Despising the Heavy Odds
Sinking the capital ships of the Kriegsmarine became a prime objective for the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. From the latter, one man would earn a Victoria Cross in a valiant effort to sink the mighty Gneisenau.
It was not only U-boats that were causing a real threat to Britain’s maritime lifeline in the Battle of the Atlantic, but also a number of surface warships including the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
Flush with success in sinking merchant ships in March 1941, but aware the Royal Navy was closing in, the battle cruisers sailed for Brest, arriving on 22 March.
On 29 March, the RAF began a bombing campaign to disable or sink Scharnhorst and Gneisenau (and subsequently Prinz Eugen), to prevent them from putting to sea, with Bomber Command carrying out 2,928 individual sorties against Brest across ten months, but Coastal Command also played its part. On 6 April, six Beauforts of 22 Squadron were tasked to attack; three bombers to disable torpedo nets and three with torpedoes. But only one, flown by Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell, reached its target.
Although the odds were against him, he began an attack at wavetop height, passing so close to shore batteries that they could hardly miss. Almost hitting the mast of the ship as he pulled away, the Beaufort was raked it with fire, the following account from The London Gazette:
‘The battle cruiser was...on the north shore of the harbour, protected by a stone mole...on rising ground behind the ship stood protective batteries of guns. Other batteries were clustered round the two arms of land which encircle the outer harbour. In this outer harbour near the mole were three heavily armed antiaircraft ships, guarding the battle cruiser.
‘Even if an aircraft succeeded in penetrating these formidable defences, it would be almost impossible...to avoid crashing into rising ground...despising the heavy odds, [he] went cheerfully and resolutely to the task...Coming in almost at sea level, he...launched a torpedo at point-blank range.’
Sustaining heavy damage during its attack run against Gneisenau, Bristol Beaufort N1016 crashed into the harbour almost immediately, claiming the lives of all three men on board. Unbeknown to them, their attack had been successful, and the torpedo had blown a huge hole under the waterline of Gneisenau, causing it to return to the dry dock from where it had only just emerged and now in need of urgent repairs.
The ship would be out of commission for almost six months following the attack and it is impossible to gauge how many lives were saved and how much vital cargo reached its destination as a result of the heroic actions of this single Beaufort crew.
Because of the delay in establishing the precise facts, Campbell’s award of the Victoria Cross, RAF Coastal Command’s first, was not gazetted until 13 March 1942.