As six Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers rumbled down the airstrip at Manston, Kent, on February 12 1942, the station commander Tom Greave stood to attention and saluted. He knew that none of them would be coming back and neither would most of the men on board.

Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde, who led 825 Squadron, had been at Buckingham Palace the day before, where King George V1 presented him with the DSO, for the part he played in the sinking of the Bismark. Now he had been asked to lead a suicide mission.

The Swordfish were to attack three massive German ships, the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau and the Prinz Eugen. These were protected by destroyers, fighter aircraft and of course their own guns.

Against expectations, Hitler had decided the ships should abandon the harbours of Brittany, and travel down channel in broad daylight, in order to reach the relative safety of the Baltic. However brave their crews, the Swordfish, elderly pre-war biplanes made of wood and canvas, each carrying a torpedo slung beneath its belly, were completely unequal to the task.

Only a fragment of the Spitfire force promised to protect them, had arrived, but shortly after 12.30, Esmonde waved his hand, dipped his aircraft to 50 feet and set off across the Channel. As the aircraft closed to within 2,000 yards of the German ships, countless flak guns opened up at them. Messerschmitt fighters queued, to take pot shots at them.

Swordfish were crewed by three men sitting in line, the rearmost of whom was the gunner. Edmonde’s gunner was W. J. ‘Jack’ Clinton, who fired relentlessly without success. But when the tailplane caught fire, he was seen to crawl along the fuselage to beat out the flames with his hands.

With Clinton and Observer W.H. Williams dead behind him, Esmonde aimed his torpedo towards the Prinz Eugen. It missed and his plane crashed into the sea, killing him.

The second Swordfish also let go its torpedo to no effect. Despite injuries the pilot Sub Lieutenant Brian Rose ditched the aircraft and was pulled clear by his Observer, Sub Lieutenant Edgar Lee. Gunner Ginger Johnson was killed.

The third aircraft’s gunner did manage to shoot down one of the German fighter planes. They also launched their torpedo, but it didn’t find a target. Pilot Sub Lieutenant ‘Pat’ Kingsmill managed to bring his plane down close to some motor-torpedo boats and all three of the crew were rescue.