I'm not really a huge battleship

[Greybeard]

Battleship Tirpitz camouflaged as a group of civil buildings in order to cheat spies and reconnaissance aircraft 👇
https://navalhistoria.com/the-mighty-tirpitz-a-battleships-reign-and-demise/

[berger]

Tirpitz the most feared battleship of the second world war but not put to much use . after many, many, and many more failed attacks to try and put it out of action from sea , under water and air a few tall boy bombs eventually sorted it out in Norway they were dropped from stripped  down to the bare bones Lancaster bombers.  i read two very interesting books on that beast by the pilots who flew Lancaster's. and Tirpitz was some BEAST!!!

[a10 gf]

Ha, funny camouflage.

For anyone interested in barnfinds (or waterfinds) and looking for a cosy restauration job for the weekends, it's available (some of it) in a fjord in north Norway :O)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Troms%C3%B6%2C_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command%2C_1942-1945_CL2830.jpg

[Worty]

Ha, funny camouflage.

For anyone interested in barnfinds (rather waterfinds) and looking for a cosy restauration job for the weekends, it's available (some of it) in the north of Norway :O)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Troms%C3%B6%2C_Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command%2C_1942-1945_CL2830.jpg

As Derek from Bangers and Cash would say, "Two weekends' worth of work."

[Rex]

Seems like the Germans admitted that it's natural home was in port. Then again they did have a long-running tradition of opening the sea-cocks and scuttling at the first whiff of problems.

[berger]

Rex Tirpitz was very fast and armed well past it's teeth , at the time Hitler used it in Norway as a protector from an allied invasion and it's presence was enough to scare the living daylights out of allied shipping. Churchill even sacrificed many ships feeding Russia with supplies at the time the Tirpitz was about, it's fire power was enormous. Also he had Bismark on the prowl that was nearly an equal to Tirpitz , Bismark was eventually stopped at great loss to the allied navy's.

[Worty]

Rex Tirpitz was very fast and armed well past it's teeth , at the time Hitler used it in Norway as a protector from an allied invasion and it's presence was enough to scare the living daylights out of allied shipping. Churchill even sacrificed many ships feeding Russia with supplies at the time the Tirpitz was about, it's fire power was enormous. Also he had Bismark on the prowl that was nearly an equal to Tirpitz , Bismark was eventually stopped at great loss to the allied navy's.

There were some big buggas about.  The Japanese Yamato had a displacement of about 72,000 tons!  Had Hitler stopped trying to run the war by himself as an amateur and left it to his experienced generals, some of the outcomes of WWII may have been very different.  Seems like having the Tirpitz sitting about was a poor decision, and ended up a bit of a sitting duck in the end.

[berger]

Worty yes i agree it was a bit of a bad decision and also the top brass on Tirpitz loved partying A LOT in Norway where they had the life of kings. Also it took many years of failed attempts and loss of life along with losses of all sorts of craft before it was finally put out of action. when Churchill got a whiff that Tirpitz was on the move he pulled all the protection away from the Russian supply convoy's because he couldn't afford to lose the inferior battle ships that were protecting them, lambs to the slaughter... a couple of books i read about this and the Lancaster bomber pilots got me hooked , there was under water operations and spotters risking there lives and losing them on a regular basis it is really spine tingling stuff, i don't normally read books but i couldn't put those down. One mission took the Lancaster's into Russia with a plan to attack from there and they ended up stuck in swamps. All sorts of failures happened before they managed to drop the tall boys and many of those missed or the Lancaster's came full face into Tirpitz massive guns with miles of range.

[Topdad]

Big she was but that means oil gussler which was a problem ,also she only fired her main armament once other than air defence  and was damaged by mini subs shortly after  which meant she couldn't leave port and as Berger said the RAF eventually hit twice .good night vienna .

[Rex]

Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and the rest were great against tramp steamers and oil tankers but always shied away from going toe-to-toe with the RN, and when the RN and RAF sussed out  ways to combat the U-Boat wolf packs the "happy days" were over for Doenitz.
What's the point of innovative well-designed ships like Tirpitz etc if they're going to skulk in port?

[Worty]

True.  One of the best innovations was the Graf Spee (pocket battleship) - very fast, heavily armed, hit and run, scored many a hit and was only scuttled outside Montevideo (Uruguay).  Much of its success was the support network and the skill of the captain.

[BagONails]

The Royal Navy always had a huge numerical advantage over Doenitz's Kriegsmarine although many of their ships were getting on a bit and overdue for refit etc. One very telling advantage certain lucky RN ships had was radar of course which meant they could aim their first salvos with significant accuracy and often before being seen.

This is a great site if you have an interest in these ships, maritime history and more
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/?s=Tirpitz