On 10 September 1944, 38 Avro Lancasters of 617 and 9 Squadrons, two Liberator transports and a weather reconnaissance Mosquito deployed to Yagodnik airfield in Arkhangelsk Oblast, north west Russia. The airfield was used as a temporary base in September 1944 to launch Operation Paravane, a bombing raid against the German battleship Tirpitz in Kåfjord in northern Norway.

Poor visibility prevented many aircraft from finding Yagodnik airfield. Short of fuel, some aircraft made emergency landings at a small airfield on Kergostrov Island and several of the bombers crash-landed. Other aircraft were scattered across the region.

Operation Paravane was the attack carried out by RAF Bomber Command on September 15, 1944 against the German battleship Tirpitz at harbour in the far north of Norway. The Tirpitz was a major threat to the convoys supplying the Soviet Union. Flying via a Soviet airfield, two squadrons attacked. A single bomb hit the ship, disabling her and causing the Germans to tow her south to Tromsø where she would be sunk in Operation Catechism a few weeks later.


The Tirpitz was out of range for Lancasters based in Britain, so they had to fly from their bases in Lincolnshire to Lossiemouth, refuel and then fly to the Russian airfield at Yagodnik, 600 miles from Kåfjord. The defence of the Tirpitz relied on the protection of the narrow fjord, coupled with a highly effective smoke screen system. A pipeline surrounded the fjord, allowing smoke to be generated with the turn of a tap; coupled with nearly 100 smoke pots the entire fjord could be filled with smoke in eight minutes. There were also flak batteries to augment the ship's own anti-aircraft guns.


Thirty-eight Lancasters left Lossiemouth on 11 September 1944. One was forced to return to Britain. After 11 hours in the air, they arrived at Yagodnik to find it covered in 10/10ths cloud at 300 to 500 feet and driving rain, and thirteen Lancasters failed to find the airfield. However the Russians soon located them and all the crews were recovered, although two of 617's aircraft and four of 9 Squadron could not be retrieved from the marshes. Rain set in and the crews were grounded. On the morning of the 15 September, the weather plane reported that the skies were clear over the Altafjord, and twenty-eight Lancasters set off over the White Sea. Twenty carried 5 ton Tallboy bombs, seven carried 400-500lb "Johnny Walker" mines designed for use against ships in shallow water, and one was fitted for photo-reconnaissance.


However as the Altafjord came into sight, the smokescreen was turned on. Only Tait in the leading aircraft caught a glimpse of the masts as they disappeared under the smoke, and his bomb-aimer Danny Daniels had to release the bomb by guesswork. Howard, Freddie Watts and Sanders aimed at gun flashes in the smoke, Kell and Knilans bombed on the spot the Tirpitz was last seen; the others bombed by flying beneath the smoke screen and using the intense light flak from the ship as a guide. A number of aircraft did not bomb including two IX squadron aircraft whose Tallboy bombs 'hung up'. Of these P.O. Scott and his crew, veterans of twenty nine previous raids attempted no less than four runs on the target, before heading back to base. P.O. Scott's Tallboy later fell through the closed bomb doors of his aircraft shortly before landing. When the crews had landed, Woods, one of the bomb aimers, said that he had seen Daniels' bomb hit the ship, but no one believed him. The crews that still had their bombs wanted to have another go, but the weather broke again and they returned home. Levy's aircraft never arrived at Lossiemouth; it is thought he flew into the mountains somewhere in Norway. Eleven men died, including four of Wyness' crew.



 

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