The Starfish is a great aircraft. It's often described as
a World War One relic that should have been flying
in Richthofen's Circus. Circus, a United States naval aviator, when
he was told that it was made by fairies, shrugged
his soldiers and said that figures.
That it's otherwise described as slow, obsolete. It's canvas covered
and it's as you know, it's called the string bag,
but it was a great aircraft. Swordfish sank more ships
than any other Allied aircraft. It was really a great
aircraft, but flying up the Norwegian Fjord
In a wild snowstorm, it did occur to me that
it might be nice if it had an enclosed cockpit.
I
Would think.
So.
I would assume too, because it was slow, slow speed
handling characteristics that it was an ideal carrier aircraft.
Absolutely. Swordfish could go where no other aircraft could go.
And also take off and.
That is correct. The most.
Adverse. Yeah.
Take off.
You're part of Force H. in the
Medditerranean, you're doing convoy escort
Duty, yes.
And you you find out that your carrier is not
steaming in the right direction. You're heading out into the
Atlantic.
Yes. When did
You find out that you were going after the Bismarck?
Well, we were going towards the convoy, then suddenly we
turned
to the north, towards Brest. At that time it was
our impression that we were going up to find Scharnhorst
and Gneisenau to see if they had been repaired and
we're going out to join the Bismarck. Shortly after we
turned, we heard that Hood had been sunk, which was
really a disaster. Then we heard that uh...
Yes, we were going up to help in the Bismarck
search. After that we heard that Victorious with Lieutenant Commander
Esmonde and eight aircraft had attacked the Bismarck, had hit
her with one torpedo and then the Bismarck was lost.
On May the 26th
there was a big discussion as to whether flying conditions
were adequate or not. It was determined that it was.
So eight of us took off on a search, didn't
see anything on the way back on the way out,
on our way back, picked up a report that a
Catalina aircraft had reported the battleship.
Perhaps with the wrong feelings, we felt that it might
be pleasant that the Air Force and Home Fleet would
be doing the attack, not us. Then, shortly after that
we got a report that one of our sources had
cited the Bismarck. At that stage we knew that we
would be involved.
So you you get your briefing, you're told that the
only ship in the target area.
No, that was A- 20 squadron. Yes, they were told
that there was only one ship in the aircraft. They
took off in horrible weather.
Can I say how many aircraft?
Fifteen, fifteen aircraft. They got a radar contact, dove down,
dropped their torpedoes, of course the majority of them exploded
on contact or shortly after running.
Three torpedoes sped on their way to Sheffield. He avoided
them by skillful ship handling. The captain of Sheffield, unlike
the Captain of or the Gunners on KG-5, recognized that
we were swordfish and did not open fire on us
when.
We got back. When the 820 squadron got back, they
were feeling pretty glum about it about uh. But this
is
A fortuitous.
It was very fortunate indeed that it happened because when
we were ranged, 818 Squadron was ranged. For the 2nd
strike, we were armed with contact pistols. Now it seems
bass akwards to me that a contact pistol
will be OK and won't explode when it hits the
deck, but a magnetic head torpedo will explode. I don't
understand it.
Leave that for the engineers.
Yes, but we were there. The weather was horrible. Yes.
The ground crews were just outstanding.
Now for your take off, are you waiting for the
deck to rise? You
take off when the green flag comes down.
The green flag comes in.
That's... that's right.
That's going down. Yes. So you've gunned the engine.
That's right.
Make sure the mighty lift of these two wings.
Right.
Get you a lot. Now, Of course, you've got a
great wind coming over that.
The waves the green waves are coming over, but that
wasn't a problem.
Right, so you get airborne, make your way, get a
bearing to get to the Sheffield.
Yes.
Find Sheffield.
Yes, you.
Find the Sheffield.
Approximately how much time from the Sheffield to the actual
sighting of the Bismarck?
On the first it was about 30 minutes I would
say. On our first approach we didn't find the Bismarck,
so we turned back and went back to Sheffield, went
back again and before just before ETA.
There was a very thunderous roar. The aircraft shook and
Bismarck had opened up on us with her main armament.
So 15 inch shells were directed at you?
Yes, yes.
Fabric covered by.
Yep, Yep.
Which, needles to say, survive.
Yes, if
It was hit. Do you did you realize that's what
it?
Was or? Yes, yes, we recognized and we went straight
down.
And that was a scary moment, too, watching the altimeter,
spin, spin, spin. So
What height are you coming
from? About 5000.
5000 you do a 40 degree dive?
About that, yes. And then we suddenly saw the deck
and there was the Bismarck. We were just three. We
didn't, we were not with the rest of the squadron,
but at the same time the other squadron, the rest
of the squadron was attacking and we were attacking. And
yes, of course.
But it's to our advantage that we were coming in
from every angle and there's no question about that.
Now you mentioned in your in your presentation that the
most the anti aircraft fire was going.
Over? Yes.
And not
Underneath.Yes, they they couldn't depress their guns to where we
were, right? And also they couldn't bring their guns back.
The German equipment was trained for fast aircraft, right?
And it wouldn't come back down slow enough for for
us so the most of the Flack was above us
and ahead of us. So,
Antiquity again?
Yes, yes, much to our advantage, yes, yes.
Yeah, but a number of aircraft did come back Shot
up.
The majority of the aircraft, practically all the aircraft, had
damage. One way or another except for the one aircraft
that didn't attack.
Did your aircraft sustain pretty much damage?
But we had quite a few holes, yes.
Now in your presentation..
But there were three that pranked? right and they were
right off.
You mentioned in your presentation that you launched your torpedo.
You made your turn.
Yes.
And then you reported a hit?
a hit on the port side.
And were there any other hits
Recorded ?yes. At that time, no.
After we got back on board, we convinced command that
yes, there had been a hit on the port side,
and then there was some discussion as to whether there
had been a hit on the starboard side that was
not agreed to. But a little while later on, Sheffield
reported that Bismarck was steering on a course of 340.
The Admiral didn't believe
Sheffield's report saying that he had reported a reciprocal bearing,
but shortly after that one of the swordfish reported that
Bismarck was steering north.
So you had a you had a swordfish in the
air.
Shadowing? There were two swordfish shadowing and the first one
reported that she was steering North at slowed speed. The
second one reported that she was bearing 340 again. Finally
command accepted that there was something radically wrong with Bismarck.
They didn't know what it was, but there had to.
There was joy. They figured here, if something's wrong, we
will be able to engage it. There was some discussion
of launching a third strike on the 26th, but it
didn't take place on the 26th the weather was clear,
no problems.
We took off, went on our way.
Now you when you say you took off where you
aren't with torpedoes?
Yes. And this was the 3rd strike, right? And we
had contact Pistols.
And you were ordered to.
Find... 14 of us took off. When we got there,
the battle had started. It was very clear that the
battle is told. We were told not to attack. It
was a pretty.
Awful scene K G5 and Rodney, Dorchester and Norfolk are
firing away. Firing away, Bismarck hopelessly outgunned out of control.
Everything shot away. There was no bridge, no structure. Forward
guns were blown away after guns were in a tilt
because the ship was at 20 degrees. Finally they stopped
firing.
The battleships continued firing for some time, and then they
stopped firing. At that moment, King George, the fifth, Rodney
and Norfolk steamed off. Dorchester came in and dropped torpedo
torpedoes. By the time Dorchester dropped torpedoes, many people from
the Bismarck had abandoned ship and the sea was becoming
full of survivors.
Then Dorchester came in, torpedoed her. She rolled over on
their starboard side, masses and bubbles coming out there. And
then Dorchester and A Destroyer stopped. And seemingly we're going
to pick up survivors. And then...
Horribly. I mean, it couldn't believe it was happening. It
shouldn't be happening. Dorchester and the Destroyer steamed away, leaving
those hundreds of survivors in the water. Of Hoods and
Bismarck Ships Company, approximately 4000
Officers and men perished. There were 116 survivors, 113 from
Bismarck and three from the Hood. Now surely the officers
and men of Hood deserved a better fate. Now, of
course, Bismarck had to be destroyed.
And of course what the Germans caused was wrong. It
was totally wrong. Am I wrong in thinking that the
Bismarck survivors deserve a better fate? Am I wrong in
thinking that this was a battle of brave men fighting
for what they thought was right?
And dying in that process. We jettisoned our torpedoes and
went back to the Arc Royal.
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