The Hunt for Hitler's Warship
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Winston Churchill called it "the Beast." It was said to be unsinkable. More than thirty military operations failed to destroy it. Eliminating the Tirpitz, Hitler's mightiest warship, a 52,000-ton behemoth, became an Allied obsession.
In The Hunt for Hitler's Warship, Patrick Bishop tells the epic story of the men who would not rest until the Tirpitz lay at the bottom of the sea. In November of 1944, with the threat to Russian supply lines increasing and Allied forces needing reinforcements in the Pacific, a raid as audacious as any Royal Air Force operation of the war was launched, under the command of one of Britain's greatest but least-known war heroes, Wing Commander Willie Tait.
Patrick Bishop draws on decades of experience as a foreign war correspondent to paint a vivid picture of this historic clash of the Royal Air Force's Davids versus Hitler's Goliath of naval engineering. Readers will not be able to put down this account of one of World War II's most dramatic showdowns.
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Aviation historian Bishop (Bomber Boys) relies on archival data and interviews to turn the story of the German battleship Tirpitz from its launch in April 1939 to its sinking in November 1944 into a compelling WWII story. Though the Bismarck's sister ship never engaged in any significant combat action, it played a crucial role in the naval strategy of the Battle of the Atlantic and efforts to send supplies to Russia through the Arctic. Bishop provides an evenhanded account of German operations, but his main focus is on British efforts to counter the threat posed by the swift, heavy, and lethal Tirpitz. These ranged from a fantastic manned-torpedo operation, to stealthy midget submarine attacks, and included numerous aerial assaults. When the Tirpitz finally succumbed to an air attack using a new superpowerful bomb, the ship's end is poignant but anti-climactic Churchill hears about it in newly liberated Paris, and the end of the war is only months away. Still, Bishop's take on an oft-forgotten instrument of Hitler's formidable war machine is an enjoyable and fast-paced read.
