I Sank The Bismarck by Moffat John

Author:Moffat, John [John Moffat]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781409082194
Publisher: Transworld

10

Hunting the Scharnhorst

I didn't want to take part in action through any bloodthirsty motive – far from it. I had a need, as a young man of twenty-one, to prove myself to more senior and experienced colleagues, and I felt that I ought to be engaged in the fight. It was akin to the feeling I had when I had looked up at the sky during that local village cricket match in the summer of 1940.

Whenever we went out into the Med, escorting a convoy to Malta or Alexandria, we knew that it was us on the Ark who were the target for the Italian bombers that came overhead. If they had their way, we would end up like Illustrious after being hit by the German Stukas – a smoking hulk; or worse, like the cruiser Southampton, which had been destroyed in the same bombing attack, with hundreds of her crew killed. We knew that London, Liverpool, Coventry and other cities in Britain were receiving a pounding from the Luftwaffe every night and thousands of civilians were being killed. I think it was natural for us to want to fight back, but we would all have been happy to see the war come to an end tomorrow if that had been possible.

An incident that involved one of my colleagues in 818 Squadron, Sub-Lieutenant Penrose, sums up the situation perfectly. He was an observer in a Swordfish and had been flying on a raid over Cagliari when his plane was attacked by a couple of Italian fighters, Fiat CR.32s. These were biplanes with an open cockpit, rather like the Swordfish itself. They were fitted with two forward-firing guns and were pretty obsolete. But one of them came in from the side and fired a few bursts at Penrose's Swordfish while the other made a stern attack. They seemed to make no impact, the Swordfish easily outmanoeuvring them. Both Italian pilots then throttled back and took up formation on either side of Penrose's aircraft, no doubt feeling that they had something in common with another biplane and obviously thinking that they were no threat to each other. One of the pilots seemed quite amused by the whole affair. Penrose carried a service revolver and drew it from its holster. Resting the barrel on the side of the cockpit, he took careful aim at the nose of the CR.32 on the starboard side and fired. The Italian fighter banked and, to the Swordfish crew's amazement, dived steeply and smashed into the sea. The chance of hitting the target with a service revolver must have been a thousand to one. The other fighter roared off and disappeared.

Penrose was congratulated for this act of bravery, but in fact he was distraught. He was convinced that his shot had killed the Italian pilot, for a single bullet would not have caused enough damage to the plane, and he felt that his behaviour had been utterly beyond the pale. Nothing I or anyone else could say would alleviate his remorse.

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