Documentry on Sinking Tirpitz

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Dave Saxton
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Documentry on Sinking Tirpitz

Post by Dave Saxton »

I saw this on local TV station here. I can't get the link to play, but I have already seen it. Maybe you will have better luck getting it to play:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the- ... /57176-001

This is a very interesting and pretty well done doc. It provides another fairly strong case that German radar operators colluding with Norwegian resistance helped impede communications preventing a warning to both the battleship and to the German fighter aircraft assigned to protect the battleship.

German records showed that the raid was detected and tracked by the Wasserman radar network for well more than an hour before the first bomb dropped, but no warnings were ever sent. The first warning for Tirpitz was when its own radar picked up the bombers when they were about 100 miles to the southeast. It was the Tirpitz itself that sent frantic calls to the Luftwaffe fighter base. The fighter base was only about 3 minutes flight time from the anchorage, and the Lancasters actually almost overflew the fighter base on the way in. The fighters were still on the ground.

The documentary also provides a good reconstruction of the actual bomb attack, including which bombs hit, and where, and when.

It includes interviews with RAF flight crew, and German sailors and pilots still living.
Entering a night sea battle is an awesome business.The enveloping darkness, hiding the enemy's.. seems a living thing, malignant and oppressive.Swishing water at the bow and stern mark an inexorable advance toward an unknown destiny.
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Alberto Virtuani
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Re: Documentry on Sinking Tirpitz

Post by Alberto Virtuani »

Hi Dave,
thanks, the link doesn't work for me as well..... really a pity.

Bye, ALberto
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RF
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Re: Documentry on Sinking Tirpitz

Post by RF »

I can't get the link either.

I presume this is the programme about the Dambusters raid that saw the final destruction of Tirpitz, which I have seen several times.
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