Fighter and bomber pilot who flew with 617 Squadron and took part in the raid that sank the German battleship Tirpitz in 1944
Arriving at 617 Squadron in July 1944, the year after the famous Dambuster raid, Tony Iveson took part in some of its most hazardous operations of the latter part of the war. These included the three long-range sorties that the squadron flew against the Tirpitz, which ended with the German battleship upside down in a Norwegian fjord; the remarkable precision attack on the Kembs Dam on the Rhine to facilitate the American assault crossing of the river; and the destruction of heavily defended U-boat pens at Bergen in Norway, for which he was awarded the DFC after nursing his stricken Lancaster home.
Unusually, Iveson came to 617, then commanded by “Willie” Tait (obituary September 13, 2007), with a career as a fighter pilot behind him. He had fought in the Battle of Britain and survived ditching his Spitfire in the sea in September 1940 when he ran out of fuel while pursuing a fleeing Junkers Ju88 off the Norfolk coast.
By 1944, the menace of the battleship Tirpitz to convoys supplying Russia had been preoccupying the Admiralty for several years. The mere rumour that she had put to sea had triggered the tragic events that led to the PQ17 convoy disaster of 1942. A clever and courageous attack on her by midget submarines in the autumn of 1943 had caused her severe, but not terminal, damage. The Fleet Air Arm had launched several carrier-borne attacks on her in mid-1944, some causing further damage and casualties, but none administering the desired coup de grâce.
By that time the RAF had acquired the aircraft and weaponry to destroy her — the Lancaster bomber, the new 12,000lb armour-piercing “Tallboy” bomb and the Stabilised Automatic Bomb Sight to deliver it accurately. Nevertheless, in September 1944, when 617 squadron made its first attempt, Tirpitz was lying in Altenfjord in the high Arctic, beyond even the Lancaster’s range with such a heavy bomb as the Tallboy.
The attack therefore had to be made from Russia. In mid-September 617 Squadron and the Lancasters of 9 Squadron, which had also used the Tallboy, flew to an airfield on the island of Yagodnik in the Dvina River, only 600 miles from Altenfjord. This in itself was a hazardous flight of almost 12 hours in low cloud and mist. In fading light, Iveson elected to land, as did another Lancaster, in a soggy field rather than risk running out of fuel and losing two precious aircraft and their bombs. The next day both aircraft flew on to Yagodnik, where other crews, who had also chosen to land in adjacent fields rather than risk crash landings searching for Yagodnik in the dark, were gathering.
After several days grounded by vile weather, on September 15, the reconnaissance Mosquito reported clear skies over Altenfjord, and the Lancasters of the two squadrons took off and set course for their target. As they approached Altenfjord Tirpitz could clearly be seen within her girdle of antisubmarine nets. However, the inlet in which she lurked was ringed by a system of 100 smoke pots which could completely cover it in eight minutes. Wreaths of smoke were already obscuring the battleship when 617’s leading aircraft was still two minutes away from its release point. By the time they were over the target the leading bomb aimers had only the memory of the position of the tip of Tirpitz’s topmast to aim at. The remainder of the force bombed on gunflashes from her flak, glimpsed through the smoke. For the crews there was a moment of hope when a plume of darker smoke jetted skywards through the covering pall. But they were forced to dismiss it as a Tallboy striking the shore. Bitterly disappointed, they returned to their Russian base, and thence to the UK.
A second attack, in October, could now be launched direct from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland because Tirpitz had in the meantime been moved to Tromsø, 200 miles south of Altenfjord. This attempt, too, was thwarted, not by the smoke pots, but by a thick belt of cloud which moved in from the sea as the Lancasters approached and completely obscured their target.
Finally, on November 12, Iveson was again airborne with 617, once more accompanied by 9 Squadron on the flight to Tromsø. Intelligence had reported that the Germans had sent a fighter wing to the Bardufoss airbase near by, to be ready to intercept the raiders. Heavy losses were feared. As the Lancasters approached, the squadrons’ gunners scanned the sky nervously for the first sign of the expected fighter assault. In the event neither the fighters nor the smoke materialised. The Germans had installed the smoke pots but not yet primed them. At last Tirpitz was at the RAF’s mercy. By the time the bombers left the scene she was already ablaze, and she capsized shortly afterwards.
Iveson and the rest of 617’s crews learnt only much later that the September attack had effectively put Tirpitz out of action. A Tallboy had blown a huge hole in her foredeck. Her career as a commerce raider was over. She had been towed to Tromsø merely to be moored as a floating fortress. Nevertheless her final elimination was a tremendous relief to bomber crews who dreaded the thought of that assignment more than any other.
In between the first and last of these raids 617 and Iveson were heavily engaged in other “ops”. The October attack on the Kembs Dam near Mulhouse in Alsace was designed to pre-empt the blowing up of its sluice gates by the Germans, to “drown” the intended American crossing of the Rhine. It used not the famous dambusting bouncing bombs of May 1943, because the aircraft that had been modified to carry them no longer existed, and there was no time to re-create such a complex operation. This time the idea was to attack with six Lancasters at low level using a Tallboy dropped at a flattish trajectory to slice through the water and embed itself in the concrete of the dam with a delayed time fuse. Another force dropping bombs from 8,000ft, and low level flak-busting Mustangs, diverted the defences. The plan worked perfectly in spite of the loss of two of the low-level Lancasters. The dam was breached and within 24 hours the headwaters of the Rhine had dropped to enable the Americans and French to force a crossing.
Iveson’s last op with 617 was an attack on the U-boat pens at Bergen on January 12, 1945. Although severe damage was inflicted on the U-boat lair, 617 ran into large numbers of defending fighters. Iveson’s port inner engine was set on fire, while his tail plane and rudder were riddled, giving him almost no fore-and-aft control. He fought to keep the Lancaster airborne while his gunners and the wireless operator baled out. Suddenly the fighters broke off their attack, and he was left to try to bring the Lancaster home, eventually making landfall on the Shetland Islands and getting her down safely.
Thomas Clifford “Tony” Iveson was born in 1919 in York and educated at Archbishop Holgate’s School. Joining the RAFVR in 1938, he was called up when war began the following year. He trained on Spitfires and served as a sergeant pilot with 616 Squadron based at Coltishall, Norfolk. He flew a number of further patrols during the Battle of Britain after his North Sea ditching episode. Later he was sent for a spell as an instructor in Southern Rhodesia before returning to the UK, training as a bomber pilot and joining 617.
After leaving the squadron he was seconded to the new British Overseas Airways Corporation, flying converted bombers, including Lancastrians and Yorks, to the Far East. He was also awarded the Air Efficiency Decoration (AE) and must have been one of the very few heavy bomber pilots also to hold the Battle of Britain clasp.
Retiring from the RAF in 1949, he was involved with corporate and public relations and worked on some early productions for Granada Television. He was also involved in the launch and promotion of EuroDisney. At the age of 89 he became the oldest man to fly a Lancaster when he was invited to take the controls of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s aircraft based at Coningsby.
Iveson was for many years chairman of the Bomber Command Association. He always felt that the wartime Command under Sir Arthur Harris, and the 55,573 who died in its service, had never received their due. He campaigned tirelessly for a permanent memorial for it, speaking frequently at fundraising events. He welcomed the eventual decision to build the Memorial to Bomber Command and lived to rejoice when it was unveiled at Green Park, London, last year.
He is survived by his long-time companion, Mary, and by three daughters of his first marriage, which was dissolved. His second wife died in 1995, and a son also predeceased him.
Squadron Leader Tony Iveson, DFC, AE, wartime fighter and bomber pilot, was born on September 11, 1919. He died on November 5, 2013, aged 94
Officer in the Royal Marines who played a key role in anti-aircraft defence against the first German V1 attacks on Britain
The fifth generation of a family whose members had given distinguished service to the Royal Marines, dating back to the Napoleonic Wars, James (“Jimmy”) Eagles served with courage and resolve both at sea and in the 1st Royal Marines Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment during the Second World War.
The Marines were in his blood. One of his ancestors, Edward Bamfylde Eagles, is on record as a 1st Lieutenant in 1807. A great uncle, Henry Cecil Eagles, had joined the Royal Marines Light Infantry in 1873 and became a general in 1912. His grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Cyril Field, his uncle, Major Staunton Field, and his stepfather Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Gillespie, all served during the Great War, Gillespie winning the DSO at Jutland.
Closer to home, his father, Major Charles Edward Campbell Eagles, had won the DSO at Gallipoli, and was mentioned in despatches by Field Marshal Haig after heavy fighting in the trenches in France. He was again mentioned in despatches for his gallant conduct during the audacious if ultimately unsuccessful Zeebrugge raid of April 1918. He was killed at Zeebrugge four weeks before his son’s birth in May 1918.
As Jimmy Eagles used to say: “From my earliest memory I was destined to join the Corps”. Nominated at 16, he was commissioned in 1936. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was serving in the heavy cruiser Sussex, shortly to become part of the hunting group Force H in the eastern South Atlantic during the search for the pocket battleship Graf Spee.
Much of his war was spent with Royal Marines heavy anti-aircraft units, first in India and then on the Home front as the 1st Royal Marines Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment was brought back to the UK in March 1944, in anticipation of the Allied invasion of occupied Europe. Action began before they got across the Channel. Stung by the D-Day landings, Hitler ordered the first V1 attacks on England on June 13. In the following weeks the Regiment proved its expertise against this new threat from what was in effect an unguided cruise missile. From their positions on the Kent coast and at Portsmouth the Marines’ guns downed 122 flying bombs.
By autumn the 1st Royal Marines Heavy AA Regiment, with Eagles as second-in-command, was with Allied troops on the Continent, providing air defence against intense V-weapon attacks against Antwerp, which had been captured by the British on September 4, but whose port was not yet open to traffic from the sea, since the Germans controlled both banks of the Scheldt.
Though they could provide a defence against the subsonic V1, the Marines AA artillery had no answer to the rocket powered V2s which were now launched by the Germans from sites on the Dutch coast north of the Hague. Plunging earthwards at supersonic speeds from a height of 50 miles, the V2 could not be detected by radar and arrived unawares with its one-tonne warhead. In a month the regiment recorded 483 V1 and 313 V2 attacks.
October found the Marines in a changed role, giving support as field artillery to the Canadians, now firing against enemy ground forces — more tangible and hittable targets — in the area around Leuven. “We fired a total of 6,944 rounds with exceptional accuracy,” Eagles recorded with satisfaction of this phase of the regiment’s service in Belgium.
Finally it was back to an AA role when, on New Year’s Day 1945, the Luftwaffe made its last attack in strength in Operation Bodenplatte. This was a ground-attack offensive designed to destroy Allied tactical bombers and fighters on the ground close to the front line. In spite of the inexperience of many of the Luftwaffe’s pilots, surprise was achieved in an early morning attack. Waves of Focke Wulf 190s and Messerschmitt 109s bombed and strafed 2nd Tactical Air Force and US 9th Air Force bases in the Low Countries, destroying or damaging more than 400 aircraft. Among the 172 German aircraft shot down that day by Allied AA batteries, 1st RM Heavy Regiment claimed four certain kills and two more probables. It was the Luftwaffe’s last major attack in the West.
After the war Eagles made a considerable contribution to the development of amphibious fighting vehicles and in 1955 was Fleet Intelligence Officer, South Atlantic.
After retiring he joined the Queen’s Body Guard, the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen of Arms, of which he was promoted Harbinger in 1981 and Standard Bearer in 1986, the year in which the Queen presented the Corps with a new standard to mark 500 years of “undimmed” and faithful service. He retired in 1988.
He is survied by his wife Priscilla, three daughters and a son, who served in the Royal Navy.
Lieutenant-Colonel James Eagles, LVO, Royal Marine and senior honorary member, Her Majesty’s Bodyguard, was born on May 14, 1918. He died on August 26, 2013, aged 95
