Operation Drachenhöhle

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'Drachenhöhle' was a German cancelled plan for an attack the ships of Admiral Sir Henry Moore’s Home Fleet in its anchorage at Scapa Flow in the Orkney islands group using 'Mistel' composite aircraft of the III/Kampfgeschwader 200 and II/KG 200 operating from Stavanger and Tirstrup respectively (1944).

The concept was terminated after the loss of the battleship Tirpitz in 'Paravane', which meant that local air superiority could readily be gained by British aircraft carriers as there was no other German warship capable of destroying these arbiters of naval air power. Moreover, with Tirpitz removed from the equation of British and German naval power in northern waters, leaving the Germans with little real surface naval strength, the British were free to redeploy their most important warships, most especially their battleships and fleet carriers, to other theatres, most especially the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. This left few significant British naval targets within range of the 'Mistel' composite aircraft force.