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95-657: 1942 1943 1944 1945 Associated articles Operation Leader was an air attack conducted against German shipping in the vicinity of Bodø , Norway, on 4 October 1943, during World War II . The raid was executed by aircraft flying from the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS  Ranger , which was attached to the British Home Fleet . The American airmen located many German and Norwegian ships in this area, destroyed five and are believed to have damaged another seven. Two German aircraft searching for

190-548: A peninsula in the Norwegian Sea , Bodø has potential for strong winds both from the west and east. The "midnight sun" is above the horizon from 1 June to 14 July (44 days), and the period with continuous daylight lasts a bit longer. The all-time low −18.5 °C (−1.3 °F) was recorded in February 1966, which was the coldest month on record with a mean of −8.9 °C (16.0 °F). The all-time high 30.7 °C (87.3 °F)

285-572: A 30-foot (9.1 m) hole in the Royal Oak , which flooded and quickly capsized. Of the 1,400-man crew, 833 were lost. The wreck is now a protected war grave . John Gunther in December 1939 called the attack "the single most extraordinary feat of the war so far". Three days after the submarine attack, four Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 1/30 led by group commander Hauptmann Fritz Doench raided Scapa Flow on 17 October in one of

380-405: A decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles . On 21 June 1919, after seven months of waiting, German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter made the decision to scuttle the fleet because the negotiation period for the treaty had lapsed with no word of a settlement. He was not kept informed that there had been a last-minute extension to finalise the details. After waiting for the bulk of

475-514: A local volunteer who had been trained by the agents. The wreck of the Avenger torpedo bomber shot down in the operation was located off Fagervika with the help of local Norwegians in 1987, and partially salvaged by the Royal Norwegian Navy . The remains of two of the airmen killed in the operation were recovered from the sea. A memorial honouring the airmen killed in the operation was erected at

570-437: A new company, a division of Cox & Danks Ltd, for the venture, and so began what is often called the greatest maritime salvage operation of all time. During the next eight years, Cox and his workforce of divers, engineers, and labourers engaged in the complex task of raising the sunken fleet. First the relatively small destroyers were winched to the surface using pontoons and floating docks to be sold for scrap to help finance

665-564: A northern base was needed to control the entrances to the North Sea , as part of a revised policy of 'distant' rather than 'close' blockade. First Rosyth in Fife was considered, then Invergordon at Cromarty Firth . Delayed construction left these largely unfortified by the outbreak of the First World War. Scapa Flow had been used many times for British exercises in the years before the war and when

760-413: A sculpture at Bodø Airport . Bod%C3%B8 (town) The 14.91-square-kilometre (3,680-acre) town has a population (2023) of 42,831 and a population density of 2,873 inhabitants per square kilometre (7,440/sq mi). Bodø is a European Capital of Culture 2024, along with Bad Ischl and Tartu . The village of Bodø was granted town status as a kjøpstad in 1816 and soon after, in 1818, it

855-550: A success. Rear Admiral Hustvedt believed that the best result of the attack was that it demonstrated that American and British ships could work together with "effectiveness, mutual understanding and complete cooperation". Admiral Patrick N. L. Bellinger , the air commander of the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet , was also pleased with the performance of the aircrews. Captain Gordon Rowe , commanding officer of Ranger , did however point out that

950-556: A successful penetration by enemy forces. On 14 October 1939, under the command of Günther Prien , U-47 penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the First World War-era battleship HMS  Royal Oak anchored in Scapa Bay. After firing its first torpedo salvo, the submarine turned to make its escape; but, upon realising that there was no immediate threat from surface vessels, it returned for another attack. The second torpedo salvo blew

1045-403: A total of approximately 19,000 gross register tonnage of carrying capacity: Cap Guir , La Plata , Rabat , Skramstad and Vaagan , were probably destroyed. According to Norwegian sources pre-dating Stern's assessment by decades, two ships, Rabat and Vaagan , were sunk, and three, La Plata , Skramstad and Topeka , were damaged beyond repair. The German naval historian Jürgen Rohwer lists

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1140-476: Is Aspmyra Stadion , which in addition to being the home of Bodø/Glimt has hosted one international match. Also, the multi-purpose indoor Bodø Spektrum , contains full-size football and handball courts, as well as several swimming and bathing facilities. The town is also home of Bodø Barbarians , a leading rugby league team. Scapa Flow Scapa Flow ( / ˈ s k ɑː p ə , ˈ s k æ p ə / ; from Old Norse Skalpaflói  'bay of

1235-523: Is a major Norwegian military air base, housing two-thirds of Norway's F-16 fighter force and two of RNoAFs SAR Sea Kings . Bodø, competing with Ørland and Evenes , is a candidate for the Northern Air Base in the new RNoAF system. Bodin Leir located near the air station was an RNoAF recruit school including Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System personnel and a national response unit. The base

1330-681: Is located in Bodø. Bodø features a humid continental climate ( Dfb ) or, if the original Köppen winter threshold −3 °C (27 °F) is used, an oceanic climate ( Cfb ) in the 1991-2020 base period. Bodø is one of the northernmost cities in the world and the only inside the Arctic Circle with a temperate four-season climate. The weather in Bodø depends on weather pattern; long lasting weather patterns with Atlantic lows bringing rain and overcast can occur in all seasons, but so can sunny weather with Highs over Northern Scandiniava/Western Russia. Located on

1425-892: Is located on the shore. The wreckage of the remaining seven ships of the German fleet (and some other sites such as the blockships) has become increasingly popular as a venue for recreational scuba divers , and is regularly listed in dive magazines and internet forums among the top dive sites in the UK, Europe, and even the world. Although other locations, for example the Pacific regions, offer warmer water and better visibility, there are very few other sites which can offer such an abundance of large, historic wrecks lying in close proximity and shallow, relatively benign diving conditions. As of 2010, at least twelve "live aboard" boats—mostly converted trawlers with bunk rooms in their former holds—take recreational divers out to

1520-515: Is not sufficient to view all the length of most wrecks at once; however, current technology is now allowing 3D images of them to be seen. The important wrecks are: The three sister battleships of the König class : SMS  König , SMS  Kronprinz and SMS  Markgraf formed the main component of the 3rd Battleship Squadron which took part in fierce fighting at the Battle of Jutland far off

1615-512: The Avisa Nordland . The Norwegian Aviation Museum and Salten Museum are located in Bodø. Salten Museum has four exhibitions: The Lofoten Fisheries, a Sami exhibit, a Viking treasure, and an exhibition about Bodø's history from 1816 to 2000. The Bodø Cathedral was built in 1956, representing post-war architecture , whereas the Bodin Church just outside the city centre dates from

1710-579: The Air Medal and the Purple Heart . The British official historian Stephen Roskill judged that the attack was an "outstanding success", especially as it was the first combat mission for sixty percent of the aircrews involved. Historian Robert C. Stern wrote in 2012 that it was difficult to determine how many ships were sunk during Operation Leader as some of the vessels which were run ashore were possibly refloated and repaired. He assessed that five ships, with

1805-588: The Arctic Convoys to the Soviet Union . Following the midget submarine operation Fraser decided to dispatch the main body of the Home Fleet to conduct an air attack against ports and German shipping in northern Norway. Ranger was assigned responsibility for attacking the port of Bodø , which was an important rendezvous point for German and German-controlled Norwegian shipping. Fraser also initially planned to use

1900-523: The Battle of Cocos on 9 November 1914 by the Australian light cruiser HMAS  Sydney . At least seven of the scuttled German ships and a number of sunken British ships can today be visited by divers. Although many of the larger ships turned turtle and came to rest upside down or on their sides in relatively deep water (25–45 m), some—including the battlecruiser Moltke —were left with parts of their superstructure or upturned bows still protruding from

1995-741: The First and Second World wars, but the facility was closed in 1956. Since the scuttling of the German fleet after World War I , its wrecks and their marine habitats form an internationally acclaimed diving location . Scapa Flow hosts an oil port, the Flotta oil terminal . In good weather, its roadstead (water of moderate conditions) allows ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil product. The world's first ship-to-ship transfer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) took place in Scapa Flow in 2007 transferring 132,000m³ of LNG. This occurred in 2007 by Excelerate Energy between

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2090-455: The General Strike of 1926 , the salvage operation was about to grind to a halt due to a lack of coal to feed the many boilers for the water pumps and generators. Cox ordered that the abundant fuel bunkers of the sunken (but only partly submerged) battlecruiser Seydlitz be broken into to extract the coal with mechanical grabs, allowing work to continue. Although he ultimately lost money on

2185-781: The Herderinnan , in Scapa Flow, in preparation for his attempt to raise a rebellion in Scotland. The enterprise ended in failure and rout at the Battle of Carbisdale . Historically, the main British naval bases were near the English Channel to counter the continental naval powers: the Dutch Republic, France, and Spain. In 1904, in response to the build-up of the German Kaiserliche Marine ' s High Seas Fleet , Britain decided that

2280-641: The Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø. The remains of the Dauntless' two crew members, Lt(jg) Clyde A. Tucker, Jr., and his turret gunner, ARM2c Stephen D. Bakran, were recovered from the wreck and identified at the Nordland Central Hospital in Bodø. The 50th anniversary of Operation Leader on 4 October 1993 was commemorated in Norway by the issuing of a first-day postal cover and the unveiling of

2375-609: The Norwegian Home Guard base in Søvik , near Sandnessjøen. The memorial at Fagervika has been used as the site of remembrance ceremonies organized by the Norwegian Reserve Officers' Federation and with the participation of American veterans of Operation Leader. One of the two Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers shot down in the operation was located in 1990 and partially salvaged in 1993, with its engine put on display at

2470-733: The Norwegian Joint Headquarters and Bodø Main Air Station . Bodø has a street named General Fleischer's Gate in honour of Carl Gustav Fleischer. Bodø received international attention during the U-2 Crisis in May 1960, when it became known that the American U-2 pilot Gary Powers had been shot down over the Soviet Union on his way from Pakistan to Bodø. Bodø's local newspaper is

2565-437: The light cruiser HMS  Belfast and seven destroyers. The US Navy component comprised Ranger , Tuscaloosa and four destroyers. The Allied ships were not detected by German forces during their voyage north, and arrived at the flying-off position for Ranger ' s air wing approximately 140 miles (230 km) off Bodø shortly before dawn on 4 October. The US Navy attack force was organised into two groups of aircraft:

2660-492: The 11th century Orkneyinga sagas and later texts such as the Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar . According to the latter, King Haakon IV of Norway anchored his fleet, including the flagship Kroussden that could carry nearly 300 men, on 5 August 1263 at St Margaret's Hope , where he saw an eclipse of the sun before he sailed south to the Battle of Largs . En route back to Norway Haakon anchored some of his fleet in Scapa Flow for

2755-437: The 13th century, representing a typical medieval stone church. Other churches in the town include Hunstad Church and Rønvik Church . The new cultural centre "Stormen" (the storm) was opened in 2014. It contains a library, a concert hall and theater. The building is designed by Daniel Rosbottom and David Howarth . Bodø is host to the cultural festivals Nordland Musikkfestuke and Parkenfestivalen every summer, as well as

2850-466: The 687 GRT Norwegian cargo liner Vaagan off Fagervika without loss of life. The crew of Vaagan had observed the bombing of Topeka and brought their unarmed ship close to shore, lowering the lifeboats in preparation for a possible attack. Vaagan was carrying a cargo mostly of food for civilian consumption, and the sinking led to a margarine shortage in parts of northern Norway. The force then bombed La Plata , causing her to be beached on

2945-515: The Allied fleet were shot down. Three American aircraft were destroyed in combat during the operation, and another crashed while landing. The attack followed a two-year lull in Allied aircraft carrier operations against Norway and took the German occupation forces by surprise. The choice of target was guided by intelligence gained from decoding German radio signals and reports from Norwegian Secret Intelligence Service agents; two Norwegian airmen flew with

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3040-495: The Allied fleet. In the case no shipping could be found, the American pilots were given as alternative targets Bodø Air Station , the oil depot in Bodø, and radar installations at Røst . The Home Fleet's plans were informed by considerable intelligence on German shipping movements and forces in northern Norway. The Royal Navy's Operational Intelligence Centre collated information on these topics, and regularly provided assessments to

3135-475: The British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinkings, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order, welding bulkhead doors open, laying charges in vulnerable parts of the ships, and quietly dropping important keys and tools overboard so valves could not be shut. The Royal Navy managed to beach

3230-534: The Dauntless and Wildcat aircraft employed in the operation were outdated and that the US Navy "...should not ask our pilots to fight in obsolete aircraft when better types are available...". Following the operation the commander of the Southern Attack Group, Commander J. A. Ruddy, was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross , while other servicemen taking part in the operation were awarded

3325-608: The German High Seas Fleet rarely ventured out of its bases at Wilhelmshaven and Kiel and in the last two years of the war the British fleet was considered to have such a commanding superiority of the seas that some components moved south to the first-class dockyard at Rosyth . Following the German defeat, 74 ships of the Imperial German Navy 's High Seas Fleet were interned in Gutter Sound at Scapa Flow pending

3420-732: The German vessels lost off the Bodø area on 4 October 1943, and lists Cap Guir as sunk in 1945. While German and Norwegian sources mostly give the same number and names of ships destroyed in Operation Leader, English-language authors are more split in their estimates. While writers like British aviation author Christopher Chant, American military historian Eric M. Hammel , American historian James P. Levy , British military historian Chris Mann, and American aviation author Barrett Tillman , list five ships as destroyed, others like American military historians Kermit Bonner and Spencer C. Tucker write that six ships were sunk. Stern has also written that

3515-526: The Home Fleet and other commands. The decision to attack the Bodø area was made on the basis of Ultra intelligence obtained by decoding German radio signals, from which the Allies learned that the ships in the region included the large oil tanker Schleswig , which was carrying fuel for the German battle group at Altafjord . In addition, at the time of Operation Leader two groups of Norwegian Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) agents operated radio transmitters on

3610-608: The Home Fleet was assigned only a single aircraft carrier, the elderly HMS  Furious , which was unavailable for operations at the time as she was undergoing a refit. Ranger had last seen combat against Vichy French forces while supporting the Operation Torch landings in Morocco during November 1942, and had later been used to ferry aircraft to North Africa and train aircrews off the United States east coast. On 8 September 1943

3705-458: The Mediterranean and Pacific. These reinforcements were considered necessary to ensure that the fleet remained able to counter the German battle group based in Norway, which was built around the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst , and the heavy cruiser Lützow . The initial US Navy task force arrived in May, and comprised the battleships USS  Alabama and South Dakota ,

3800-647: The Northern Attack Group, which was to strike shipping at Bodø, and the Southern Attack Group, which was to target ships near the town of Sandnessjøen nearly 100 miles (160 km) to the south. Both groups had one Norwegian navigator from No. 333 Squadron RAF in the lead aircraft, providing knowledge of the local geography. The Northern Attack Group, which comprised 20 Dauntless dive bombers escorted by eight Wildcat fighters, began to take off at 6:18 am. These aircraft flew at low altitude towards Bodø until their crews sighted Myken Lighthouse , and then turned to

3895-470: The agents of the "Pisces" group. The two members of the "Pisces" team were evacuated to the United Kingdom by Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat on 24 November 1943. The last SIS agents of the "Crux" group were evacuated from Renga by a No. 330 Squadron RAF Catalina on 6 June 1944, but the transmitter on the island continued sending reports to the United Kingdom for the duration of the war, manned by

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3990-515: The aircraft carrier HMS  Formidable to attack shipping in the port of Brønnøysund , to the south of Bodø, but this element of the operation was cancelled due to unfavourable weather. The slow-moving Fairey Albacores on Formidable required cloud cover to operate over hostile territory. While several Luftwaffe (German Air Force) bases were located near Bodø, most of the aircraft previously stationed in northern Norway had been transferred elsewhere and those that remained posed little threat to

4085-553: The attack force to provide advice on the local geography. In addition to sinking ships, Operation Leader damaged the German war effort by considerably disrupting the convoy system in the region and reducing shipments of iron ore. During mid- to late-1943 the Home Fleet , the Royal Navy 's main striking force stationed in the United Kingdom, was augmented by two forces of United States Navy warships to replace British ships dispatched to

4180-461: The attack. This prevented the Germans from sending warnings once the attack had begun. At about 2 pm on 4 October, as the Home Fleet was sailing westwards, three German reconnaissance aircraft approached Ranger , which was covered by a combat air patrol of two pairs of Wildcats, which were guided to intercept the German aircraft. One pair shot down a Junkers Ju 88 bomber 22 miles (35 km) from

4275-436: The attacking aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire from the shore with only its pilot, Lt(jg) John H. Palmer, surviving. Topeka was carrying a cargo of cement and timber, and had until the previous evening been sailing in an escorted German convoy. Local fishermen made their way to the burning vessel to help rescue those on board. Following the attack on Topeka the American aircraft continued north, and bombed and sank

4370-532: The battleship Baden , the light cruisers Emden , Nürnberg , and Frankfurt and 18 destroyers whereas 53 ships, the vast bulk of the High Seas Fleet, were sunk. Nine German sailors died on some of these ships when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle the ships, reputedly the last casualties of the war. SMS  Emden was amongst the ships the British managed to beach. This Emden should not be confused with her predecessor , destroyed in

4465-755: The battleships. Additional sites of interest include the destroyer SMS  V83 , which was raised and used by Cox as a working boat during his salvage operations, particularly on SMS  Hindenburg , then later abandoned; the Churchill blockships, such as the Tabarka , the Gobernador Bories , and the Doyle in Burra Sound; the U-boat SM ; UB-116 ; and the trawler James Barrie . Also, some large items from many of

4560-563: The carrier, and the other pair shot down a Heinkel He 115 float plane 13 miles (21 km) from Ranger . The remaining aircraft, a Ju 88, was not sighted, and escaped. These were the first German aircraft to have been shot down by US Navy aircraft. One of the Wildcats crashed during landing; its pilot survived. All of the elements of the Home Fleet dispatched for Operation Leader returned to Scapa Flow by 6 October. Wartime Allied military commanders and post-war historians deemed Operation Leader

4655-559: The city center. Earlier weather data for Bodø, which then had a subpolar Oceanic Climate (Cfc). Bodø has a long history with the Norwegian Armed Forces , and especially the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF). The Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Operational Headquarters are located at Reitan, east of Bodø. Parts of NATO air forces attending the annual Cold Response are stationed at Bodø Main Air Station . Bodø MAS

4750-671: The city centre. Twelve thousand undergraduate and graduate students study at the university. Bodø is the location of the only police academy in Norway outside Oslo . The Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority is situated in Bodø, as is the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre of Northern Norway . The Norwegian Armed Forces headquarters for North Norway is located at Reitan, east of the city. SB Nordlandsbuss has its headquarters in Bodø, as does Bodø Energi and Nordlandsbanken . The largest shopping centre in Nordland, City Nord ,

4845-469: The coast of Helgeland : "Crux III" on the island of Renga and "Pisces" on Lurøy . Both groups provided reports to the Allies on the weather and shipping movements in the target area in the lead-up to the attack. From 3 October onwards, "Crux III" radioed weather reports every half hour. The Home Fleet sailed from Scapa Flow on 2 October 1943. The British elements of the force were the battleships HMS  Duke of York (Fraser's flagship ) and Anson ,

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4940-436: The coast of Jutland, Denmark (31 May to 1 June 1916) and their upturned hulls are around 25 m deep. Never raised, they have been salvaged incrementally: armour plate blasted away and non-ferrous metals removed. Some of this material may have been obtained for specialized uses because it was not subject to the radiation put into the atmosphere by nuclear weapons , which were exploded in the open air from 1945 to 1963. Thus it

5035-479: The contract, Cox kept going, employing new technology and methods as conditions dictated. By 1939, Cox and Metal Industries Ltd. (the company that he had sold out to in 1932) had successfully raised 45 of the 52 scuttled ships. The last, the massive Derfflinger , was raised from a record depth of 45 metres just before work was suspended with the start of the Second World War, before being towed to Rosyth where it

5130-523: The disruption to the convoys off Norway caused by Operation Leader would have caused even greater damage to the German war effort than the shipping losses. This is in line with a wartime assessment by the British Ministry of Economic Warfare , which estimated that the raid was the main factor responsible for a 58 percent decrease in the amount of iron ore shipped from the important northern Norwegian port of Narvik during October 1943. Operation Leader

5225-464: The end of the war did not encounter any concentrations of shipping like that located by Ranger ' s airmen off Bodø. Operation Leader revealed a serious weakness in the composition of the German armed forces in occupied Norway, which were lacking sufficient numbers of combat aircraft to respond effectively to Allied attacks. Following the attack, the Germans searched the area for radio transmitters, arresting several local Norwegians and narrowly missing

5320-406: The escorting Wildcats was damaged by gunfire during the attack and returned to Ranger . Schleswig was beached to avoid sinking, and later salvaged and brought to Bodø for repairs. Following this engagement, the eight Dauntlesses which had yet to drop their bombs continued on to Bodø where they attacked four small German cargo ships: the 2,719 GRT ore carrier Rabat was sunk, Cap Guir

5415-490: The first bombing attacks on Britain during the war. The attack badly damaged an old base ship, the decommissioned battleship HMS  Iron Duke , which was then beached at Ore Bay by a tug. One man died and 25 were injured. One of the bombers was shot down by No 1 gun of 226 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery on Hoy. Three of the crew died, while the radio operator Fritz Ambrosius was badly burned but managed to parachute down. New blockships were sunk, booms and mines were placed over

5510-539: The former site of a German coastal artillery position at Fagervika. The memorial was dedicated on 4 October 1987 in the presence of US dignitaries and relatives of one of the airmen killed in Operation Leader. Included in the memorial is one of the three propeller blades recovered from the Avenger wreck, the other two blades being displayed at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida and at

5605-568: The free and volunteer based Bodø Hardcore Festival in early winter. Fram Kino was the first cinema in Norway. It was started in the year 1908. Bodø's main professional team is the football club Bodø/Glimt , playing in Eliteserien , the top division of football in Norway. In addition to Bodø/Glimt, Bodø has had several teams at national top level, including Grand Bodø (women's football), Junkeren (women's handball) and Bodø HK (men's handball). The most well-known sporting arena in Bodø

5700-479: The heavy cruiser USS  Tuscaloosa and five destroyers . This force came under the command of Rear Admiral Olaf M. Hustvedt and conducted patrols into the Norwegian Sea with British warships, but did not make contact with German forces. The two battleships and the destroyers were withdrawn in August, and proceeded to the Pacific. A second task force built around the aircraft carrier USS  Ranger replaced

5795-555: The island Rødøya where the ammunition on board exploded, and she burned for several days. The aircraft also bombed the 4,300 GRT Kriegsmarine troop ship Skramstad (a Norwegian cargo ship requisitioned with her crew by the German occupying authorities ), which had some 850 German soldiers embarked and was protected by two escorts. Skramstad was severely damaged and beached, burning for days. The number of casualties on board this ship are unclear, with some sources stating that 200 of

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5890-465: The long isthmus') is a body of water in the Orkney Islands , Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland , Graemsay , Burray , South Ronaldsay and Hoy . Its sheltered waters have played an important role in travel, trade and conflict throughout the centuries. Vikings anchored their longships in Scapa Flow more than a thousand years ago. It was the United Kingdom's chief naval base during

5985-426: The main body of the Home Fleet, including the American task force, sortied in response to reports that Tirpitz , Scharnhorst and nine destroyers had put to sea. The Allied force returned to the Home Fleet's main base at Scapa Flow the next day after it was learned that the German ships had returned to port after briefly attacking Allied positions on Spitsbergen . On 22 September the German battle group in Norway

6080-608: The main entrances, coast defence and anti-aircraft batteries were installed at crucial points, and Winston Churchill ordered the construction of a series of causeways to block the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow; they were built by Italian prisoners of war held in Orkney, who also built the Italian Chapel . These " Churchill Barriers " now provide road access from Mainland to Burray and South Ronaldsay, but block maritime traffic. An airfield, RAF Grimsetter (which later became HMS Robin ),

6175-697: The main sites, primarily from the main harbour at Stromness. Diving provides a substantial amount of trade and income for the local economy. Divers must first obtain a permit from the Island Harbour Authorities, which is available through diving shops and centres. The wrecks are mostly located at depths of 35 to 50 metres. Divers are permitted to enter the wrecks, but not to retrieve artefacts located within 100 metres of any wreck. However, time and tide has washed broken pieces of ships' pottery and glass bottles into shallow waters and onto beaches. The underwater visibility, which can vary between 2 and 20 metres,

6270-439: The north and climbed as they neared the target area. Weather conditions were clear, and the air crews had good visibility. Four Dauntlesses and a pair of Wildcats were detached from the force shortly after it passed Myken Lighthouse to search for German shipping near Åmøya island. They soon sighted the 8,000  GRT German freighter La Plata , and two of the dive bombers attacked the ship. The Americans believed that La Plata

6365-512: The operation, then the bigger battleships and battlecruisers were lifted, by sealing the multiple holes in the wrecks, and welding to the hulls long steel tubes which protruded above the water, for use as airlocks. In this fashion the submerged hulls were made into air-tight chambers and raised with compressed air, still inverted, back to the surface. Cox endured bad luck and frequent fierce storms which often ruined his work, swamping and re-sinking ships which had just been raised. At one stage, during

6460-477: The second largest of Orkney. Morning to evening ferries run from Houton on the Mainland. The Visitor Centre occupies a converted naval fuel pumping station and storage tank and next to it is a round stone-built battery emplacement and artillery gun as well as other decommissioned arsenal. It features a large model of the island, Scapa Flow and of the German warships. Scapa distillery , a Scotch whisky distillery

6555-477: The ship hulls that were raised (such as the main gun turrets, which fell away from the ships as they capsized) were never salvaged, and still rest on the seabed in close proximity to the impact craters gouged by the scuttled ships. The wrecks of the battleships Royal Oak and Vanguard (the latter of which exploded at anchor during the First World War) are war graves designated as Controlled Sites under

6650-614: The ships destroyed by aircraft in Operation Leader as La Plata , Rabat , Skramstad , Topeka , and Vaagan . Cap Guir , assessed by Stern as probably destroyed, survived, and was eventually sunk by Soviet torpedo bombers in the Baltic in April 1945. In his 1974 book Deutschlands Handelsschiffe 1939–1945 , the German maritime historian Karl-Heinz Schwadtke  [ de ] gives the same list as Rohwer for German ships destroyed in Operation Leader. Schwadtke states that La Plata and Rabat were

6745-409: The time came for the fleet to move to a northern station, it was chosen for the main base of the British Grand Fleet —unfortified. John Rushworth Jellicoe , admiral of the Grand Fleet, was perpetually nervous about the possibility of submarine or destroyer attacks on Scapa Flow. Whilst the fleet spent almost the first year of the war patrolling the west coast of the British Isles, their base at Scapa

6840-460: The town was built on its ground. The first element might be boði which means "sunken rock" or " skerry " and the last element is vin which means " meadow " or " pasture ". The last element may have been misunderstood as øy which means " island " (and written with the Danish language form ø ). The main campus of Nord University is located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) outside

6935-420: The troops died while others report that only one Norwegian sailor and a few German soldiers were killed. The Norwegian resistance movement claimed after the attack that around 360 Germans had been killed in the bombing of Skramstad , while the official German reports state that 37 soldiers died. The American aircraft also strafed the German cargo ship Wolsum and attacked the ammunition barge F231 , which

7030-504: The two battleships in September 1943. The other elements of this force were the heavy cruisers USS  Augusta and Tuscaloosa , as well as five destroyers; Hustvedt remained in command. Ranger ' s air wing was made up of three squadrons : VF-4 with 27 Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters , VB-4 with 27 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers , and VT-4 with 18 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers . Prior to Ranger ' s arrival

7125-761: The vessels Excalibur and Excelsior . Scapa Flow has a shallow sandy bottom not deeper than 60 metres (200 ft) and most of it is about 30 m (100 ft) deep; it is one of the great natural harbours and anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a number of navies. The harbour has an area of 324.5 square kilometres (125.3 sq mi) and contains just under 1 billion cubic metres of water. Scapa Flow has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of wintering velvet scoters , horned grebes , common loons , European shags and Eurasian curlews , as well as breeding black guillemots . The Viking expeditions to Orkney are recorded in detail in

7220-459: The water or just below the surface. These ships posed a severe hazard to navigation, and small boats, trawlers and drifters, moving around the Flow regularly became snagged on them with the rise and fall of the tides. The Admiralty initially declared that there would be no attempt at salvage, that the sunken hulks would remain where they were, to 'rest and rust.' In the first few years after the war, there

7315-675: The winter, but he died that December while staying at the Bishop's Palace in Kirkwall . In the 15th century towards the end of Norse rule in Orkney, the islands were run by the jarls from large manor farms, some of which were at Burray , Burwick, Paplay, Hoy , and Cairston (near Stromness ) to guard the entrances to the Flow. In 1650 during the wars of the Three Kingdoms , the Royalist general James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose , moored his ship,

7410-447: Was January 2014 with no precipitation at all, while the wettest was September 2009 with 293 mm. Recent decades have seen warming, and there has been no overnight air frost in June since 1981. With its location on the Arctic Circle the city features one of the largest latitudinal temperature anomalies on Earth. Data in table below is from Bodø Airport, summer daily highs are often warmer in

7505-484: Was abundant scrap metal as a result of the huge quantities of leftover tanks, artillery and ordnance. By the early 1920s, the situation had changed. In 1922, the Admiralty invited tenders from interested parties for the salvage of the sunken ships, although at the time few believed that it would be possible to raise the deeper wrecks. The contract went to a wealthy engineer and scrap metal merchant, Ernest Cox , who created

7600-426: Was attacked by several British midget submarines . This raid inflicted significant damage on Tirpitz , leaving the battleship unable to proceed to sea until repairs were complete. Once this was known to the Allies, the commander of the Home Fleet, Admiral Bruce Fraser , judged that the changed balance of forces would allow his force to assume a more offensive role by attacking German shipping off Norway and restarting

7695-431: Was badly damaged, Malaga received minor damage from a near miss, and the small steamer Ibis was machine-gunned. Two of the dive bombers were shot down by anti-aircraft guns located on the shore and ships. The crew of one of the aircraft survived and were taken prisoner after ditching into the sea, but both men on the other Dauntless were killed. The Southern Attack Group began launching from Ranger at 7:08 am. It

7790-562: Was badly damaged, and the six aircraft rejoined the main body of the Northern Attack Group. In the meantime the other American aircraft continued north, sighting but not attacking many small cargo ships and fishing boats. At 7:30 am they located a German convoy comprising the steamer Kerkplein and the tanker Schleswig under the escort of the minesweeper M 365 . Eight of the Dauntlesses attacked Schleswig and another pair targeted Kerkplein , inflicting significant damage on both. One of

7885-554: Was both the only offensive operation undertaken by the US Navy in northern European waters during World War II, and the last major American operation in this theatre of the war. Ranger remained with the Home Fleet until being replaced by British aircraft carriers in late November 1943, during which time she took part in a patrol of the Norwegian Sea. The carrier departed Scapa Flow on 26 November, and arrived in Boston on 6 December. Ranger

7980-405: Was broken up in 1946. A Morse key recovered from the battleship Grosser Kurfürst during the salvage is displayed at a Fife museum. Primarily because of its great distance from German airfields, Scapa Flow was again selected as the main British naval base during the Second World War. The strong defences built during the First World War had fallen into disrepair. Defence against air attack

8075-487: Was built and commissioned in 1940. Scapa Flow is one of the transfer and processing points for North Sea oil . An underwater pipeline with a diameter of 30 inches (76 cm) and a length of 128 miles (206 km) transports oil from the Piper oilfield to the Flotta oil terminal . The Claymore and Tartan oil fields also feed into this line. The Scapa Flow Visitor Centre is at Lyness on Hoy (from Háey meaning high island)

8170-533: Was central during the Cold War due to its strategic location and proximity to the Soviet Union . It would have been vital in the build-up of NATO air and land forces to defend Norway, and thus the entire northern flank of NATO, in a war with the Warsaw Pact . It could also have been used as a forward base for American bombers to strike targets in the Soviet Union . Now Bodin Leir is a camp to house military personnel for

8265-410: Was defensively reinforced, beginning with over sixty blockships sunk in the many entrance channels between the southern islands to enable the use of submarine nets and booms . These blocked approaches were backed by minefields, artillery, and concrete barriers. Two attempts to enter the harbour were made by German U-boats during the war and neither was successful: After the Battle of Jutland ,

8360-488: Was hit by a bomb and beached. After all the aircraft had completed their attacks, the force returned to Ranger shortly before 9:00 am. As well as the four American aircraft destroyed, six suffered damage from anti-aircraft artillery. The German response to the raid was hampered by a shortage of capacity within the local military communication network. Following the attacks, a German report described their channels of communications as "constantly noisy with interruptions" during

8455-441: Was inadequate and blockships sunk to stop U-boats from penetrating had largely collapsed. While there were anti-submarine nets in place over the three main entrances, they were made only of single-stranded looped wire; there was also a severe lack of the patrolling destroyers and other anti-submarine craft that had previously been available. Efforts began belatedly to repair peacetime neglect, but were not completed in time to prevent

8550-524: Was known for the Bodø affair , smuggling of contraband cargo by British merchants that later were compensated by Norway. The town of Bodø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1938, a part of the neighboring Bodin Municipality (population: 559) was transferred into the town of Bodø. On 1 January 1959, another part of Bodin Municipality (population: 1,303)

8645-510: Was made up of ten Avenger torpedo bombers and six Wildcats. Two of the Avengers attacked the 4,991 GRT Norwegian cargo ship Topeka off the island of Løkta south of Sandnessjøen; the ship was set on fire and beached to avoid sinking. Three of the Norwegian crew members on Topeka were killed in the attack, along with several German soldiers manning anti-aircraft guns on board the ship. One of

8740-443: Was not made more radioactive by Nuclear fallout . They also form highly rated dive sites chiefly due to their depth. The light cruisers SMS  Dresden , SMS  Karlsruhe , SMS  Brummer and SMS  Cöln have modest fighting tops, lie side-on with around 16–20 metres of water above, are more accessible for divers and save for the shallowest, Karlsruhe , are less salvaged (stripped of valuable materials) than

8835-451: Was set in July 2019, while July 2014 was the warmest month with a 24-hr mean 17.3 °C (63.1 °F) and average daily high 21.6 °C (70.9 °F). The warmest night recorded was June 29, 1972 with overnight low 21.7 °C (71.1 °F). The average date for the first overnight freeze (below 0 °C (32.0 °F)) in autumn is October 12 (1981-2010 average). The driest month on record

8930-489: Was transferred into the town of Bodø, expanding its size considerably. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee . On 1 January 1968, the town of Bodø (population: 14,252) was merged with Bodin Municipality (population: 13,323) and this created the much larger Bodø Municipality . The town is named after the old Bodøgård farm ( Old Norse : Boðvin ), since

9025-427: Was used to train aircrews and transport aircraft for the remainder of the war, with no further combat. The German forces in Norway were taken by surprise during Operation Leader. The area had not been raided by carrier-borne aircraft for two years, and preparations for such an attack were inadequate. Precautions against further raids were put in place, and the British carrier forces which repeatedly attacked Norway until

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