HMS Tirpitz

Not going to happen during WWII. However, if the fighters that should have been protecting Tirpitz had been scrambled in time there's a good chance the Lancaster raid would fail and Tirpitz would survive the war. Then the British might get her as war reparations.

She might be commissioned with a skeleton crew for propaganda reasons and trials. The RN did this after the war with other captured German warships.

However, after the trials had been completed she would be passed onto the Americans who would have her vaporized in the Bikini atom bomb tests. The USA received the Prinz Eugen as war reparations and used her as a target at Bikini.

Or she would be given to the French who would use her as an operational warship until the middle of the 1950s. She might remain in service long enough to fire her guns in anger during the Suez War.
 
The RN and RCN captured it in APOD....towed it out of the fiord and back to the UK.

Hitler's ranting could heard in the US.....:D
 
Not going to happen during WWII. However, if the fighters that should have been protecting Tirpitz had been scrambled in time there's a good chance the Lancaster raid would fail and Tirpitz would survive the war. Then the British might get her as war reparations.

She might be commissioned with a skeleton crew for propaganda reasons and trials. The RN did this after the war with other captured German warships.

However, after the trials had been completed she would be passed onto the Americans who would have her vaporized in the Bikini atom bomb tests. The USA received the Prinz Eugen as war reparations and used her as a target at Bikini.

Or she would be given to the French who would use her as an operational warship until the middle of the 1950s. She might remain in service long enough to fire her guns in anger during the Suez War.
I think that it's pretty unlikely she would see service - U-570/HMS Graph was the only captured warship to be recommissioned and even then she only did three war patrols before the RN were unable to maintain her. The German U-boats were generally pretty advanced submarines for the time - some bad features but overall more advanced than their Allied equivalents. The same can't be said for Tirpitz - she's a very poor design compared to just about anything in service with the Allies except the R-class, and the problems with supporting her would be even more extreme.
 
Bad news for Britain, the Germans are bound to believe that Enigma has been captured.

It will make a nice PR boost as it is sails along the US east coast.

The post war film will have Americans as the British and Norwegians who did the deed, and British actors as the Germans.
 

Driftless

Donor
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The post war film will have Americans as the British and Norwegians who did the deed, and British actors as the Germans.

;)

Or, the British roles get switched to Canadians for the story, but would be played by American actors. The Norwegians would be played by Americans with odd cartoon accents.. The Germans would be likely be played by refugee actors who had fled the Nazis (i.e. Conrad Viedt, Paul Heinried, Peter Lorre, etc) Kind of a bitter irony for them...
 
How can you steal a ship, requiring a skelleton crew of at least 500 to 1000 men and officers? That is a seriously large raidingparty to do the job. Unlikely it would remain unnoticed for the duration of the operation. It is not that simple to run a ship that size and compelxity, with just a few men of a typical raidingparty of commando's.
 
Following them up, the French Foreign Legion rescues the Eiffel Tower from under the noses of the Nazi occupiers.

"Hans! Ich told you to keep ze eyes on ze tower! Dummkopf!"
 
A commando raid that boarded the ship would likely scuttle it rather than trying to capture. The only way it would be HMS Tirpitz is in the war reparations scenario.
 
I think that it's pretty unlikely she would see service - U-570/HMS Graph was the only captured warship to be recommissioned and even then she only did three war patrols before the RN were unable to maintain her. The German U-boats were generally pretty advanced submarines for the time - some bad features but overall more advanced than their Allied equivalents. The same can't be said for Tirpitz - she's a very poor design compared to just about anything in service with the Allies except the R-class, and the problems with supporting her would be even more extreme.

German Type VII boats were no more nor less advanced than Allied boats. The Diesel engines were powerful but had poor crank bearings leading to a short life, the Periscopes were very good, the electrics less so, the main battery was considered poor compared to British batteries and very short ranged compared to the admittedly much bigger US boats. The early German torpedo firing system was inferior to British systems but this was rectified after tests on the captured HMS Seal which Donitz rated better than an equivalent U Boat. The Germans better understood how to build deep diving boats though later Allied boats built with the knowledge from examining HMS Graph could dive almost as deep. British boats could dive quicker and were more manouverable underwater till the VIIC got twin balanced rudders and the again much bigger US boats were positively Cruise liner comfortable compared to the cramped squalid German and British boats.
 
If captured in excellent shape, would stay as a prize, then Museum ship like the U-505, or scrapped with the rest of the pre-WWII RN Fleet in the '50s?
 
By a serendipitous quirk of fate, the Tirpitz was crewed by closet Jewish racists, who hated Norwegians. The captain, played in the movie by Sean Connery, worst accent ever, decides to sail the ship to Scapa Flow, and go fishing. The first officer wants to open a pub in Glasgow.
 
By a serendipitous quirk of fate, the Tirpitz was crewed by closet Jewish racists, who hated Norwegians. The captain, played in the movie by Sean Connery, worst accent ever, decides to sail the ship to Scapa Flow, and go fishing. The first officer wants to open a pub in Glasgow.

Now that may work.....:cool:
 
If captured in excellent shape, would stay as a prize, then Museum ship like the U-505, or scrapped with the rest of the pre-WWII RN Fleet in the '50s?

Captured or surrendered at the end of the war? It makes a difference. All vessels surrendered at the end of the war had to be destroyed within a set amount of time. The U-505 was not covered by that clause since it was captured during the war not surrendered at the end of the war. That is all explained in Adm Gallery's book.
 
;)

Or, the British roles get switched to Canadians for the story, but would be played by American actors. The Norwegians would be played by Americans with odd cartoon accents.. The Germans would be likely be played by refugee actors who had fled the Nazis (i.e. Conrad Viedt, Paul Heinried, Peter Lorre, etc) Kind of a bitter irony for them...

Can't be any worse than using Jewish-German refugees to play the camp guards in Hogans Hero's.
 

Driftless

Donor
Can't be any worse than using Jewish-German refugees to play the camp guards in Hogans Hero's.

There were some twists in casting there.....

Col. Klink (Werner Klemperer), Sgt Schultz (John Banner), Gen'l Burkhalter (Leon Askin) were all refugees from the Nazis & each later served in the US Army.

Lebeau (Robert Clary) was a survivor of the Nazi death camps. If I remember correctly, he survived Auschwitz by being stuffed into a garbage can when the SS was trying to "clear out" the camp near the end of the war.
 
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