I Sank The Bismarck (16 page)

Badly damaged and out of control though she was, the
carrier did not sink and her engines continued to produce
power. The fires raged, but finally the rudders were repaired
and she could steer again. She headed for repairs to the
nearest port, which was the shipyard at Valletta in Malta. Her
Swordfish aircraft and the Fulmars that were in the air had
also flown there to land, and some of the Fulmars had
refuelled and re-armed at Hal Far, the airbase in Malta, then
flown back to take on the Stukas, managing to shoot down
four of them.
Illustrious,
however, was not able to go back
into action so quickly. In the dock at Malta, they set about
recovering the burned bodies of the dead, as well as making
the repairs that would enable her to escape to Alexandria,
then on to a shipyard in New York for major reconstruction.

Next day both the Luftwaffe and the Italian air force
targeted her again while she was in the dock at Valletta, with
hits causing further damage to the ship, as well as to the dockside,
and bringing death to civilians in the narrow workers'
streets of Senglea. The raids continued, but so too did the
work on the engines and rudder, and two weeks later
Illustrious
made a nighttime dash to Alexandria, the Suez
Canal and freedom.

Like most other aircrew in the
Ark,
I thought first of those
Fleet Air Arm men we knew who had been killed in such a
short but brutal attack, but we all knew that this was a serious
defeat, particularly after the triumph of Taranto. We
wanted to do something that would show that we were still in
the game and were not going to be intimidated by the arrival
of the Germans in the Mediterranean. Our chance came quite
soon.

Illustrious
had gone for repairs to the US and
Eagle
was still
out of action in Alexandria. In a dramatic reversal of fortune
since its success at Taranto, the Royal Navy in the eastern
Mediterranean now had no air cover at all. Before the Italians
decided that it was safe to move the remainder of their fleet
back to Taranto, Force H was ordered to make its presence
felt and remind the Italians that there was still a threat from
the west. Ever since
Ark Royal
had moved into the Med, plans
had been worked up to attack Italian naval bases near
Genoa,
the main port on the Ligurian coast. They had never been put
into action, because it was feared that the
Ark
would come
dangerously close to the Italian mainland and be overwhelmed
by the Italian air force. Now, because it was believed
that the loss of
Illustrious
might give Italian civilian morale
too big a boost, those fears were ignored and the
Ark
was
going to attempt a
large-scale attack on some big targets in
Italy.

We were all for it. It felt that at last we were doing something,
taking the fight to the enemy and showing the navy that
we in the Fleet Air Arm could do our bit. Unfortunately, I was
personally to be disappointed.

The idea was to mount a multi-pronged attack. The
Swordfish would attack the ports of
La Spezia and
Leghorn,
while
Renown,
along with
Sheffield
and the battleship
Malaya,
would bombard Genoa. As a diversion, some
Swordfish would make a highly unconventional but inspired
attempt to breech a dam in Sardinia by launching torpedoes
at it. It was a bit of a gamble, because Force H would have to
loiter in waters that would be under constant surveillance
from a long stretch of the Italian coastline. The Swordfish
would also need to go in under cover of darkness, because the
latest intelligence about the German
aircraft that had hit
Illustrious
was that perhaps sixty had been based at
Elmas
aerodrome near Cagliari, just 60 miles from the
Tirso dam,
their target.

It was not the first time that aircraft from the
Ark
had
attacked targets on land. In October and November the previous
year bombing raids had been carried out on the same
aerodrome that it was now believed housed the Luftwaffe.
These raids were intended to do two things. It was hoped that
they might confuse the Italians about the true purpose of the
Ark
and her escort putting to sea, acting as a diversion from
the main mission of escorting a convoy through the
Mediterranean; and they were also intended to deny the
Italians the use of the aerodrome for the period when Force H
was passing close to Sardinia, making the Italian air force use
bases further away. This would restrict the time they could
spend attempting to evade the defending Fulmars and Skuas,
and so frustrate their bombing attacks on the convoy or on us,
the defenders. The raid in November was typical. Nine
Swordfish were armed with 250lb bombs, some with a
delayed-action fuse and incendiaries. Their target was the
hangars and other buildings at Elmas, while another group
would attack the seaplanes that were normally moored at the
jetty. Other targets were local factories and an adjacent power
station, which provided power not only to the aerodrome and
seaplane base, but to the local town as well. When the
Swordfish left there were fires burning, and reconnaissance
photos subsequently showed damage to the hangars as well as
the factories.

This attack, like two others before it, had been led by
Commander 'Johnnie' Johnstone, the CO of 810 Squadron,
and his observer, Lieutenant
'Shaggy' Shaw, who had flown in
as pathfinders to illuminate the target with flares. They were
recommended for an award, as were Godfrey-Faussett and
his observer. These two were amongst the best pilots in the
Ark.
Johnstone had led the unsuccessful attack on the
French battlecruiser
Strasbourg,
while Godfrey-Faussett had
torpedoed the beached
Dunkerque
after Mers-el-Kébir. Given
the youth and fairly short life of the average Fleet Air Arm
pilot, these chaps were now experienced veterans. Moreover,
because the attack was scheduled to take place before first
light, the pilots had to have had some experience of night
flying, which again limited the choices.

The operation that was now being planned was a much
greater task, with several strategic targets being struck in the
same day. The initial briefings took place a few days before,
and it was clear that we were going to be handicapped by a
lack of intelligence. We did not have the resources to carry out
aerial reconnaissance of the targets beforehand and the RAF
was not able to send regular photo-reconnaissance planes over
in the way that they had done for the raid on Taranto. One
Spitfire flew over Genoa harbour to check what elements of
the Italian fleet were moored there, but there would be no regular
updates of information provided by Maryland reconnaissance
flights as there had been for the Swordfish on
Illustrious.
For
the most part, information about the disposition of any warships
in the harbours was confined to what could be gleaned
from radio intercepts, and anything else that the Admiralty in
London might be able to provide. They had been able to send
us maps and plans of the
Tirso dam, which had been built in
1924 as part of Mussolini's big construction projects. These
arrived from the UK in a destroyer that was going to be part
of Force H when it made the attack.

From these blueprints and maps we were able to build a
papier-mâché model of the dam and the surrounding countryside,
as if we were building a model-railway layout. This was
a regular practice in the
Ark,
where at the beginning of the
campaign, around the time of the attack on Oran, models of
various harbours and airbases that were potential targets had
been put together. Eight crews from 810 Squadron had been
selected to mount the attack on the dam, most of them
experienced in torpedo attacks, and they spent some time
looking at the model, working out the best way to approach
their target. It might have been a diversion, but it was an
important enough target in its own right. Not only was it a
politically prestigious target, being one of Mussolini's
projects, but it also apparently accounted for the supply of 40
per cent of Sardinia's electricity. A few lights would go out if
we managed to hit it.

I was not
picked for this mission, and I was not happy
about it. There was a real distinction in the wardroom
between the young Reservists like me and the more experienced
pilots. I was younger than most of the senior pilots, but
I felt that I ought to be given a chance to show what I could
do and when I realized that I was expected to sit this one out,
I complained. I was far too junior to bring it up directly with
my CO, but I made my feelings known to the staff in the
squadron office. I was politely told that the operation was
considered fairly risky, that the Tirso dam must be attacked
by those with the most experience of torpedo attacks and of
night flying, and that anyway the CO considered me far too
inexperienced. It was hard to argue. Everyone on the
Ark
knew that I had made my first deck landing only after I had
arrived in Gibraltar barely eight weeks previously. I was
defeated, but my complaints didn't fall on entirely deaf ears.

Late on Friday, 31 January, the
Ark
put to sea, and we
steamed at high speed eastwards to Sardinia to a point about
halfway up the west coast of the island. The wind was strong,
gusting from the west at speeds of up to 37 knots, which
meant that the
Ark
would have to rendezvous with the
Swordfish at the same point from which they took off,
because they would be beating into a strong headwind on
their return and their fuel state would be becoming critical.

There was low cloud and icy rain, and at one point it
seemed that the weather would be against the whole operation,
but at about 0400 it seemed to improve, or at least it
had settled down and was not getting any worse.

The Tirso dam and its surrounding hills were on relatively
low ground at about 1,200 feet and so would be below the
cloud cover, which was setting a ceiling of about 1,500 feet.
In these circumstances whether to proceed or not is a very
close call, but the attack seemed possible, so eight Swordfish
were brought up and ranged on the flight deck. They were all
armed with torpedoes, which had been fitted with contact
pistols in the warhead, and they were set to run at a depth of
44 feet at a speed of 44 knots. The wind and sea conditions
were still rough, and it was not easy to range the Swordfish
on the tossing deck, but by 0558 they had all taken off. They
formed up roughly in their sections on their way in to
Sardinia, which was about 60 nautical miles away. When they
reached the coast it was still dark, with heavy rainfall, and as
they had just another 20 miles to run to the target, the leader,
Johnnie Johnstone, signalled the others to turn out to sea to
wait for light. One aircraft did not see the signal, so continued
inland and got lost in the cloud layer at 1,500 feet, which was
about 5,000–9,000 feet thick, and he never saw land again
until he returned to the
Ark.
He failed to locate the target, so
didn't drop his torpedo.

The others circled for a while, then started to make their
approach, crossing the coast at Cape Mannu. The largest and
most obvious landmark was the wide lake that had been
created when the dam was built, but the structure itself was
further south, at the end of a lengthy, meandering flooded
river valley.

In order to drop a torpedo at right angles to the dam, it
would be necessary to fly down the course of this river valley,
with its many sharp turns, until the dam came into view.
Intelligence passed on to the Swordfish crews was that the
dam was only lightly defended. If only it had been. The first
Swordfish to make an attack flew low over the nearby town
of Ghilarza, saw the lake and turned south to enter the river
valley as it exited the southern point of the lake. The pilot's
intention was then to fly at low level along the course of the
river to the dam. As he approached, there was a bridge crossing
the river at the point where it left the lake and he was
faced with a fierce battery of anti-aircraft fire from guns
mounted on either side of the bridge; he was forced to turn
away. He once more came down to make his attack, but considered
the fire so intense that he would never get through, so
he jettisoned his torpedo and made for the coast.

The remaining six Swordfish crossed the coast slightly to
the north, and two of them, flown by Godfrey-Faussett and
Sub-Lieutenant Tony 'Bud' Beale, made an early turn south,
short of Ghilarza, so avoiding coming down between the two
heavy concentrations of anti-aircraft guns at the bridge. Even
so, as they made for the target they were still fired on, and it
became apparent that the dam was protected by gun batteries
on both banks of the river. Nevertheless, they both managed
to drop their torpedoes and make a good getaway, turning
sharply to avoid the gunfire, which was now very heavy and
closing in on their two aircraft. They stayed low and flat,
trying to avoid offering a sharp silhouette to the Italian
gunners, but this meant that neither could make any observations
on the outcome of their torpedo drops.

A third aircraft, flown by a young sub-lieutenant, Dick
Charlier, made an extremely low-level approach all the way
from the coast, then followed the river at such a low height
that the batteries didn't open fire. Whether this was because
they could not locate him or could not depress their guns
sufficiently to open fire isn't known, but he dropped his
'kipper', and it was only when he turned to make his getaway
that the batteries fired on him. His observer, Sub-Lieutenant
Beattie, thought the dam looked intact when they dropped
and couldn't see any result from their torpedo.

The last two aircraft to go in were the leader, Johnstone,
and his wingman, Pattison. They flew in a line, passing over
the small village of Abbasant, and they were located and fired
on by the defending guns before they had even managed to
start their approach. They saw that there was a break in the
cloud over the lake, so Johnstone decided to climb into
the cloud for cover and then descend through the gap to make
a low and fast approach over the water of the lake. Once he
got into the cloud, however, he got lost and could not find the
gap where he was going to descend, so at 7,000 feet, still in
cloud, he decided to abandon the attack. His wingman lost
him, but dived and came out of the cloud too high above the
target. He turned right round, dived and came in at 150 feet,
nose down, with a speed of 145 knots. The gunfire was
getting intolerably close, shrapnel was ripping through the
fuselage and he decided to drop his torpedo then and there.
He flew right over the dam, his TAG firing his single rear gun
at the anti-aircraft batteries, and managed to get away without
any major damage to his aircraft.

One Swordfish failed to return, and no one else in the
attacking aircraft had seen it after they took off. A few weeks
later the Italians announced that the crew, Lieutenant 'Spike'
O'Sullivan,
Sub-Lieutenant Knight and Petty Officer
Eccleshall,
had all been captured and were now prisoners-of-war.

None of the attacking aircrew saw any sign of damage to
the dam, or saw any significant explosion. It hadn't been
breached and remained intact.

Taranto had been planned in the years before the war
started, and the man whose idea it had been, Admiral Lyster,
was in charge of
Illustrious
when the plan was finally put into
practice. The raid itself had taken place only after the intense
study of daily reconnaissance photos; and it had been postponed
to a night when there would be a full moon to provide
good visibility.