“While few in Britain or Germany wanted a war, it is a historical fact that the mass of the people in both countries eventually tolerated one, and participated, if not with enthusiasm, then with grim determination.”
The War Nobody Wanted Frederick Taylor 2018
The Skua, a two-seater naval dive bomber, in Fleet Air Arm service from 1938 was obsolete by March 1940 and although a 16 strong Skua force sunk the German light cruiser “Königsberg” in Bergen harbour on April 10th , the hopelessly outclassed Skua was no match for the Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighters based in abundance close to Trondheim.
Combat inadequacies contradicted logic behind the order, but at around midnight fifteen Skua crews took off from HMS “Ark Royal” having to fly 72 km without any cloud cover or darkness at that time of the year, erasing any element of surprise. Eight Skua crews failed to return, six aircrew lost their lives, ten became “POW’s” and a waste of aircrew and aircraft caused no damage to the “Scharnhorst” but added the woes of a disastrous Norwegian campaign.
The raid involved three South Africans . Lt Robert Southey Bostock lost his life, Lt Cecil Howard Filmer was shot down and became a “POW” while Lt Guy Warwick Brokensha was one of seven pilots who managed to fly their battered Skuas back to HMS “Ark Royal”. Thirty-year-old Bostock and twenty-four-year-old Filmer were educated at King Edwards in Johannesburg while twenty-two-year-old Brokensha finished his schooling at DHS in Durban.
Bostock ’s service details have not been sourced but he and Filmer were “Mentioned in Dispatches” on May 9th with Bostock receiving a second mention on June 25th. Filmer, a “South African Training Ship General Botha” graduate served as a battleship sub-lieutenant before becoming a Fleet Air Arm pilot in 1938 and was involved in the “Königsberg”, the first air attack sinking of the Second World War .
Lt Guy Warwick Brokensha, awarded the “Distinguished Service Cross” on June 25th , was lost at sea in August 1942.
From “The First Ten Months”, chapter 4 of Jon Eagar's book. About the book.