British Forces

Wing Commander Guy Gibbson killed by friendly fire

projectionist

LONDON: Guy Gibson, the pilot who led the Dambusters raids during the Second World War, was shot down and killed by mistake by one of his own men, it has been claimed. Wing Commander Gibson, who led 617 Squadron in a series of daring raids over Germany, died in mysterious circumstances after his plane came down in the Netherlands in 1944. Various explanations have been put forward for his death, including pilot error, sabotage and running out of fuel. But nearly 70 years on, a British airman’s confession has emerged that he was the one who shot down the plane after mistaking it for a German aircraft. Bernard McCormack, a gunner in a Lancaster bomber, mistook the twin-engine Mosquito for a Junkers 88 during a night-time sortie over Germany in 1944. He instinctively opened fire and sent it crashing to the ground, killing Wing Commander Gibson and his navigator instantly. The realisation the plane was an Allied aircraft only dawned on Sergeant McCormack the next day when he and his crew were debriefed. Racked with guilt, Sergeant McCormack kept quiet about what happened that night – but left a taped confession of the incident, which he gave to his wife before he died in 1992. The tape has been uncovered by James Cutler, a WWII researcher. Mr Cutler has also unearthed a previously classified combat report in the National Archives by the crew of Sergeant McCormack’s Lancaster, which describes the attack. Mr Cutler said: ‘‘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.’’ Wing Commander Gibson was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1943 for successfully leading 617 Squadron on the raids on a series of dams in the industrial Ruhr valley. On September 19, 1944, he led 227 Lancaster bombers and 10 Mosquitos in an attack on Rheydt and Munchengladbach in Germany. They faced little opposition from enemy planes and were returning over the Netherlands when Wing Commander Gibson’s plane came down. In his confession tape, Sergeant McCormack, who became the mayor of Holyhead in north Wales, can be heard saying: ‘‘We were on the way back over Holland and then 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 . . . And it turned out it was ‘Gibbo’ we shot down.’’