About John Moffat (Royal Navy officer)
John William Charlton Moffat (22 June 1919 – 11 December 2016) was a Scottish Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot, widely credited as the pilot whose torpedo crippled the German battleship Bismarck and author of the biographical I sank the Bismarck. Moffat took part in the courageous strike on the German battleship Bismarck during its Atlantic sortie, codenamed Operation Rheinübung, on 26 May 1941 whilst flying a Fairey Swordfish biplane. == Early life and family == John Moffat was born in the village of Swinton in the Scottish Borders county, to Mary and Peter Moffat. When he was a child his parents moved to Earlston where his father opened the first garage. John's father, Peter, had served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, joining in 1914 to qualify as an aeronautical engineer for the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). He served in No. 2 Wing RNAS under Wing Commander Charles Rumney Samson, the first man to fly an aircraft off a ship. He served in Belgium and was posted to the seaplane carrier, HMS Ark Royal, which sailed to the Mediterranean to take part in the Gallipoli Campaign. Peter left the service in 1917 and married Mary in 1918. Mary Moffat was an amateur opera singer.
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