Revealed after 70 years: Dambusters legend was shot down by BRITISH airman who mistook him for German
By DailyMail UK
One of the greatest heroes of the Second World War was killed by friendly fire, according to a posthumous confession 67 years later by the man who pulled the trigger.
Guy Gibson, who won a VC for leading the Dam Busters' 'bouncing bomb' raids, died when his plane crashed mysteriously while returning from a mission 16 months later.
It was thought that Wing Commander Gibson – immortalised by Richard Todd in the 1955 film The Dam Busters – crashed after running out of fuel or flying too low.
Killed by friendly fire: Guy Gibson (below) and his navigator were killed instantly when Bernard McCormack (further below) mistook Gibson's aircraft for an enemy plane and opened fire in Germany in 1944:
Mistake: Bernard McCormack was a gunner in a Lancaster bomber and mistook Gibson's twin-engined Mosquito, like this pictured, for an enemy plane:
The aircraft: Bernard McCormack was a gunner in a Lancaster bomber (model pictured), when the mistake happened:
He was 26 when he died, his only identifiable remains a laundry mark from a sock.
But now a researcher for a new film of the RAF raids on the Ruhr Valley in 1943, which is being made by Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson, has unearthed a taped confession made by a Lancaster gunner who says he shot down Wing Cdr Gibson's Mosquito fighter-bomber.
Sergeant Bernard McCormack was in Wing Cdr Gibson's formation of 227 Lancaster bombers and ten Mosquitoes in an attack on Germany in September 1944.
As they returned to RAF Woodall in Lincolnshire, Sgt McCormack saw what he thought was a German Junkers 88, which looked like a Mosquito, and loosed off 600 rounds of machinegun fire, bringing it down over the Dutch town of Steenbergen.
When he was debriefed by RAF intelligence officers, he realised he had killed Wing Cdr Gibson and his navigator Jim Warwick.
Wracked with guilt, he taped a confession, which he entrusted to his wife Eunice when he died in 1992. The cassette has now been found by TV documentary maker James Cutler, 62, after he contacted Mrs McCormack during research for Sir Peter's new film.
In memory: A Lancaster bomber over Derwent dam in the Peak District, England, to mark an anniversary of the event in 1943:
Engineers from Cambridge University staged a peaceful recreation of the bombing raid over a lake in British Columbia, Canada, this year, as part of a study into the science behind the attack:
R.A.F. Bomber Command in World War II: Guy Gibson, centre, with the air crews who took part in the raid:
Referring to Wing Cdr Gibson's plane – or 'kite' in RAF slang – Sgt McCormack said: 'All of a sudden this kite comes right behind us, twin engines and a single rudder, and it comes bouncing in towards us so we opened fire and we blew him up.
'When we got back we claimed a Ju 88 shot down. The following day we were quizzed again.' He Confession: Sgt Bernard McCormack Daily Mail Reporter says an officer asked him: 'What made you think it was a Ju 88?'
Sgt McCormack went on: 'We said it had twin engines and a single rudder. He said, “So has a Mosquito. Supposing his radio and his radar was knocked out and he was lost and he spotted a Lancaster – he would only want to follow it home wouldn't he?”
'And it turned out it was Gibbo we shot down.'
Mr Cutler has also discovered classified documents in the Bomber Command records at the National Archives that back up Sgt McCormack's account.
One is the combat report from the crew of Sgt McCormack's Lancaster and the second is from the crew of another Lancaster on the raid which noted the 'kill'.
Mr Cutler, of St Ives, Cambridgeshire, has published his research into the incident in Britain At War magazine.
He said: 'It could only have been Gibson's plane because the coordinates in these documents were right where his plane came down. I am satisfied 100 per cent that Guy Gibson was killed by friendly fire and 99.9 per cent sure that he was shot down by Bernard McCormack's plane.
'For Guy Gibson to be killed by friendly fire was a huge blunder.'
A scene from the 1954 film 'The Dam Busters' which starred Richard Todd (left) as Wing Commander Guy Gibson and Michael Redgrave (right) as Dr Barnes Wallis:
Film recreation: Actor Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson in the 1954 film The Dam Busters:
FACT FILE: DAMBUSTERS RAID
- On May 16, 1943, 19 aircraft set out to destroy three dams in the Ruhr valley - the Mohne, the Eder and the Sorpe - and so damage a vital source of power to the key industrial area of Germany.
- The Mohne and Eder Dams in the industrial heart of Germany were attacked and breached by mines dropped from specially modified Lancasters of No. 617 Sqn.
- The Sorpe dam was was also attacked by two aircraft and damaged.
- A fourth dam, the Ennepe was reported as being attacked by a single aircraft (O-Orange), but with no damage.
- An estimated 1,294 people were killed by floodwaters and 8 of the 19 aircraft dispatched failed to return with the loss of 53 aircrew and 3 taken prisoner of war.
- Wg Cdr Guy Gibson, Officer Commanding No. 617 Sqn, was awarded the VC for his part in leading the attack.
Geez, and I thought we had problems.