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Operation Mascot was an unsuccessful British carrier air raid conducted against the German battleship ''Tirpitz'' at her anchorage in Kaafjord, Norway, on 17 July 1944. The attack was one of a series of strikes against the battleship launched from aircraft carriers between April and August 1944, and was initiated after Allied intelligence determined that the damage inflicted during the Operation Tungsten raid on 3 April had been repaired. A force of 44 British dive bombers and 40 fighters took off from three aircraft carriers in the early hours of 17 July. German radar stations detected these aircraft while they were en route to Kaafjord, and ''Tirpitz'' was protected by a smoke screen by the time the strike force arrived. Few of the British airmen were able to spot the battleship, and their attacks did not inflict any significant damage. German losses were limited to a patrol craft damaged beyond repair, and three British aircraft were destroyed or damaged beyond repair by Kaafjord's defenders. A group of German submarines attempted to intercept the carrier force as it returned to base, without success. Two U-boats were sunk near the carriers by British patrol aircraft and several others were damaged. Despite the failure of Operation Mascot, the Royal Navy attempted four further carrier raids against ''Tirpitz'' during August 1944. These attacks were also unsuccessful, and the task of sinking the battleship was transferred to the Royal Air Force. ==Background== From early 1942 ''Tirpitz'' posed a significant threat to the Allied convoys transporting supplies through the Norwegian Sea to the Soviet Union. Operating from fjords on the Norwegian coast, the battleship was capable of overwhelming the close-escort forces assigned to the Arctic convoys or breaking out into the North Atlantic.〔Ellis (1999), pp. 294–295〕 To counter this threat, the Allies were forced to keep a powerful force of warships with the British Home Fleet, and capital ships accompanied most convoys part of the way to the Soviet Union.〔Bennett (2012), p. 9〕〔Faulkner and Wilkinson (2012), p. 109〕 Several air and naval attacks were launched against ''Tirpitz'' in 1942 and 1943. On 6 March 1942, torpedo bombers flying from the aircraft carrier attacked the battleship while she was attempting to intercept Convoy PQ 12 but did not achieve any hits.〔Bennett (2012), p. 11〕〔Bishop (2012), pp. 78–83〕 Land-based bombers from the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Soviet Air Forces also attempted to strike ''Tirpitz'' in her anchorages on several occasions in 1942 and 1943, but did not inflict any damage.〔 On 23 September 1943, two British X-class midget submarines penetrated defences around the battleship at her main anchorage at Kaafjord in northern Norway during Operation Source, and placed explosive charges in the water beneath her. This attack caused extensive damage to ''Tirpitz'', putting her out of service for six months.〔Woodman (2004), p. 340〕 As ''Tirpitz'' was still considered a major threat to Allied shipping, the British military sought to damage or destroy the battleship before she could re-enter service. Another midget submarine attack was considered impractical due to improvements to Kaafjord's defences, and the commander of the RAF's Bomber Command refused to attempt heavy bomber raids against the battleship as he believed that such operations were unlikely to be successful and would result in heavy casualties.〔Zetterling and Tamelander (2009), p. 265〕〔Bishop (2012), p. 294〕 As a result, the Home Fleet's aircraft carriers were considered the best means of attacking Kaafjord, and the Admiralty directed the fleet to begin planning such a raid in late 1943.〔Zetterling and Tamelander (2009), pp. 265–267〕 Following several months of preparations the Home Fleet's first attack on Kaafjord, which was designated Operation Tungsten, was conducted on 3 April 1944 and involved five aircraft carriers. The two strike forces of 20 Fairey Barracuda dive bombers escorted by 40 fighters were not detected during their flights to Kaafjord, and the battleship was hit by 15 bombs. While ''Tirpitz''s crew suffered heavy casualties, the ship was not badly damaged.〔Bennett (2012), pp. 14–17〕 Nevertheless, the damage inflicted on ''Tirpitz''s superstructure, armament and engines was sufficient to put her out of service for several months while repairs were completed. The commander of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'', Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, placed a priority on returning the battleship to service so that she could continue to tie down Allied naval resources. However, he and other senior German officers recognised at this time that the threat of further air attacks meant that ''Tirpitz'' could no longer operate against Allied convoys.〔Garzke and Dulin (1985), p. 267〕 British intelligence assessed that ''Tirpitz'' could be repaired within six months, and the Admiralty ordered further carrier-borne strikes against the battleship. While First Sea Lord Andrew Cunningham did not believe that Barracudas could carry weapons capable of sinking ''Tirpitz'', he hoped that further attacks would increase the period the battleship was out of service and harm her crew's morale.〔Roskill (1960), p. 278〕〔Zetterling and Tamelander (2009), p. 280〕 The commander of the Home Fleet, Vice Admiral Bruce Fraser, initially resisted this order on the grounds that further carrier raids on Kaafjord were unlikely to be successful as ''Tirpitz''s defences would have been reinforced and weather conditions were likely to be worse than those encountered during Operation Tungsten. Following an argument with Cunningham, Fraser eventually agreed to attack Kaafjord again.〔 Despite the decision to make further attacks on Kaafjord, many of the Home Fleet's airmen were posted to other units following Operation Tungsten. This hindered subsequent operations against German forces in Norway as the new aircrew were less experienced than the men they replaced.〔Zetterling and Tamelander (2009), p. 283〕 Three raids against ''Tirpitz'' were cancelled after launch due to unfavourable weather during April and May 1944. The first of these attacks, Operation Planet, began when the Home Fleet sailed from its base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands on 21 April. This operation involved the same aircraft carriers as had taken part in Operation Tungsten, aside from the substitution of the escort carrier with sister ship . The fleet reached the position where its aircraft were to be flown off three days later, but the raid was cancelled when Allied agents near Kaafjord reported bad weather over the target area.〔〔Sweetman (2000), p. 72〕 The fleet then sailed south, and attacked a German convoy near Bodø, sinking three merchant ships for the loss of six aircraft.〔 The Home Fleet put to sea to attack ''Tirpitz'' again in mid-May in what was designated Operation Brawn.〔〔Bishop (2012), p. 310〕 A strike force of 27 Barracudas escorted by Vought F4U Corsair and Supermarine Seafire fighters took off from the carriers and ''Victorious'' on the afternoon of 15 May, but encountered heavy cloud over Kaafjord and returned without attacking.〔Brown (1977), p. 36〕〔Sweetman (2000), p. 73〕 The next raid, Operation Tiger Claw, was launched in late May. The planned attack on Kaafjord—which would have also involved aircraft flying from ''Furious'' and ''Victorious''—had to be cancelled due to bad weather on 28 May.〔 Instead, the carriers sailed south in search of German convoys. In a raid conducted on 1 June, the carriers' aircraft sank four merchant vessels near Ålesund.〔 No further attacks were attempted during June as the ships of the Home Fleet were needed to support the Normandy landings that month.〔Levy (2003), p. 147〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Mascot」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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