During World War Two, the German battleship Tirpitz had become the scourge of Royal Navy. The battleship had been moved into a fjord in northern Norway where she threatened the Arctic convoys and was too far north to be attacked by air from the Great Britain. She had already been damaged by an attack by Royal Navy midget submarines and a series of attacks from carrier-borne aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm, but both attacks had failed to sink her.

The task was given to Avro Lancasters of No. 9 and No. 617 Squadrons, who operated from a staging base in Russia to attack Tirpitz with Tallboy bombs. They damaged her so extensively that she was forced to head south to Tromsø fjord to be repaired. This fjord was in range of RAF Avro Lancaster bombers operating from Scotland, and from there, in October, she was attacked again, but cloud cover thwarted the attack. Finally on 12 November 1944, the two squadrons of Avro Lancasters attacked Tirpitz, capsizing her. All three RAF attacks on Tirpitz were led by Wing Commander JB “Willy” Tait, who had succeeded Wing Commander Cheshire as CO of No. 617 Squadron in July 1944.