Kingcombe's 72 Spitfire Squadron's log entry said, "First big offensive of the year. Ten Spitfires at 12:18 escorted six Swordfish in an attack on the Scharnhorst, escorted by light craft, in the Straits of Dover. 72 Squadron's score was the largest of any squadron."
As the Spitfires turned back to England to refuel, the five Swordfish survivors rescued from the sea were being taken back to Dover and Ramsgate.
The only uninjured survivors were observer Edgar Lee and Gunner Donald Bunce. Edgar Lee was ordered to report personally to Admiral Ramsay who signalled the Admiralty, "In my opinion the gallant sortie of these six Swordfish constitutes one of the finest exhibitions of self-sacrifice and devotion that the war has yet witnessed."
Shortly after the Swordfish attack, three more MTBs under Lt. D. J. Long left Ransgate to intercept the battleships. It was an unsatisfactory engagement on both sides. Due to bad weather and engine trouble none of the three boats found the ships. Long fought a battle with the E-boats and the destroyer Friedrich Ihn, who chased him off — but not fiercely enough. Friedrich Ihn's captain, Lt. Cdr. Wachsmuth, was criticized for not pursuing Long's boats more vigorously.
The destroyer flotilla's report said, "The destroyer Friedrich Ihn brought on itself the fire of the English coastal artillery and switched the attention of the batteries from the big ships by drawing their fire. Friedrich Ihn carried out the task allotted to her by fighting off the English MTBs with great success. As a result the British MTBs did not succeed in reaching the German battleships. However, it is incomprehensible that at 2:18 p.m. the destroyer did not successfully attack the two English MTBs coming towards her. This would have been the right thing to do."
Now the Germans were through the Straits unscathed, and were beginning to run up the Belgian coast. All of them had the feeling that, far from the battle being over, it had hardly begun.
The Admiralty had flung six old Fleet Air Arm biplanes in a doomed attack on the ships. Surely now the greatest battle-fleet in western waters was racing to sink them? In fact, all there was in the Home Fleet base at Scapa Flow that day were the new battleship Duke of York and the three heavy cruisers, London, Sheffield and Liverpool. At sea in the area were aircraft-carrier Victorious and heavy cruisers Berwick, Shropshire and Kenya. Together they could have made an annihilating attack. Instead, they remained aloof while the Royal Navy launched its last attack against the German battleships. It was to be made by Pizey's six 20-year-old destroyers.
The RAF had not really entered the battle yet. At 2:30 p.m., nearly 700 bombers and fighters were beginning to take off from airfields all over Britain for a massed air attack. Unfortunately, because of the confusion, they were taking off piecemeal.
Meanwhile, Admiral Ramsay was sitting on the navigating counter in Dover Operations Room swinging his legs when the phone rang for him. He kept saying, "Yes sir, no sir." He put down the phone and said, "That was the Prime Minister. He wanted to know how they had managed to get through."
Flt.-Lt. Gerald Kidd, who had been called in from Swingate Radar Station said, "I could tell him why. It was simply due to the fact that there was no forethought, no co-ordination whatsoever. I am going to write a report on it. I don't care if I am court-martialled." Ramsay paused for a moment and then said, "Go ahead. Somebody must say so."
When Churchill telephoned Dover Castle, Nora Smith with the rest of the afiternoon shift had already started tracing the battleship plots for future reference. She made two copies which later were shown to important visitors. Churchill was to be one of them.
IX
ADMIRAL CILIAX LEAVES HIS FLAGSHIP
February 11 was the last night of the stand-to for the six destroyers in Harwich. On the morning of the 12th, the operation was to be abandoned and the destroyers were to return to Sheerness. Looking at the charts on that evening Pizey said, "As tomorrow's the last day, I've got the Commodore's agreement to go out at 6 a.m., to exercise the ships in pairs in the wide swept Channel." In fact, he admits that at the back of his mind was the thought they might be more useful at sea if the Germans did come through. As the captains of the six destroyers met for the last time in Harwich harbour, it looked to them as though the alert was all over. Four hundred miles away in Brest, Admiral Ciliax and his captains were ready to cast off within three hours.
On 12 February, when the six destroyers slipped their cables and began to head out of Harwich harbour before dawn, it was the start of a cold misty winter's day. It was barely light when Campbell, with Captain Mark Pizey and his navigator, Lt. Tony Fanning, on the bridge with him, cleared the boom. Strung out behind them were Vivacious, Worcester and Walpole, followed by the 16th flotilla leader, Mackay, with Whitshed. They were accompanied by six Hunt Class destroyers with 4-inch A.A. guns to protect them from German aircraft while they exercised.
In the centre of the flotilla was HMS Worcester inevitably known in the fleet as the "Saucebottle." On her bridge were Lt.-Cdr. Colin Coats, a 39-year-old grey-haired regular R.N. officer, who had spent most of his time in destroyers, and his first lieutenant, curly-bearded Richard Taudevin, who had an RNVR wartime commission. With them on the bridge was the Australian ship's doctor Lt. David Jackson. As he watched the silvery shape of the destroyers being swallowed up into the mist, the doctor shivered slightly, for he was cold even in his thick jersey and monkey jacket. He was glad they were due back in harbour by tea-time.
The practice shoot was to be with their 4.7 guns at a towed canvas target. After the first series of shoots off Orfordness, it was Worcester's turn to tow the high-speed target for the other destroyers.
It was nearing the end of the forenoon watch when the yeoman of signals aboard Campbell handed Captain Pizey a signal from the C-in-C Nore, Vice-Admiral Sir George Lyon, which read: "Enemy cruisers passing Boulogne. Speed about twenty knots. Proceed in execution of previous orders." Signals began flashing from the flagship Campbell, ordering the destroyers to abandon the target shoot, alter course, and join him at full-speed.
It was 11:58 a.m., and off-duty officers were sitting in Worcester's wardroom when an officer came clattering down the companion-way and shouted excitedly, "Have you heard the news? They're out and we are going after them."
"Who's out?" inquired someone uninterestedly from behind a magazine.
"The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau—they are coming up the Channel."
The signal lamps and short-range radio were still flashing messages from destroyer to destroyer. Pizey signalled the Hunt Class destroyers: "Must leave you behind." This was because they could only keep up a maximum speed of twenty-five knots against twenty-eight to thirty knots for Pizey's flotilla. In an ordinary operation, he would have kept down to twenty-five knots, but this was too slow if he were to be in time to intercept the enemy. HMS Quorn, flotilla leader of the Hunt Class A.A. destroyers, flashed a farewell message as she turned to obey orders and lead her destroyers home to Harwich.
Aboard Campbell, Fanning plotted the German positions as given by the Admiralty, and Pizey realized the interception could take place at the Hinder Buoy as planned. This meant skirting the British minefields and sailing through the narrow swept Channel in single line.