After the K-21 attack, the German ships continued on their original course for approximately five hours before turning back.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by Wikipedia's account of the Tirpitz K-21 attack and corroborated by an independent operational timeline (kbismarck.com), with consistent timing details. [tier=unverified indep_score=0.375 clusters=1 claim_tier=notable] [kind-backfill 2026-09-15: kind=empirical eligibility=medium] [harvest 2026-09-17: +3 source(s) on new hosts; tier unverified->silver indep=0.863 clusters=4]
Sources
- Attack on the battleship Tirpitz by submarine K-21 (wikipedia)
- https://www.kbismarck.com/tirpitz.html (corroboration)
- https://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=10818 (corroboration)
- https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3559.html (corroboration)
- https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/history/kms-tirpitz.htm (corroboration)