Midget sub outside Norway

[Richard Lundgren]

Does anyone have more information regarding the midget sub outside Norway? Talked to Leigh Bishop at LIDS London, one of the resent project divers, and he said that they didn’t find what they were looking for but had some interesting leads to follow up. Hopefully more interesting than the electrical cable that was the lead for the Japanese midget outside Sydney Australia:)

Any information is welcome!

Take care,
Richard Lundgren

[Martin Björkdahl]

Does anyone have more information regarding the midget sub outside Norway? Talked to Leigh Bishop at LIDS London, one of the resent project divers, and he said that they didn’t find what they were looking for but had some interesting leads to follow up. Hopefully more interesting than the electrical cable that was the lead for the Japanese midget outside Sydney Australia:)

Any information is welcome!

Take care,
Richard Lundgren

Maybe not, but could it be this?

There is possibly 1 additonal midget sub in Norway.

In Oct, 1997 a Molch, in quite good shape, seems to have been discoved out of Stavanger, Norway at 18m depth. Recently Norwegian naval divers have destroyed the torpedo charge

[Didrik Venge]

Here is som information about the mini subamarine/midget submarine type Molch. Sadly all the information is in Norwigian but there are som nice picturs u can enjoy. I will ask some freinds of Fredrik and me. Mayby I can get my hands one some more info, and share it with the forum .:)

http://artikler.uwphoto.no/Artikler/Tysk_en_manns_ubaat_funnet.htm

Didrik.

[Martin Quensel]

Here is a very quick and dirty translation from the above text in Norwegian to english. Its not a good translation since i do not speak, or read/write Norwegian only Swedish, and well my english isent perfect either.
Anyway, here goes:




German midget submarine found in HafrsfjordPictures and text by Rudolf Svensen






Almost three years ago Erling and I where part of a group that searched for german midget Molch type submarines that supposedly where scuttled in the Gandsfjord.
By reading old newspaperclips we found out that 30 of these possibly where sunk in the fjord outside Sandnes.
(warning terrible translation ahead!!)
Some old folks said that there had been midgetsubs in Hafrsfjord, but this information was so unreliable that the search was concentrated around Lihalsen in the Gandsfjord.

Diving was done, and we spoke to the fishermen, and used ROV:s, but we did not see anything that even resembled a submarine
The closest to ever finding something was the hatch of an old iron oven that was found in a dive in march 95.
The idea behind the project was to bring the uboat to the surface and put it on display for the Sandnes 50 year anniversary in may 1995.

We worked intensivly, but clock ticked away, and in the beginning of may the whole project was aborted.
Nothing was found, and some even doubted if there ever had existed midget submarines in the area.
One who searches does not always find, and it would take almost 3 years until Leif Erik Olavesen and Ove Bore made it possible for me to se my first Molch.

Almost to easy
The weather is great. The sun is shining from a cloudless sky, and its a windless day in october.
We plunge into the water, headed by Ove Bore.
He is one of the two finders of the submarine, and already knows the dive spot.
The viz is good, and it doesent take long until we get our eyes on the dark shadow agains the white sand.
It doesent look to impressive by the first look of it. It just looks like an overgrown cigar, with its belly down in the sand.
Its not until we glide closer that the details appear.
The two torpedoes with their double screws hang on each side of the submarine.
On top of the submarine hull are two "things to lift it in" (sorry for the terrible translation) that where used to lift the boat to and from the sea, and around the hatch are small windows. Probably so that the pilot would be able to look out when the submarine lay surfaced.
One can only admire these young men who where choosen to battle in these ironcoffins. We have lots of time to get a close look, i swim around it from a distance to gt an overview. The other divers, headed by Ove Bore, hang over the submarine like hungry "måker" (no idea what that means, sorry, maybee it means seagull but i hope you get the picture anyway...). The diffrence in size between the divers and the ship show that the midget submarine has a length of 11 meters (around 33 feet i guess)

Erling waves at me. Hes got a picture of what he wants to photograph, and is now eager to get started. Since he is the headphotographer, i pose for him until he is out of film. I get lots of time to study the details while posing.
In the holes in the torpedonose, where a detonator once was located a squat lobster peeks out. It makes me feel quite safe actually. Time has been rough on the torpedo, and its full of holes and cracks. Here the lobster has found a home unaware of what an explosive home it has choosen for itself. Erling signals "out of film", and its my turn. 36 pictures later we say goodbye to the submarine and slowly ascend to the surface. The Molch is once again left to the inhabitants of the sea. Max depth has been 20 meters
Its great that such interesting objects can be found at such shallow waters. Sometimes it feels that the chance to find something is in direct proportion to the depth. Unfortunatly most divers have the opinion that only deep diving counts if one wants to find something new. The Molch is the proof of the oposite, and should inspire all sportsdivers that "går med en Askeladd i magen." (whatever that is)


A deadly invention


The human race is special in that it uses a great deal of intelligence and cleverness when it comes to methods of waging war, and destruction.
The Italian navy where the first to build minisubmarines. As early as 1912 the navy built 18feet long ships to defend the Venezian harbour. They where never used in battle, and it took 18 years before new mini submarines where built. In 1930 the japanese gained interest in minisubmarines and built the so called A-series. These where batterypowered ships with 18 inch torpedoes.
Their purpose was to, undetected, enter foreign harbours and sink enemy ships.
Thier first mission was a disaster. During the famous attack on Pearl Harbor no minisubmarine managed to enter the harbour, and four where lost.

An attempt to enter the Sidney harbour in May 1942 also failed, even though a torpedo, with the american ship Chicago as the intended target, sunk a ferry.
24 hours earlier, some japanese minisubmarines had their first sucessfull attack. On Madagascar, the brittish battleship Ramilles, and a Tanker where hit by torpedoes.

More minisubmarines where built, but mostly they where intended for harbour defense.
Human imagination lead to a large number of minisubmarines being built by diffrent countries.
Some had torpedoes, others had charges that where attatched to the hull of enemy vessels with magnets, and some made to dump large explosive timedelayed charges in enemy harbours.

The propulsion was generated by everything from hydrogenperoxide, to oxygen and batteries.
Some minisubmarines where simply modified Torpedohulls. One can only imagine how the crew must have felt in such ships.

The number of people who died in the designphase, or unsucessfull attacks, is not recorded in history. Being crew on one of these was probably not a position highly sought after.

Minisubmarines where also used in Norwegian waters. In Octber 1942, two brittish minisubmarines of type Chariots, where sent to attack the german ship Tirpitz, who laid hidden in a fjord north of Trondheim. A norwegian trawler took them past the germans on watch, but they encountered problems and had to abort their mission.

In September six minisubmarines of type X where sent to attack Tirpitz and Scharnhorst who laid hidden in the Kåfjord. Two of the submarines dissapeared during the time they where towed from England to Norway, and two other encountered problems on their way in to the Fjord. The two remaining submarines managed however to place their explosive charges on the hull of Tirpiz.
The explosives inflicted a great deal of damage to Tirpitz, but the minisubmarines where also damaged and the crew had to surrender to the germans.

<message from the translator>(The crew actually surrendered before the explosives detonated. The damages inflicted to the X submarines was damages inflicted during the crossing that only got worse and worse. The crew of one X submarine was actually aboard Tirpitz when the explosives detonated...) </message from the translator>

Minisubmarines where also used a couple of times outside Bergen.
At the end of the second world war, the germans enterd the minisubmarine race with their own designs. The Seehund was the most sucsessfull.

Molch

The Molch midget submarines where built by Lubecker Flenderwerf in Germany. They had, as all the other german midgetsubmarines, the torpedoes hanging outside the hull. Propulsion was generated from batteries that came from a modified torpedoengine of type Standard-ETO. a part of the torpedo was used as a part of the submarine, but the two torpedopropellers where replaced by a bigger propeller.

Most part of the submarine interior was space for the batteries, where 8 big batteries with 26 cells where installed. the cockpit with its instrumentpanel was of the same type as the airplanes of the era. The big rudder strongly resembles an airplane construction.
Totally 363 Molch submarines where produced. They where stationed in Germany, Neatherlands, Denmark, and Norway, but today only 2 known submarines remain. Both in musems in Germany.
There is little documentation about the use of the Molch. It probably entered the second world war a little late. It is know to have been used in the Mediteranean.
During an attack by the french riviera, the submarines did not manage to sink any ship, but lost 10 out of 12 of their own. From January to April 1945 Biber and Molch midget submarines where sent out on 102 missions. 70 where lost, and they only did manage to sink 7 small ships. Not an effective weapon.

Found

It was only coincidence that led Leif Erik Olavesen and Ove Bore, both divinginstructors at Dive In in stavanger, to the discovery of the submarine.
Ove Bore tells the story:
We where actually out looking for an airplane that an old crabfisherman supposedly had seen using a sort of "water binoculars" (sorry guys/gals i have no idea what it is called in english). When we reached a depth of 18 meters we questioned the possibility to see something from the surface, and we where on our way up when we stumbled on the submarine.
We immediatly saw that it was not a airplane that we had found, but had to make use of the internet before it was clear that it was a Molch midget submarine we had found.
Whats gonna happen to the submarine is unsure. The Hull on the sub is built to withstand a preassure of 60 meters depth, and is in quite good shape. The torpedoes on the other hand are rusted and will probably not be movable. in January 1998 mineclearance divers from the Norwegian Navy rendered the two torpedoes harmless. The detonators where removed before blown up, so the submarine did not recive more damage than it already had sustained.
How the submarine ended on the bottom of the sea is a question that the following taken from Stavanger Aftenblad 31. 21.82 might answer:

Steinar Seland in Tananger remembers an episode after the release in 1945 when a number of one-man submarines where taken out on the open sea from Hafrsfjord....


... That was almost all of
the article... I will translate the rest later tomorrow, or someone maybee wants to have a go at it? Im just a sucker for submarines... If anyone has the position i want it.

[Didrik Venge]

Update on the mini sub aka Midget sub.

Had the pleasure to speak to an local historian, who could tell me some exciting stuff about these midget subs.

These mini sub's where taken in use late in the WW II. In Bergen the Germans had several small bases. Many of these were placed near the sea with a canon/gun station as protection.

Regarding midget subs we need to look into a base who where located near the fjord Korsfjorden. To place a base in Korsfjorden was strategic smart since this fjord joins here. This place gave them control over all the south going traffic in and out of Bergen.

The local historian told me that late in the war, the German's where equipped whit mini sub. So far he knew, they where never put in service. They were placed in a barn, all in all there where around 6-8 mini sub's in this "barn".

He was not certain if it was under the war or after the war the mini sub's where dump in shallow water in Korsfjorden. He was also not certain about circumstance in how they moved them. What we can be certain of is that they moved them on water :o , but did they tow them after a big boat or even a small rowboat?

Korsfjorden is quit shallow, but after a while it gets really deep. The interesting thing around the mini sub's is to find out if they are placed in the shallow part of Korsfjorden.

I'm sure I will find time to go explore this area with side scan. Both me and my friend the "local historian" use side scan to explore new area's.

I'm not sure if it was German mini sub you wanted info about Richard?

Best

Didrik

[Richard Lundgren]

I'm not sure if it was German mini sub you wanted info about Richard?

Best

Didrik

Good post Didrik. German subs are always interesting to say the least. In this case I didn't actually knew much about the German midget subs stationed in Norway, makes it even more interesting. Do some more digging Didrik, you newer know what you will find.

Initially I was most interesting in the British x-type midget subs operating in the Norwegian fjords during WW II. I know that the BBC is interested in this...

Take care,
Richard Lundgren

[Martin Björkdahl]

In May of 1943 the Royal Navy started to develop their midgets, they were of 30 tons, and 48 feet long overall. Surfaced they had a speed of 6.5 knots, and submerged 5 knots, they carried a crew of 4. Unlike the later Japanese midgets, they did not carry Torpedoes, but in lieu, had two portable mines that were detachable, to later be set up under their target. A clockwork mechanism was designed to trigger the detonator, allowing the crew to escape.

On the night of the 11th/ 12th of September, 6 X-Craft sailed under tow by 6 conventional submarines. They were named X5, X6, X7, (their target the "Tirpitz") X9, and X1O, (to attack the "Scharnhorst') and the final craft, X8, (it's target, the "Lutzow.")

The first two German ships were believed to be in Altenfjord, and the "Lutzow" in Langefjord, Norway. X9 and crew were lost on tow. It was always a hazardous operation to be under tow and on board an X-Craft. XS was forced to scuttle, having ballast tank failure, but on this occasion her crew were all rescued.

Since the last photographic reconnaissance, "Scharnhorst" had left her anchorage to go to sea to undertake exercises. K.R. Hudspeth, an Australian Reserve Lieutenant, was forced to call off his attack after his compass and periscope were damaged in boom defence equipment. After laying on the bottom during the 22nd. of September, Hudspeth crawled out to sea again, and it was another 6 days before he managed to meet up with a Mother Submarine who took him in tow.

However in a subsequent storm, X1O, sank still 400 miles from the Shetlands and home. Hudspeth however survived this ordeal, and the war. X5, X6, and X7 all navigated the German mine field on the night of the 20th. of September but then, X5 disappeared, never to be heard from again, ( although German sources claimed to have sunk a Submarine on the morning of the 22nd in the vicinity of Kaa Fjord. )

It must be presumed that this action claimed Lieutenant Henty-Creer, and his crew members in X-5.

X6, and X7 reached their target the "Tirpitz", and Lieutenant Cameron, in X6, dropped his charges, scuttled the boat, and he and his crew were taken prisoner. Lieutenant Place in X7, placed their explosives, then became entangled in German Anti-Submarine nets. A huge blast crippled the "Tirpitz", and at the same time freed X7, but she was abandoned. Place and one crew member escaped to the surface, only to be captured. Both Place and Cameron were awarded the Victoria Cross, which after the war had ended, they were able to collect personally.

So far what I've read.. So should X5, X9 and X10 be wrecks on the bottom.. X9 probably lies somewhere out of Norway, it's uncertain how far they towed her before it sank.. X10 is lying somewhere outside Shetland.

http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/Underwater/26MidgetSubmarines.html

[Richard Lundgren]

[quote=Martin X9 may rest outside Norway[/quote]

Exactly - the British Navy and Liegh Bishop along with Kevin Gurr did some side scan sonar work two mounth ago in this area. To summarice - we need to find out what area they covered so that our Norwegian friends can have a go at it.

Take care
Richard Lundgren

[Martin Björkdahl]

I found some pictures and more information about the X-craft midget submarines..

http://www.heiszwolf.com/subs/plans/smallxboat.jpg
http://www.hsgalleries.com/gallery04/images/xcraftexpo2005_4.jpg

Here is some technical data and also list of the crews who operated this submarines..
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/other_craft_involved/british_ships_involved/submarines/x_craft.html

[Martin Quensel]

So far what I've read.. So should X5, X9 and X10 be wrecks on the bottom.. X9 probably lies somewhere out of Norway, it's uncertain how far they towed her before it sank.. X10 is lying somewhere outside Shetland.

http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/Underwater/26MidgetSubmarines.html

Jupp they where lost because they used old hemp ropes when towing them. The voyage was quite exhausting, the crew got extremly seasick and the boats bounced up and down. The other boats who made the whole voyage had a brand new invention.. Nylon ropes. These ropes did not break as easily as the old hemp ones.

But the two who made it to place charges under the tirpitz.. what happened to them?
One probably got blown to peices since it lay just a few meters from Tirpitz on the bottom. The other one managed to escape a few hundred meters right? I had a book about the mission to sink the Tirpitz.. but i do not trust everything in that book, cause on one page it said that the germans launched helicopters when the first minisub was discovered. Extremely unlikely.

Finding the boats that where lost when towed might answer some interesting facts.. Why did they sink.

[Martin Quensel]

Good post Didrik. German subs are always interesting to say the least. In this case I didn't actually knew much about the German midget subs stationed in Norway, makes it even more interesting. Do some more digging Didrik, you newer know what you will find.

Initially I was most interesting in the British x-type midget subs operating in the Norwegian fjords during WW II. I know that the BBC is interested in this...

Take care,
Richard Lundgren

If you want to film some X craft, its not that hard. You do not even need a underwaterhousing for the video camera if you film at the right time.

from the page below..
"Aberlady Bay, East Lothian, are one of East Lothian's best kept secrets. Follow a walk from the car park at Aberlady Bay Nature Reserve, and if you've timed the tides correctly, you will see the wrecks of two X Craft midget submarines."

http://www.morrice.info/stock_photographs/x-craft.html

[Martin Björkdahl]

If you want to film some X craft, its not that hard. You do not even need a underwaterhousing for the video camera if you film at the right time.

from the page below..
"Aberlady Bay, East Lothian, are one of East Lothian's best kept secrets. Follow a walk from the car park at Aberlady Bay Nature Reserve, and if you've timed the tides correctly, you will see the wrecks of two X Craft midget submarines."

http://www.morrice.info/stock_photographs/x-craft.html

At least you can skip deco on filming that wreck lying on the beech :D *joke*
It would be interested to know if the submarine at Shetland has been filmed or dived at.. I'll do a search on the net about it.. Or is it X10 on the beach?

[Richard Lundgren]

110The Tripitz raid by Geoff Chalcraft
Published on the Ocean Discovery forum with permission from the author

The deployment of Tirpitz, 41,000 tons, by the Germans was as a result of a relatively low success rate against convoys to Britain from the USA. The U-boats had been very successful, but it just wasn't slowing down the re-supply of Britain quickly enough. The Bismarck had been lost and Germany desperately needed to keep up their anti-convoy campaigns against the USA-Britain and Britain-Russia routes. The Tirpitz was one of a family of German Battleships built as surface raiders, and posed a dire threat to Allied convoys. Another sortie like that of the Bismarck in 1941 would again take massive Allied naval effort to contain, and leave the North Sea a happy hunting ground for German movements.
115114
Churchill had dubbed this 41,000 ton monster 'The Beast'. Her very existence engaged a huge commitment in the Royal Navy's heavy units in guarding against her, and her sisters Scharnhorst and Lützow, from breaking out into the Atlantic from their lairs, Kåfjord and Langefjord, in Northern Norway. (see maps).
111112
In these waters, surrounded by steep sided mountains, they were virtually invulnerable to attack. Even in the safety of the anchorage these capital ships had the ability - even without putting to sea - of making sure that the British Home Fleet couldn't move far away from its base at Scapa Flow.

Churchill wrote of Tirpitz in early 1943, "It exercises a vague general fear, and menaces all parts at once. It appears and disappears, causing immediate reactions and perturbation on the other side. If she were only crippled and rendered unseaworthy the entire naval situation throughout the world would be altered and the naval command in the Pacific would be regained". His wish was about to be fulfilled.

Training for the projected attack on the German capital ships began as soon as the boats were delivered, with volunteer crews called for special and hazardous service. Most of the training was carried out at the secret wartime base known as Port HHZ, at Loch Cairnbawn, just north of Loch Ewe on the west coast of Scotland, under the command of Commander T.I.S. Bell, and then of Commander D.C. Ingram DSC RN who, as CO of the Clyde, had torpedoed Gneisenau in 1940. Large ships of the Home Fleet were occasionally called in for realistic training simulation. On 30 August, HMS Titania (Cdr W.R. Fell OBE DSC RN) arrived at Loch Cairnbawn to act as depot ship for the submarines taking part. She was followed two days later by the towing submarines (shown below). Additionally, the Sea Dog and Satyr stood by at Scapa Flow.

Frequent reconnaissance flights over the whole area of Alta Fjord brought back a constant succession of photographs, giving the positions of the German units and recording every movement. There were three capital ships to be attacked, all fairly widely separated, and soon it was discovered from the photographs that they were protected by double rows of anti-torpedo nets, instead of the single row ads had originally been thought. The reconnaissance was extended to cover Sørøy Sound, which leads to the Alten Fjord from the Arctic, and they enabled an accurate picture of the standard daily trawler patrols to be built up. The actual plans for the attack were worked out by Commander G.P.S. Davies, and in April 1943, the six boats were formed into a special flotilla under the command of Captain W.E. Banks.

The final plan (Operation Source) allocated three of the X-craft (X5, X6 and X7) against the Tirpitz, two (X9 and X10) against the Scharnhorst, and one (X8) against the Lützow.
113
By September 1943, training was completed and the six boats were ready. To assist the attack a certain amount of moon was desirable to help the X-craft in the passage up the fjords by night, and eventually it was decided to sail from Port HHZ on 11th September to arrive off Söröy Sound by the 20th. The six boats had a journey of between 1000 and 1500 miles to make before reaching Altafjord. They did so in the tow of submarines, the six concerned being the Truculent, Syrtis, Seanymph, Thrasher, Stubborn and Sceptre. The X-craft were towed dived, coming up to the surface every six hours to ventilate their hulls. Each craft had two crews, one 3-man crew for the passage and one 4-man crew for the operation. The operational crews were onboard the towing submarines. The journey to Altafjord cannot be underestimated - even from the north of Scotland, the route covers the equivalent of about two and a half times the 'length' - i.e. north to south - of Britain, and for six submarines to make the journey while towing midget submarines called for enormous dedication from all individuals.

There were some mishaps during the passage, mainly due to tow-ropes parting. Both X8 and X9 broke adrift. X8, towed by Seanymph, eventually made contact again, but of X9 nothing more was seen and she was presumed damaged and sunk, and her transit crew lost. There was also trouble with the towing of X7 but this was rectified and she and the Stubborn eventually arrived safely off the entrance to the fjord. X8 was not so fortunate. She had to jettison her two explosive charges because of air leaks which developed in her high-pressure air system and one of them detonated with such force that X8 was badly damaged. Unable to dive, she was scuttled and her crew taken aboard the Seanymph.

On 19th September three submarines, each with their X-craft in tow, made their correct landfall off the mouth of Söröy Sound and the operational crews were transferred. The fourth, X7 in the tow of Stubborn, was delayed due to the towing trouble. On her way in, the Stubborn had sighted a floating mine and the mooring wire had fouled the tow, the mine sliding down the towing wire had become impaled on the bows of X7. Lt B.C.G. Place, the operational CO of X7, went forward on to the casing and cleared it with his foot. By 2000 on the 20th, the four remaining X-craft - X5, X6, X7, X10 - were slipped from their tows. They crossed over the minefield on the surface and then dived at dawn to continue their course, through Stjernsund and into Altafjord, reached by dusk on the 21st. From there they proceeded to the Brattholm group of islands to charge their batteries for the final run in to their targets. They were then only four miles from Kå Fjord, where the German ships lay behind their nets at the innermost part of the Altafjord, past the small town of Alta. (Perhaps it is worth mentioning now that the names 'Altafjord' and 'Altenfjord' are interchangeable in Norwegian - it's a gender-noun definitive thing. Also, that the 'Kå' in Kåfjord - or 'Kaafjord' - is pronounced to rhyme with 'jaw' - accept no substitute!).

Please read about the individual attacks before picking up the story again below.

Individual Attacks X5 (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/x5.html) X6 (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/x6.html) X7 (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/x7.html) X10 (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/x10.html)
The first knowledge aboard the Tirpitz that more than one X-craft was attacking was when X7 was seen outside the anti-torpedo nets after laying her charges. That was just after 0730, some fifty minutes before all the charges were due to explode. Those on board the battleship realised at once the nature of the attack and that some sort of charge had been laid. In order to minimise the severity of the explosion, the Tirpitz began heaving in on her starboard cable and veering on her port in order to swing her bows away from the position where it was thought that X6 had laid her charges. This, in fact, happened, but there was still one charge from X7 under her engine-room. The movement of the ship's bows took her about 50 yards from both of X6's and one of X7's charges, but left the second of X7's under the ship in a very vulnerable position. All four charges weighed about two tons each.

The charges exploded about 15 minutes before the set time and before the Tirpitz had time to move completely out of danger. The explosion lifted the stern of the ship about six feet out of the water. Considerable damage was done and she took in 500 tons of water. Her main engines were put out of action and her after turrets damaged. Her casualties were one man killed and 40 wounded.

Both Lieutenants Place and Cameron, whose successful placing of their charges damaged the ship in the first instance, were awarded the Victoria Cross. Sub-Lieutenants Lorimer, Kendall and Aitken received the Distinguished Service Order, and ERA Goddard the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

In the German archives captured after the war was a report that "as a result of the successful midget submarine attack on heavy units of the Battle Group, the battle-cruiser Tirpitz has been put out of action for months". In fact, she did not move from her anchorage until April, 1944, after extensive repair work had been carried out in Kå Fjord. When she did at last come out, it was to the Tromsø Fjord that she moved. Here she was at last within range of heavy bombers and, after several attempts, she was finally destroyed by the 'Tallboy' attack from the air. On 12 Nov.1944, it was again attacked while holed up in Norway. This time the RAF dispatched 32 Lancaster bombers from No. 9 and 617 Squadrons based at Lossiemouth, Scotland. Flying at 14,000 feet, they scored three direct hits with 12,000-pound Tallboy bombs tearing open her hull for a hundred feet. The Tirpitz turned completely over and sank taking 971 crewmen to their deaths. Only 76 men survived. Only once during the war had the Tirpitz fired its huge guns and that was in the bombardment of Spitzbergen in September, 1943, which destroyed the Allied supply bases there. In the overall story of the naval war, while the German battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had done some damage to the Royal Navy, the Bismarck had been destroyed at sea, and the Tirpitz had been penned in to Norway, and finally destroyed, by the combined efforts of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. If the latter two giants had been allowed to roam the Atlantic, the lifeline from Canada and the USA would surely have been cut.

Reference site: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/tirpitz.html (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/tirpitz.html)

[Martin Quensel]

If you find it, it would be interesting to see if there is some old hemp rope lying next to her.

[boreox]

If you need some additional information about the "Molch" located in Hafrsfjord, near Stavanger, Norway.
Please do not hesitate to ask.
Kindest regards
Ove Bore (Finder)

[Richard Lundgren]

If you need some additional information about the "Molch" located in Hafrsfjord, near Stavanger, Norway.
Please do not hesitate to ask.
Kindest regards
Ove Bore (Finder)

That goes without saying Ove :)

Please let us know more about the discovery etc.

Take care
Richard Lundgren

[boreox]

That goes without saying Ove :)

Please let us know more about the discovery etc.

Take care
Richard Lundgren

Well, i do not quite know where to start, but the reason why we preformed a search in that spcific area was because an old crab fisherman claimed to have seen something resemling a plane wreck. When we found the molch, we did not have a clue what this object was. the internet, and the brothers Rudolf, and Erling Svendsen (two of Norways most experienced uw photographers) who actually had been looking for one of theese subs for a long time with no luck helped us finding out that this was a mini sub from WW2. We found out that this had to be one of several subs who in the end of the ww2, was stored nearby Stavanger Airport. After the war allied forces demanded that all such equipment should be destructed, and instead of sending them to a scrap yard, the subs was sunk in a unknown fjord somewhere near stavanger. There are however different theories why this sub is lying in such a shallow area. One theory is that it has been used for target practice, another is that it sunk due to other circumstaces such as bad weather, or it hit a underwater reef. All indications says that this sub did not sink during combat. There are eyewitnesses that claims to have seen (after the war ended) several mini subs going on their own engines towards "Kvitsøy"(a area that is quite deep), and it allmost looks like this one sunk on its way there.
The contition of the sub is quite poor. Due to shallow water, and because this area is exposed to quite extreme winter storms there are big holes in the two torpedos, but most of the main hull is intact. When the navy divers removed the 2X 250kg torpedo warheads the warheads simply broke off without any big trouble. Everything behind the cockpit is broken off, and is lying scattered around in back of the sub. The sub propably hit the bottom with the aft end first when it went down.
This is all i can tell you for now, but if u got any questions just ask.
Rgds
Ove