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Authors: John Moffat
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out of Norway. There was a squadron of
Hurricanes still operating there and, because every modern
fighter was now precious, a decision was made to recover
them on to an aircraft carrier and get them back to Britain. I
was told that they could have gone on to Ark Royal, but her
deck-lifts were too narrow, so they opted instead to try to fly
on to Glorious. Remarkably, they succeeded. Unfortunately, Glorious was seen on her journey back to Scapa Flow by two
German warships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, battlecruisers
with large-calibre, radar-controlled guns. The two destroyers
escorting the carrier, Ardent and Acasta, tried to attack the
German vessels, but they were hit and sunk, although Ardent managed to fire a torpedo at Gneisenau, forcing her to break
off the action. But Scharnhorst fired shell after shell into Glorious and she went down with most of her crew, and with
her aircraft, including the Hurricanes. Around twelve
hundred men were killed.
Scharnhorst had also been slightly damaged by the attack
from Acasta and anchored in Trondheim fjord for some
repairs. The air group on Ark Royal was ordered to mount an
attack on the ship while she was at anchor. In my view this
was a risky operation, and I gather that many on the Ark thought the same. However, if there was a possibility of crippling
the warship, which was a powerful threat where she
was, then I believe that there was no option but to try it. Two
squadrons of Skua aircraft took off for a daylight attack. The
RAF should have bombed the local German airstrips to
prevent Luftwaffe fighters taking off, but the plans went
totally wrong. The Skuas were met by Messerschmitt 109s,
which tore into them. Our planes made some direct hits, but
the 500lb bombs carried by the Skuas couldn't penetrate the
deck armour of Scharnhorst. People on the Ark at the time
still remember the day when they waited for the planes to
come back and only seven out of the fifteen returned. Sixteen
pilots and observers had gone missing. To lose the equivalent
of a whole squadron like that is a severe blow to an air group,
very damaging to morale, and it was probably a good thing
that the Ark returned to Scapa Flow.
So there we were, in the space of a few days, with the loss
of another aircraft carrier and her aircrew, as well as eight
Skuas and some very experienced pilots. The results of this
operation probably helped to influence a decision I made a
few months afterwards, but for now the disaster in France
completely overshadowed what was happening to the Fleet
Air Arm. The German army had stormed through the French
lines and the French were retreating. Holland and Belgium
had surrendered. The British army had been surrounded and
there was an all-out attempt to rescue them from the beaches
atDunkirk. For almost a week we listened to the six o'clock
news on the radio, and read the Daily Mirror and Daily Express for news of what was happening to our troops. As an
individual you went about your daily duties, but I thought
that we were approaching an extremely serious and difficult
time. These were very worrying events. Winston Churchill
had become Prime Minister after the invasion of France, and
there was a feeling that the lot who had got us into this mess
were no longer in charge, so there was less of a sense of
despair than there could have been at what was really a
humiliating defeat.
I remember listening to the wireless as Churchill made his
speech about fighting on the beaches, never surrendering. I
think it helped that there was no attempt to pretend that
things were better than they were. It was a clever way of
making people feel too proud to contemplate surrender.
Our base at Eastleigh was part of the Supermarine factory,
which produced Spitfires. It was a juicy target, in easy flying
range for the Luftwaffe now situated in northern France,
hence my contact with the two Messerschmitt fighters.
Subsequently, there were frequent raids on the factory and
the airstrip and incursions
Hurricanes still operating there and, because every modern
fighter was now precious, a decision was made to recover
them on to an aircraft carrier and get them back to Britain. I
was told that they could have gone on to Ark Royal, but her
deck-lifts were too narrow, so they opted instead to try to fly
on to Glorious. Remarkably, they succeeded. Unfortunately, Glorious was seen on her journey back to Scapa Flow by two
German warships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, battlecruisers
with large-calibre, radar-controlled guns. The two destroyers
escorting the carrier, Ardent and Acasta, tried to attack the
German vessels, but they were hit and sunk, although Ardent managed to fire a torpedo at Gneisenau, forcing her to break
off the action. But Scharnhorst fired shell after shell into Glorious and she went down with most of her crew, and with
her aircraft, including the Hurricanes. Around twelve
hundred men were killed.
Scharnhorst had also been slightly damaged by the attack
from Acasta and anchored in Trondheim fjord for some
repairs. The air group on Ark Royal was ordered to mount an
attack on the ship while she was at anchor. In my view this
was a risky operation, and I gather that many on the Ark thought the same. However, if there was a possibility of crippling
the warship, which was a powerful threat where she
was, then I believe that there was no option but to try it. Two
squadrons of Skua aircraft took off for a daylight attack. The
RAF should have bombed the local German airstrips to
prevent Luftwaffe fighters taking off, but the plans went
totally wrong. The Skuas were met by Messerschmitt 109s,
which tore into them. Our planes made some direct hits, but
the 500lb bombs carried by the Skuas couldn't penetrate the
deck armour of Scharnhorst. People on the Ark at the time
still remember the day when they waited for the planes to
come back and only seven out of the fifteen returned. Sixteen
pilots and observers had gone missing. To lose the equivalent
of a whole squadron like that is a severe blow to an air group,
very damaging to morale, and it was probably a good thing
that the Ark returned to Scapa Flow.
So there we were, in the space of a few days, with the loss
of another aircraft carrier and her aircrew, as well as eight
Skuas and some very experienced pilots. The results of this
operation probably helped to influence a decision I made a
few months afterwards, but for now the disaster in France
completely overshadowed what was happening to the Fleet
Air Arm. The German army had stormed through the French
lines and the French were retreating. Holland and Belgium
had surrendered. The British army had been surrounded and
there was an all-out attempt to rescue them from the beaches
atDunkirk. For almost a week we listened to the six o'clock
news on the radio, and read the Daily Mirror and Daily Express for news of what was happening to our troops. As an
individual you went about your daily duties, but I thought
that we were approaching an extremely serious and difficult
time. These were very worrying events. Winston Churchill
had become Prime Minister after the invasion of France, and
there was a feeling that the lot who had got us into this mess
were no longer in charge, so there was less of a sense of
despair than there could have been at what was really a
humiliating defeat.
I remember listening to the wireless as Churchill made his
speech about fighting on the beaches, never surrendering. I
think it helped that there was no attempt to pretend that
things were better than they were. It was a clever way of
making people feel too proud to contemplate surrender.
Our base at Eastleigh was part of the Supermarine factory,
which produced Spitfires. It was a juicy target, in easy flying
range for the Luftwaffe now situated in northern France,
hence my contact with the two Messerschmitt fighters.
Subsequently, there were frequent raids on the factory and
the airstrip and incursions
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