within 200 yards. As the Wellingtons swerved away, the fighter vanished into the clouds. The bombers continued to circle over the estimated position but their perspex became totally iced up. The de-icer failed in the Wellington piloted by Sergeant Hathaway, preventing him from seeing out of the cockpit. As he would have been a sitting duck for any German fighter in this state, he turned back to grope his way home.
Flying Officer Barr, twenty minutes late taking off, was not airborne until three o'clock. When he arrived over the target area he also circled round, but could see nothing through the thick cloud. Then the front gunner reported his guns jammed, so he too turned back. As he approached the English coast near Lowestoft, anti-aircraft gunners fired at him. The firing still continued as he roared over the roof-tops of Lowestoft, frantically giving three-colour recognition signals. But his rear-gunner, Pilot Officer Leavett, was hit in the back of the head by shrapnel. Barr made an emergency landing at Lakenheath with the bleeding, unconscious gunner in the back, and Leavett was rushed to the RAF hospital at Ely.
Another Wellington squadron, 241, stationed at Stradishall, had even worse luck. Heavy snow had delayed flying operations for a week, but as the snowstorms had abated they were warned on Thursday to be ready to bomb German targets that night. While they were preparing for this night operation, orders were received, 'Carry out Fuller.'
At 2:45 p.m., twelve Wellingtons headed towards the Dutch coast with cloud down to 500 feet. Formation- keeping was almost impossible and only one pilot saw what he believed to be German ships. He went down to 1,000 feet and dropped six 500-lb. bombs but observed no results.
Another Wellington, flying at 300 feet under the thick cloud, saw the white wake of a ship. As it turned to pursue, a Messerschmitt came out of the clouds, its machine-guns spitting. The rear-gunner opened fire on the German and in the dog-fight both planes dived into cloud. The Messerschmitt vanished so the Wellington criss- crossed the area but could not find the ship's wake again. Most of the Wellingtons brought their bombs back. Their pilots reported, 'Nothing seen after prolonged search; and returned to base with all bombs.'
One failed to return. Aboard her were the senior officers of the squadron including its commander, Wing-Cdr. Macfadden with Sq. Ldr. Stephens and Flt.-Lt. Hughes. After they radioed that they were having engine trouble there was silence. The 241 logbook said, 'The squadron had a very unsuccessful day and lost the Commanding Officer.'
The Blenheim bomber squadrons had the same experience — a last-minute take-off in thick weather and a futile search for the battleships. In their case, the hazards were increased because some of the aircrew had not flown operationally before.
The experience of dark-haired, stocky Flt.-Sgt. Tom Berjeman, a pilot with 110 Squadron of Blenheims, stationed at Wattisham, Suffolk, was similar to the experiences and frustrations of several hundred bomber pilots.
Like most bomber crews, they had been on stand-by for a week, taking their meals in the crew room in flying kit. They knew 'something big' was in the air but they were not told what it was. Just after 11:30 a.m., they were called into the briefing hut by their squadron leader, who informed them that the
Betjeman, who had a fruit shop in Caterham, Surrey, before he joined up, was on his first operation after coming out of flying school. He led a typical wartime bomber crew. His navigator was a former New Zealand clerk named Noel Colyton and his 21-year-old ginger-haired gunner, Jackie Turner, was an apprentice draughtsman from Manchester.
On the airfield, ready loaded with two 500-pound bombs and two 250-pounders, was his Blenheim. As he climbed in, the armaments officer warned Betjeman that the bombs were set for eleven seconds delay. He said, 'Though conditions give 500 feet cloud don't dip below it to bomb — or you will blow your bloody selves up!'
For night operations against the Norwegian coast the bombers
'Also the weather was terrible,' recalls Betjeman. 'It was the stickiest day I have ever seen. There were misty flying conditions and visibility was not more than three to four hundred feet.'
They took off in four flights of three. As Betjeman in the last three taxied into the runway, the other two planes in his flight went out of action with engine trouble. Flight Control ordered him not to take off alone. They kept calling him, but as he had switched off his radio telephone he did not hear them, and he took off into the low cloud.
He flew by dead reckoning just above the waves over a fairly calm sea. Although his navigator Colyton warned, 'Remember the Met. report gave icing conditions above 400 feet,' Betjeman decided to take a chance and climb into the cloud when they reached the target area. After about fifteen seconds, Air-Gunner Turner came through on the intercom to say, 'Lumps of ice are hitting my rear turret from the prop, Tom.'
This meant he must immediately descend to a warmer temperature. Coming; down iced-up through thick cloud was very tricky for an inexperienced pilot like Betjeman. It would have been easy to panic, but he put her nose down very gently, and fortunately, as they came nearer sea level, the ice quickly melted. They 'stooged around' searching for the battleships but could not see anything except mist. Realizing their task was hopeless they turned for home.
Flying Officer Norman, Nicholas was also on his first operational flight as the navigator of another Blenheim. On the third leg of a square search over the estimated position, he sighted six warships through a break in the clouds. Still trying to identify them positively as the German battleships, he directed the captain, Pilot Officer Hedley, towards them on a bombing run. As flak shells began to burst around them the air-gunner shouted, 'My machine-guns aren't working!'
Nicholas was determined to try and hit the German ships. but he failed to get a reasonable aim with his bombsight so he called, 'Dummy-run!' to the pilot. When they turned for a second run the clouds had closed in, and they could not see the ships anywhere. As they circled round searching, the air-gunner still could not get his guns to fire. They were defenceless against German fighters, so Hedley decided to return to base. As they flew back, Nicholas bitterly regretted not having taken a chance and released his bombs on the first run.
Most of the squadrons had a similar experience, or like Betjeman and his crew they returned having seen nothing. Out of the thirty-nine who claimed to have located the battleships, none dropped a bomb which did any damage. The others brought their bombs back or jettisoned them when attacked by German fighters. Fifteen bombers were lost. It was estimated that as many losses were due to flying too near the waves as from German attacks. The Germans lost seventeen aircraft.[6]
In addition to the bombers, every available plane in Fighter Command flew several sorties that day. Although 600 were available on paper, only 398 took off to attack the Germans. Seventeen of them were shot down. Altogether, with the 242 bombers and 35 Coastal Command Hudsons and Beauforts — of which five were lost—675 aircraft took off to attack the German battleships.
No one can blame their aircrews for the failure of this massive attack. The bomber crews who found the ships attacked with lonely heroism on that grey winter's afternoon. In the late afternoon one solitary Wellington shot out of the clouds in thick weather right over
This was just one of the bombers which did not return. No one knows who the pilot was but he upheld the honour of the RAF His attack was as courageously carried out as Esmonde's and his Swordfish. He too deserved the VC.
Ciliax recognized the gallantry of the RAF when he reported: 'From about 12:45 until 6:30 p.m. massed and individual air attacks from planes of all types. Impressions: Dogged aggressive spirit, very plucky flying, great powers of resistance against light flak hits.'
He explained the lack of success of the attacks like this: 'The British were surprised, which led at the beginning to somewhat desultory and precipitate actions by their forces. During a period spanning one and a half hours after the first attack, no English aircraft succeeded in reaching the Squadron due to our excellent fighter
