They had a fleet of American made Consolidated Catalina PBY-5 flying boats at their disposal and their task was to patrol the Atlantic ocean and North Sea as part of Coastal Command.
Here's a BBC news video clip of two veterans revisiting Loch Erne and flying in a Catalina.
On the 26th May he was aboard Catalina 'Z' AH545 that located and shadowed the Bismarck, pride of the German Navy, eventually leading the British Royal Navy to its location and ultimate destruction. His aeroplane was hit by bullets and he plugged the holes with rubber bungs.
Here's an account from the pilot, mentioning the rigger making repairs to the Catalina.
What was kept under wraps at the time was that an American, Ensign Leonard B. Smith, was co-piloting the Catalina that day and was the one who spotted the Bismarck. Because the USA were still neutral to the war in Europe it meant that his role was only later revealed. Here is his account of the sighting:
"Upon reaching 2000′ we broke out of a cloud formation and were met by a terrific anti-aircraft barrage from our starboard quarter.
Immediately jettisoned the depth charges and started violent evasive action which consisted of full speed, climbing and “S” turns. The British officer [Dennis Briggs] went aft again to send the contact report. When making an “S” turn I could see the ship was a BB [battleship] and was the Bismarck, which had made a 90 starboard turn from its original course, (This was evident from wake made by his maneuvering), and was firing broadsides at us. The A.A. [anti-aircraft] fire lasted until we were out of range and into the clouds.
It was very intense and were it not for evasive action we would have been shot down. The barrage was so close that it shook the aircraft considerably (one man was knocked from his bunk) and the noise of the burst could be hear above the propeller and engine noise.
Numerous bursts were observed at close quarters and small fragments of shrapnel could be heard hitting the plane. The fitter came forward to pilots compartment saying we were full of holes.
As soon as we were well clear of Bismarck we investigated the damage, which consisted of a hole in after port hull (about 2″ in diameter) and one in bottom hull directly below instrument panel (about 1″ in diameter). No other damage was visible at the time. I made short flight test (several turns, checked engines, etc) and finding everything satisfactory returned to area to resume shadow of Bismarck."
Alfred's sister, Joan, wrote about his Bismarck encounter in a letter to her husband Charles (who was driver for RAF Chief of Staff at RAF HQ in London):
"Now, I must tell you some quite thrilling news. Alfred was one of the crew of the Catalina flying boat who found the Bismarck. Little did we think that! Well, he wrote in the week to say he had been interviewed by Godfrey Winn who gave an account of the crew in last week's 'Sunday Express'. Then he said they were being filmed by Movietone. He says, "Fame at last, eh?" However, you can imagine how pleased we were. There was a crew of 14 and Godfrey Winn mentions the rigger."
Here is the event as described by Godfrey Winn, in his book 'The Hour Before Dawn', published in 1942:
"Finding the Bismarck
The Catalina sea planes were nicknamed the Flying Planks due to their wide arched wings. One made history when it located the German battleship Bismarck after it had been lost in the mists of darkness and fog for eight hours.
There were ten in the crew; some were close friends Tich, Eddie and Marco, who had flown many hours together. One of the pilots had been a member of the original crew of the first Catalina to operate in the Battle of the Atlantic; he had crashed but saved to fight again. Their squadron motto was SEEK AND FOLLOW.
The first three hours of the operation were the worst, flying from a remote loch in Scotland, after that routine sets in. At dawn they used a primus stove to cook bacon and eggs for breakfast but it was to be a long wait before lunch.
They finally spotted the Bismarck well camouflaged with light blue paint and no more than a cigar box from a quarter of a mile away. When they sighted Bismarck and sent the message back to their base, it took the wireless operator a full 3 minutes to transcribe. All that time they were being attacked, weaving and rocking in a perpetual crazy pattern.... and the Catalina crew shot back at the four fighters catapulted from the ship's deck ... and then HQ asked the radio operator to repeat his message... as the op room thought the news was too good to be true!
(The four fighters knew they'd not be able to get back to their mother ship, she would not slow down nor impede her escape and certainly not reveal her position even to them.)
The Catalina was struck by enemy fire, there were many holes in her hull and beneath the twin pilots' seat was a large hole which the resourceful crew had patched with their margarine ration!
After the attack the Catalina had to get home ... and what a cramped plane it was with just a single deck and space taken up with no less than 1500 gallons of fuel allowing it to stay airborne for 20 hours or so, no space, intense vibration, a cacophony of sound.
By the time this Catalina returned after spotting the Bismarck it was 9.30pm but it was apparently like Cowes Regatta with every motor boat on the loch speeding towards the buoy to cheer lustily and also stand by to give help in case the hole in the hull caused her to sink like a stone to the bottom of the loch.
The crew were a bit nervous about their return to base, expecting to be in trouble as they had not fully stuck with their orders... they had taken evasive action when attacked and so lost sight of the ship. Their orders had been to shadow Bismarck all day long even if it was ten-tenths cloud and this they hadn't done. After all finding the Bismarck was all in a day's work to Coastal Command."
Another interesting account is here, although it's not sure if this was Alfred's Catalina.
A detailed account of the operation to find and destroy the Bismarck, referencing the role of the Catalinas, can be found here.
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