had no idea what the operation was about, led his Spitfires ahead at about 2,000 feet to protect them. The German ships were twenty-three miles away — fifteen minutes flying time in a Swordfish.
Aboard the
Where was the RAF? Where was the Royal Navy? Were they all asleep?
As he speculated about this, six ME 109s saw the wave-hopping Swordfish ten miles east of Ramgate, in heavy rain and visibility down to four miles. As they swooped, Kingcombe's Spitfires, guns rattling, drove them off but a few machine-gun bullets and cannon shells ripped through the fabric of the Swordfish.
Kingcombe recalls, 'While making for a Messerschmitt I suddenly saw a beautiful bloody battleship and I thought to myself 'I never knew the Navy had such a lovely boat.' I was sure she was one of ours because she was heading straight for Dover. Anyway, no one had told me anything about German battleships being in the Straits.
'Not realizing she was only heading for the English coast because she was making a long zigzag in evasive action, I went down to 600 feet to give her a signal. When everything opened up on me I was still not worried for I knew the Royal Navy fired at anything which appeared too near their ships. When I swung off, followed by the rest of the squadron, the air was suddenly full of German aeroplanes, mostly cannon-firing FW 190s. They were nasty customers, who had only come into service at the end of 1941, and were a little faster than the 109 Messerschmitts. As I tried to beat the German fighters off the Swordfish, which were still lumbering along, I realized the 'beautiful ship' was the
Now the British planes were approaching the main Luftwaffe fighter screen. They flew through layers of cloud like wedding cake, with German fighters patrolling at all levels. As soon as the Spitfires broke up one attack wave, another flight of Messerschmitts dived in between the two Swordfish flights. Twenty ME 109s circled for a mass dive to port but three of Kingcombe's Spitfires attacked and scattered them. Suddenly the ten Spitfires were lost in a whirling air battle with the German fighters.
As Kingcombe's courageous and experienced Spitfires began fighting furiously with the Luftwaffe, the Swordfish pilots sighted the German battle-fleet. It was a daunting sight. From just above wave level to 2,000 feet the whole sky swarmed with Luftwaffe fighters — the biggest number ever to cover a force at sea. Several Swordfish swerved wildly as some of the inexperienced pilots mastered a momentary impulse to flee.
Aboard the
The Germans realized with a cold chill that here was their greatest danger of all — a suicide attack. When they were 2,000 yards away, every flak gun in the German fleet from the 4-inch guns to the multiple-barrelled guns manned by German marines, burst into flickering flame. With gold-trailing tracer shells and white stars of bursting flak around them, the Swordfish came on unswervingly.
Esmonde led his squadron over the destroyers while his gunner Clinton fired his machine-gun at the diving Luftwaffe planes. Tracers from destroyers and E-boats smacked into his cockpit. As more FW 190s dived on to the Swordfish, cannon shells smashed big holes in their canvas fuselage. It was miraculous they were still flying.
Tracer set fire to Esmonde's tail plane, and rear-gunner Clinton climbed out of his cockpit and sat astride the fuselage beating out the flames with his hands. When he clambered back, they were over the outer screen and the German battleships' main 11-inch guns came into action. Belching smoke and flame, they laid down a barrage which sent spray crashing into the low-flying, now limping aircraft. One shell burst in front of Esmonde and shot away his lower wing.
His Swordfish shuddered and dipped but still flew. With blood pouring from wounds in his head and back, Esmonde hung on to the controls holding his course steady for
In a last desperate effort, he pulled the Swordfish's nose up into the wind for the last time and released his torpedo. Then there was a red flash as a direct hit from Schmalenbach's guns blew his plane to pieces. As Esmonde's Swordfish crashed into the sea, German look-outs reported the track of his approaching torpedo. Captain Brinkmann ordered, 'Port Fifteen.' As Esmonde died,
Admiral Ciliax's attitude mirrored the heroic futility of the attacks and the lack of any real sense of danger aboard the battleships. On the bridge of
While all three ships steamed full ahead, firing with everything they had, the torpedo planes continued coming towards them dead straight, just skimming the waves. The Swordfish immediately behind Esmonde was piloted by Brian Rose. As Rose followed Esmonde into the attack, his observer, 20-year-old Edgar Lee, saw Esmonde crash into the sea. Then Lee saw the ships standing out clearly under the clouds, and tried to give directions through the speaking tube shouting, 'Now, Brian, now!' He did not know it had been smashed by gunfire. Rose, wounded in the back by cannon-shell splinters which shattered his cockpit, managed to hold on to the controls. Lee was too busy shouting directions to notice that Rose had dropped their torpedo. At the same time the main petrol tank was hit. Luckily it did not catch fire, but the engine began to splutter. Rose switched over to the 12-gallon emergency gravity tank, which meant they had about 10 to 12 minutes flying time left.
Rose, losing height, tried to pass under the stern of the
Yet Rose managed to bring the plane down on the ice-cold waves half a mile from the
The third Swordfish in the first wave was piloted by Charles Kingsmill. Their first view of the Germans was when his gunner, Donald Bunce, saw a German destroyer tearing through the water. At the same time the Swordfish was attacked by German fighters and their cannon shells ripped through the fabric. Bunce fired his Vickers at them and then stood up to see if there were any more coming. When he went to sit down again his seat had gone. There was a big hole underneath and three-quarters of the fuselage was already a series of gaping tears and holes.
Suddenly, through the mist, his observer 'Mac' Samples caught a glimpse of a big ship which he thought was the
A group of Focke-Wolfes swooped on Kingsmill's plane. Bunce had never seen one before. When the first one dived on their Swordfish, he was uncertain whether it was one of theirs. He shouted through the voice pipe, 'What's this? Shall I fire at it?' Samples shouted back, 'Fire at any bloody thing!'
He was facing backwards so he could direct his pilot away from the planes diving on their tail. Both Bunce and Samples stood up screaming 'Bugger off, you bastards!' at the German planes. This was an automatic reaction to conquer their fear. They also shook their fists and made rude two-fingered gestures.
Then a cannon shell hit the fuselage between Kingsmill. and his observer and exploded, wounding Samples. Bunce saw the pilot and the observer covered in blood, which began running over the plane. He continued firing and 'Mac' Samples still kept telling Kingsmill to try and dodge the attacking German aircraft — but he was too busy concentrating on the
Kingsmill remembers, 'The tracer came floating gently towards us and then whizzed past. There were more and more large splotches in the sea as aircraft and ships fired at us and their shells burst into the waves. We were really in it now. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and my foot went squelchy. Oddly enough I didn't feel any more pain and managed to keep control of the plane. Samples got hit in the legs at the same time but Gunner
