Posted on 12/13/2016 2:47:51 PM PST by Vanders9
Swordfish pilot Jock Moffat – credited with launching the torpedo which crippled the Bismarck in 1941 – has died at the age of 97.
The Scotsman, who always played down his role in the attack, was a lifelong champion of naval aviation and friend of the Fleet Air Arm.
2016 ends for Naval aviation as it began – with the loss of one of its greatest heroes.
After the passing of legendary test pilot Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown early in the year, the Fleet Air Arm community now mourns for Lt Cdr John ‘Jock’ Moffat – the man credited with crippling the Bismarck.
(Excerpt) Read more at royalnavy.mod.uk ...
great men doing great things.
They saved the world from Fascism, went home, rebuilt their countries, had families, raised them and never complained.
Not like today's snowflakes that demand safe rooms and cry whenever they hear something that "hurts" them.
Sure there are ... but the lying communist bastards in Big Media don't like to talk about them. A war against National Socialism was politically correct. Wars against communism and Islamism are not politically correct.
The most advanced battle cruiser of WWII...
Taken out by a WWI designed biplane...
Nice shooting, Jock. Brave.
Godspeed.
A detailed view.
RIP.
The photo here looks like a joke . . . but it is a photo of a Swordfish dropping a practice torpedo. This was type of shipborne carrier plane that Jock Moffat flew that fateful day against the Bismark.
“To War in a Stringbag” is the historical record of the guys that flew these things in WWII. They liked and depended on these sturdy, but slow flying biplanes. They also mounted a successful raid in the Mediterranean at Taranto. There they flew into the well protected Italian fleet and basically, took them out of the war. The anti-aircraft fire was intense.
Snowflakes? I don’t think so.
Oldplayer
She was a treaty-cheating interwar Battleship (not a battlecruiser) ... Somewhat heavier than the contemporaneous US "South Dakota" class and lighter than the US "Iowa" class, with a significantly inferior main battery to either of these US battleship classes.
The Fairey Swordfish torpedoes didn't sink her. Two of them caused damage and flooding, endangering the engine rooms. Moffat's final torpedo wrecked her rudders ... She was destroyed the old fashioned way, by gunfire and torpedoes from numerous Royal Navy ships of all classes.
Well DONE, mate! RIP
"Right, sir! What's the mission?"
"Well, see that pocket battleship there? The one with the fastest propulsion, heaviest armament, most advanced fire control, and best crews in the entire German navy? The one bristling with radar-directed automatic cannon and machine guns?"
"Yes, sir."
"We want you to get into that there biplane, fly nice and low and slow, straight in, mind you, and drop a torpedo at them as close as you can get."
"Have you been drinking, sir?"
And then he actually did. Just damn.
Getty image, sorry.
RIP, hero.
That song came to mind as soon as I saw the headline. :)
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