-aircrews. A total of 5,866 Coastal Command personnel were killed in action. During the Cold War , Coastal Command concentrated on anti-submarine warfare preparations against the fleets of the Warsaw Pact . In 1969, Coastal Command was subsumed into the new Strike Command, which had also absorbed the former Bomber, Fighter and Signals Commands and later absorbed Air Support Command,
12416-419: The Director of Operations, Group Captain Robert Saundby , complained that the role for Coastal Command in war, namely supporting the bomber offensive and second, the support of naval forces along the British coastline, were too limited and was in danger of diverting the Command from its main concern: ASW. In October the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (DCAS) Air Vice Marshal Richard Peirse confirmed that there
12610-405: The European Axis declaring war on the US. Japan conquered much of coastal China and Southeast Asia , but its advances in the Pacific were halted in mid-1942 after its defeat in the naval Battle of Midway ; Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and
12804-410: The French possessions of Syria and Lebanon , assisted by the Free French . With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia , the two powers signed
12998-421: The German defeat in the Battle of Britain. During the first three years of the Second World War, Coastal Command and the Admiralty fought a battle with the RAF and Air Ministry over the primacy of trade defence, in relation to the bomber effort against mainland Germany, a strategic tussle which conceivably could have cost the Western Alliance the Battle of the Atlantic . The Air Staff and Bomber Command enjoyed
13192-426: The Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6 October . Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of
13386-410: The JW mines. As none of the Force B aircrew were able to spot Tirpitz due to the smokescreen, they dropped the mines on the battleship's estimated position. These weapons did not cause any damage. The smokescreen over Kaafjord prevented the Allied aircrew from being able to assess the results of their bombing, though several large spouts of water and explosions were observed. Tait was also pleased to see
13580-410: The Lancasters were airborne, the Soviet military quickly agreed to the changed arrangements. The Lancasters' flight to Yagodnik initially went well. After departing their bases, the 39 aircraft flew north to Shetland before turning east. During the early stages of the flight one of the No. 9 Squadron Lancasters was forced to dump its Tallboy into the North Sea after it became decoupled from its mounting;
13774-399: The Middle East and Palestine as part of an air policing policy, in co-operation with the Israeli Air Force and Egyptian Air Force to prevent conflict between the two countries owing to the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. While there, they undertook a major operation, Operation Bobcat , to prevent illegal Jewish migrants coming into Palestine. In May 1948 the variety of aircraft
13968-512: The Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally favoured the Axis . His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front . In July 1937, Japan captured
14162-467: The Naval and Air Staffs met again and changed the priority to North Sea reconnaissance. The Naval Staff insisted that surface commerce raiders presented the greatest danger and aircraft could prove decisive only in locating enemy warships. ASW remained in third place, after direct co-operation with surface fleets. In December 1938, this was changed again and ASW moved up to second priority. In August 1939 it
14356-447: The No. 540 Squadron Mosquito and a Soviet aircraft on 20 September indicated that the bow of the ship was damaged, though it was not possible to determine how badly. Drawing on this evidence, the Royal Navy's Naval Intelligence Division concluded on 30 September that Tirpitz had "almost certainly" been struck by a Tallboy and may have been further damaged by near misses, and that the damage to
14550-587: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, began preparations for a military defence of Western Europe by incorporating most West European nations into a defence pact against alleged Soviet aggression in April 1951. This led to the militarisation of West Germany in 1955 and was met with the militarisation of East Germany soon after and its merger into the Warsaw Pact alliance with the Soviet Union . The purpose of Coastal Command
14744-579: The RAF and capable of penetrating well-protected targets. Some of the bombers were to be armed with "Johnnie Walker" (commonly called "JW") mines , which were designed to be dropped from aircraft and move through the water by rapidly diving and surfacing until they struck their target. The Tallboy had been successfully used by No. 617 Squadron against tunnels and other facilities, but the mines had not been used in combat, and Harris and several other senior RAF officers were sceptical of their effectiveness. As test flights conducted by No. 617 Squadron proved that it
14938-452: The Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a carrier attack at Taranto , and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan . Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, Rommel 's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back Commonwealth forces. In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged
15132-448: The SIS team, codenamed "Aslaug", was operational by 13 September, sending weather reports to the United Kingdom every other hour. As well as reporting on the weather, Moe and Arild radioed assessments of the damage Tirpitz had suffered in the air attacks prior to Operation Paravane. Local contacts helped the agents in spying on Tirpitz before and after the 15 September attack. By the time of
15326-598: The Shackletons from RAF Ballykelly and frigates from Londonderry would 'ping' the Soviet submarines carrying out surveillance off the mouth of Lough Foyle. In at least one instance, a Ballykelly-based Shackleton lost its radome when making a mock attack on the Russian sub. In 1969 the special-purpose Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod , based on the de Havilland Comet airliner, was introduced into RAF service and Coastal Command duties were passed on to general squadrons. The Nimrod
15520-841: The South-Western Approaches in the Atlantic and three more covering the North-Western Approaches. This force numbered 64 aircraft. A further four Sunderland squadrons with 20 aircraft were split between the North-Western and South-Western Approaches. The Neptunes, numbering 32 aircraft in four squadrons, covered the North-Eastern and Eastern Approaches. The Helicopter also joined Coastal Command. Bristol Sycamores entered service in 1953 and 16 aircraft were dispersed in Britain for ASW. In March
15714-602: The Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region . In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to
15908-815: The Soviet Union , opening the Eastern Front and initially making large territorial gains. Japan aimed to dominate East Asia and the Asia-Pacific , and by 1937 was at war with the Republic of China . In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific , including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii , which resulted in the US and the UK declaring war against Japan, and
16102-641: The Soviet Union and Mongolia . The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron , which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed
16296-756: The Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of Ukraine , the Baltic states and Byelorussia . However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued
16490-695: The Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, General Dwight D. Eisenhower , was unwilling to release any Mosquitos in July, and in August the Mosquitos were also judged to be too slow to successfully reach Kaafjord from aircraft carriers before it was covered by smoke. In August RAF Bomber Command , which controlled the force's heavy bombers, began developing plans to strike Tirpitz at Kaafjord. During
16684-402: The US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago , the possibility of further atomic bombings, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria , Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August and signed a surrender document on 2 September 1945 , marking
16878-457: The USSR continued to work with the relevant Soviet headquarters to finalise the arrangements for Force A's flight from Norway to Yagodnik. Subsequent forecasts indicated that weather conditions at Kaafjord were changing rapidly, and during the morning of 11 September Harris judged that it would not be feasible to launch the bombers from Scotland with confidence that Kaafjord would be free of cloud by
17072-581: The United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence ; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece . Shortly after the Franco - British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel . Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced
17266-489: The United Kingdom attacked on 3 July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany. The air Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours . The German campaign for air superiority started in August but its failure to defeat RAF Fighter Command forced the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain . The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in
17460-418: The United Kingdom in several groups. Tait led 16 Lancasters out of Yagodnik in the evening of 16 September; most of these aircraft flew over southern Finland, Sweden and Denmark. One of the Lancasters went off course and crashed on a mountain near Nesbyen in Norway, killing all eleven airmen aboard, the only Allied casualties of Operation Paravane. Nine other Lancasters departed on 17 September, followed by five
17654-461: The United Kingdom. The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14 June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany ; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones , and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime , which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which
17848-660: The United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased . In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases . Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in
18042-606: The Yellow River ; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan , but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war. In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with
18236-467: The airstrips were vulnerable to attack from fighters operating from nearby German bases. Instead, it was decided that the attack force should fly over northern Sweden and Finland after raiding Kaafjord and refuel at Yagodnik airstrip, which was on an island near Arkhangelsk . This plan was accepted by the Air Ministry on 6 September. Soviet Naval Aviation offered to attack German fighter bases at
18430-500: The anti-aircraft gunfire rising from the ship; 17 of the weapons were dropped. Several Lancasters made more than one pass over the target area as their bomb aimers sought to locate Tirpitz or technical problems prevented their Tallboy from being dropped on the initial pass. Force B commenced its attack after the Tallboy Lancasters had completed theirs so that the shock waves from bomb explosions did not prematurely set off
18624-491: The area of research and development. In the case of Coastal Command, it continued to come third in the Air Ministry's list of priorities, after Fighter and Bomber Commands, well into the late 1930s. From its formation in 1936, Coastal Command did not receive the support it required to be an effective naval air service. In September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland beginning the war in Europe . The Command's position
18818-539: The area, the Norwegian SIS agents Knut Moe and Anton Arild were dropped by parachute into the wilderness between Kaafjord and Alta on 8 September by an American Operation Carpetbagger Liberator. During the drop the agents became separated from most of their equipment, with the exception of the radio transmitter. Without weapons and equipment, the agents were forced to relocate to the village of Bossekop , where Moe's mother lived. The radio transmitter operated by
19012-444: The arm, the Air Ministry was content to let the matter rest. Any threat to the Air Ministry's existence had long since passed; budgetary constraint and the reluctance to engage in another battle which would waste resources were also factors in the Air Ministry's decision not to contest the issue further. Inter-service squabbling assured maritime aviation's stagnation, especially in shore-based elements. Virtually no co-operation existed in
19206-722: The arrival and departure routes for Royal Navy nuclear submarine forces. Soon after, counter operations such as Operation Adjutant were carried out, which was aimed at searching for Soviet submarines. The main threat from the Soviets in the Atlantic came from the Soviet Northern Fleet and in early 1965 most of the Command's units were concentrated in No. 18 Group RAF , based in Scotland to monitor their activities. No recorded confrontation took place between Coastal Command and Soviet naval forces during this time, although both
19400-452: The attack force was readied to strike Kaafjord. The Soviet personnel at the airfield provided considerable assistance, but the process of refuelling the aircraft could not be completed until 13 September due to inadequate facilities. The ground crew also repaired some of the damaged bombers, in some cases with parts salvaged from the aircraft which had been written off. The British officers and senior non-commissioned officers were accommodated in
19594-600: The attack of the vessels by Coastal Command aircraft. Since the late 1920s the tension between the air and naval services had declined. It arose briefly again in 1937 when the question of the FAA operational control arose. On this occasion the British Government sided with the Admiralty. Despite a spirited defence of its asset, once the Minister for Co-ordination of Defence , Sir Thomas Inskip had decided to transfer
19788-503: The attack, Moe and Arild had established an observation post overlooking Tirpitz ' s anchorage in Kaafjord. The attack force was placed on alert to launch what had been designated Operation Paravane on 8 September. Good weather was vital for the operation, and the airmen waited at their home bases for the next two days as forecasts proved unfavourable. Meanwhile, the Air Ministry, No. 5 Group and British military liaison officers in
19982-418: The attack, the British intelligence services sought to determine the extent of Tirpitz ' s damage. During late September, Norwegian SIS agents in the Kaafjord area reported that the battleship had been struck by a bomb and appeared damaged. German radio signals that were intercepted and decoded on 25 and 29 September also stated that Tirpitz had suffered a single hit from a large bomb. Photographs taken by
20176-422: The attack. This proposal was viewed favourably, and was approved by Eisenhower's headquarters on 5 September. No. 5 Group was assigned responsibility for planning the attack on Tirpitz in late August. The group's staff officers judged that it was essential for the raid to surprise Kaafjord's defenders so that the battleship was not covered in smoke by the time the Lancasters arrived. As the seaward approaches to
20370-477: The backing of Churchill and the maritime air effort struggled to receive the recognition it needed. On the outbreak of war, the order of battle listed just 298 aircraft, of which only 171 were operational. On 15 February 1941, Coastal Command was placed under the operational control of the Admiralty. Instrumental in improving the strike rate against submarines was scientific advisor and assistant director of research E. J. Williams , who applied scientific analysis to
20564-426: The battleship at her anchorage, so that she no longer posed a threat to Allied convoys travelling to and from the Soviet Union. The first of these raids was successful, but the other attacks failed due to shortcomings with the Fleet Air Arm 's strike aircraft and the formidable German defences. As a result, the task of attacking the battleship was transferred to the RAF's Bomber Command . Avro Lancaster bombers from
20758-635: The battleship neared completion. Tirpitz did not suffer heavy damage in this operation but was out of action for several more months while repairs were completed. The Home Fleet sortied to attack Kaafjord on a further four occasions between April and July; all but the last of these operations were frustrated by bad weather and the Operation Mascot raid on 17 July did not inflict any damage on Tirpitz . Four more carrier attacks targeting Tirpitz were undertaken between 22 and 29 August during Operation Goodwood but again resulted in only minor damage to
20952-412: The battleship would be extremely vulnerable if she tried to sail to a major port. As Soviet forces were also rapidly advancing towards northern Norway, Dönitz judged that it was not feasible to either return the ship to ocean-going service or retain her at Kaafjord. Instead, he decided to use Tirpitz as a floating artillery battery to defend the town of Tromsø . Dönitz also expressed hope that retaining
21146-551: The battleship. Senior Royal Navy officers attributed the failure of the raids conducted between April and August 1944 to shortcomings with the Fleet Air Arm's main attack aircraft, the Fairey Barracuda . Although Operation Tungsten succeeded because the Germans were taken by surprise, during subsequent raids the slow speed of the Barracudas gave Kaafjord's defenders time to cover the area with artificial smoke before
21340-503: The battleship. During the subsequent attack conducted on 12 November, Operation Catechism , Tirpitz was struck by several Tallboy bombs and capsized with heavy loss of life among her crew. World War II Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions:
21534-528: The bomber returned to base. The remaining aircraft passed over neutral Sweden where the aircrew, most of whom had only conducted night flying over countries observing blackouts , were pleased to see towns lit up. After crossing the Gulf of Bothnia the Lancasters continued over Finland towards the USSR. Several aircraft were fired on by Swedish, Finnish and Soviet anti-aircraft defences, but only one suffered any damage. Despite pre-departure forecasts of good weather,
21728-434: The border between Finland and the USSR to avoid detection by German radar stations located around Kirkenes . The Force A aircraft would then climb to around 20,000 feet (6,100 m) and the six Force B bombers to 16,000 feet (4,900 m). Three Lancasters from No. 9 Squadron would proceed ahead of the main body to determine wind conditions over Kaafjord. When the main body reached a position around 60 miles (97 km) from
21922-461: The capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese . In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang , but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding
22116-515: The city which was jointly occupied by the four major powers, the Soviets in the east, and the Americans, French and British in the west. The joint American-British operation continued for almost a year. Coastal Command aircraft were involved as flying boats were the only aircraft with internal anti-corrosion treatment allowing bulk salt to be transported. The Command's operations grew in intensity. By 13 July daily sorties had risen to 16. By October it
22310-488: The command could not protect English Channel convoys, and was forced to abandon operations until July 1940. RAF Fighter Command was given the task, supplying air attack and defence with the enemy. Warning signs after the First World War, that U-boats could become a serious threat once again, meant that aircraft would be the best counter to their operations. This fact not being fully understood, Coastal Command became
22504-428: The commander of No. 9 Squadron's home base of RAF Bardney , was appointed the overall leader of the detachment. No. 617 Squadron's commanding officer, Wing Commander "Willy" Tait , was selected to lead the strike force. To provide weather reports and damage assessments from Kaafjord, agents on the ground were needed, but the last radio group in the area had exfiltrated in May 1944. The first attempt at re-establishing
22698-403: The conflict well into 1941. In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an " arsenal of democracy " and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it
22892-526: The creation of a " New Roman Empire ". Adolf Hitler , after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when Paul von Hindenburg and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of
23086-449: The crews of two British midget submarines penetrated the defences around the battleship during Operation Source , and placed explosive charges in the water beneath her. This attack caused extensive damage to Tirpitz , putting her out of service for six months. Further midget submarine attacks were not considered feasible and an air raid designated Operation Tungsten was conducted by Royal Navy aircraft carriers on 3 April 1944 as repairs to
23280-814: The crisis, although the Shackleton squadrons at RAF Ballykelly were sent to Macrihanish as it was known that Ballykelly was on the Soviet IRBM target list. In the early 1960s the Soviet Navy and Communist Bloc's fishing fleets began operating around the British Isles in increasing numbers. The British public began taking an interest in their operations as civilian fisherman began complaining about their presence. Operation Chacewater began, in which Coastal Command began monitoring their movements, in particular other vessels that loitered in areas covering
23474-596: The difficulties faced by the Kriegsmarine in 1939 and early 1940. The entire strategic position, which had been the foundation of the U-boat war since June 1940 had been undermined. In the last three years of the war, Coastal Command sank more U-boats than any other service and continued to hold the technological advantage from 1943. A brief threat, in the shape of the German Type XXI submarine emerged but
23668-484: The directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union. RAF Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter , Bomber and Coastal commands and played an important role during the Second World War . Maritime Aviation had been neglected in the inter-war period, due to disagreements between
23862-501: The disastrous 1940–1942 period, known to the Germans as the " First " and " Second Happy Time ", the Air Ministry refused to invest in trade defence. Further delays in resource procurement might have led to German success, which could have defeated Britain and forced it out of the war or at least caused a postponement of Operation Torch , the Allied landings in French North-West Africa in 1942 and Operation Overlord ,
24056-757: The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was established in 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference . The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and naval disarmament , as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration. Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I , irredentist and revanchist nationalism had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of
24250-662: The end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia , which continued until the end of the war. In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria . Between June and July, British-led forces invaded and occupied
24444-463: The end of the war. World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming
24638-504: The first day of hostilities until the last day of the Second World War. Coastal Command completed one million flying hours, 240,000 operations and destroyed 212 U-boats. Coastal Command casualties amounted to 2,060 aircraft to all causes. From 1940 to 1945 Coastal Command sank 366 German transport vessels and damaged 134. The total tonnage sunk was 512,330 tons and another 513,454 tons damaged. 10,663 persons were rescued by
24832-575: The first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia , staged the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo . China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai , Rehe and Hebei , until
25026-460: The fjord were covered by a comprehensive radar network, the planners decided that the attack force should approach the region overland from the south-east and at a high speed to limit the defenders' warning time to eight minutes or less. Due to the difficulty of damaging the heavily armoured battleship, the main weapon selected for this operation was the Tallboy bomb , the largest then in service with
25220-452: The fjord, at which point the British expected that the Germans would have detected the bombers, the Lancasters would move into attack formations and commence their bombing run. It was decided that all of the aircraft should attack simultaneously, with Force A flying in four groups of five aircraft which would approach Kaafjord from the south and drop Tallboys from altitudes between 18,000 feet (5,500 m) and 14,000 feet (4,300 m). Force B
25414-479: The force encountered thick clouds after entering Finnish airspace; this continued for the remainder of the flight. The conditions made navigation difficult, and forced the pilots to fly at a low altitude so that they could use features on the ground to determine their location. Only 26 of the Lancasters were able to locate Yagodnik and land there during the morning of 12 September, the other 13 touching down at other airfields or crash landing in open spaces. Five or six of
25608-864: The former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge incident , which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany . From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan , engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou , and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan . Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai , but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, capturing
25802-494: The former Transport Command. In 1936, almost 18 years after the end of the First World War, there was a change in the command structure of the RAF. Several Expansion Schemes were heading at such pace to re-arm the British military in face of the Nazi threat that "Area" formations were now to be called "Commands". Fighter and Bomber Areas became Fighter and Bomber Commands and Coastal Area was renamed Coastal Command. Its headquarters
25996-506: The intelligence available to them was not conclusive, the Allies believed that Tirpitz still posed a potential threat. Accordingly, Nos. 9 and 617 Squadrons made two further attacks on the battleship after she moved to Tromsø on 15 October; these operations were more straightforward to conduct than Operation Paravane as the port was within the range of Lancasters flying from airfields in northern Scotland. The first raid, Operation Obviate , took place on 29 October but caused only minor damage to
26190-525: The invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia ) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy ( Regno d'Italia ), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea . The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa ( Africa Orientale Italiana , or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of
26384-463: The landing in France, in 1944. Other research indicates that losses unquestionably affected the build-up for Operation Neptune , the naval phase of the landings in Europe. Eventually the Command was given the investment it needed. Radar and long-range aircraft enabled the Command to hunt and destroy U-boats with growing efficiency. German submarines had been sinking a large number of Allied ships in
26578-453: The latter aircraft were written off, and two of the seven which eventually reached Yagodnik were too badly damaged to be used in operations. Despite the number of crashes, none of the airmen on board these aircraft were injured. McMullen recorded that it was "extraordinary that so few crashes occurred" given the adverse circumstances, and that the majority of the aircraft dispatched could have been destroyed. After being concentrated at Yagodnik,
26772-562: The logistical problems to great effect. Williams was present at some meetings of the Cabinet Anti-U-boat Committee at 10 Downing Street, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. Owing to the starvation of resources, even as late as March 1943, the Atlantic supply lines were being threatened. This situation arose as a direct result of the lack of very long-range aircraft. Despite the enormous losses of
26966-535: The need for ASW aircraft in the Eastern Atlantic. The Avro Shackleton was the main operational aircraft in the 1950s, replacing the wartime Liberator GRs , along with the Neptune MR.1s . At the end of August 1951, No. 201 Squadron RAF became the first unit to complete training on the type. In mid-1953 the order of battle consisted of eight Shackleton squadrons; one at Gibraltar , four covering
27160-413: The next day and two on 21 September. The remaining Lancasters had been judged to be damaged beyond repair, and were handed over to the Soviets. The Mosquito, which had been damaged by anti-aircraft fire during a sortie over Kaafjord, returned once repairs were complete on 26 September. The two Liberators were the final aircraft to depart, and flew out of Yagodnik carrying McMullen on 27 September. Following
27354-486: The options considered was to stage the bombers through a base in the northern Soviet Union but this was judged impractical as little was known about the suitability of Soviet airfields for heavy bombers. Two squadrons of RAF Coastal Command Handley Page Hampden torpedo bombers operated from Vaenga in northern Russia during mid-September 1942 to counter Tirpitz or any other German warships which attempted to attack Allied convoys but these aircraft did not make contact with
27548-443: The other two commands (Bomber and Fighter) had clear mission objectives while Coastal Command had been given no clear mandate. It was assumed that Coastal Command was to keep sea communications open for merchant shipping and prevent seaborne raids on British coastlines and ports. No mention of U-boats was made by either man. Both apparently assumed aircraft and surface raiders presented the greater threat in British waters, thus following
27742-473: The outbreak of war) and the number of aircraft to 2,549. The scheme was never fully implemented, and Scheme F, 124 Squadrons and 1,736 aircraft, was the only scheme that ran its full course. It did produce modern aircraft and it made adequate provision for reserves (75 per cent) but again, the bomber forces received no less than 50 per cent which averaged 57 per cent over all schemes. Maritime air units never made up more than 12 per cent of British air strength. From
27936-502: The permanent members of its security council . The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers , setting the stage for the Cold War . In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia . Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion . World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939 with
28130-589: The political European map with the defeat of the Central Powers —including Austria-Hungary , Germany , Bulgaria , and the Ottoman Empire —and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia , which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I , such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of
28324-427: The port of Tobruk . By late March 1941, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact ; however, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece , commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month. The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at
28518-408: The promising Avro Lincoln had yet to be ordered by the time the Lend-Lease programme ended in August 1945. The Short Sunderland was forced to continue as the main operational type until the end of 1946. Most of the aircraft that operated in the command were the Second World War types; the Spitfire, Lancaster, Mosquito and Beaufighter. The Command was kept busy in the late 1940s. Units were sent to
28712-457: The raid was to be conducted was issued by No. 5 Group on 7 September. It stated that Kaafjord was believed to be protected by 16 heavy and 16 light anti-aircraft guns , as well as Tirpitz ' s guns, and that it took the defenders ten minutes to cover the battleship with a smokescreen. The attack force was to be organised into two groups. Force A, comprising twelve Lancasters from No. 9 Squadron and an equal number from No. 617 Squadron armed with
28906-407: The remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state , the Slovak Republic . Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region , formerly the German Memelland . Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig ,
29100-421: The remainder with JW mines. The Film Unit Lancaster also flew out of Bardney carrying three RAF cameramen as well as an Associated Press journalist and a radio reporter from the BBC . The Liberators departed Bardney just before the bombers, carrying McMullen, maintenance personnel and spare parts. The No. 540 Squadron Mosquito left Bardney the next day. Despite not being notified of the new plan until after all of
29294-408: The remainder with JW mines. The Mosquito took off bound for Kaafjord at 2:10 am, but the planned departure of the bombers at 8:00 am was cancelled when it returned to Yagodnik at 6:45 and reported that conditions over the target area were unsuitable. For the remainder of the day the Soviets provided hospitality including a formal lunch, a football tournament and a film that night. Some of
29488-452: The same time as the British bombers arrived over the target area, but No. 5 Group rejected this proposal and requested that Soviet aircraft not fly near Kaafjord, to avoid alerting the Germans. Also in early September, five aircraft from No. 192 Squadron , which specialised in monitoring enemy radars, conducted sorties to locate German radar stations in northern Norway and identify any gaps in their coverage. The operation order setting out how
29682-421: The ship in commission would "continue to tie down enemy forces and by her presence ... confound the enemies' intentions". The commander of the German Navy's task force in northern Norway, Konteradmiral Rudolf Peters , was accordingly directed to anchor Tirpitz at a location near Tromsø where the water was shallow enough to prevent the battleship from sinking completely if she suffered further damage. As
29876-406: The ship may have been "considerable" and rendered her unable to put to sea. A report from a Norwegian agent on 30 September was more specific, stating that Tirpitz had suffered a direct hit, which had opened a 17-metre (56 ft) gash on her bow. Further agent reports in early October provided little new evidence. By late October, with no major German warships left in Kaafjord, the agents operating
30070-473: The ship. Further plans for air attacks on Tirpitz were developed during 1943 but none took place. During 1942 and 1943 British inventor Barnes Wallis tried to develop a version of his " bouncing bomb " for use against Tirpitz alongside the larger weapons that were used to attack several German dams during Operation Chastise on 16/17 May 1943. No. 618 Squadron was formed in April 1943 and equipped with de Havilland Mosquitos for this attack but trials of
30264-410: The significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles . Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions , while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces . The German Empire was dissolved in
30458-447: The start or prelude to World War II. The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 ( V-J Day ), rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended the war in Asia . A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. A 1990 treaty regarding Germany's future allowed
30652-415: The strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium , the Netherlands , and Luxembourg . The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region, which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics,
30846-449: The target area, only one of the bombers sighted Tirpitz and none inflicted damage. One Halifax crashed into the sea on its way back to Scotland and its crew were rescued. The next raid on Fættenfjord took place on 30 March, with the attacking force comprising 33 Halifaxes. The operation was again frustrated by heavy clouds over the target area. Four of the Halifaxes were shot down and two others crashed while returning to base. Another attack
31040-565: The time they arrived. Accordingly, he decided to change the plans for the operation, with all of the bombers now flying to Yagodnik first and mounting the attack from that airfield. Harris ordered the attack force to depart that afternoon, before advising the Air Ministry or Soviets of the change in plans. Both British bomber squadrons began to take off at 5 pm local time. No. 9 Squadron dispatched 18 Lancasters from RAF Bardney and 20 No. 617 Squadron Lancasters departed from RAF Woodhall Spa . A total of 26 Lancasters were armed with Tallboys and
31234-415: The two wars became World War II in 1941. Other proposed starting dates for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939. Others view the Spanish Civil War as
31428-402: The victory over the U-boats. These aircraft were Consolidated B-24 Liberators and from early 1943, these and other Coastal Command aircraft, were fitted with ASV Mark III [air-to-surface vessel] centimetric radar, the latest depth charges, including homing torpedoes, officially classed as Mark 24 mines [nicknamed 'Wandering Annie' or 'Wandering Willie'] and even rockets. The Command saw action from
31622-407: The war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian , and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising
31816-512: The war, 17 George Medals , and 82 Distinguished Service Orders . The capitulation of Germany in May 1945 was followed by a rapid rundown of Coastal Command with the immediate disbandment of combat units and the transfer of aircraft to the RAF Transport Command . Commonwealth personnel were also sent home and the powerful Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito wings were reduced. The Command still maintained strong air-sea-rescue Air-sea rescue (ASR) and reconnaissance forces but its ASW
32010-475: The war. Germany annexed western Poland and occupied central Poland ; the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland ; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia . On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, which
32204-462: The water near Tirpitz also buckled some of her hull plates and bulkheads . The battleship's casualties were not heavy, with five men killed and fifteen wounded. The damage was assessed as needing nine months' worth of work to repair. After reporting on the damage, Tirpitz ' s commanding officer, Kapitän zur See Wolf Junge , recommended to the German Navy's high command that the battleship be removed from service. The attack force returned to
32398-404: The west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht . Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw . On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan , the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to
32592-483: The world order , and soon began a massive rearmament campaign . France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia , which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription. The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed
32786-554: Was invaded by Germany. The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany. At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers . The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary , Slovakia , and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to
32980-531: Was 214 sorties (other RAF Commands were also flying in supplies). The flying boats made their flight in using the Elbe river , but these operations came to a close on 14 December 1948, when the hazard from uncharted sandbanks and wreckage which, in some cases had been deliberately placed there by the Soviets to prevent the Western Allies from supplying the city, made operations impractical. Over 1,000 sorties had been made, and 4,500 tons of supplies were flown in and 1,113 people, mainly children, evacuated. NATO ,
33174-404: Was beginning to form when the attack commenced at 10:55 am GMT . Only the first group of Lancasters, led by Tait, were able to aim their bombs at Tirpitz before she was obscured by smoke. It is believed that the bomb dropped from Tait's aircraft struck the battleship, and the other bombs dropped by this group landed in the water nearby. All the other Force A aircraft aimed their Tallboys at
33368-404: Was comfortable for the first nine months of the war, the period known as the Phoney War . German submarines were not able to reach the Atlantic unless they undertook a dangerous transit journey through the North Sea and around Britain's northern waters or through the English Channel , which was guarded by the Royal and French Navies . The powerful French Navy was responsible for covering half of
33562-450: Was elevated to Coastal Command, its headquarters moved from Lee-on-Solent to Northwood in northwest London. During the Second World War , Coastal Command's most important contribution was the protection of Allied convoys from attacks by the U-boats of the German Kriegsmarine . It also protected Allied shipping from aerial attacks by the Luftwaffe . The main operations of Coastal Command were defensive, defending supply lines in
33756-442: Was given to attacking the battleship with United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers. These aircraft would have flown from the United Kingdom to Kaafjord, landed in the Soviet Union and made another attack against Tirpitz on their return flight. Such a mission was judged to be impractical by the RAF as it was expected that German fighter aircraft would attack the bombers and Kaafjord would be covered by
33950-419: Was intended that the attack would be conducted in daylight, and that the Lancasters would assemble into formations near Kaafjord before attacking. If the fjord was covered by cloud or smoke, Force A was ordered to not drop its valuable bombs and continue onto Yagodnik. Force B was directed to drop the JW mines regardless of cloud or smoke cover as long as an aiming point could be identified. The entire attack group
34144-440: Was known by the Germans as Black May . Thereafter the suppression of German submarines was effective in the Atlantic and in their transit routes through the Bay of Biscay in 1942, 1943 and 1944. In June 1944 the Normandy landings and subsequent Operation Overlord liberated France and cost the Germans their air and submarine bases won in 1940. The U-boats were forced to relocate to Norway and Germany in August, restoring many of
34338-465: Was little operational action for the Command at this point. It airlifted British Army forces into Egypt during the Suez Crisis which was its major action during this period. The lack of funds and any active conventional military role saw the Command struggle to keep its front-line strength high. There was a brief alert in October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis , when all six squadrons it then possessed were put on high alert, but nothing came of
34532-400: Was located at Lee-on-Solent . Air Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore , Air Officer Commanding (AOC) RAF Coastal Area oversaw the renaming and handed over command to Air Marshal Philip Joubert de la Ferté on 24 August 1936. In March 1935 the threat from Nazi Germany prompted a series of expansion schemes which pushed the number of squadrons up to 163 (as per Expansion Scheme M, the last before
34726-434: Was lopsided. With a few exceptions, only a handful of squadrons with ASW aircraft remained by January 1946. While the Command retained a minimum peacetime force and the Air Ministry had every intention of maintaining it as such, the fleet was further reduced and suffered from procurement problems. The Short Shetland and Short Seaford were rejected as replacements for the Consolidated B-24 Liberator . A maritime version of
34920-550: Was mounted by 30 Halifaxes and 11 Avro Lancasters on the night of 27/28 April. Aircraft of the first wave located and attacked Tirpitz but no damage was inflicted and five bombers were lost. The final raid in this series took place the next night and involved 21 Halifaxes and 12 Lancasters. The attackers found Tirpitz covered in a protective smokescreen and the battleship again escaped damage; two British aircraft were destroyed. Plans for further heavy bomber attacks on Tirpitz were developed throughout 1942, none took place. One of
35114-415: Was moved to first priority. When Coastal Command went to war, its first task was to co-operate with the Navy to prevent enemy vessels from escaping into the North Sea and Atlantic Oceans. Secondly, it was to provide ASW support where and when it could. These steps are significant as the language indicates a change from passive reconnaissance of enemy warships and submarines to an active directive which involved
35308-440: Was no formal role for the service or location of its units. Peirse did reverse the decision to have strategic bombing support as the primary function. This was changed to trade defence, Coastal Command was only to be used for other purposes if trade routes were suffering little interference and the intensity of air attack on Britain, or air attacks on enemy targets, required all available air units for those purposes. In December 1937,
35502-463: Was not possible to make a return trip to Kaafjord from Scotland, and an evaluation of the main airstrip in Shetland determined that it was unsuitable for Lancasters, No. 5 Group's staff officers judged that it would be necessary for the aircraft to refuel in the Soviet Union. Detailed investigation of the airstrips near Murmansk found that they were at best marginal for heavy bombers and had almost no accommodation or aircraft servicing facilities. Moreover,
35696-471: Was paid to the problem of attacking submarines from the air as part of trade protection measures. Owing to misplaced faith in the imperfect ASDIC invention which was never intended to detect surface-running submarines, it appeared the Royal Navy no longer considered U-boats a threat to Britain's sea lanes. The Air Ministry, keen to concentrate on strategic air forces, did not dispute the Admiralty's conclusions and Coastal Command did not receive any guidance from
35890-403: Was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather. After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. Finland refused to sign
36084-402: Was reduced despite increasing demand for operations. In May, Palestinians began attacking British military installations throughout the region. In the largest British post-war action, Operation Dawn (13 to 14 May 1948) was launched with the support of Coastal Command. On 28 June 1948 Coastal Command was also involved in the Berlin Airlift . The Soviet Union attempted to cut off all aid to
36278-657: Was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean. In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa . The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with
36472-441: Was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year. Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement . In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed
36666-416: Was struck by one bomb, and further damaged by several near misses. This damage rendered Tirpitz unfit for combat, and she could not be repaired as it was no longer possible for the Germans to sail her to a major port. The attack on 15 September followed a series of raids conducted against Tirpitz with limited success by Royal Navy carrier aircraft between April and August 1944, seeking to sink or disable
36860-417: Was thoroughly uninterested in any aircraft which fell outside the bomber function. De la Ferté was highly critical of the Air Ministry's attitude to his service. In 1937 several exercises were carried out by Coastal Command in co-operation with submarines against the Home Fleet to judge the surface fleet's defence against submarine and air attack. Despite the experiences of the First World War, no attention
37054-460: Was to fly in two lines abreast, pass over the fjord from south-east to north-west, and release the JW mines from between 12,000 feet (3,700 m) and 10,000 feet (3,000 m). The No. 540 Squadron Mosquito reconnoitred Kaafjord again in the morning of 15 September, and at 7 am Yagodnik time reported that conditions were suitable for an attack. The 27 bombers and the Film Unit Lancaster began taking off shortly afterwards. The aircraft flew in
37248-451: Was to help bolster the defence and guard against a potential Soviet naval threat in Atlantic and European waters. For Coastal Command the main concern was the Atlantic. On 1 March 1950 it had lost the photo reconnaissance units to RAF Bomber Command . The transfer was not complete when North Korea invaded South Korea beginning the Korean War . Handley Page Hastings were hastily modified and ready for operations but were not sent, owing to
37442-419: Was to maintain strict radio silence . Two No. 511 Squadron Consolidated B-24 Liberator transport aircraft were assigned to carry maintenance personnel and supplies from the United Kingdom to Yagodnik, and a Mosquito fitted for photo reconnaissance tasks from No. 540 Squadron would scout ahead of the attack force. All aircrew were briefed on this plan on either 8 or 9 September. Group Captain C.C. McMullen ,
37636-465: Was too late to alter the course of the war. Technological answers to the Type XXI were available in the form of 3-centimetre radar and magnetic anomaly detectors in aircraft. At midnight 4 June 1945, official wartime operations ceased. The last mission was flown by Wing Commander J. Barret DFC , commanding officer of No. 201 Squadron RAF . By that time over 2,000 decorations had been awarded. These included four Victoria Crosses, of whom only one survived
#691308