44-12-3 Home Guard Stands Down

Home Guard Ends - 1944 3 Dec > .  

44-11-12 Tirpitz sunk by RAF

RAF VS Hitler's Deadliest Battleship (WW2 Doc) > .  

Mini-subs vs Tirpitz > .

Sink the Tirpitz - Hunting Germany's Super Battleship - mfp > .

Avro Lancaster: How did the Dambusters' bomber secure victory? - IWM > . 

Last of the Tirpitz - 1944, 12 November - Movietone > .

21-7-24 Global Britain: Old Idea. Ripe for Comeback? Royal Navy - Explore > .

Tirpitz was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (navy) during World War II. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and her hull was launched two and a half years later. Work was completed in February 1941, when she was commissioned into the German fleet. Like her sister ship Bismarck, Tirpitz was armed with a main battery of eight 38-centimetre (15 in) guns in four twin turrets. After a series of wartime modifications she was 2000 tonnes heavier than Bismarck, making her the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy.

After completing sea trials in early 1941, Tirpitz briefly served as the centrepiece of the Baltic Fleet, which was intended to prevent a possible break-out attempt by the Soviet Baltic Fleet. In early 1942, the ship sailed to Norway to act as a deterrent against an Allied invasion. While stationed in Norway, Tirpitz was also intended to be used to intercept Allied convoys to the Soviet Union, and two such missions were attempted in 1942. This was the only feasible role for her, since the St Nazaire Raid had made operations against the Atlantic convoy lanes too risky. Tirpitz acted as a fleet in being, forcing the British Royal Navy to retain significant naval forces in the area to contain the battleship.

In September 1943, Tirpitz, along with the battleship Scharnhorst, bombarded Allied positions on Spitzbergen, the only time the ship used her main battery in an offensive role. Shortly thereafter, the ship was damaged in an attack by British mini-submarines and subsequently subjected to a series of large-scale air raids. On 12 November 1944, British Lancaster bombers equipped with 12,000-pound (5,400 kg) "Tallboy" bombs scored two direct hits and a near miss which caused the ship to capsize rapidly. A deck fire spread to the ammunition magazine for one of the main battery turrets, which caused a large explosion. Figures for the number of men killed in the attack range from 950 to 1,204. Between 1948 and 1957, the wreck was broken up by a joint Norwegian and German salvage operation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Tirpitz .

44-11-10 Explosion of USS Mount Hood

Explosion of USS Mount Hood, November 10, 1944 - HiGu > .

The ammunition ship USS Mount Hood was responsible for supplying ammunition to hundreds of ships from the United States Third Fleet in Seeadler Harbor. On November 10, 1944, something went terribly wrong. The story reminds us that the sailors on support vessels risked their lives in the World War II effort.

Seeadler Harbor, also known as Port Seeadler, is located on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea and played an important role in World War II. In German, "Seeadler" means sea eagle, pointing to German colonial activity between 1884 and 1919 in that area. The bay was named in 1900 after the German cruiser SMS Seeadler. 

On 29 February 1944, General Douglas MacArthur led Operation Brewer to take the islands from the Japanese who had occupied them beginning in 1942. The islands were secured by the Americans on 19 March 1944, who then built a large base at Seeadler Harbor including wharves and an airbase. This base served as a staging area for further World War II operations in New Guinea and the Philippines.

USS Mount Hood exploded accidentally while moored in Seeadler Harbor on 10 November 1944. The ship was carrying ammunition and the tremendous explosion caused 432 fatalities, 371 wounded, damage to surrounding ships and base from debris and sinking or severely damaging 22 smaller craft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeadler_Harbor .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Islands_campaign#Securing_Seeadler_Harbour .

44-12-31 Unternehmen Nordwind 45-1-25

Panther vs Sherman - Operation Nordwind 1945 > .

Western Front 1944-45: 1/2 - Animated History > .

Western Front 1944-45: 2/2 | Animated History > . 

Operation Nordwind (Unternehmen Nordwind) was the last major German offensive of WW2 on the Western Front. It began on 31 December 1944 in Rhineland-Palatinate, Alsace and Lorraine in southwestern Germany and northeastern France, and ended on 25 January 1945.

In a briefing at his military command complex at Adlerhorst, Adolf Hitler declared in his speech to his division commanders on 28 December 1944 (three days prior to the launch of Operation Nordwind): "This attack has a very clear objective, namely the destruction of the enemy forces. There is not a matter of prestige involved here. It is a matter of destroying and exterminating the enemy forces wherever we find them."

The goal of the offensive was to break through the lines of the U.S. Seventh Army and French 1st Army in the Upper Vosges mountains and the Alsatian Plain, and destroy them, as well as the seizure of Strasbourg, which Himmler had promised would be captured by 30 January. This would leave the way open for Operation Dentist (Unternehmen Zahnarzt), a planned major thrust into the rear of the U.S. Third Army which would lead to the destruction of that army.

44-8-23 King Michael of Romania ~ Ion Antonescu

23rd August 1944: King Michael of Romania leads a coup d'etat against against Ion Antonescu > .