The British Carrier Strike Fleet. David Hobbs
bombs and 13,098 rocket projectiles. By then targets destroyed totalled 796 junks, 1001 ox carts and 308 railway trucks.
A Sea Fury FB 11 being ranged on Glory’s after lift. The squadron duty officer, in battle-dress, is monitoring the move. (Author’s collection)
HMS Ocean – May 1952 to October 1952
Ocean had been serving in the Mediterranean Fleet until January 1952 when she was relieved by Theseus, showing how tight the programming of operational aircraft carriers remained in the RN during this period. She arrived in Hong Kong in May with 802 (Sea Fury FB 11s) and 825 (Firefly FR 5s) NAS, which had transferred from Theseus in April, embarked.19 Ocean was commanded by Captain C L G Evans DSO DSC RN, one of the top-scoring RN fighter pilots of the Second World War, a man determined that his ship and its squadrons would set an outstanding example of carrier capability. She sailed for her first war patrol on 10 May 1952 and operated off the west coast. Only a week later, on 17 May 802 NAS flew seventy-six sorties and 825 NAS flew forty-seven, creating a new light fleet carrier record of 123 sorties in a single day during which 90 tons of bombs were dropped. A second war patrol began on 29 May and on 8 June she arrived in Kure to take on replacement aircraft from the AHU at Iwakuni. During her third period of operations she anchored off Inchon on 15 June to be visited by Field Marshal Lord Alexander of Tunis, the Minister of Defence, who had come to study RN carrier operations and to visit the Commonwealth Division ashore.
A deck-load strike of Sea Furies and Fireflies ranged on Ocean. (Author’s collection)
On 24 June 1952 Ocean joined the USN carriers of TF 77 to carry out combined strikes against North Korean power stations and electrical installations. She often sailed with Unicorn in company during this period so that the maintenance carrier could act as a spare deck for aircraft that had to recover with an emergency, allowing her own finely-balanced tempo of strike operations to continue without interruption. Unicorn also embarked detachments from 802 NAS to provide CAP over the task force, further freeing Ocean to concentrate on strike operations. From 11 July 1952 Ocean and her aircraft played an important part in Operation ‘Pressure Pump’, a combined offensive against the North Korean capital Pyongyang by RN, USN, USMC, USAF and RAAF aircraft co-ordinated by the US 5th Air Force. Ocean contributed thirty-nine sorties to a grand total of 1254; her target was a large railway marshalling yard thought to contain crated MiG-15 fighters in railway wagons which were successfully hit and destroyed. Later in July she continued to attack interdiction targets including railway bridges as well as all the usual carrier tasks.
On 1 August Ocean arrived in Kure to take on replacement aircraft and aircrew. The latter included the first five RNVR pilots to arrive in the Korean war zone, a vindication of the system of aircrew reserve training established in the late 1940s which was now providing a flow of competent replacement pilots. By then communist MiG-15 jet fighters were being deployed into North Korea and on 9 August 1952 a flight of four Sea Furies from 802 NAS was attacked by one from a section of MiGs. This MiG-15 was shot down by the flight’s leader, Lieutenant P Carmichael RN, the first occasion on which a jet fighter was shot down by any British armed forces and, again, the incident emphasises the versatility of the Sea Fury as a practical strike fighter aircraft. Flying operations were curtailed on 16 August by Hurricane KAREN and after it had passed Ocean returned to Kure for a replenishment period. Her impressive list of achievements continued in the next war patrol; five bridges were destroyed by bombing on 28 August and three more a day later. The squadron ROPs show that they had reached a peak of operational efficiency during this period and one of Ocean’s innovations was the extensive use of pre-dawn launches for interdiction missions. None of the British carriers carried out night missions during the Korean War, principally because the light fleet carriers lacked the manpower to sustain operations by both day and night. The nights also gave the squadron maintenance personnel a chance to work on their aircraft to repair damage and carry out routine maintenance. However, the enemy used the hours of darkness to move men and supplies towards the front line in trucks with dimmed headlights. By carrying out night launches, Ocean’s aircraft could position themselves to interdict vehicles that were still on the move in the open in the twilight before dawn. They could then recover to carry out a conventional day landing. At first this technique proved very successful but by the time Glory relieved Ocean in November 1952 the enemy would devise methods to counter it.
A further, typical, war patrol began on 13 September and during it Ocean’s aircraft flew 749 sorties in nine days, an average of eighty-three sorties a day, maintaining 100 per cent serviceability. The last of the railway bridges between Pyongyang and Chinnampo were destroyed on 16 September while attacks on trucks and other transport continued. After her ninth war patrol she was visited by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Roderick McGrigor, who congratulated the ship’s company on their achievements. She sailed for the last war patrol of this deployment on 23 October 1952 and on 28 October Sea Furies accurately bombed and destroyed sluice gates at Yonan with 1000lb bombs and destroyed more rail bridges. On 30 October a short service was held on the flight deck for the eight aircrew who had died during Korean operations and wreaths were dropped into the sea in their memory. 802 and 825 NAS were subsequently awarded the 1952 Boyd Trophy for their operations.
A Sea Fury FB 11 from Ocean over North Korea. (Author’s collection)
Throughout the Korean War the light fleet carriers had to be prepared, at short notice, to concentrate with the bulk of the FEF in order to defend Hong Kong against a Communist attack and frequent exercises were carried out to test the Colony’s defences. One of these was Exercise ‘Tai-Pan’ on 4 November 1952 when Ocean and Glory combined to simulate attacks against Hong Kong’s air defences. At the time the Colony was defended against air attack by RAF de Havilland Vampire fighters based at Kai Tak, all of which had been transported to their new base by Unicorn and light fleet carriers operating in the ferry role. On completion of the exercise, Ocean was relieved by Glory which was to carry out its third and last war deployment.
HMS Glory – November 1952 to May 1953
In May 1952 Glory had returned to the Mediterranean Fleet and, on her arrival in Malta on 26 May she disembarked her squadrons which subsequently returned to the UK in Theseus to be disbanded. She embarked 807 and 898 (Sea Fury FB 11s) NAS, which had been embarked in Theseus for the Fleet’s summer cruise and showed her versatility by taking part in a major Mediterranean Fleet visit to Istanbul in July 1952 in company with the Canadian light fleet carrier HMCS Magnificent, the cruiser Cleopatra and the destroyers Chevron and Chivalrous.20 On 22 July Egyptian Army officers led by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a coup which toppled the government of King Farouk who abdicated on 26 July and left the country in his yacht for Naples. Glory formed part of a concentration of the Mediterranean Fleet off Tobruk from where it could act to defend the Suez Canal and other British interests if necessary. The diplomatic crisis eased during August and after a spell anchored off Cyprus, she returned to Malta on 15 August and flew off her temporary air group.
On 1 September 1952 she embarked a new air group comprising 801 (Sea Fury FB 11s) and 821 (Firefly FR 5s) NAS and began an extensive work-up prior to rejoining the FEF. She returned to Hong Kong on 23 October and on 4 November took part in Exercise ‘Tai Pan’ with Ocean to test the Colony’s air defence organisation. Two days later, having taken on aircraft and stores from Ocean, she sailed for Sasebo and on 10 November 1952 she sailed to begin the first patrol of her third period of operations in the Korean war zone. By then peace talks had been making slow progress for more than a year and both the type and number of targets in enemy-held territory that could be attacked were strictly limited although anti-aircraft fire remained intense. At first Glory’s aircraft continued to use the pre-dawn interdiction