17x BISMARCK 8x10 photo signed-15x Survivors (Rechberg) 2x Catalina/Swordfish For Sale

Rechberg was the top ranking officer to survive the Bismarck sinking

Leonard Smith - Catalina pilot spotted Bismarck

In 1940 Great Britain purchased 200 PBY Catalina seaplanes, whose long range and flight time made them ideal for anti-submarine patrols. The first batch of PBYs was delivered early in 1941, along with three pilots, one of them Ensign Smith, “on loan” from the U.S. Navy to help train the Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots. The sale of the Catalinas was public knowledge. U.S. Navy pilot help was not. Roosevelt had aroused isolationist irein still-neutral America with Lend Lease and other aid to Britain. If Congress discovered he had also sent pilots to Britain, Roosevelt said, “I will be impeached.” So the pilots’ presence was a secret. Smith was assigned to the RAF’s 209 Squadron, part of Coastal Command and based in Loch Erne, Northern Ireland.

At the early morning briefing on May 26, 1941, Smith discovered the squadron’s mission that day was to find the Bismarck, which had eluded the ships and aircraft shadowing it. Normally for reconnaissance missions, the Catalinas’ anti-submarine loads of four depth charges were removed. But time was of the essence. The depth charges stayed on.

The weather was foul, with a ceiling as low as 100 feet when, at 0325, Smith’s PBY-5 No. AH545 lifted off the waters of Loch Erne and, along with the rest of the squadron’s Catalinas, headed west in search of the Bismarck. Officially RAF Pilot Officer Dennis Briggs was the pilot and Smith was the co-pilot.

Smith’s Catalina reached its assigned sector about six hours later and commenced searching. In his report of what happened next, Smith said, “[A]t 1010 I sighted what was first believed to be Bismarck. . . . I immediately took control from ‘George’ [the automatic pilot]; started slow climbing turn to starboard, keeping ship sited to port, while the British officer went aft to prepare [the] contact report. My plan was to take cover in the clouds, get close to the ship as possible; making definite recognition and then shadow the ship from best point of vantage. Upon reaching 2,000 feet we broke out of a cloud formation and were met by a terrific anti-aircraft barrage from our starboard quarter.”

Buffeted by anti-aircraft bursts that damaged the Catalina, Smith jettisoned the depth charges and conducted violent evasive action as additional contact information, including confirmation that the ship was the Bismarck, was transmitted. Smith and the crew later lost contact with the battleship, but their messages had been received. Air and surface forces converged on an intercept course. Smith’s Catalina landed 18 hours later, at 2130. The next morning the Bismarck was at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

John Moffat- Swordfish pilot that delivered the torpedo hit that took down the Bismarck

John William Charlton Moffat (17 June 1919 – 11 December 2016) was a Scottish Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot, widely credited as the pilot whose torpedo crippled the German battleship Bismarck [1] and author of the biographical I sank the Bismarck. Moffat took part in the courageous strike on the German battleship Bismarck during its Atlantic sortie, codenamed Operation Rheinübung, on 26 May 1941 whilst flying a Fairey Swordfish biplane.

This photo extremely rare with this many signatures of survivors, spotter pilot of, deathblow torpedo pilot too.  

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