Charles Lamb (Royal Navy Officer) - World War II

World War II

In the early part of the war, he was a Swordfish pilot. "Charles Lamb flew in the thick of the action, mine-laying and U-boat hunting over northern Europe, harrying E-boats at Dunkirk, to being one of the two Swordfish Pathfinder pilots with 815 Squadron FAA at the Battle of Taranto." He flew in the Greek campaign of 1941 and was shot down during an air raid on Malta.

In September 1941 Lamb's aircraft was wrecked while landing a secret agent in French North Africa and he was imprisoned by the Vichy French government for a year, until the Allied invasion of Algeria, November 1942. After treatment for malnutrition, he spent a year recruiting flying cadets for the Fleet Air Arm, until passed fit for flying in December 1943, and joined the aircraft carrier HMS Implacable as Lieutenant-Commander (Flying), with an acting rank of lieutenant-commander. Aboard HMS Indefatigable as Lieutenant-Commander (Flying) from May 1944, he escorted Arctic convoys and launched air strikes against the German battleship Tirpitz. He served in Implacable again as Lieutenant-Commander (Flying) from 8 January 1945 until July 1945; after a catastrophic flight deck injury (struck by a broken propellor) he was hospitalized for two years before returning to naval duty.