The Unknown Heroes

I write quite a lot about heroes on the my web site.  They include a teenage girl who fought off a cougar to save her brother, a dog that helped save 92 persons in a shipwreck and Canadian Victoria Cross recipients, amongst others  What I do not write often enough about is the persons around the heroes who were heroes in their own right... just not lauded publicly.

Sgt. Navigator James Scott was one such unknown hero.

James Scott was a Canadian navigator/pilot on a Beaufort torpedo bomber flying with the RAF in WW2.  One of the first graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), Scott had been flying since 1940.  In 1941, he was merely 19 years old.


On April 5, 1941, Scott's plane, commanded by Pilot Officer Kenneth Campbell, was ordered into the skies over the the fiords of Norway in search of the German battleship Gneisenau. They found it and attacked with their unguided torpedoes.  In order to ensure the torpedoes ran straight and true, Campbell made his run approximately 50 feet above the fiord.  I am sure that Campbell had a discussion with his crew, including Scott, explaining to them that the attack he proposed could be their last.  Any number of issues could arise that could doom the plane and its crew.  They all agreed that the risk to their lives was outweighed by the benefits to the war effort.  Indeed, to that point, the Gneisenau had sunk thousands of tons of allied merchant and military shipping and caused the death of thousands of allied sailors.

You can read about the fated raid that won Kenneth Campbell the Victoria Cross and put the Gneisenau out of action for a portion of the war, on my web site.  Suffice to say that you will not find the name of nineteen year old James Scott or any of his comrades in the records.  For the record the other crew members were Sgt. William Mulliss and Fl Sgt. Ralph Hillman.

They, unlike Campbell, were the unknown heroes.