An outstanding Second World War D.F.M. group of seven awarded to Flight Lieutenant C. F. Fennell, Royal Air Force, who somehow survived the famous suicidal low-level attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal on the night of 12-13 August 1940, when the ferocity of the flak that greeted the attacking force of five Hampdens blew two of them out of the night sky and severely damaged all of the others: Fennell’s aircraft, which returned to base with one engine ‘reduced to junk’, was the fourth to attack the target and was swiftly followed by Flight Lieutenant R. A. B. “Babe” Learoyd, piloting Hampden P-4403 EA-M

As the fifth - and final - pilot to launch his attack, at the height of the enemy’s furious response, Learoyd won the V.C., the citation concluding that, ‘the reception of the preceding aircraft might well have deterred the stoutest heart, all being hit and two lost’: it is worth noting for the record that Fennell and his crew also witnessed those losses before dropping down to 150 feet to carry out their own attack - amidst the blinding glare of searchlights and ‘in the face of the most intense point-blank fire from guns of all calibres’

Distinguished Flying Medal, G.VI.R. (562685 Sgt. C. F. Fennell, R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Coronation 1953; Royal Air Force L.S. & G.C., G.VI.R., 1st issue (Flt. Lt. C. F. Fennell, R.A.F.), good very fine (7) £4000-5000

D.F.M. London Gazette 22 November 1940. The original recommendation states:

‘This N.C.O. has carried out a total of 39 operational flights against the enemy during the course of which he has completed 232 hours flying as an Air Observer. Sergeant Fennell was the first Air Observer in 49 Squadron to undertake the duties of Navigator on operational flights. Throughout these operations he has shown outstanding ability, determination and devotion to duty. His navigation in all kinds of weather has been of the very highest order.

He has carried out numerous long distance mining operations and bombing attacks, both from low and high level, and has invariably located and successfully attacked his target in spite of enemy opposition and searchlights and anti-aircraft fire, and on occasions extremely difficult weather conditions. Sergeant Fennell’s devotion to duty, enthusiasm for operations and his calmness, courage and determination under fire have been an inspiration to other Air Observers in his Squadron’.

Charles Frederick Fennell, originally a native of County Down, Northern Ireland, but afterwards of Plawsworth in County Durham, was born in 1912 and was an 18th entry R.A.F. Halton Apprentice. By the time he joined No. 49 Squadron in December 1939, he had already served 12 years in the R.A.F.

Volunteering for aircrew duties, he was trained as an Observer / Navigator and flew his first sortie with No. 49 - a Hampden unit operating out of Scampton - in mid-January 1940. The Hampden, as described by Max Hastings in Bomber Command, was an aircraft with striking deficiencies:

‘The Hampden was the most urgent candidate for replacement: cruising at only 155 m.p.h., 10 m.p.h. slower than the other two [the Wellington and Whitley], this grotesque-looking flying glasshouse could stand little punishment, lacked power-operated turrets, and could only carry a 4000-lb. maximum bomb load.’

Notwithstanding such deficiencies, it was in the very same aircraft type that Fennell participated in the famous suicidal low-level attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal on the night of 12-13 August 1940.

V.C. action

Eleven Hampdens - six from No. 49 Squadron and five from No. 83 Squadron - were detailed to carry out the operation, but only five of these were to attack the target, the reminder being employed on diversionary sorties. Thus the attacking aircraft were captained by:

Flight Lieutenant R. A. B. “Babe” Learoyd (No. 49 Squadron)     
Pilot Officer H. V. Matthews (No. 49 Squadron, with Fennell acting as his Navigator)
Acting Squadron Leader “Jamie” Pitcairn-Hill, D.F.C. (No. 83 Squadron) 
Flight Lieutenant A. R. Mulligan, D.F.C. (No. 83 Squadron)
Pilot Officer E. H. Ross (No. 83 Squadron)

The Dortmund-Ems Canal, which had been attacked several times by the R.A.F., was regarded as a high priority target in the campaign to disrupt German intentions of an invasion - reconnaissance flights had already monitored the gathering of river barges from throughout Europe in channel ports.

The point at which the canal ran over an aqueduct was the obvious target area but at this early stage of the war ‘precision bombing’ was in its infancy: ‘precision’ invariably implied low-level, bordering on suicidal.

Accordingly the operation called for very careful planning, not least to ensure pinpoint timing in order to avoid the attacking force’s time delayed bombs exploding under the releasing aircraft - or the one following. The approach therefore had to be made on a predetermined line along the canal, a low-level, staggered approach which left the attacking aircraft at the mercy of searchlights and flak. Local A.A. defences were known to have been strengthened as a consequence of earlier attacks but what confronted Fennell and his fellow aircrew on their arrival surpassed all expectations.

For Valour, The Air V.Cs, by Chaz Bowyer, takes up the story:

‘At exactly 8 p.m. Learoyd got airborne from Scampton, lifting ‘Pinocchio’ (the Walt Disney character painted just below the left side of the Hampden’s cockpit) into the clear night air and setting course south-east. He was due to be over the aqueduct at precisely 11.15 p.m., the last of the five Hampdens detailed to carry out the actual bombing attack, and John Lewis’s skilled navigation brought Learoyd to a point just north of the target at ten minutes before their designated ETA.

The moon was half-full, reflecting clearly the canal water, and Learoyd circled leisurely, awaiting his turn to bomb. Elsewhere, unseen by Learoyd, four Hampdens were making their diversion raids, as per the pre-arranged plan, while two other Hampdens, having failed to locate their primary targets, bombed Texel Island instead.

As Learoyd waited calmly he saw the first Hampden begin its run over the canal; Squadron Leader ‘Jamie’ Pitcairn-Hill, D.F.C. of 83 Squadron in Hampden P4402.

Alongside each bank of the canal were rows of deadly accurate mobile flak guns, well-sited, and presenting any potential attacker with no choice but to run the narrow gauntlet of anti-aircraft fire during his actual bombing attack. Knowing these odds against survival, Pitcairn-Hill led the way in threading his way through a curtain of shells and tracer bullets, and in the face of blinding searchlights focussed directly on the approach lane. Levelling out at 100 feet above the silver water canal, he suffered numerous hits but refused to evade the punishment, maintaining a rock-steady bombing run and releasing his bomb canisters with precision, before banking away from the danger zone and limping home to England.

The second Hampden, P4410 piloted by an Australian, Pilot Officer E. H. Ross, received a direct hit as he nosed into the flak lane and crashed in a holocaust of flames alongside the canal.

Third to run the gauntlet was another Australian from 83 Squadron, Flying Officer A R. Mulligan, D.F.C. in Hampden P4340. Before Mulligan had reached his bomb-release point however his aircraft was hit in its port engine, which erupted in flames. Jettisoning his bomb load quickly Mulligan climbed swiftly to 2,000 feet and then ordered his crew to abandon the aircraft. Once the three crew members were out, Mulligan took to his parachute and watched his machine plunge into the earth and explode. All four men survived their hasty exit and were soon taken prisoner by the Germans.

Fourth in line came Pilot Officer Matthews [with Fennell aboard] who bombed successfully and then struggled back to England with one engine reduced to junk by flak damage. It was now Learoyd's turn to bomb. Just six minutes had elapsed since Pitcairn-Hill’ s initial attack.

Due to bomb at exactly 11.23 p.m., Learoyd let down to 300 feet, some three miles north of the target, then started a shallow diving attack run straight along the canal. By now the German gunners and searchlight operators had fixed the height of the raiders, and were waiting impatiently for the next aircraft. Levelling out at 150 feet, Learoyd reached a point where the canal forked just before the two aqueducts, and then handed over final ‘control’ of the bomber to his bomb-aimer, John Lewis.

At that moment all hell broke loose as the flak barrage opened up and several searchlights coned the approaching bomber. Blinded by the lights, Learoyd ducked his head below the windscreen to fly solely on instruments at the bidding of Lewis; while both gunners began raking the searchlight sites as these flashed by on either side.

A sudden thump as a shell blasted through the starboard wing almost threw the Hampden off course, and was immediately followed by a second shell which tore through the same wing between the engine and Learoyd's cockpit. Machine-gun bullets splashed the underside of the bomber continually, but Learoyd held firm, waiting for Lewis to release the bomb load.

Then he heard Lewis yell, ‘OK Finish’, and immediately pulled the battered Hampden into a steep banking turn out of the flak fury, climbing as fast as possible towards a safer area of sky ... ’

Learoyd’s subsequent award of the V.C. aside, a flurry of related awards ensued, Fennell’s pilot, P./O. H. V. Matthews gaining an immediate D.F.C., a distinction that shared the same citation as the immediate D.S.O. awarded to “Jamie” Pitcairn-Hill:

‘One night in August 1940 Flight Lieutenant Pitcairn-Hill led a formation of aircraft, one of which was piloted by Pilot Officer Matthews, in a low flying attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. In spite of intense enemy opposition over the target area, in which all aircraft were seriously damaged and two were shot down, these officers carried out a successful attack from 150 feet precisely at zero hour. The timing of this difficult operation was dependent on the skill, judgement and personal resolution of F./L. Pitcairn-Hill who has at all times displayed outstanding gallantry, skill and devotion to duty. P./O. Matthews, by his courage, determination and skill has at all times set an excellent example’ (London Gazette 27 August 1949, refers).

Leading Aircraftman S. Allwood in Matthews’s crew, and Leading Aircraftman W. R. Rich, the air gunner in Learoyd’s crew, won immediate D.F.Ms, the first L.A.Cs of the war so decorated; Fennell and another member of Learoyd’s crew, Sergeant Walter Ellis, were gazetted for D.F.Ms in November 1940.

In addition to the Dortmund-Ems Canal operation, Fennell carried out 38 sorties in No. 49 Squadron, one of them, flown in mid-May 1940, resulting in his aircraft crashing on the French coast at Ault, due to the failure of the starboard engine; later in the same month, his Hampden was attacked by an enemy fighter over Julich, but managed to get home, while in early August his aircraft was detailed to attack the Gneisenau - ‘results not observed owing to heavy and accurate flak’.

Fennell’s last operational sortie in No. 49 was a strike on Hamburg on 26 September 1940. Posted out of the Squadron in March 1941, he was commissioned as a Flight Lieutenant in May 1943 (General Duties Aircrew). Post-war, he transferred to the Aircraft Control Branch in January 1947, the Secretarial Branch in November 1955 and was placed on the Retired List in 1957; he was serving with No. 5 Flying Training School, Southern Rhodesia, when he received his Coronation Medal in 1953 (official roll refers).

Fennell died in Gloucester in 1979; sold with copied research, including 49 Squadron O.R.B. entries and a newspaper cutting, with portrait photograph.