The British Carrier Strike Fleet. David Hobbs
Fleet task force which also included the cruisers Glasgow and Euryalus to prepare for the defence and evacuation of British nationals if it became necessary. When the situation eased she passed through the Suez Canal to join the FEF and replace Glory for operations in the Korean War zone. HMS Glory demonstrated how interlocked strike fleet operations had become when she returned to the Mediterranean after Ocean relieved her. In July she was operating in the eastern Mediterranean with 807 and 898 (Sea Fury FB 11s) and 810 (Firefly FR 5s) NAS embarked. She was in Istanbul with HMCS Magnificent on an official visit when the crisis over King Farouk’s departure broke and she sailed at short notice to join a concentration off Cyprus intended to cope with any eventuality. The crisis eased and in October she sailed for the Far East to relieve Ocean. The British Government considered the presence of an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Fleet to be critically important and several ships were deployed on the station. Indomitable detached from the Home Fleet to the Mediterranean in January 1953 with 804 (Sea Fury FB 11s), 820 and 826 (Firefly AS 6s) NAS embarked. Unfortunately on 3 February 1953 an explosion destroyed the aircraft oxygen generation plant, killing eight men and wounding many more. Since she was near the end of her projected operational life, no repairs were carried out and the compartment was filled with concrete. After returning to the UK she took part in the Coronation Review at Spithead and then paid off into low-category reserve at Rosyth. Theseus re-commissioned after a post-Korean refit in January 1952 and alternated between the Home and Mediterranean Fleets until October 1954 when she was modified to relieve Implacable as flagship of the Home Fleet Training Squadron. She was in the eastern Mediterranean in September 1953 when Cyprus suffered an earthquake and formed part of the RN task force assembled off the island to give support to the civilian population.
Although the Middle East featured strongly in the news bulletins of this period, carriers also played a significant part in RN operations all over the world. In October 1953 Implacable carried a battalion of the Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders in a high-speed transit from Devonport to Trinidad as part of a British reinforcement of the region following unrest in British Guyana. In March 1954 Triumph was ordered to Algiers in support of the destroyer Saintes which was standing by the burning British troopship Empire Windrush. A month later, in April, Eagle, escorted by Daring, searched for wreckage from a de Havilland Comet airliner which had gone missing during a flight from Rome to Cairo. Several bodies were found and recovered. In July 1954 the ferry carrier Perseus carried relief supplies for Korean children from Singapore Naval Base. In August 1954 Warrior was serving in the FEF with 811 (Sea Fury FB 11s) and 825 (Firefly AS 5s) NAS embarked and had relieved HMAS Sydney on operations off Korea to monitor the ceasefire. On 25 August she was tasked to evacuate refugees from North to South Vietnam following a request to the British Government from the Prime Minister of Vietnam. Hong Kong Dockyard fitted bunk beds and extra heads and washing facilities into the hangar and she sailed for Vietnam on 31 August 1954. The evacuation began on 4 September and by 13 September she had evacuated 3000 civilian refugees. Three babies were born at sea with the help of the ship’s medical staff. She returned to Hong Kong Dockyard for the removal of the extra accommodation arrangements and then sailed for the UK. In October 1954 Warrior was awarded a Special Unit Citation by the President of Vietnam for her humanitarian work. In October 1954 the new light fleet carrier Centaur, which had recently joined the Mediterranean Fleet, withdrew the last British troops from Trieste where a small occupation force had been maintained since the end of the Second World War. She was the first British carrier to be fitted with an interim angled deck, fitted shortly after her completion and she operated a transitional air group comprising 806 (Sea Hawk FB 3s), 810 (Sea Fury FB 11s) and 820 (Avenger AS 4s) NAS. Early in 1955 she carried out combined exercises with the US Sixth Fleet, reinforcing the close links forged between the two navies in the Pacific in 1945 and in Korea. By then the RN had adopted the USN system of signals for its batsmen as part of a standardised system which was used across NATO in British, American, Canadian, French and Dutch carriers. The same system was adopted by the Royal Australian Navy.
Perseus in use as a ferry carrier in 1952, seen being loaded in Southampton with cocooned Sea Furies for the FEF on deck together with an array of trucks, buses and even private cars. A Whirlwind HAR 21 of 848 NAS is landing on the clear space aft. The ship ferried the unit to RNAS Sembawang in Singapore for operations in Malaya. (Author’s collection)
Naval air squadrons themselves continued to demonstrate versatility, underlining the fact that they could work perfectly well when disembarked to a shore base. In 1955 the British command in Cyprus began Operation ‘Apollo’ which was intended to prevent ships from smuggling arms onto the island for EOKA terrorists who were engaged in an insurrection against British rule. 847 (Gannet AS 1s) NAS was commissioned specifically to carry out daily patrols from Nicosia in support of warships operating off the coast, a task which continued until 1959 when the unit flew back to the UK to disband. In October 1952 the RN re-commissioned 848 NAS at RNAS Gosport with ten Sikorsky Whirlwind HAS 21 helicopters provided by the USN under MDAP, to become the first operational helicopter unit in the RN. With their sonars removed and troop seats fitted, the squadron deployed to RNAS Sembawang, Singapore in Perseus and worked up as the first ‘commando’ squadron. It was employed on support operations for the security forces fighting the communist insurrection in Malaya. 848 NAS moved to an advanced base near Kuala Lumpur in February 195327 and brought unprecedented mobility to military units operating in the jungle, for which the unit was awarded the Boyd Trophy for 1953. Operations continued until 848 NAS was de-commissioned in December 1956. In February 1953 there was severe flooding on the east coast of the UK and in Holland. RN helicopters deployed to both locations and were used extensively on humanitarian relief operations; the first time that helicopters were used for this sort of task. The commanding officer of 705 (Dragonfly HAR 1s) NAS at RNAS Gosport was subsequently awarded the MBE for leading the operations and coordinating the work of a number of helicopters operating from widely-spaced forward operating locations.
In August 1954 Warrior was tasked to evacuate refugees from North to South Vietnam following a request to the British Government by the Prime Minister of South Vietnam. This is the scene in her hangar in early September as she evacuated 3000 refugees. Her air group was disembarked but note the spare Firefly main planes and propellers still secured to the bulkheads. (Author’s collection)
Operational and Administrative Control of Naval Aviation
The Admiralty was not just a government department responsible for the administration of the Navy. Until 1964 it was the operational centre from which orders and instructions were given to the various fleet commanders. A civilian politician known as the First Lord was head of the department but by the early 1950s he had ceased to be a cabinet member. All matters of national policy and budget had, therefore, to be referred to the Minister of Defence for ultimate approval, if necessary at Cabinet level. The operational and professional head of the Royal Navy was the First Sea Lord (1SL) and Chief of the Naval Staff, responsible for directing the Commanders-in-Chief of the three major fleets and various Commands and Stations at home and overseas to implement agreed Government policy. The Admiralty Board member responsible for naval aviation matters was the Fifth Sea Lord (5SL), also known as the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, with additional responsibility for the development of tactics and operational capability across the fleet. Under 5SL there were various Admiralty departments responsible for naval air matters. These included the Directorate of Naval Air Warfare (DNAW), and the Directorate of Naval Air Organisation and Training (DAOT), both headed by senior captains, RN. A third captain, the Adviser on Aircraft Accidents (AAA), was responsible directly to 5SL on all matters of flight safety in the 1950s but this task was eventually absorbed into DNAW. The design and development of aircraft carriers, like all warships, was the responsibility of the Third Sea Lord (3SL), also known by the historic title of Controller. As with every other Branch in the RN, naval air personnel were the responsibility of the Second Sea Lord (2SL), and his Department. By the early 1950s the RN had been in full administrative