Second World War Royal Navy midget submarine attacks on heavy German warships in Norway
Operation Source
Part of World War II
Tirpitz circa 1941
Date
20–22 September 1943
Location
Altafjord, Norway
Result
Allied partial success
Belligerents
United Kingdom Norway Australia [1]
Germany
Commanders and leaders
Claud Barrington Barry, Donald Cameron (POW), Basil Place (POW), Henty Henty-Creer †
Hans Meyer
Strength
Six midget submarines, Six conventional submarines
Two battleships, One heavy cruiser
Casualties and losses
Six midget submarines sunk, nine crewmen killed, six captured
One battleship damaged
v
t
e
Allied raids and occupations, Norway 1940–1945
1940 Faroes
Valentine
Norway 1941
Claymore
Anklet
Kitbag
Archery
1942
Musketoon
Bittern
Thamshavn, 1942–1944
Sabotage, 1942–1944
Freshman
SF Hydro
1943
Cartoon
Chaffinch
Brandy
Crackers
Roundabout
Mardonius
Checkmate
Source
1945
Woodlark
Svalbard
Gauntlet
Fritham
Gearbox
Gearbox II
v
t
e
Military operations, Norway 1941–1945
1941
Claymore
Gauntlet
Kitbag
Anklet
Archery
Fritham
Gearbox
Gearbox II
1942
Musketoon
1943
Cartoon
Checkmate
Leader
Martin
North Cape
1944
Guidance
Almenrausch
Blumenpflücken
Finnmark
Provident
1945
Woodlark
28 January 1945
Black Friday
9 February 1945
Rype
Haglebu
Bjørn West
Judgement
Doomsday
Associated articles
Heavy water (1942–1944)
Sabotage
Freshman
Gunnerside
SF Hydro
Attacks on Tirpitz (1942–1944)
Title
Source
Tungsten
Mascot
Goodwood
Paravane
Obviate
Catechism
Tirpitz operations (1942–1944)
Sportpalast
Rösselsprung
Zitronella
RAF–Fleet Air Arm
Benedict
Kirkenes, Petsamo
Orator
Operation Source was a series of attacks to neutralise the heavy German warships – Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Lützow – based in northern Norway, using X-class midget submarines.
The attacks took place in September 1943 at Kaafjord and succeeded in keeping Tirpitz out of action for at least six months. The concept for the attack was developed by Commander Cromwell-Varley, with support of Max Horton, Flag Officer Submarines, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[2]
On September 12, 1943, in conditions of low clouds and rain, Soviet pilot Leonid Elkin found the Tirpitz anchorage in Altenfjord, descended under the edge of the clouds and passed three times under hurricane anti-aircraft fire at an altitude of 50 meters above it, achieving high-quality photographing of the target. The resulting photographs were immediately transferred to the British Admiralty, which, based on them, prepared a new operation.[3]
The operation was directed from HMS Varbel, located in Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute. Varbel (named after Commanders Varley and Bell, designers of the X-Craft prototype) was the on-shore headquarters for the 12th Submarine Flotilla (midget submarines). It had been a luxury 88-bedroom hotel (the Kyles Hydropathic Hotel) requisitioned by the Admiralty to serve as the flotilla's headquarters. All X-craft training and preparation for X-craft attacks (including that on Tirpitz) was co-ordinated from Varbel.[4]
Intelligence contributing to the attack on Tirpitz was collected and sent to the Royal Navy by the Norwegian resistance, especially brothers Torbjørn Johansen and Einar Johansen.
^The CO of X5, Henty Henty-Creer was an Australian commissioned in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and five members of the Royal Australian Navy were among the crew of the British midget submarines involved. Worledge, Ray. 2012 Australians in Midget Submarines. (Access date: 24 March 2012.)
^"Lost heroes of the 'Tirpitz'". BBC. 17 February 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
^Кикнадзе В. Г. Международное сотрудничество в области освещения обстановки в Арктике (по опыту второй мировой войны). // Военно-исторический журнал. — 2014. — № 12. — С.42. (Kiknadze V. G. International cooperation in the field of covering the situation in the Arctic (based on the experience of the Second World War). // Military historical magazine. - 2014. - No. 12. - P.42.)
OperationSource was a series of attacks to neutralise the heavy German warships – Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Lützow – based in northern Norway, using X-class...
Look up source or unsourced in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Source may refer to: Historical document Historical sourceSource (intelligence) or sub...
Special SourceOperations (SSO) is a division in the US National Security Agency (NSA) which is responsible for all programs aimed at collecting data...
the newly designed X Craft midget submarines. The planned attack, OperationSource, included attacks on Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Lützow. The X Craft...
Tirpitz was based at Kaafjord in the far north of Norway. During OperationSource on 22 September, she was severely damaged by explosives placed on her...
SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research...
distinguishing it from other pollution source geometries (such as nonpoint source or area source). The sources are called point sources because in mathematical modeling...
Controlling nonpoint source pollution requires improving the management of urban and suburban areas, agricultural operations, forestry operations and marinas....
but are non-free. Proprietary software may either be closed-source software or source-available software. Until the late 1960s, computers—especially...
current source is an electronic circuit that delivers or absorbs an electric current which is independent of the voltage across it. A current source is the...
using Chariot manned torpedoes in Operation Title in 1942, and then X-Craft midget submarines in OperationSource in 1943. Filmed at Pinewood Studios...
"Special military operation" (also "special operation", and abbreviated as "SMO" or "SVO" for специальная военная операция) is an official term used by...
Operation Zitronella, also known as Unternehmen Sizilien (Operation Sicily), was an eight-hour German raid on Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard Archipelago...
graph composition: it is a non-commutative operation, source graph composition: it is a commutative operation (for unlabelled graphs); Hajós construction...
failed Israeli covert operation, codenamed Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the summer of 1954. As part of a false flag operation, a group of Egyptian...
Lightning Source is a printer and distributor of print-on-demand books. The company is a business unit of Ingram Content Group. Originally incorporated...
subsequent Chariot operations. The 1955 British film Above Us the Waves includes portrayals of Operation Title and OperationSource. It was based on the...
one-quadrant (source only, with fixed polarity), and in most cases constant-voltage operation. Bench power supplies might add constant-current operation as well...
operates a free trans-shipment shuttle between T2 and T3A in a 24-hour operation. Source: CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) Number of domestic...
figure is apocryphal. An additional source references a "recruitment" drive for 30 cats a few days prior to Operation Cat Drop. Insecticides including...
Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa; Russian: Операция Барбаросса, romanized: Operatsiya Barbarossa) was the invasion of the Soviet Union...
renewable energy (VRE) or intermittent renewable energy sources (IRES) are renewable energy sources that are not dispatchable due to their fluctuating nature...
1943 the German battleship Tirpitz was disabled during the British OperationSource, leaving Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen as the only operational heavy...
protect the operator and the provision of remote operation of the source exposure. The plate source is in common use for the calibration of radioactive...
Global Information
United Kingdom
Norway
Australia [1]
Germany