The British Carrier Strike Fleet. David Hobbs
the last runs eastwards, she carried men and stores to man the new light fleet carrier Warrior which was being completed by Harland & Wolff in Belfast for loan to the RCN.
It had been intended to transfer Ocean and Warrior to the RCN on loan in 1945 but the RCN had its own manpower problems and proved unable to accept a light fleet carrier before September 1945, ruling out Ocean which was, therefore, manned by the RN.3 Instead it was decided that Warrior and Magnificent, both being built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast, would be lent with Warrior first in 1946. Magnificent was a more capable ship, able to operate larger and heavier aircraft and in the event she replaced rather than augmented Warrior in 1948 and remained on loan to the RCN until 1957 when she was in turn replaced by her modernised sister-ship Bonaventure (formerly Powerful) which had been purchased outright by the Canadian Government. The creation of a Canadian Fleet Air Arm was helped in the Spring of 1945 by the transfer of 550 surplus RCAF pilots to the RN for service in the BPF. They travelled to the UK for training and, with the unexpectedly early end of the Pacific War, were ideally placed to join other Canadians in the formation of the RCN’s first naval air squadrons. These were formed in the UK in exactly the same way as RN air squadrons, taking up the numbers of units that had been temporarily disbanded. The first of these was 803 (Seafire LIIIs) NAS which re-commissioned at RNAS Arbroath on 15 June 1945. Its aircraft flew in standard RN markings but the words ‘ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY’ rather than ‘ROYAL NAVY’ were painted on the after fuselage above the airframe number. The squadron became officially part of the RCN on 24 January 1946, the day on which HMCS Warrior was commissioned.4 Another early unit was 825 NAS which re-commissioned for the RCN with Barracudas at RNAS Rattray on 1 July 1945. Fireflies replaced the Barracudas in November and the unit transferred formally to the RCN on the same day as 803 NAS.
HMCS Magnificent in Grand Harbour, Malta during 1952. The aircraft on deck are Sea Furies and Avengers. (Author’s collection)
By the time Warrior arrived in Canada a shore base would be required for disembarked naval air squadrons and a committee of RCAF and RCN senior officers was tasked make a joint plan. In October 1945 an agreement was reached which was surprising in the light of the RN’s own bad experience with the joint control of air matters prior to 1937. The RCAF was to be responsible for the management of all naval shore-based aviation, including major aircraft repair, maintenance and the provision of air stores. The RCN had jurisdiction over all carrier-based activities and shore-based minor repairs and aircraft inspections. Permanent shore facilities were to be at RCAF Dartmouth in Nova Scotia where RN telegraphist air gunners had been trained during the war. By 31 March 1946 when 803 and 825 NAS disembarked from HMCS Warrior, an RCN Air Section had been established at the base which was shared with aircraft of the RCAF, Maritime Airways and Trans-Canada Airlines. As in the UK, however, the shortcomings and, ultimately, failure of joint control rapidly became apparent and unacceptable. Effectively the RCAF held the ‘purse-strings’ for the logistical support of the Fleet Air Arm but put its own priorities first, confronting the Navy with shortages in such vital items as flying clothing and general air stores. The senior naval officer described his status to higher authority as that of a ‘beggar tenant’ in an establishment that was in desperate need of repair.5 For example, in January 1947 faulty heating systems in hangars 108 and 109 forced their temporary evacuation. The Government considered moving the air facility but Dartmouth had such clear advantage as a naval base that control of both the airfield and all shore-based maintenance activity was transferred to the RCN and the base commissioned as HMCS Shearwater, RCNAS Dartmouth on 1 December 1948.
By then there were two carrier air groups, the 18th and 19th. The latter composed the first two squadrons that had formed in the UK and the latter two new squadrons, 883 (Seafires) and 826 (Fireflies) which had commissioned in Canada. A third air group had been formed for training in May 1947 and included a fleet requirements unit, 743 NAS, with a variety of aircraft and an operational flying school. Operational flying training after the award of ‘wings’ was carried out at RN operational schools in the UK until the mid-1950s when the RCN moved away from using aircraft that were standardised RN types. The RCN maintained an Observer School which trained a number of RN observers during the period while the RN tried to unite pilot and observer training. From 1948 Hawker Sea Furies began to replace Seafires in the fighter squadrons and from 1951 modified Grumman Avengers specialising in anti-submarine warfare replaced the Fireflies. No Canadian carrier took part in the Korean War and, although consideration was given to embarking a Canadian Sea Fury squadron in an RN carrier, the plan came to nothing.
When Bonaventure came into service in 1957 she operated an air group comprising McDonnell Banshee fighters of 870 NAS and the Grumman Tracker anti-submarine aircraft of 880 NAS. The air group later included Sikorsky Whirlwind anti-submarine helicopters. It was still run very much on the lines inherited from the RN but now had a distinctly Canadian flavour and earned a high reputation for anti-submarine operations within NATO. The Banshees always operated at the margin of capability and were withdrawn in 1962 without replacement. Consideration had been given to replacing them with Douglas A-4 Skyhawks procured from the USN and deck landing trials were carried out but the Government would not agree to meet the modest cost.
In 1968 the RCN was subsumed into the joint Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), which failed to comprehend her value and despite the fact that she had only completed a ‘half-life’ refit in 1967, she was listed for disposal in 1969 and scrapped in 1970. Sikorsky Sea King helicopters, which had replaced the Whirlwinds in 1963, continued to be used in single-aircraft flights embarked in destroyers, flown by CAF aircrew. By 2014 the CAF had been recognised as a failure and the proud name of the RCN restored. However, the CAF legacy is that the restored RCAF still operates ship-borne helicopters which are shore-based at a heliport on the site of the former RCNAS. Government attempts to replace the Sea King have proved a costly failure since 1992 with two different types selected, millions of dollars spent and no operational aircraft to show for the effort. Part of the problem is the specification which states that the aircraft must float if they come down in Arctic seas and, beside their anti-submarine capability, must have cargo-handling equipment to suit them for a variety of tasks. None of the three major anti-submarine types in service with Western navies can meet this criteria and it is, perhaps, not being unfair to say that Canadian naval aviation lost its way after 1968 and has yet to recover.
The Royal Australian Navy
By 1945 the RAN was, arguably, a significantly less potent force than it been in 1914 or 1939. In 1914 the battlecruiser Australia and its supporting fleet unit constituted a balanced and powerful force and in 1939 it deployed a significant force of five modern cruisers and a number of destroyers. As the war progressed, however, naval aviation became the dominant factor in naval warfare and the RAN ‘fell out of step’ with modern navies6 in that it had no tactical aircraft embarked and could not, therefore, form a viable task force on its own. Moral was high, however, and both officers and men were proud of their wartime achievements. From a professional point of view they wanted a chance to display their worth and efficiency in future and ‘it was obvious throughout the fleet that this would entail the introduction of naval aviation’.7
The acquisition of aircraft carriers for the RAN was not without controversy, however. Early in 1944 it had already become clear to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board (ACNB), that a carrier task group manned by the RAN would be the most effective method of contributing to the Allied offensive against Japan as well as being the logical focus of a post-war fleet.8 Negotiations for the transfer of a new light fleet carrier and two cruisers from the RN to the RAN at no cost to the Australian Government began in a ‘quiet and unofficial way’9 and Admiral Sir Guy Royle, an RN Admiral serving as First Naval Member of the ACNB and Chief of the Naval Staff, announced the scheme at a meeting of the Advisory War Council on 21 March 1944. Unfortunately he had not discussed the matter beforehand with the other Chiefs of Staff or with Sir Frederick Sheddon, secretary of the Defence Committee. All feigned shock and the latter took his disquiet to John Curtin, the Prime Minister, who sent for Royle and reminded him that communication with the Admiralty