The Earthquake Bombs That Killed the Tirpitz in Minutes

WW2, from the records. https://warshelf.com/ November 12, 1944. The sun has barely cleared the mountains south of Tromsø, and the Tirpitz lies at anchor off Håkøya, the largest warship ever built in Europe. She has hardly fired at an enemy ship, and it has not mattered. From her fjords she sits beside the Arctic convoy route, and the threat of her alone scattered PQ 17. Midget submarines, carrier strikes and a bomb that broke her bow have all failed to finish her. Now the Lancasters of 617 and 9 Squadrons come over the mountains from Sweden, gun turrets removed, each carrying one Tallboy, Barnes Wallis's five-ton earthquake bomb. The fighters at Bardufoss take off late and never find them. At 9:41 the first bomb is released. The magazine under turret Caesar explodes. At 9:52 she rolls over in water too shallow to sink and too deep to stop her capsizing. Rescue teams cut eighty-seven men out of the upturned hull. Close to a thousand never get out.