I Sank the Bismarck

I Sank the "Bismarck"

In the early hours of the 27th of May, 1941, the German warship Bismarck - scourge of the Atlantic ocean - was sailing towards a fateful encounter. Two days previously, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had issued the order to 'Sink the Bismarck'. High winds and low visibility added to the atrocious morning weather as Fleet Air Arm pilot, John Moffat, took to the air in his open cockpit bomber. Along with twelve other brave pilots, John Moffat took down the largest warship of its time. A warship that had destroyed the famed HMS Hood within minutes, and was able to withstand anything the British military threw at them. These men, in their Swordfish, managed to avoid the fearful anti-aircraft fire and launched their torpedoes. One of them hit, holing the German warship. This is his story - of how as a young man he experienced first-hand the titanic struggle for naval supremacy, the cramped-cabins and meagre rations of WW2, the mind-numbing patrols over hundreds of miles of ocean and the adrenalin and fear of being in a fragile aircraft sought out by gunfire. As the only surviving member of his fellow pilots, John Moffat tells of everything that led him to be able to say, 'I sank the Bismarck'.

John Moffat was 19 years old when he joined the Ark Royal and is the only surviving member of the group of twelve pilots who sank the Bismarck. John has just stopped flying to return to live in Scotland, but frequently gives talks at airshows and events around the UK.

John Moffat
Hardcover 352pp.