Attacking submarines

Heroes Remember

Attacking submarines

Transcript

Maybe twenty feet, at night. Well they briefed us to go on attack at 300 feet. We started losing crews and so that told me very quickly that the enemy knows we are going to attack at 300 feet. So these, even a U-boat if he sticks his stern to you he had some weapons mounted on deck and set up a box you had to fly over, through it. If you have to fly through it the odds of you getting through it with something the size of a Lib isn't very good. So what I tried to do, particularly at night, when we had the tracer, I tried to keep the tracer going over the coop top, which meant I'm going lower and lower and lower to the point where you felt as if you pulled up a bit to get over when you were attacking. We used our turrets to clear their decks if they were on the surface. And one of them in particular on D-Day was on the surface and the nose gunner did a great job in, in clearing the way as we were approaching the, the target as we called it. Interviewer: What do you use to hit the, to attack the target? Depth charges. And we had acoustic and magnetic homing torpedos. See our, when we went out to the Black Hole, just going back a ways, the weapons that we carried were six depth chargers, which isn't a lot of weapon. When we got in, say to the channel on D-Day we carried a magnetic homing torpedo and we carried 12 depth chargers. So we decided, the crew decided, to use six of six. So on one attack we got a three-three straddle with our depth charges and on the other we got a four-two, and we got confirmation, immediate confirmation on the sinkings.

Description

Mr. Moore describes how low he would fly on a surface attack on a submarine and how depth charges and acoustic and magnetic homing torpedos were used.

Ken Moore

Born in Rock Haven, Saskatchewan, Ken Moore was the youngest of eight children. His father died when he was very young and his mother raised the family on her own. After graduating from highschool, he hitchhiked to Vancouver, BC and joined the Air Force. During the war, he piloted 61 missions, in Liberators, on coastal escort duties and submarine patrols. During one such mission, his crew sank two U-boats in 22 minutes. Because of this act he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Silver Star (by the US).

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:14
Person Interviewed:: Ken Moore
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Europe
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 224 Squadron
Occupation:: Pilot

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Attacking submarines

Heroes Remember