Operation Paravane was a British air raid of World War II that inflicted heavy damage on the German battleship Tirpitz, at anchor in Kaafjord in the far north of German-occupied Norway. The attack was conducted on 15 September 1944 by 21 Royal Air Force heavy bombers, which flew from an airfield in the north of the Soviet Union. The battleship was struck by one bomb, and further damaged by several near misses. This damage rendered Tirpitz unfit for combat, and she could not be repaired as it was no longer possible for the Germans to sail her to a major port.
The attack on 15 September followed a series of raids conducted against Tirpitz with limited success by Royal Navy carrier aircraft between April and August 1944, seeking to sink or disable the battleship at her anchorage, so that she no longer posed a threat to Allied convoys travelling to and from the Soviet Union. The first of these raids was successful, but the other attacks failed due to shortcomings with the Fleet Air Arm's strike aircraft and the formidable German defences. As a result, the task of attacking the battleship was transferred to the RAF's Bomber Command. Avro Lancaster bombers from the Command's two elite squadrons flew to their staging airfield in the Soviet Union on the night of 11/12 September, and attacked on 15 September using heavy bombs and air-dropped mines. All of the British aircraft returned to base, though one of the Lancasters later crashed during its flight back to the United Kingdom.
Following Operation Paravane, the German Navy's commander decided to use Tirpitz as a static artillery battery to protect the town of Tromsø. The Allies were unable to confirm the extent of the battleship's damage, and conducted two more heavy bomber raids against her in late 1944, Operation Obviate on 29 October, and Operation Catechism on 12 November. Tirpitz was sunk with considerable loss of life during the second of these attacks.
Background
From early 1942, Tirpitz posed a significant threat to the Allied convoys transporting supplies through the Norwegian Sea to the Soviet Union. Stationed in fjords on the Norwegian coast, the battleship was capable of overwhelming the close-escort forces of Arctic convoys or breaking out into the North Atlantic. Owing to the superiority of the Allied navies, Tirpitz rarely put to sea and only conducted three brief combat operations into the Norwegian Sea during her career. The Allies needed to keep a powerful force of warships with the British Home Fleet to counter the threat she posed and capital ships accompanied most convoys part of the way to the Soviet Union.
Royal Air Force (RAF) heavy bombers conducted a series of abortive raids on Tirpitz shortly after the battleship arrived in Norway from Germany in January 1942. Tirpitz was initially based at Fættenfjord near Trondheim, which lay within range of British bombers flying from Scotland. The first raid on 30 January involved nine Handley Page Halifax and seven Short Stirling bombers. Owing to cloud over the target area, only one of the bombers sighted Tirpitz and none inflicted damage. One Halifax crashed into the sea on its way back to Scotland and its crew were rescued. The next raid on Fættenfjord took place on 30 March, with the attacking force comprising 33 Halifaxes. The operation was again frustrated by heavy clouds over the target area. Four of the Halifaxes were shot down and two others crashed while returning to base. Another attack was mounted by 30 Halifaxes and 11 Avro Lancasters on the night of 27/28 April. Aircraft of the first wave located and attacked Tirpitz but no damage was inflicted and five bombers were lost. The final raid in this series took place the next night and involved 21 Halifaxes and 12 Lancasters. The attackers found Tirpitz covered in a protective smokescreen and the battleship again escaped damage; two British aircraft were destroyed.
Plans for further heavy bomber attacks on Tirpitz were developed throughout 1942, none took place. One of the options considered was to stage the bombers through a base in the northern Soviet Union but this was judged impractical as little was known about the suitability of Soviet airfields for heavy bombers. Two squadrons of RAF Coastal Command Handley Page Hampden torpedo bombers operated from Vaenga in northern Russia during mid-September 1942 to counter Tirpitz or any other German warships which attempted to attack Allied convoys but these aircraft did not make contact with the ship.