£3,000
A MODERN SILVER MODEL OF A FAIREY SWORDFISH COMMEMORATING THE ATTACK ON SCHARNHORST 12TH FEBRUARY 1942
realistically modelled in 925 silver with London hallmarks for 2009, mounted on an ebonised display base with torpedo on loading trolly with title plate, and section of doped aviation cloth signed by three surviving pilots: C.M. Kingsmill DSO, E.F. Lee VRO and D. Bunce CGM -- 12½ x 9in. (31.5 x 23cm.)
After a successful cruise of commerce raiding (sinking some 22 ships), the pocket battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were bottled up in the harbour at Brest from March 1941. Joined by Prinz Eugen that June, they were urgently needed to assist in the Norway campaign. Faced with losing his guns, Admiral Erich Raeder ordered Operation 'Cerberus' - a plan of dramatic simplicity and one history records as 'The Channel Dash'. Leaving Brest at 19.30 on February 11th, due to a series of errors or luck, they weren't challenged until after midday when South Foreland shore batteries opened fire and seven MTB's attempted, and failed, to pass the screen of schnelboots and destroyers. At 12.45 six obsolete Fairy Swordfish bi-planes, represented by this lot, heroically attacked - all were lost along with most of their crews. Delayed by a mine at 14.32, Scharnhorst was underway again by 15.17 and the flotilla docked at Wilhelmshaven the next morning.
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