Kenneth Campbell

Braving Brest's guns, he torpedoed the German battlecruiser.

Kenneth Campbell was born at Saltcoats, Ayrshire, on 21 April 1917. He attended Sedbergh School from 1931 to 1935, belonging to Sedgwick House, before studying chemistry at Clare College, Cambridge. He graduated with a BA and learned to fly with the Cambridge University Air Squadron, which he joined in October 1937. Commissioned as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in August 1938, he was mobilised after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939.

Campbell trained at RAF Cranwell and then passed through Abbotsinch and No. 1 Coastal Operational Training Unit at Silloth. He became a flying officer on 23 February 1940 and was posted to No. 22 Squadron that September. Flying Bristol Beauforts with Coastal Command, he undertook attacks on enemy shipping. In March 1941 he torpedoed a merchant vessel near Borkum, brought a damaged aircraft home after an encounter with two German fighters, and later attacked shipping off IJmuiden.

On 6 April 1941, Campbell captained Beaufort N1016 from RAF St Eval, Cornwall, to attack Gneisenau at Brest. Bad weather prevented the other aircraft from making their planned attacks. His crew consisted of James Philip Scott, William Cecil Mulliss and Ralph Walter Hillman. Campbell pressed through the harbour's formidable defences and released his torpedo at close range, damaging the battlecruiser below the waterline. His aircraft was shot down and all four men were killed. He was 23, and there was no later service or civilian career.

Reports of the attack eventually reached Britain, and Campbell's posthumous Victoria Cross was announced on 13 March 1942. His final held rank was Flying Officer. He and his crew were buried at Brest, where he lies in Kerfautras Cemetery.

Official Victoria Cross citation The London Gazette, Third Supplement, 13 March 1942, page 1163.

Air Ministry, 13th March, 1942.

ROYAL AIR FORCE.

The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the VICTORIA CROSS on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery:

Flying Officer Kenneth CAMPBELL (72446), Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (deceased), No. 22 Squadron.

This officer was the pilot of a Beaufort aircraft of Coastal Command which was detailed to attack an enemy battle cruiser in Brest Harbour at first light on the morning of 6th April, 1941. The aircraft did not return but it is now known that a torpedo attack was carried out with the utmost daring.

The battle cruiser was secured alongside the wall on the north shore of the harbour, protected by a stone mole bending round it from the west. On rising ground behind the ship stood protective batteries of guns. Other batteries were clustered thickly round the two arms of land which encircle the outer harbour. In this outer harbour near the mole were moored three heavily-armed anti-aircraft ships, guarding the battle cruiser. Even if an aircraft succeeded in penetrating these formidable defences, it would be almost impossible, after delivering a low-level attack, to avoid crashing into the rising ground beyond.

This was well known to Flying Officer Campbell who, despising the heavy odds, went cheerfully and resolutely to the task. He ran the gauntlet of the defences. Coming in almost at sea level, he passed the anti-aircraft ships at less than mast-height in the very mouths of their guns, and skimming over the mole launched a torpedo at point-blank range. The battle cruiser was severely damaged below the water-line, and was obliged to return to the dock whence she had come only the day before.

By pressing home his attack at close quarters in the face of a withering fire on a course fraught with extreme peril, Flying Officer Campbell displayed valour of the highest order.