WW2 Medal winners: Robert Aitken

Robert Aitken took part in the famous attack on the German battleship Tirpitz for which he was awarded a Distinguished Service Order but was captured and spent the rest of the war in a PoW camp.

In September 1943, the 20-year-old Aitken served on one of six, revolutionary X-class mini-subs on a daring mission, Operation Source, at Ka Fjord in occupied Norway to disable the moored 40,000-ton German battleship Tirpitz: scourge of Allied shipping. Three of the submarines, X-8, X-9 and X-10 were lost before the attack had even started.

After navigating a minefield and a swathe of anti-sub netting, two of the vessels – X-6 and Aitken’s X-7 – placed four, two-ton charges on the ship’s stern, which caused so much damage it was unable to sail again. X-5 and her crew was lost during the attack, probably suffering a direct hit by Tipritz's guns.

A photograph of a Royal navy Submarine crew of 7 men — X-CRAFT PERSONNEL. FEBRUARY 1944, THE PHOTOGRAPHS WERE ISSUED TO ANNOUNCE THE PERSONNEL WHO HAD BEEN TAKEN AS PRISONERS OF WAR. (A 21687) Sub Lt R Aitken, DSO, RNVR, (back left). Lt. B C G Place, DSC, RN (2nd from left, back row). Copyright: � IWM. Original Source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205153970

However, as X7 fled the scene, it surfaced to avoid the netting and was spotted and fired upon by Tirpitz crewmen. Two of X7’s crew perished (Sub-Lt Whittam and Engine Room Artificer Whitley) and Aitken was forced to exit the vessel – ironically becoming a captive on the very ship he had sought to cripple. He spent the rest of the war interned at the Marlag-Milag Nord prison camp, but received his DSO in 1944. The Captain of the X7, Lieutenant Godfrey Place was decorated with the Victoria Cross.

The Germans had almost finished repairs on Tirpitz when it was attacked by carrier-born dive bombers in April 1944 and was finally sunk when bombed by RAF Lancaster bombers in November 1944.

Grainy photograph of the German warship Turpitz under attack — FLEET AIR ARM ATTACK THE GERMAN BATTLESHIP TIRPITZ. 3 APRIL 1944, ALTEN FJORD, WITH THE FLEET AIR ARM CREWS WHO HIT THE GERMAN BATTLESHIP TIRPITZ WITH HEAVY AND MEDIUM SIZED BOMBS AS SHE WAS ABOUT TO MOVE OFF FROM HER ANCHORAGE AT ALTEN FJORD, NORWAY, ON THE MORNING OF 3 APRIL 1944. THE FAIREY BARRACUDA BOMBERS WERE ESCORTED AND COVERED BY SEAFIRE, CHANCE-VOUGHT CORSAIR, HELLCAT, AND WILDCAT FIGHTERS FROM HM AIRCRAFT CARRIERS OF THE HOME FLEET UNDER THE COMMAND OF VICE ADMIRAL SIR HENRY R MOORE, SECOND IN COMMAND HOME FLEET. (A 22638) Second bombers over the almost smoke hidden TIRPITZ. When our last planes left she was in flames amidships. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205154822

His Majesty has also been graciously pleased to give orders for the following appointments to the Distinguished Service Order to approve the following award for gallantry, skill and daring during the successful attack by his Majesty's Midget Submarines X7 and X6 on the Tirpitz.

Citation for Aitken's D.S.O. The London Gazette, dated 22 February 1944

Aitken was held at Marlag Nord at Westertimke for 6 months, before the camp was liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division in April 1945. In that time he attempted to escape on two separate occasions by tunnel, but both were unsuccessful due to the tunnels collapsing when attempting to go under the anti-tunnelling ditch that the Germans had dug around the camp.

In June 1945 Aitken was one of 23 article clerks and 19 members invited to Chartered Accountants Hall by the President and Vice-president to celebrate their release from captivity

Photograph of an archive document — Details of Robert Aitken's escape attempts in his MI9 debriefing questionnaire. © Crown copyright

Aitken, born in Norwich in 1923, had been educated at Oundle School and was articled, in February 1941, to George Pierson of Edward Thomas Pierson & Sons of Coventry. Having interrupted his accountancy training to serve, Aitken completed it after the war, passing his final examination in May 1949.

Once qualified Aitken made the most of his qualification and eventually became the financial officer at an agricultural engineering firm (R H Hunt & Co) in Earl's Colne, Essex, owned by the father of his wife Anne, who he married in 1951. He died in 2014 aged 91.

The Tirpitz raid was immortalised in the 1955 film Above Us the Waves, in which Aitken was played by Donald Sinden.

The wreckage of X-7 was raised from the fjord in 1976 and is now is on display in the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. The only remaining intact X-Craft that saw action, X-24, is on display at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, part of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.