Eighty years ago this week propaganda overlaps with military operations as Tirpitz is finally sunk and the Germans taunt the British with having concealed the V-2 rocket attack from the public
RAF Lancasters of 9 and 617 Squadrons finally sank the battleship Tirpitz in Tromso fjord at their third attempt. The British were unaware that she was no longer capable of sea action and had been moved south to act as a floating battery to repel an allied invasion that never came. Two 12,000lb Tallboy bombs scored direct hits and she capsized killing some 1,000 crew members. A film crew was aboard one of the aircraft and the footage of the attack was swiftly released to maximize the propaganda value of the achievement. Tirpitz's positive contribution to the German war effort had been minimal: one abortive attack on a Murmansk convoy and the bombardment of the island of Spitzbergen, but she had tied down huge British resources for at least three years. Usually AM "Bert" Harris objected to using RAF resources other than in bombing cities, but here he could show that his aircraft could do something that the Royal Navy had failed to do. German propaganda anno
