The British Carrier Strike Fleet. David Hobbs
CB CBE DSO MVO, Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet and Commander, NATO Forces North-East Atlantic, who flew his flag in the battleship Vanguard. USN ships included the aircraft carriers Franklin D Roosevelt, Wasp and Wright and the battleship Wisconsin.
By then Eagle had replaced Indomitable as flagship of the Home Fleet’s Heavy Squadron. She was not yet considered fully worked-up but embarked the same air group with the addition of 812 (Firefly AS 6s) and two aircraft from 849 (Skyraider AEW 1s) NAS. Bad weather curtailed some of the planned sorties but valuable lessons were learned that helped to bring the ship’s company to full operational efficiency. The exercise was intended to demonstrate the ability of the NATO nations to work together seamlessly and was split into two phases. The first involved escorting a convoy of reinforcements across the Atlantic from west to east, followed by a second in which 1500 US Marines were landed on the Jutland peninsula to reassure the Scandinavian countries that they were not being ignored by NATO and that they could be defended against aggression. This phase ended with the strike fleet providing maximum effort to support NATO land forces in Norway and Denmark in the worst of the weather. The exercise was considered to be a success and demonstrated that the strike fleet could not only neutralise the ‘enemy’ surface fleet and submarines but also continue to provide realistic air support for forces ashore when land bases were closed by weather or simulated enemy air attacks. The post-exercise critique, or ‘wash-up’ as such meetings are commonly known, was held in Eagle’s upper hangar in Oslo and was honoured by the presence of His Majesty King Haakon of Norway21 and Crown Prince Olav. Also present were General Matthew B Ridgeway USA, who had replaced General Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), in May 1952 and Admiral Sir Patrick Brind, Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Northern Europe. Two hundred officers from eight nations attended the wash-up and the fact that Eagle was chosen as the venue shows how the maritime dimension was central to early NATO thinking. Sea-based forces could concentrate anywhere on the European littoral to counter aggression and the major investment by the Soviet Union in counter-maritime strategy shows respect for this capability. Regrettably it was not as well understood by Western politicians, especially those in the UK who took sea control for granted without realising that it had to be gained and maintained.
Theseus, a light fleet carrier recently returned from Korean operations, joined another carrier task force during ‘Mainbrace’, operating with HMCS Magnificent and the escort carrier USS Mindoro. Theseus had 804 (Sea Fury FB 11s), 820 and 826 (Firefly AS 6s) NAS embarked22 and Magnificent had the same air group she had operated in ‘Castanets’. In the first phase of the exercise this task force escorted a convoy to Bergen from Rosyth. A submarine attack carried out inside May Island was disallowed by umpires as it was outside the designated exercise area but there were a number of air attacks from ‘enemy’ shore bases. Flying continued despite bad weather and produced several submarine contacts. In the second phase, the task force escorted the amphibious force to Denmark and covered their landings. Magnificent’s Avengers were awarded a submarine ‘kill’ at night which underscored their high state of training. When Theseus disembarked 804 NAS at the end of the exercise, her flight deck team showed their efficiency by catapulting nine Sea Furies with an average interval of 36.2 seconds between them, an RN record. The value of running carriers in non-operational roles with reduced ship’s companies that could be brought back into full operation in an emergency was demonstrated by Illustrious, the trials and training carrier. On 30 August 1952 she embarked the Royal Netherlands Navy’s 860 (Sea Fury FB 11) NAS for ‘Mainbrace’. They were joined by 824 (Firefly AS 6) NAS on 3 September. HMS Triumph, the deck landing training carrier, also took part with Firefly FR 4s of 767 NAS embarked.
A storm range on Eagle’s flight deck during the Home Fleet spring cruise in 1953. The aircraft are Firefly AS 6s of 814 NAS and a single Skyraider of 849A NAS. Note that the cockpit covers of the forward two Fireflies have been blown off and the cockpit canopy of the left-hand aircraft has blown open, allowing considerable amounts of salt water to get in and ruin equipment. (Author’s collection)
Other RN Carrier Activity in this Period
The early 1950s saw Anglo-Egyptian relations deteriorate and one of the sources of friction was the large British garrison maintained in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal Zone. The British Army had been deployed in Egypt since the nineteenth century and had undoubtedly been a stabilising factor in Middle East politics. Despite defending Egypt against the Turks in the First World War and the Germans and Italians in the second, growing Arab nationalism during this period made the British position less tenable. In 1947 British forces were withdrawn from Cairo and other regional centres into the Canal Zone itself and a year later British forces left Palestine when the new state of Israel was created.23 However, most of the oil used by Britain came from the Middle East and passed through the Suez Canal and so the British continued to regard the defence of the canal as being of critical importance; its disruption or closure would mean tankers having to travel by the long sea route around Africa. Fervent nationalists in Egypt saw the defeat of its army by Israel in 1949 and the continued occupation of the Canal Zone by the British as equal humiliations. In October 1951 the Egyptian Government unilaterally abrogated the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty which formed the basis of the British presence24 and a period of violent protest began in the British-occupied areas. The canal was owned by a joint Anglo-French company and the cruiser Gambia was sent to Port Said to protect British interests and other warships secured the southern end. A system of patrols by boats and landing craft along the canal was instituted and the Chiefs of Staff formulated a contingency plan for military intervention in Egypt if the situation got out of hand, codenamed ‘Rodeo’. It involved two phases; the first involved moving troops from the Canal Zone into Cairo and the second deploying troops from Cyprus into Alexandria. Both were intended to protect British lives and interests. In January 1952 British forces were involved in an incident with the Egyptian Police in Ismailia and riots broke out in Cairo. ‘Rodeo’ was ordered to come to 48 hours’ notice but, faced with the reality of the situation, the Chiefs of Staff were advised by senior officers on the spot that the Egyptian armed forces would resist, leaving foreign civilians to the mercy of armed mobs in places where they could not be reached and, potentially, there was the prospect of attacks the canal itself by Egyptian armed forces. The scope of ‘Rodeo’ was, therefore, reduced to an armed evacuation of British and Commonwealth citizens.
826 NAS Avengers over HMCS Magnificent during exercises with the Canadian Atlantic Fleet. (Author’s collection)
In July 1952 King Farouk was overthrown by a military coup and his infant son Ahmed Fuad was named King although real power lay with a Military Council under General Neguib. In June 1953 Neguib deposed the young king and declared himself president of a new Egyptian Republic. In 1954 Egypt and the UK signed an agreement that British troops would leave the Canal Zone by June 1956, although Britain retained the use of its large supply depot at Ismailia to support action in the event of external aggression against Turkey or the Arab League unless that aggression came from Israel. The depot was to be run by civilians with no uniformed presence. Neguib himself was deposed in November 1954 by a new military council led by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser who assumed presidential powers although he did not actually become president until 23 June 1956 after an election in which voting was compulsory but he was the only candidate.25 The Suez Crisis of 1956 will be described in a later chapter.
British aircraft carriers were involved in a number of differing roles as the situation in the Middle East unfolded during this period. In June 1951 Warrior and Triumph ferried the Army’s 16 Parachute Brigade and much of its equipment from the UK to Cyprus.26 In November 1951 Illustrious and Triumph ferried the British 3rd Infantry Division and much of its equipment from Portsmouth to Cyprus as part of a build-up of capability in the region. In January 1952, during the fighting in Ismailia, Ocean was held in the eastern Mediterranean with 802 (Sea Fury FB 11s) and 825 (Firefly FR 5s) NAS embarked