Kenneth Campbell

Kenneth Campbell was born on 21 April 1917 at Saltcoats in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was educated at Sedbergh School and went up to Clare College, Cambridge, where he joined the university air squadron, and he entered the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on leaving. By 1941 he was a flying officer with No. 22 Squadron of Coastal Command, flying the Bristol Beaufort, a torpedo-carrying bomber used against enemy shipping.

In the spring of 1941 the German battlecruiser Gneisenau lay in the harbour at Brest, one of the most heavily defended ports in occupied Europe, protected by flak ships, shore batteries and the guns of the warship herself. On the morning of 6 April 1941 Campbell flew in alone at very low level, threading between the defences to drop his torpedo at close range against the Gneisenau. The torpedo struck below the waterline and did serious damage, putting the ship out of action for months. Campbell’s Beaufort was hit at once and crashed into the harbour; he and his three crew were all killed.

The full story of the attack became known only afterwards, partly from German sources, and Campbell was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, gazetted on 13 March 1942. He was 23. He is buried, with his crew, in Brest (Kerfautras) Cemetery in France, where the German occupiers themselves accorded the airmen a funeral with military honours.