X-Craft

The Royal Navy’s X-class midget submarines of the Second World War, about 51 feet long with a four-man crew, carrying two detachable side charges instead of torpedoes. Their best-known action was Operation Source on 22 September 1943, when X6 and X7 penetrated Kaafjord in northern Norway and laid charges under the German battleship Tirpitz, putting her out of action for months. Crews earned two Victoria Crosses. Later X-craft surveyed the Normandy beaches before D-Day and marked the approach lanes on 6 June 1944.