Porjus

On October 19, 1944, 37 Lancaster bombers from the British Air Force (RAF) carried out an attack against the German battleship Tirpitz, who laid anchored at Håköya outside Tromsö in northern Norway. The bombers took off from the north of Scotland and carried Tallboys, an extra powerful bomb whose blast was powerful enough to penetrate Tirpitz’ thick shell. The operation was called Obviate. However, the attack suffered setbacks when clouds swiped in over Haköya which made it difficult for the bombers to see the target. 32 of the bombers dropped their Tallboys but no one hit Tirpitz. The bombers was also subjected to german flak and one bomber (Easy Elsie) was hit and forced to make an emergency landing in Sweden on a mire, about seven kilometers north of Porjus, Lappland County. All of the crew survived and were taken into custody by Swedish military but were sent back to Britain early November. Parts of the wreck was collected by Swedish military and technical examined. In the mid-eighties, the tail was put on display at the Air force museum in Linköping, but was returned to the site in 1993.