The British Carrier Strike Fleet. David Hobbs
applied directly to the new conflict. Unicorn was ordered to remain in the FEF to form the nucleus of an air train to support the fleet’s operational carriers but the best method of employing her had to be given careful consideration. She could operate at a forward base as she had done at Leyte Gulf and Manus in 1945 or she could land her aircraft repair department to RNAS Sembawang in Singapore and operate as a replenishment carrier. The latter alternative was decided to be the more flexible and efficient and was the one adopted, although she retained a light repair and maintenance capability. She sailed from Singapore on 11 July, arriving in Sasebo on 20 July to transfer seven Seafires and five Fireflies to Triumph.
The range of capabilities Unicorn offered were quickly realised and the light fleet carrier Warrior was re-commissioned in the UK to provide further support by ferrying aircraft, stores and personnel to Singapore. In August 1950 Unicorn was in Hong Kong Dockyard being loaded with stores as diverse as aircraft engines, rum, flour and ammunition when the British Government took the decision to commit ground troops to the conflict. She proved to be capable of embarking the headquarters of 27 Infantry Brigade, the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and loading their vehicles tightly into her lower hangar. The cruiser Ceylon embarked the 1st Battalion of the Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders. The two ships entered Pusan, the last port in UN hands, on 29 August to unload their military force. After that Unicorn returned to Singapore Dockyard to complete the refit that had been interrupted by the outbreak of war before returning to the war zone in December with a further 400 troops and their kit in addition to replacement aircraft for Theseus which had replaced Triumph. As in the BPF she provided a spare deck for new pilots to practice their deck landing technique, leaving the operational carrier free to concentrate on its primary role.
Unicorn receiving a rousing welcome from US armed forces, including a military band, as she arrives in Pusan with men of the Middlesex Regiment and their vehicles, the first British troops to arrive in Korea. (Author’s collection)
In early 1951 she ferried Meteor jet fighters for 77 Squadron RAAF from Hong Kong to Iwakuni, an airfield across the bay from Hiroshima, and later in the year she continued to ferry RAAF Meteors into the war zone in addition to large numbers of replacement Sea Furies and Fireflies for the RN. She also ferried RAF Vampire fighters for Hong Kong which bolstered its defences against potential communist aggression. For a while Unicorn acted as an accommodation ship for Commonwealth naval personnel in Sasebo and she had the distinction of being ‘adopted’ by the Middlesex Regiment after her continuous close association with the Regiment ferrying in replacements for the battalion fighting in Korea. She sailed north of the 38th Parallel to bombard North Korean coast-watchers with her 4in guns and retains, at the time of writing, the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier of any nation to have carried out a bombardment of enemy targets on shore under wartime conditions. She often used the Shimonoseki Strait to pass between Honshu and Kyushu and, despite careful checks on the state of the tide, she struck power cables stretched between the islands on 2 October 1951 because they were covered in ice and snow in the unseasonable cold weather prevailing at the time which caused them to sag much lower than normal. Replacing them took weeks and Unicorn invariably sailed south of Kyushu after that. Later in October she had to sail in order to ride out Typhoon RUTH, encountering 100-knot winds and waves 50ft high.
Unicorn was too important to be spared from the FEF but she had been away from the UK for over two years on 24 November 1951 when she was re-commissioned in Singapore Naval Base with a new ship’s company that had steamed Warrior from the UK. Unicorn’s former ship’s company steamed Warrior home. Changing ship’s companies on station in the Far East was to become commonplace a decade later but it was a novel concept in 1951. After a short refit she resumed her varied duties and continued to support the operational carriers. In March 1952 she played the part of a light fleet carrier with a small embarked air group to test the air defences of Hong Kong in Exercise ‘Vortex’. In April the Middlesex Regiment presented her with the Regimental March and a special Regimental Order of the Day, both of which were mounted on the quarterdeck next to the ship’s battle honours board. The only other British warship to have been similarly honoured by an Army unit in the modern era was the battleship Vanguard which had a close relationship with the Royal Artillery.
Unicorn sailed on several war patrols with Ocean during 1952, acting as a spare deck to recover unserviceable aircraft and to maintain CAP with ‘borrowed’ Sea Furies. After a further refit she was in Singapore dressed overall to mark the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II. On 17 July she sailed with replacement aircraft for Sasebo and, while on passage, she picked up a ‘Mayday’ signal from the SS Inchkilda saying that she was being attacked by a pirate gunboat. Unicorn went to her aid immediately and closed the scene with all armament manned and circled the pirate vessel at 3000 yards with all her medium and close-range weapons trained on it. This was too much for the pirates who re-boarded their vessel and fled at high speed. Inchkilda was returned to her master to go about her lawful business and Unicorn proceeded to Sasebo. A day later the armistice that ended the conflict was signed and Unicorn eventually sailed for the UK in October 1953 after four years away and two separate commissions in the Far East. During the Korean War, Unicorn spent 500 days at sea, steamed 130,000 miles and handled some 600 replacement aircraft. She also ferried 6000 troops and passengers into the war zone. She arrived back in Devonport on 17 November and reduced to reserve.
Unicorn at Kure in Japan delivering Meteor fighters for 77 Squadron RAAF. (Author’s collection)
Lessons Learned by the Carrier Air Groups
The static nature of the war by 1952 led Glory and Ocean to plan flying operations on a programmed, rather than a reactive, basis.23 This was easier for the running of the ships and it was found that sixty sorties per day could be flown without undue strain for protracted periods. Every evening at about 17.00, a programme was worked out for the next day’s flying which consisted of a number of fly-offs known as Events. Event ‘A’ would fly off and approximately two hours later Event ‘B’ would launch, allowing Event ‘A’ to land on, and this carried on throughout the day. During the day the ship operated in an area bounded by a circle of 15 miles diameter with its centre at Point ‘Oboe’. The ship’s area of responsibility was subdivided into smaller operational areas with the aim of covering each at least once every other day. Each area had a primary target and this was duly attacked unless a more promising opportunity target appeared. Blockade enforcement was undertaken by armed coastal reconnaissance sorties and the threat to friendly islands was countered by attacking adjacent mainland targets. Railways were kept out of use by continuous interdiction and aircraft were always included in the Events for close air support tasking by outside agencies. Close air support could take several distinct and different forms.
Before every sortie, pilots and observers were briefed on the amount and types of anti-aircraft fire, known at the time as ‘flak’, that the enemy was known to have in the areas in question, their location, tactics and camouflage. The NKPA had guns ranging from 88mm to 12.7mm but made no use of tracer and only limited use of radar control at first. NKPA radars were believed to be pirated versions of British wartime sets designed for anti-aircraft fire control. Predicted fire was encountered around Pyongyang and the airfield at Yongdang Dong where Soviet forces were believed to be based. NKPA and Chinese People’s Liberation Army flak made extensive use of terrain and camouflage and was tightly disciplined. Troops in the open would remain absolutely still when attacked and then engage aircraft as they pulled away with massed, concentrated small-arms fire which was often very effective. Units on the move would post anti-aircraft sentries on hills which would fire warning shots when Allied aircraft were seen. Heavy anti-aircraft guns were deployed in batteries of four or eight dug into diamond-shaped positions. To attract UN pilots and make them waste ammunition, dummy targets ‘reasonably well camouflaged’ were set up, many of which formed the basis of flak traps and cables were often slung across valleys