Bidspirit auction | Operation Cerberus Signed by Swordfish

Operation Cerberus Signed by Swordfish Pilot Wg Cdr John Moffat. 12 Feb 92 BFPS2282 50th Anniversary of Operation Cerberus The Channel Dash Operation Cerberus. The German Battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had been sheltering in Brest harbour since May 1941 and in June 1941 had been joined by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. There they had been prime targets for the RAF and no fewer than 110 air raids had been made, damaging but failing to destroy them. Royal Navy ships had been committed to watching the entrance to Brest harbour when they could have been involved in more pressing duties in the Atlantic The Germans had decided that the ships have to move out of Brest. So escorted by 6 destroyers and a small fleet of support craft, the three ships left Brest under low cloud and in poor visibility, A watching British submarine, outside the harbour had decided that the Germans would not sail that night and had gone off station. British forces were stood down. It was not until 08. 30hrs on 12th February, that information unusual activity in the Channel reached the RAF and it was not until 10. 20 that any special reconnaissance was ordered. At 11. 09hrs a Spitfire spotted the German ships, which were in the Straits of Dover and enjoying continuous fighter cover from the Luftwaffe. By noon they had passed through the minefield and were able to steam at full speed, taking them beyond the range of the coastal guns at Dover and enabling them easily to avoid attacks by RN motor torpedo boats. Six swordfish led by Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde, attacked at 12. 30hrs, without fighter escort. These were all shot down by Bf109s and FW 190s, all but five of the crews being killed and with none of their torpedoes finding the target. Personally Signed. by Swordfish Pilot Wg Cdr John Moffat who flew off HMS Ark Royal with 818 Sqn when he took part in the attack on Bismarck led by Lt Cdr T Coode. John Moffat torpedo was the first to strike the Bismarck. He was piloting one of three Swordfish open-cockpit biplanes that set off from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to take vengeance on the Bismarck, which days before had destroyed the British warship Hood with the loss of 1, 416 lives It was the torpedo he fired that crippled the rudder of the German battleship, leaving it at the mercy of Royal Navy ships which then sank it in the Atlantic off the west coast of France on May 27, 1941