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THE GALLANT LITTLE WORCESTER
The British destroyer Walpole, steaming slowly on the edge of the minefield while engineers tried to patch up her main bearing, was an easy but ambiguous target. She had a canvas roundel with the RAF sign on the fo'c'sle, but it was hard to see from the air as it was very misty with low cloud and only two or three miles visibility.
Suddenly two RAF Wellingtons swooped out of the grey clouds and dropped bombs near Walpole. On their tails, a formation of Messerschmitts came roaring down the port side and chased off the Wellingtons. Tensely, the Walpole crew stood by their guns. They refrained from firing at their unusual escort of German fighters, who returned to circle diligently over the British destroyer when they had chased away the Wellingtons.
It was then they must have recognized the red, white and blue roundel. They were so obviously embarrassed by the discovery that they only fired a few token machine-gun bursts before, as one rating expressed it, 'They poked off into the glue.'
Her engineers having managed to repair temporarily her engines, Walpole began to move slowly through the water. She was not attacked again. She made Harwich in three hours at slow speed to meet the Hunt Class destroyers waiting on the other side of the minefields to escort her in.
At 2:45 p.m., when Pizey's other five destroyers were steaming at full speed, line ahead, a plane appeared from a cloud. As it approached, the gun crews trained their guns until orders were passed to them: 'Friendly aircraft ahead.' It was a Hampden. When the bomber dived in low between Mackay and Worcester, their look-outs switched their attention to the sky for German aircraft, knowing she was friendly.
Suddenly an officer on the Mackay s bridge shouted, 'The Hampden has let go bombs,' At the same time Pizey muttered, 'Hell, we've made a mistake!' As he said it, bombs exploded astern of Mackay drenching the after gun crews with spray. Her gunnery officer, afraid the A.A. crews would open fire, shouted over their telephone system, 'Check, check, check. Do not open fire. Repeat. Do not open fire.' He added, 'This aircraft is friendly although he has a funny way of showing it.' But as they saw the bombs dropping, some of the destroyers too far away to identify it opened fire.
The Hampden was not finished yet. She turned and came in low again, this time over Worcester, straddling her with bombs. Watching the attack aboard Campbell, Pizey muttered, 'It looks like a Hampden — but it can't be!'
Handley-Page Hampden 'Doc' Jackson was sitting in Worcester's sick-bay trying to take his mind off the coming action by reading an article in a medical journal on the care of sick children, when he heard the bomb explosions rattling the ship's side. He raced on deck just in time to see more bombs falling between his ship and the destroyer Mackay. One of them sent spray over the bridge and Coats signalled to Pizey he was about to open fire. The reply winked back hastily: 'Don't do it. It really is a British plane.' As the plane disappeared into the dark low-lying clouds, the destroyers' A.A. gun-layers plainly saw the RAF roundels on its wings.
But these two episodes were only the curtain raiser to a giant mix-up in the air. As the five destroyers emerged from the minefield, they were attacked indiscriminately by both German and British plaines. Flying in and out of low cloud together were ME 109s and Beauforts. Higher up in the clouds, flying wing to wing with Hampdens, were Dorniers and ME 110s. Still higher, Heinkels and JU-88s flew next to Wellingtons, Halifaxes and Manchesters, with Spitfires darting between them. Many British aircraft took their own destroyers for German, and on several occasions destroyers opened fire on Wellingtons and Hampdens before they were recognized as belonging to the RAE
When Pizey and Wright saw the great mass of aircraft overhead, they wished the Hunt Class destroyers had been fast enough to accompany them, for their 4-inch guns could have done considerable damage. As it was, the five destroyers fired their 3-inch A.A. guns and machine-guns at the German aircraft.
The weather grew increasingly bad. It was blowing hard with a heavy westward swell and waves were breaking over the gun crews as they stood at their posts. Visibility suddenly decreased from seven to four miles, which was a relief to the destroyer captains since it would help to mask their attack.
They had two pieces of good fortune. One was the mine which stopped Scharnhorst and slowed her down, thus keeping her out of the destroyer action. The other was Campbell's up-to-date radar. Three weeks before being ordered to Harwich, Campbell was refitting in Chatham. Originally, she was fitted with a fixed aerial type of radar with a range of 4,000 yards, which could only pick up ahead. While they were refitting, Captain Pizey inspected a 271 set which was due to be fitted to another ship. This was not only a more powerful radar with a range of twelve miles, but was a rotating set which meant it could pick up objects in any direction. As the ship for which it was intended was not ready to receive it, Captain Pizey persuaded the dockyard superintendent to get Admiralty approval to let him have it. This radar then replaced the 4.7 gun director on the back of the bridge. It had to be installed in such a hurry that electricians were still aboard putting the finishing touches to it as Campbell sailed from Chatham to Sheerness. A leading telegraphist aboard Campbell was an enthusiast about radar. It was only his knowledge that enabled them to make it work quickly.
At 3:17 p.m., when the destroyers were twenty-two miles from the Hook of Holland, this new radar performed perfectly. Two large 'blips' began to show on the screen, indicating ships nine and a half miles away. As they went full ahead, the sea became even rougher and the destroyer decks were awash with big waves. Then a look-out shouted 'Gun flashes ahead!' This was the German battleships firing at RAF planes. It was just after 3:30 p.m.
On the starboard bow, Campbells bridge officers saw gunfire flickering through the grey curtain of cloud on the horizon. Through binoculars, the German ships could be seen as black blobs silhouetted against the darkening sky. They were steaming fast four miles away on a course converging very slightly with their own.
The cry came, 'Enemy in sight!' and Campbell hoisted her battle ensign on the yard-arm. Through mist and rising spray they could see the big White Ensign battle flags sprouting on the masts of the other destroyers.
Aboard Whitshed the bosun's mate commented, 'Isn't it glorious to see the battle flag flying!' His views were shared by many young wartime ratings who had never seen action before. It was indeed an inspiring historic sight — five old British destroyers thumping and rolling as they steamed through the mounting waves to attack the pride of the German Navy. They did not know then that Scharnhorst was out of range.
At 3:42 p.m., amid gun flashes and A.A. tracer, the German warships could be clearly seen in line ahead from Campbells bridge. They were now so near that many of the German aircraft flying over them thought the approaching British destroyers were friendly and fired off their recognition signal — four balls in the shape of a diamond.
Aboard Worcester, gun-layer Douglas Ward peered through his telescopic sights, and saw one German battleship looming very large. Within a short time she became so clear that he did not need his optical viewer. He could see her quite plainly over open sights.
