Audacious Missions of World War II

Proposed content: The following is a small selection of highlights. Many more will be included. Sinking the Bismarck: The Bismarck was launched in 1939 and was considered a major threat to the Royal Navy’s dominance by Churchill. This was confirmed when HMS Hood was sunk by Bismarck on 24th May 1941. The resulting operation to destroy the Bismarck was daring and employed some surprising tactics. 15 Swordfish bi-planes, a throwback to an earlier era of flight, were sent to torpedo the vessel. This was successful, and crippled Bismarck’s rudder. King George V, HMS Rodney and HMS Norfolk then reduced Bismarck, which was effectively a sitting duck, to a flaming wreck. Operation Frankton – the ‘Cockleshell Heroes’: On 7th December 1942, a British submarine delivered 10 commandoes of Combined Operations to the Gironde estuary in Occupied-France. In canoes they paddled upriver for 100 miles, against fierce currents and at constant risk of detection, to the port of Bordeaux. Only two canoes made it. Under cover of darkness, they attached limpet mines to the large Axis vessels moored there and made their escape. A spectacular lack of coordination meant that an SOE agent had also been stationed in Bordeaux, and was about to carry his explosives onto the vessels when he heard the mines exploding. The National Archives holds many photographs and documents used to plan the mission: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4194452 Operation Chastise – the Dam Busters Raid: The famous Dam Busters raid was carried out on the night of 16th May 1943 using an innovative bouncing bomb invented by Barnes-Wallis. The National Archives holds designs for the bomb, instructions and plans for the raid, the logbooks of 617 Squadron, pictures of the crew, model tests and photographs of the dams after the attacks, showing the damage caused. The mission was incredibly dangerous, with the modified Lancaster aircraft having to fly well into Germany below radar, and then launch a raid from an altitude of just 60 feet. Operation Fortitude – the phantom D-Day army: As missions go, this has to be one of the most bizarre. As D-Day approached, a fake US Army was created in the countryside around Dover. Inflatable tanks and wooden props gave the impression to German spy aircraft that the invasion of Europe would come through Calais rather than Normandy; this intelligence was passed right up to Hitler himself, who believed it. The National Archives has numerous photographs of dummy vehicles and aircraft, maps of fake troop movements and the entire secret file created to plan the deception. The raid on the Tirpitz: Tirpitz ranked alongside Bismarck as a threat to Allied convoys in the Arctic. Several missions were put into practice to sink Tirpitz. The first, Operation Source, involved the use of midget submarines to attach limpet mines to the vessel; this was only partially successful and also considerably dangerous as the vessel was moored in Nazi-occupied Norway. Thereafter, the RAF resorted to aerial bombardment culminating on 12th November 1944 in a raid by 32 Lancaster aircraft which sank the ship. The secret plans for all of these missions are held at The National Archives and can be used to tell the story. Operation Foxley: This 1944 plan to assassinate Hitler was overtaken by the end of the war in spring 1945. The full SOE dossier exists at The National Archives, and contains some curious observations on the Fuhrer and potential methods of assassination. For example, the then widespread rumour that Hitler had a double was taken seriously. In order for SOE agents to complete the mission deep in occupied-Europe, they needed to know that they had the ‘right’ Hitler.