How RAF eyes from Teesside rescued 300 British sailors on the Altmark

In the first months of the war, the German battleship, Admiral Graf Spee, was terrorising British shipping in the South Atlantic. It would capture merchant vessels, order their crew off, and then sink the ships.

The captured sailors would then be transferred to the Altmark, an oil tanker which was suppling the Graf Spee.

The Altmark, which was supplying the Graf Spee with oil and acting as a floating prison for its captives. Picture courtesy of Geoff Hill

So successful were the tactics that the British and French sent a flotilla led by four aircraft carriers to destroy the German “pocket battleship”.

On December 13, 1939, at the Battle of the River Plate of the South American coast they inflicted so much damage on the Graf Spee that it was forced to seek sanctuary in Montevideo harbour, in neutral Uruguay.

Initially, the Graf Spee hoped for repairs, but the captain, Hans Langsdorff, came to the conclusion that the Allied ships would simply wait for him to emerge into the open seas, presenting him with an impossible gauntlet to run.

The Graf Spee is scuttled in Montevideo harbour

On December 17, watched by 20,000 spectators, he blew the Graf Spee up on the edge of the harbour, and on December 20, in full naval uniform lying on the ship’s flag on his hotel bed, he shot himself with his pistol.

The Altmark had escaped the battle unscathed and was heading up the Atlantic for home, carrying the 300 British sailors which Langsdorff had captured in three months. It sailed past Iceland but the British were not aware of its location as it neared Norway on its way into the Baltic Sea and the safety of northern German ports.

Members of 608 (North Riding) Squadron at RAF Thornaby in September 1941

At dawn on February 15, 1940, two coastal patrol planes based at RAF Thornaby were sent out but although they saw suspicious German activity, the Altmark eluded them.

At 8.25am, three more Hudsons took off from Thornaby to try their luck. One was captained by Pilot Officer John Fleetwood, who in 1947 would have a musician son called Mick…

A second plane was captained by Pilot Officer Cameron McNeill who, like so many who served at Thornaby, was a Canadian.

He not only spotted an oil tanker surrounded by Norwegian warships – Norway was neutral – but he swooped in low enough to be able to read its name: Altmark.

At 12.55, he ordered his radio operator to send a “first sighting report” of the wanted vessel which, of course, contained 300 British captives. However, he ordered the operator to send it out in plain language rather than in code. Although this was a clear breach of protocol, he reasoned that time was of such essence, the coding would only delay matters.

When he landed at Thornaby at 16.40, his superiors took great exception to his breach.

HMS Cossack on the tail of Altmark on February 16, 1940. Picture courtesy of Geoff Hill

Altmark shadowed by HMS Intrepid in the fjord. Picture courtesy of Geoff Hill

But it worked. The British destroyer, HMS Cossack, picked up the message and steamed into action. Later that evening, it breezed past the Norwegian warships into the Jossingfjord and rammed the Altmark against the ice. As the eight German crewmen tried to escape across the frozen sea, they were shot down.

Altmark in the Jossingfjord, on the Norwegian coast, where it was tracked down by HMS Cossack with the help of RAF Thornaby. Picture courtesy of Geoff Hill

The Cossack, though, rescued 299 British sailors who would otherwise have been taken to prisoner of war camps in Germany, where they were unlikely to survive.

It was a hugely controversial incident. The Norwegians complained that the British had breached their neutrality by launching an operation in their waters; the Germans complained that the British had broken international war by attacking a ship in neutral waters.

And so they had.

But 299 British sailors were safe.

The 299 rescued British sailors arrive back at Leith, in Scotland, on HMS Cossack have been liberated from Altmark

They, and Cossack, returned as heroes – this was the brave derring-do that the Royal Navy liked to think it specialised in.

But the eyes in the sky from Thornaby, which had made it possible, were largely forgotten.

“There were no medals for the men who found the Altmark – theirs was a bloodless victory, without a shot fired,” says Thornaby historian Ian Ferguson, who has researched the story.

In fact, three of the 12 airmen in the Hudsons which spotted the Altmark lost their lives as a result of the incident.

As Thornaby historian Ian Ferguson says: “The down side was that Hitler realised that the Norwegians could not control their own coastal waters and to protect his iron ore supplies, he therefore invaded Norway and Denmark in April 1940, and Thornaby airmen who took part in the Altmark operation were killed in the Norwegian campaign.”

The airfield at Thornaby closed in 1958, and during the 1960s and 1970s, it had houses and retail units built upon it, including the Pavilion shopping centre.

To remember this remarkable incident, and all the fliers who served at the airfield, Thornaby Town Council and the Royal Air Force Association have placed a plaque near the Virgin Money outlet in the shopping centre. It will be unveiled on Friday at 1pm and all are welcome.

• With many thanks to Ian Ferguson and Geoff Hill