The unique 'Channel Dash' C.G.M. group of six awarded to Chief Petty Officer (Air) D. A....

‘Kingsmill, who was following Esmonde, flew so low that he was hit by ricochets from the surface of the sea as he pressed through the smoke and bursting shells. He watched Esmonde’s aircraft erupt in a ball of fire and then his friend Brian Rose crash into the sea, before he turned towards the Prinz Eugen at a range of 2.000 yards. Kingsmill had received the first of several wounds, a hit in the back. His observer, “Mac” Samples, had blood running from his boots, and his leading telegraphist air gunner, Don Bunce, had his seat shot away, so that he had to brace his legs to avoid falling into the sea.
Swordfish W5907 had one wing on fire, it had engine damage, and the controls were becoming increasingly sluggish as Kingsmill turned full circle to avoid enemy fighters, then steadied up for his torpedo drop. Prinz Eugen manoeuvred violently to comb the torpedo track which just missed astern. As Kingsmill turned away, his Swordfish was hit again, detonating its distress flares. Trailing ragged fabric streamers and with gaping holes in virtually every part of its wings, fuselage and tail, he tried to prevent it stalling before ditching.’
The fate of Swordfish W5907 on 12 February 1942, as described in the obituary notice of the pilot, Pat Kingsmill; The Daily Telegraph, January 2003, refers.


The unique ‘Channel Dash’ C.G.M. group of six awarded to Chief Petty Officer (Air) D. A. ‘Don’ Bunce, a Telegraphist Air Gunner in 825 Naval Air Squadron, Fleet Air Arm

Already a veteran of a celebrated Swordfish attack against the Bismarck in May 1941, when his pilot dropped to 100 feet in the face of a ‘very vigorous and accurate barrage of heavy and light A.A. fire’ – and indeed of the loss of the Ark Royal – Bunce added to his laurels in a supreme act of defiance in 825’s suicidal strike against enemy capital ships in the English Channel in February 1942

Amidst curtains of flak, and in the face of relentless cannon shell fire from Fw 190s, his armament amounted to a ‘feeble’ .303 Vickers machine-gun and ‘every Naval swear word I could muster’

Of the six Swordfish that went in, none returned, just five airmen out of 18 living to tell the tale. The force’s leader, Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, D.S.O., R.N., was awarded a posthumous V.C., a distinction which recognised the valour of all of 825’s participating aircrew:

‘Their aircraft shattered, undeterred by an inferno of fire, they carried out their orders, which were to attack the target. Not one came back. Theirs was the courage which is beyond praise’

Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, G.VI.R. (FAA/SFX. 631 D. A. Bunce, Naval Aimn. 1.); 1939-45 Star; Atlantic Star, 1 clasp, France and Germany; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, mounted as worn, minor edge bruise to first, nearly extremely fine (6)
(6) £80,000-£100,000
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This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK
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C.G.M. London Gazette 3 March 1942:
‘Naval Airman First Class Donald Arthur Bunce, FAA/SFX. 631, who was Air Gunner in the Swordfish aircraft piloted by Sub-Lieutenant Kingsmill. With his machine on fire, and the engine failing, he stayed steadfast at his gun, engaging the enemy fighters which beset his aircraft. He is believed to have shot one of them down. Throughout the action his coolness was unshaken.’

Donald Arthur Bunce was born in Oxford on 27 May 1921 and joined the Fleet Air Arm as a Naval Airman Second Class in January 1940, when he commenced training as a Telegraphist Air Gunner (T.A.G.).

Bismarck action – Loss of Ark Royal
Posted to 825 Naval Air Squadron (N.A.S.) at Campbeltown in mid-April 1941, he and the squadron were embarked in the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Victorious a month later, shortly before the famous pursuit of the Bismarck.
Bunce subsequently took part in all the sorties flown by 825 N.A.S. during the pursuit, achieving over 14 hours airborne in less than one and a half days. The first of these sorties was flown on 24 May 1941, when nine Swordfish aircraft set-off to attack the Bismarck under Lieutenant-Commander E. K. Esmonde, R.N.

Bunce’s aircraft, part of the first wave, was piloted by Lieutenant N. G. MacLean, R.N.V.R., and went into the attack at midnight, in the face of a ‘very vigorous and accurate barrage of heavy and light A.A. fire’, and dropped a torpedo off Bismarck’s port beam from 100 feet. It - in common with all but one of the ‘fish’ dropped by the squadron - was artfully dodged by Bismarck’s helmsman, but vital damage was inflicted by a hit obtained amidships by another Swordfish.

The flight back to the Victorious was by no means a foregone conclusion, the homing beacon aboard the carrier being unserviceable. Moreover, the searchlights deployed by Victorious’s captain to guide in Esmonde’s flight were swiftly shut down by command of Rear-Admiral Curteis. Nonetheless, all the Swordfish made it back safely, landing between 0200 and 0230 hours.

The squadron’s strike role now concluded, 825 N.A.S. was nonetheless called upon to carry our ongoing search patrols - two on the 25th and one on the 26th, and Bunce participated in all three, flying as T.A.G. to Esmonde in the last of them. However, he was not among those decorated or mentioned in despatches in the subsequent list of awards granted to the squadron in September 1941, a list which included a D.S.O. for Esmonde, and four D.S.C.s and three D.S.M.s. No matter; Bunce would shortly be the recipient of a much rarer distinction.

Meanwhile, in the first week of June 1941, he and 825 N.A.S. were embarked on the Ark Royal. Fresh, too, from the Bismarck action, the Ark was deployed to the Malta run, and lent valuable support in Operations ‘Substance’ and ‘Halberd’. On 13 November 1941, however, disaster struck in the form a fatal torpedo strike, her demise famously captured on film. Mercifully, all but one of her crew survived.

The Channel Dash
In early 1942, and having re-mustered at Lee-on-Solent, 828 N.A.S. was ordered to R.A.F. Manston, as part of Operation ‘Fuller’, the much-flawed plan to counter the anticipated breakout of enemy capital ships from Brest, namely the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen.

When indeed the German ships made their bid for freedom - in what became known as the Channel Dash - the response mounted by air and sea proved entirely inadequate. Apart from anything else, the breakout was daringly enacted in daylight, whereas ‘Fuller’ had been planned around a nocturnal breakout. Moreover, the Germans had assembled a formidable defensive screen, the three capital ships being covered by six destroyers and 34 E-boats, in addition to a mass of Me 109s and Fw 190s.

Nonetheless, gallant attempts were made to counter the enemy fleet’s progress, including those mounted by elements of our Coastal Forces - but of all such endeavours one stood out above the rest: the strike mounted by six aircraft of 828 N.A.S. under by Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, D.S.O., R.N. ‘In my opinion,’ wrote Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Flag Officer Dover, ‘the gallant sortie of these six Swordfish constitutes one of the finest exhibitions of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty that the war had yet witnessed.’ Admiral Otto Ciliax of the Kriegsmarine was equally impressed, writing in his diary: ‘The mothball attack of a handful of ancient planes was piloted by men whose bravery surpasses any other action by e...