The Torch: Bomber Pilot

[cross-posted to bound by gravity

Alastair Sweeny has recently had the pleasure of interviewing Captain Donald Macintosh, an RAF pilot who flew a lancaster bomber in 1944. What follows in an excerpt from that interview:

So the Tirpitz now... Just explain to everyone what... the Tirpitz was a ship like the Bismarck, wasn't it?

It was the sister ship to the Bismarck which was a threat to the whole of the North Atlantic convoys. They lost... because it was a threat actually, they had to escort all the ships and materials up to Russia because it... they sent it up to Norway. It was a threat all the time. They used to take it out for a bit and back in again. Everybody had a go at it. I think there were 30 or 40 attacks on it by the Navy and from carriers and so forth.

They couldn't sink it?

I think it was about 60,000 tonnes, something like that. It was an enormous bloody ship. Anyhow, they invented... the Americans invented this bomb called the Tallboy (Editor: Don is mistaken here - it was a British man named Sir Barnes Wallis) which was a 12,000 pounder, a 6 tonne bomb, singe bomb, and they reckoned that would do the trick. We did... the first one we went on.. we went from Russia, as I said, that was a total disaster. They put up a smoke screen so nothing happened there.

The Tirpitz was based in Norway. Why Norway though?

Well... two reasons. One they wanted to put it out of reach of the bombers from... it would have been much closer to the bombers from England. And the other thing, it was even more of a threat out in the North Sea. It could whip out there. If it got out there it could probably pick off about 20 ships. That's what they were afraid of all the time during the war that this thing would get out there. In fact, it went out once, a couple of times, it went out once actually, and even the fact that it was out there, they scattered the convoy and they were picked off one by one. Not by the Tirpitz, by aircraft and so forth. So even an appearance of this thing caused tremendous losses.

So the Tirpitz then. It just rattled the cages and for them to be picked off. It was more of a deterrent. It was in the water and they were very scared of it.

Oh yeah, and the other thing, it could... if it got unopposed into the Atlantic it could have probably, especially in 1943, it could have stopped everything coming into Britain.

Could it really have done that?

That was what they were afraid of. It had the capacity to do that.

But it only got out once...

It went out once and back again I think.

So was it built in 1942, 43 was it or...

It was built at the beginning of the war I think actually because it took a hell of a long while to build these things. Hitler wasn't very keen on the navy anyhow. He was probably quite right. They could have built 1000 tanks with all the metal that they used.

So, did you actually bomb the Tirpitz yourself?

Oh yeah. We had 3 goes and eventually sank it. There were 2 squadrons. There was 617, they were the dambusters, and ourselves actually, their sister squadron.. and eventually instead of going to Russia, what we did was we.. as I said they took out the mid-upper turret there where they fitted long-range tanks. They fitted them inside the aircraft. We were then able to go from the north of Scotland - bomb - and come back again. Only just, I hasten to add.

But one time you said you went to Russia?

yeah, we went to Russia because that.. there were 3 trips altogether. The first one, we went to Russia, landed there to refuel, then come back from Russia and come home. That was before they fitted long-range tanks, you see. A question of endurance.

So you could actually make it and fly over.

Yeah.

So, did you actually see the Tirpitz roll over?

I was last off it actually because the bomb sight went U.S. We had to bomb manually. I was also windfinding. We used to do windfinding.

What does that mean?

Windfinding was that you went ahead of the main force there. Did a circuit.. a little bit technical.. over the spot on the ground and came back and find a wind for bombing, which was extremely important because if you got the wrong wind there, you missed the target.

Oh I see, it's wind speed and..

It's wind speed and direction, yeah. Anyhow, we went round again, and we were... we were second last off it because, you see, the camera crew were last off there. As I went over there, the rear gunner said, "Oh she's turning over..." and all the rest of it. I wasn't sure if that was true, but it was in fact true.

Do you think it was your bomb that got them?

No. Oh no it wasn't actually (chuckle). I would like to think so, but that wasn't true actually. We dropped it alright and probably helped to make a bit of a splash and so forth. But I believe it was dropped by the first lot of chaps of 617; three bombs, one by one of our lot actually. But one of the things that happened was that it blew one of these turrets wing (an enormous weight, right up in the air) and so forth like that. I think nobody expected it to turn over. I think one of the bombs hit its side and it rolled there... they thought it would just sink, but there you are.