E172 - Hunting the Beast Part 1

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

November 2024

On the 12th of November 1944 Germany’s largest battleship – Tirpitz – was sunk by British RAF Lancaster bombers off Tromso in Norway.

Ever since its deployment to the region back in January 1942, the battleship had posed a threat to Arctic convoy operations. A large part of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet as well as US vessels were tied up protecting convoys from this ship that Winston Churchill christened ‘The Beast’.

Despite Tirpitz having never fired its guns in anger at Allied warships, its presence was threat enough. Intelligence experts continued the difficult work of tracking its location and state of readiness.

The analysts of Bletchley Park’s Naval Section followed the ship for nearly three years, and played a key part in her final destruction. In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, we are joined by Dr David Kenyon, Bletchley Park’s Research Historian and author of ‘Arctic Convoys: Bletchley Park and the War for the Seas’.

Many thanks to Dr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

Image: Naval History and Heritage Command Catalog #: NH 71318

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Enigma, #Tirpitz,

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is Mark, the podcast producer.
0:04.4	Just a quick note before the show.
0:06.7	Because of the amount of detail in the story of Turpitz,
0:09.5	from construction to destruction,
0:11.5	we've split this episode into two parts.
0:14.3	This first part looks at the early history of the ship
0:16.7	that Churchill called the Beast.
0:19.3	Now over to the show.
0:57.7	Thank you. that Churchill called the Beast. Now over to the show. from the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing this is the Bletchley Park podcast. Welcome to the November 24 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.
1:03.8	Hunting the Beast, Part 1.
1:07.3	On the 12th of November, 1944, Germany's largest battleship, Turpitz, was sunk by British
1:13.3	R.A.F Lancaster bombers off Tromzo in Norway.
1:17.5	Ever since its deployment to the region back in January, 1942, the battleship had posed
1:22.5	a threat to Arctic convoy operations. A large part of the Royal Navy's home fleet as well as US vessels
1:28.9	were tied up protecting convoys from this ship that Winston Churchill christened the Beast.
1:35.3	Despite Turpitz having never fired its guns in anger at Allied warships, its presence
1:40.1	was threat enough. Intelligence experts continued the difficult work of tracking its location
1:45.3	and state of readiness. The analysts of Bletchley Park's naval section followed the ship for
1:51.0	nearly three years and played a part in her final destruction. In this It Happened Here episode,
1:57.4	we're joined by Dr David Kenyon, Bletchley Park's research historian and author of Arctic
2:02.8	Convoys, Bletchley Park and the War for the Seas.
2:06.9	Many thanks to Dr Ben Thompson for voicing our archival documents. This is Bletchley Park.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bletchley Park, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bletchley Park and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.