Kirkenes Raid | Albacores versus Messerschmitts & Stukas (1941)
It was the Royal Navy's worst aircraft carrier strike of World War II.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was determined to cement his new alliance with Soviet Russia's Chairman Joseph Stalin with a grand gesture.
The only readily available option was to raid the German-occupied ports of Kirkenes and Petsamo in the north of Norway and Finland.
Believing the harbours to be lightly defended and filled with ore-carrying cargo ships, the carriers HMS Victorious and HMS Furious were dispatched with a strike wing of Fairey Albacores and Swordfish, supported by Fairey Fulmars and the first Hawker Sea Hurricanes.
But Germany was in fact using Kirkenes as a military hub. It was heavily defended with anti-aircraft guns and ground troops. And several airfields hosted squadrons of Me 110s and Me 109s, along with Ju 87 Stukas, tasked with attacking Russia's harbours and shipping lanes.
#documentary #history #WW2 #USNavy #WorldWar2 #NavalWarfare #WWIINavy #WWIIBattles #ClassicDocumentaries