Serial of aircraft lost by HMS Victorious in May 1941

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello, I would like to know the serials of the following aircraft lost by HMS Victorious during the Bismarck chase:

25 May 1941:
Two Fulmars of 800 Sqn lost at sea trying to shadow the Bismarck:
One crew (Lt.(A) Brian Donald Cambell, T/S-Lt.(A) Matthew Gordon Goodger) lost
One crew (Lt. Francis Charles Furlong, S-Lt. John Edward Melvill Hoare) ditched and rescued the next day.

26 May 1941:
One of the three Swordfish of 825 Sqn searching the Bismarck just disappeared with its crew, Lt(A) Henry Charles Michell Pollard DSC, Sub-Lt(A) David Musk Beattie, and Ld Air Percy William Clitheroe DSM.

Another Swordish of 825 Sqn was lost on 25 May searching the Bismarck (crew rescued some days later) but I have for it a serial: V4337.

Thanks in advance

Laurent

[Bruce Lander]

Hi,

this book by John Hoare the observer in one of the Fulmars gives full details - " Tumult In The Clouds" by John Hoare ( Feb 1976)
11 used from £1.05 on amazon

cheers

Bruce Lander

[Bruce Lander]

Hi,

the Fulmar flown by Furlong was N.1931

Cheers

Bruce Lander

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks Bruce

[Mark E Horan]

Dear Laurent;

I must respectfully disagree with the serial N1931 as the aircraft lost when Lt. Furlong and S-Lt(A) Hoare [note correct rank] force-landed in the Atlantic in the early hours of 25 May 1941. N1931 is the serial of a Fulmar I. 800Z flight was equipped with six new Fulmar IIs for the trip to Gibraltar. It was intended that the aircraft would be available for duty to fly fighter patrols over the south bound convoy enroute to Gibraltar were Luftwaffe aircraft to be detected. On arrival, the new planes were to be delivered to HMS Ark Royal and replaced by her six most worn out Fulmar Is before the 800Z Flight crews performed the second part of their mission, to lead the flights of RAF Hurricane fighters that HMS Victorious was delivering to Gibraltar for transfer to Malta.

The flight was composed of six experienced pilots and six observers fresh out of training [this was felt to be adequate as, at no point, were the planes expected to operate out of visibility of the ship while in the Atlantic, or out of the sight of land [in the Mediterranean]. Of the six planes, only five were utilized during the search flights of 24-25 May because one pilot was 'hors de combat' with an abscessed tooth. The remainder were flown off in two different ranges, the first composed of three planes and the second composed of two.

In the event, by the time the first Fulmars took off (an hour after the Swordfish strike departed) two significant pieces of information had come to light. First, the carriers homing beacon was not working. Second, none of the planes compasses had been swung. None the less, all five crew attempted to fly the assigned mission.

Both aircraft lost were part of the first mission. Of the two planes in the second mission, one had to return immediately aboard because its undercarriage would not retract.

Most interestingly, of the four planes that flew the assigned mission, it is known that all four reached the area of Bismarck and sighted her, if only briefly. However, at least two actually maintained contact with the German ship for some period of time. Most notably, the sole plane in the second search, flown by the highly experienced Tom Harrington, not only located Bismarck in conditions in which the cloud base was as low as 400 feet and surface visibility was less than one mile in mist, but managed to maintain contact with her for an hour by circling her at a distance of 400 yards at no more than 400 feet above the Atlantic.

The Flight's six pilots were:

--First Range:
----Lt. Edward Arnold “Tubby” Shaw, RN (Officer Commanding) - flew N4099
----Lt.(A) Brian Donald Cambell, RN - lost over the Atlantic
----T/Lt.(A) Francis Charles “Frank” Furlong, RNVR - force-landed and rescued

--Second Range:
----Lt. Malcolm William “Rupert” Watson, RN (Senior Pilot) - aborted
----S-Lt.(A) Thomas Wade Harrington, RN - flew N4136

--On sick list
----Lt. Bruce Straton McEwen, RN

The four Fulmar IIs that survived the operation and returned to Britain were N4020, N4061, N4099, N4136. There are no extant records of the other two aircraft, both of which were lost in the early hours of 25 May.

In regards to the Swordfish lost on 25 May with Pollard, Beattie, and Clitheroe, again no record of the aircraft serial has survived - if such a notation was even made - since the ship official reports did not include such information, and if 825 Squadron kept such records, it was not apparently deemed important enough to save. It is known that it was a new Blackburn built Swordfish I equipped with the latest ASV equipment. Because no word was ever heard from this aircraft after it departed the ship on fairly low altitude on a standard A.D.A patrol [all the other lost aircraft did make some contact with the ship by W/T] it was felt that th plane must have suffered catastrophic engine failure at low altitude and ended up in the Atlantic before any attempt could be made to contact the ship. Subsequent searches were flown but turned up no sign of the missing plane or its crew.

A complete account of these operations are included in a soon to be published account of all of the air operations, both FAA and RAF, during the hunt for Bismarck.

I hope this information is of interest.

I am, most respectfully,

Mark E. Horan

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks Mark for all those details