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.
Peter Moffat 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.
There was the noise, the smell of hot oil and high-octane petrol [fuel], and the speed seemed immense as we took off into the air, high above the countryside, with the town far below us.
It was the stuff of dreams, like a glimpse of another world that made it impossible, once I was back on the ground, to view my surroundings in the same way again... Now that I think about it, that pilot has an enormous amount to answer for.
Moffat had no choice but to leave school at 16, to make his living working for a bus company, which he disliked, and using his musical talents playing at weddings.
Moffat had not pursued a flying career earlier, believing it to beyond the aspirations of ordinary people, but now seized the opportunity and applied to join the Fleet Air Arm.
After failing to find work in the Rhodesian police force through their High Commission in London, he received a letter from the Navy offering him a part-time job in the reserves.
The following day, Moffat was ordered to the St Vincent Barracks Gosport, on the west side of Portsmouth Harbour, which was one of the Royal Navy Boy's Training Establishments.
On 26 May 1941 Bismarck was running for the safety of the French port of Brest to make repairs to light damage that she had received from the clash with Prince of Wales, and a last-ditch attempt to slow her down with an airborne torpedo attack from Ark Royal's aircraft was ordered that night so that the pursuing Royal Navy's heavy ships could catch up with her.
[17] With Bismarck's steering control jammed, the Royal Navy's Force H and Home Fleet were able to catch up with her, surround her and subject her to extensive shelling and torpedoing, after which she turned over and sank the following morning.
At the time of the attack no definitive statement of whose torpedo had hit the Bismarck was released, however following the observation of this wreck historian Mike Rossiter credited John Moffat as by far the most likely, through analysis of the flight paths.
However, the son of another Swordfish pilot that attacked the Bismarck, Kenneth Pattisson, believes that it was his father that damaged the ship[18] Moffat left the Navy in 1946 and returned to Glasgow.