Long range bombers target ships

26th October 1940: The Empress of Britain is bombed as the Luftwaffe adds to the menace of the U-Boats

A 1933 poster advertising the luxury liner Empress of Britain.

The Empress of Britain was one of the finest ocean liners of the day. She was launched in 1930 by the Canadian Pacific Line to operate on the Quebec-to-Europe route. To compete with the more popular route from New York, she offered unrivalled luxury and speed. She had been requisitioned in 1939 and had already made several critical troop transport runs. She had brought Canadian troops across the North Atlantic three times, as well as bringing troops to Britain from New Zealand and Australia. On the 26th October, she was returning from a run to South Africa.

A pre-war image of the 42,000-ton Empress of Britain, which was now painted in grey camouflage.

The high speeds the ocean liners could achieve would make them relatively safe against U-boat attacks. Great ships like the Queen Mary would make many trans Atlantic trips, bringing tens of thousands of Canadian and later American personnel to Britain. But they could not outrun aircraft.

The Focke-Wulf 200 ‘Condor’ was based on a pre-war airliner. They were now based in airfields in France, making long flights around Britain and Ireland to land in Norway, returning on the following day. They spotted convoys for the U-boats, as well as making their own attacks.

At 9.20 am on the 26th October, a German FW 200 Condor emerged from the clouds as the Empress of Britain was seventy miles north of Ireland, approaching west Scotland. The pilot, Oberleutnant Bernhard Jope, made three runs to machine gun the liner and hit her with two 250lb bombs.