the German battleship Tirpitz. The operation sought to damage or destroy
Tirpitz at her base in Kaafjord in the far north of Norway before she
could become fully operational again following a period of repairs and
potentially attack convoys carrying supplies to the Soviet Union. After
four months of training and preparations, the British Home Fleet sailed
on 30 March 1944 and aircraft launched from five aircraft carriers
struck Kaafjord on 3 April (bomb preparations pictured). The raid
achieved surprise, with the British aircraft meeting little opposition.
Fifteen bombs hit the battleship, and strafing by fighter aircraft
inflicted heavy casualties on her gun crews. Four British aircraft and
nine airmen were lost during the operation. The damage inflicted during
the attack was not sufficient to sink or disable Tirpitz, but 122
members of her crew were killed and 316 wounded. The British conducted
further carrier raids against Tirpitz between April and August 1944, but
none were successful. Tirpitz was eventually disabled and then sunk by
Royal Air Force heavy bombers in late 1944.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tungsten>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1043:
Edward the Confessor was crowned King of England, the last king
of the House of Wessex.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Confessor>
1895:
The libel trial instigated by Irish author Oscar Wilde began,
eventually resulting in Wilde's arrest, trial and imprisonment on
charges of gross indecency.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde>
1922:
Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin>
1961:
An individual Leadbeater's possum, thought to have been extinct
for over 50 years, was discovered in New South Wales, Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadbeater%27s_possum>
1996:
A U.S. Air Force CT-43 crashed into a mountainside while
attempting an instrument approach to Dubrovnik Airport in Dubrovnik,
Croatia, killing U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and all the other
34 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Croatia_USAF_CT-43_crash>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
snail mail:
(retronym) Postal mail, especially as compared to email.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/snail_mail>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
 Art that means anything in the life of a community must bear
some relation to current interpretations of the mystery of the universe.
Our rigid separation of the humanities and the sciences has temporarily
left our art stranded or stammering and incoherent. Both art and science
ought to be blended in our early education of our children's emotions
and powers of observation, and that harmony carried forward in later
education.
--Dora Russell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dora_Russell>
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