The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve, created in 1859, and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), created in 1903. The Royal Naval Reserve has seen action in World War I, World War II, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.
HMS Sceptre (P215) was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in April 1943, she spent the majority of her career in the North Sea, off Norway. After an uneventful patrol, the submarine participated in Operation Source, an attack on German battleships in Norway using small midget submarines to penetrate their anchorages and place explosive charges. However, the midget submarine that she was assigned to tow experienced technical difficulties and the mission was aborted. During her next four patrols, Sceptre attacked several ships, but only succeeded in severely damaging one. She was then ordered to tow the submarine X24, which was to attack a floating dry dock in Bergen. The operation, codenamed Guidance, encountered difficulties with the attacking submarine's charts, and the explosives were laid on a merchant ship close to the dock instead. The dock was damaged and the ship sunk, and X24 was towed back to England. Sceptre then conducted a patrol in the Bay of Biscay, sinking two German merchant ships, before being reassigned to tow X24 to Bergen again. The operation was a success, and the dry dock was sunk.
The XE-class submarines were a series of twelve midget submarines that were built for the Royal Navy during 1944; four more to a slightly different design were built 1954-5 as the Stickleback class. They were an improved version of the X class used in the attack on the German battleship Tirpitz.
Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes are a type of diver propulsion vehicle on which the diver rides, generally in a seated position behind a fairing. They were used as secret naval weapons in World War II. The basic concept is still in use.
The X class was a World War II midget submarine class built for the Royal Navy during 1943–44. It was substantially larger than the original Chariot manned torpedo.
Commander Donald Cameron, VC was a Scottish sailor and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He is one of three VC recipients from the small town of Carluke in South Lanarkshire. The Rotary Club of Carluke have erected a millennium stone in the town market place to commemorate this.
Rear Admiral Basil Charles Godfrey Place,, known as Godfrey Place, was an officer in the Royal Navy and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Operation Zitronella, also known as Unternehmen Sizilien, was an eight-hour German raid on Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard Archipelago, on 8 September 1943. The battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst, plus nine destroyers, sailed to the archipelago, bombarded Allied-occupied settlements in Isfjorden and covered a landing party. Six Norwegians were killed and 31 were taken prisoner; sixteen Germans were wounded, one dying of his wounds.
Britain's commando frogman force is now the Special Boat Service (SBS), whose members are drawn largely from the Royal Marines. They perform various operations on land as well as in the water. Until the late 1990s, all members of the Special Air Service (SAS) Boat Troop were trained as commando frogmen.
Operation Source was a series of attacks to neutralise the heavy German warships – Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, and Lützow – based in northern Norway, using X-class midget submarines.
Operation Sportpalast, also known as Unternehmen Nordmeer, was a German naval raid between 6 and 13 March 1942 against two of the Allied Arctic convoys of the Second World War as they passed through the Norwegian Sea. It was conducted by the battleship Tirpitz, three destroyers and eight submarines. The German ships were unable to locate either of the convoys but sank a merchant vessel that was sailing independently. The Allies attempted to intercept the German force, also without success.
The Welman submarine was a Second World War one-man British midget submarine developed by the Special Operations Executive. It only saw action once and was not particularly successful.
Above Us the Waves is a 1955 British war film about human torpedo and midget submarine attacks in Norwegian fjords against the German battleship Tirpitz. Directed by Ralph Thomas, it is based on two true-life attacks by British commando frogmen, first using Chariot manned torpedoes in Operation Title in 1942, and then X-Craft midget submarines in Operation Source in 1943. Filmed at Pinewood Studios, England, with outdoor scenes in Guernsey, some of the original war equipment was used in the film.
HMS Aylmer was a Captain-class frigate of the Royal Navy that served during World War II. The ship was named after Matthew Aylmer, commander of HMS Royal Katherine at the Battle of Barfleur in 1692 during the War of the Grand Alliance.
Operation Obviate was an unsuccessful British air raid of World War II which targeted the German battleship Tirpitz. It was conducted by Royal Air Force heavy bombers on 29 October 1944, and sought to destroy the damaged battleship after she moved to a new anchorage near Tromsø in northern Norway.
Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Richard Hezlet, nicknamed Baldy Hezlet, was a decorated Royal Navy submariner. He became the Royal Navy's youngest captain at the time – aged 36 – and its youngest admiral, aged 45. In retirement he became a military historian.
Hecht, also known as Type XXVIIA, was a two-man all-electric German midget submarine created during World War II.
Tirpitz was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (navy) prior to and during the Second World War. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Kaiserliche Marine, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and her hull was launched two and a half years later. Work was completed in February 1941, when she was commissioned into the German fleet. Like her sister ship, Bismarck, Tirpitz was armed with a main battery of eight 38-centimetre (15 in) guns in four twin turrets. After a series of wartime modifications she was 2000 tonnes heavier than Bismarck, making her the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy.
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.
Operation Title was an unsuccessful Allied attack on the German battleship Tirpitz during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It involved two British Chariot manned torpedoes that were transported close to the battleship's anchorage in Trondheimsfjorden in occupied Norway, by a Norwegian-crewed boat between 26 and 31 October 1942. The attack was abandoned following the accidental loss of both Chariots during the evening of 31 October.
