- The attack by British submarines on the German battleship "Tirpitz" in a Norwegian fjord during World War II.
- In World War II, the greatest threat to the British Navy is the German battleship Tirpitz. Being anchored in a Norwegian fjord, it is impossible to attack it with any chance of success. But the Navy trains a special commando to attack it, using little submarines to plant underwater explosives under it.—Mattias Thuresson
- The Royal Navy (RN) is concerned about attacks on convoys by German submarines while having to keep "half the fleet" guarding against the German battleship Tirpitz (because of the threat it poses to the Allied war effort). Tirpitz is 60 miles from the sea inside a Norwegian fjord, and attempts by the Royal Air Force (RAF) to sink her have failed. These ships could be guarding the Atlantic convoys. Commander Fraser (John Mills) is determined to prove that attack by human torpedoes is practical, despite skepticism from RN higher echelons including Admiral Ryder (James Robertson Justice).
Fraser assembles and trains a force of British commando frogmen officers (Lieutenant Alec Duffy (John Gregson), Lieutenant Tom Corbett (Donald Sinden), Abercrombie (James Kenney), Ramsey (William Russell), Steward Smart (Michael Medwin), Hutchins (Thomas Heathcote)) and ratings to use the Mk I Human Torpedo manned torpedoes (Chariots) at their Scottish base. He gets them trained on deep sea diving, escaping to the surface from great depths. After being refused permission to attack Tirpitz, due to the RN policy of avoiding unproven weaponry, the team manage to attach dummy limpet mines to the admiral's own ship. They manage to evade a submarine net and 2 patrol boats to accomplish their task and this impresses Ryder. But later Fraser finds that the 2 men who accomplished the mission got sick, by being underwater at high depths for a prolonged period.
Their success results in Fraser's force being authorized to attack Tirpitz with the initial operation using the Chariots. Lieutenant Anderson (John Horsley) Royal Norwegian Navy briefs the team about the location of the Tirpitz (which is 60 miles inland from the Norwegian Fjord) and the security around it (The underwater crafts will be unarmed going through the best defended stretches of water known to the Allies). The attack fails (as the mini-submarine craft tethered to a Norwegian fishing boat comes loose and is lost during a storm. The fishing boat itself passes inspection from a German patrol boat. The boat had gotten within 10 miles of the Turpitz and could have sunk it, had the submarines survived the storm) and the crew are forced to abandon ship and land in Norway (On the way to Sweden, they are confronted by a German foot patrol and one of their group is shot before the team can overpower the Germans). They walk to neutral Sweden from where they are returned to Scotland.
For the next operation, the crews are trained to use small X-Craft submarines: X1, X2 and X3. These X-crafts are covered, so submariners travel in them and not on them, and they have 4 tonnes of explosives in them for some serious firepower. The three craft are initially towed over the North Sea by conventional submarines and then left to penetrate the fjord where Tirpitz is anchored. Commander Fraser riding in the X1 is in charge of the entire operation. The movie reflects on the mental state of the X-craft crew who know that this is a suicide mission. They could die, or if they succeed, they would most probably be captured by the Germans and tortured in a POW camp. The X-crafts are piloted by transfer crews, who are switched for the operational crews once the submarines get to the drop off point. There the crew has to fight off a German sea mine, with their bare hands, as it floats towards the X-3. The X-2 gets lost due to a defective gyroscope and the captain decides to rest the ship on the surface of the sea, which is only 30 feet in that area. But the X-2 is damaged during the operation.. X-3 narrowly avoids a German patrol boat while it surfaced to get its bearings.
X-3 then gets closer to the Turpitz and deploys a diver to cut through submarine nets. The X-1 meanwhile finds an opening in the nets (for a fishing trawler) and they follow it to get through, saving them hours of cutting work. The X-2 decides to go after the Turpitz replying just on periscope, as it is only 10 miles out and may have the best shot of getting at the ship. All the 3 submarines get close to the ship.
They manage to approach undetected to lay their "side-cargoes" under the ship's hull, each containing two tons of explosive Amatol. X2 is badly damaged and cannot re-surface (as it was stuck by an oncoming cargo ship which they failed to defect. The periscope is also damaged and they are now blind as the gyroscope is also not working), but the crew decide to stay on board to prevent "giving the game away". The X-1 scrapes under the anti-torpedo nets and now has a straight run at the Turpitz. The X-1 is seen by a junior soldier on board the Turpitz, and depth charges are deployed.. X-1 survives. X-3 gets close to the ship as well and is spotted after it has to blow its ballast tanks to escape the anti torpedo nets. The Turpitz is alerted and starts firing.. But the X-3 manages to evade the firing and gets underneath the Tupitz to set its side cargoes. The captain of the Turpitz launches divers to neutralize the threat to the ship. They start to warm up the engines to move the ship, but this takes time.
The other two submarines succeed in laying their mines before the crews scuttle them. the X-3 is stuck under the ship as the hydro-panes are damaged, so the captain decides to scuttle the submarine and surface themselves. They are captured by the crew of Tirpitz, to be taken away as prisoners of war. While some German crew are aggressive, attempting to machine gun the men in the water, the captain of Tirpitz (O. E. Hasse) salutes them as "brave men", providing them blankets and schnapps. The X-1 is also forced to bail out as their engine is damaged. The mines explode as planned, badly damaging Tirpitz. The crew of the stranded X2, hearing the explosions, attempt to escape. However, X2's side cargoes have flooded, which causes them to spontaneously explode, destroying X2 and killing her crew.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content