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Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) Aug. 1, 2024: Going Dutch on a (Baby) Flat-top

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday to look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

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Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) Aug. 1, 2024: Going Dutch on a Baby Flat-top

Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie 2158_005349

Above we see a big Vliegtuigsquadron 860 (VSQ 860) Fairey Firefly Mk. I of the Dutch Marine Luchtvaartdienst, her quad 20mm Hispano Mk.V cannons clearly visible on her folded wings, as the strike aircraft is being made ready to launch from the deck of Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman (QH 1), Holland’s first vliegkampschip (aircraft carrier), to join operations against rebel forces on Java on 13 October 1946.

It was the jeep carrier’s second war.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Meet Nairana

The Tasmanian word for a huge (and endangered) wedge-tailed eagle local to those seas, the first HMS Nairana got her name honest– she was born with it as the Huddart Parker Lines passenger ferry TSS Nairana, ordered from the Scottish firm of William Denny & Brothers in January 1914. While still on the ways, the 352-foot/3,000-ton passenger steamer was converted to handle seaplanes and commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1917.

Outfitted with a 95-foot flying platform, she could carry as many as eight single-engine floatplanes and finished the war with the Battle Cruiser Force before heading to North Russia to support the Allied intervention there during the Russian Civil War. Returned to her original owners in 1921, she worked in the commercial trade in Australia until 1948, including troopship service in WWII.

The first HMS Nairana, a seaplane tender, in her 1917-1918 dazzle pattern camouflage. Note her forward flying deck, stern recovery boom, hangar, and several small Sopwith floatplanes. IWM SP 1292, photo by Surgeon Oscar Parkes

Our subject had much the same backstory, just a 1940s version.

Laid down in November 1941 as a fast refrigerated cargo/passenger carrier by the Scottish shipbuilding firm of John Brown & Company on the Clydebank for Port Lines, she instead was diverted to Admiralty use once the new war got going. Acquired by the Royal Navy in 1942, she was soon finished as an escort carrier, HMS Nairana (D 05). Her only sister was the similarly converted HMS Vindex (D 15) while a third ship, HMS Campania (D 48), is more of a half-sister.

Nairana line drawing by Dr. Dan Saranga

Commissioned on 26 November 1943, Nairana went 17,000 tons (fully loaded) with an overall length across the flight deck of 528 feet while her beam ran 68 feet wide. Armament was two twin QF 4″/45 cal DP Mk XVI guns, four quad 40mm Mk VII QF pom-poms (possibly the most British of AAA guns), and eight twin 20 mm/70 Oerlikon Mark Vs.

Belowdecks was a 231-foot hangar serviced by a single centerline elevator. She had a single C-II catapult installed, which was capable of launching a 6.4-ton aircraft from a standstill to 70 knots. Her avgas capacity was 62,000 gallons, enough to fuel an empty Swordfish 370 times or a Martlet (Wildcat) 452 times. It was thought this sufficed to support a wing of as many as 20 single-engine aircraft.

Speed was 17 knots on her economical marine diesels, with a cruising range of 13,000nm at 15 knots– a convoy escort dream!

They would ultimately carry Type 277, Type 281В, and Type 293 radars.

Nairana and her sister(s) were a little larger and a couple knots faster than the most numerous RN escort carriers– the 34 American-built Bogue-class CVEs sent over via Lend-Lease and known as the Ameer, Attacker, Ruler, or Smiter class in British service depending on their arrangement. However, the Bogues had a second elevator and were thought capable of operating as many as 28 aircraft despite their smaller hangars and flight decks.

War!

The Royal Navy Research Archive has a great entry on Nairana’s WWII service but we’ll do more of a sum up for brevity.

HMS Nairana, escort carrier, 17 February 1944, Greenock, Scotland. Note the abundance of Carley floats and an embarked airwing. Photo by LT SJ Beadell, IWM A21848

Embarking her first air group of 12 Mk. II Swordfish and the personnel of the Fleet Air Arm’s 838 Squadron on 17 December 1943 (soon changed out to a mix of nine Swords and a half dozen Sea Hurricane Mk. IIcs of 835 NAS), our little carrier was nominated for service in the Western Approaches with the Liverpool-based 2nd British Escort Group. The role: Atlantic convoy defense.

Between 29 January 1944 when she tapped in on OS 066KM and 27 February 1945 when she left RA 064, Nairana helped escort no less than 21 convoys. These ran the gamut from the Freetown, Sierra Leone to Liverpool runs (SL & OS convoys) to Mediterranean runs (KMF, KMS, and MKS convoys) to the very dangerous Kola Pen/Murmansk runs (JW and RA convoys).

HMS Nairana, escort carrier, June 1944, view from one of her planes looking back. Note her camouflaged flight deck. IWM A 24131

HMS Nairana, an escort carrier, underway. Note what appears to be five 835 Squadron Sea Hurricanes forward, which should put this image in January-June 1944. IWM FL 12664

Her air group- which by October 1944 had grown to 14 Mk. III Swords and 6 Mk.VI Martlets of 835 NAS– in particular was very successful, downing at least two Bv138 long-range reconnaissance flying boats and numerous JU88s on the Russia run, along with three giant Junkers Ju 290s of FAGr 5 over the Bay of Biscay. They also reportedly attacked at least two surfaced U-boats (though without any confirmed sinkings).

In between convoy runs, Nairana served as a temporary home to the Barracuda of 768 DLT squadron and the Fireflies of 816 squadron for workups and was tasked with three different anti-shipping raids off the coast of occupied Norway (Operations Sampler, Winded, and Prefix/Muscular) in early 1945.

Of the Norway raids, Winded proved the most successful with Nairana’s Swords, operating alongside those of her sister Campania’s embarked 813 Sqn, managing to blitz four coasters on 28 January off Larsnes/Vaagsö, sinking the J.M. (164 GRT) and Varp (114 GRT) with rockets and bombs. Nobody said ani-shipping operations were glamorous.

By late March 1945, with the Soviets knocking on the door of Berlin and the Western Allies crossing the Rhine, the Atlantic convoy game was starting to wind down. 835 Naval Air Squadron, Nairana’s go-to air group, was disbanded on 1 April 1945 at RNAS Hatston, her Swords put to pasture in favor of Avengers and Barracuda, while her Martlets were handed over to 821 Sqn.

Meanwhile, eyes turned to the Pacific.

From King to Queen

With the British Pacific Fleet getting very muscular in 1945– the RN had six large armored fleet carriers, four light carriers, two maintenance carriers, and nine escort carriers (with over 750 embarked aircraft) along with five battlewagons and 100 escorts arrayed against the Japanese– realization came that the campaign to liberate the Dutch East Indies would soon be underway.

Keep in mind it wasn’t until July 1945 that the first Oboe-series landings in the Japanese-occupied DEI occurred at Balikpapan and it was felt that the campaign to root the Emperor’s forces out would likely take upwards of a year, based on what the U.S. Sixth Army was facing in the Philippines. This coalesced with the thinking that the planned final Allied landings in the Japanese home islands, Operations Downfall, Olympic, and Cornet, would see fighting lasting through most of 1946. Remember, there were still squad-sized units of Japanese surrendering on Hollandia and Morotai as late as 1956– with the latter island where the last holdout wouldn’t be caught until December 1974! 

Therefore, to give the Dutch some carrier power, starting in June 1945, Nairana began a series of operations off Scotland with an embarked squadron (VSQ 860) of the Free Dutch Navy along with officers and senior NCOs to be used as a cadre to operate their own carrier.

The squadron, formed in June 1943, had previously flown Swordfish from two Royal Dutch Shell-owned and manned tankers, MV Gadila and MV Macoma, which had been given flying decks to perform as Merchant Aircraft Carriers. They rode shotgun on 45 convoys.

Gadila (left) and Macoma (right), were converted to MAC carriers in June 1944. They still carried their oil cargo but also embarked 4-to-6 of NAS/VSQ 860’s Swordfish on convoy overwatch through April 1945. Macoma served as a MAC on 24 convoys and Gadila on 21.

Using Fairey Barracuda transferred hot from the RN FAA’s 822 Squadron, the Dutch of VSQ 860 got in their first carrier cats and traps as a squadron from Nairana.

A Fairey Barracuda MK II of NAS/VSQ 860 on the elevator of HMS Nairana, circa November-December 1945. NIMH 2158_102013

A Dutch deck party moving around a NAS/VSQ 860 Barracuda on HMS Nairana, circa November-December 1945. NIMH 2158_102018

A RATO-equipped Fairey Barracuda of Vliegtuigsquadron 860 lifts off from HMS Nairana, rolling over the stowed aircraft barrier. NIMH 2158_102038

A flaps-down NAS/VSQ 860 Barracuda comes in to trap on HMS Nairana under the control of a paddle-equipped LSO, circa November-December 1945. NIMH 2158_022771

A better look at that Dutch LSO, with Nairana’s eight arrestor wires and barricade in the background. Not a lot of room for error on a straight-deck 500-foot CVE! NIMH 2158_102040

A NAS/VSQ 860 Barracuda traps on HMS Nairana, circa November-December 1945. Notably, she had eight arrestor wires while her near-sisters Vindex and Campania only had six. NIMH 2158_102012

HMS Nairana with her hangar deck filled with Barracuda of Vliegtuigsquadron 860, circa November-December 1945. NIMH 2158_102014

Nairana was formally transferred to Dutch control in a quiet ceremony at Gareloch, Scotland on 20 March 1946. The British flag (Union Jack) was lowered and the Dutch Prinsengeus hoisted, with appropriate salutes and honors rendered from both sides.

The changeover NIMH 2158_101372

Her new name, Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman (QH 1), came as a salute to RADM Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman, killed in the Battle of the Java Sea in 1942 when his flagship was torpedoed during the battle and he elected to ride it to the bottom rather than abandon ship.

Dutch WWII poster, depicting Admiral Karel Doorman and his flagship light cruiser De Ruyter

Her first Dutch skipper was Capt. Alfred de Booy, a Java-born career naval officer with 28 years of service who had formerly commanded the frigate Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau (which was sunk in May 1940) and served as naval attaché in London. 

Karel Doorman on the day she was transferred, 20 March 1946. Note her D 05 hull number she wore as Nairana has been painted out. NIMH 2158_025456

Karel Doorman, 20 March 1946, in rough shape but with her Prinsengeus flying, and her old British D 05 hull number. NIMH 2158_000829

Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman (QH 1) at the Royal Naval Dockyard Rosyth, where she was dry docked for the first three weeks of May 1946 just after the transfer. NIMH 101450

Fresh out of dry dock. Note she still retains her wartime camouflage and Carley floats and has her new QH 1 hull number applied to her bow. NIMH 2158_000845

Note her pennant number has been more haphazardly applied to her starboard side. NIMH 2158_000846

Kaarel Doorman Janes 1946

I found this short (silent) video of her in the NIMH archives from this period. 

Another War!

Following four months of refit and puttering around the North Sea, it was decided to send the country’s first aircraft carrier to its ongoing liberation and pacification efforts in the Dutch East Indies, where Japanese die-hards and Indonesian insurgents were embroiled in a war of independence. Seen off by Prince Bernhard, she would leave Holland in August 1946.

Honor guard, equipped with British Pattern 37 kit and .303 caliber SMLEs, present arms for the visit of Prince Bernhard to the carrier at Rotterdam’s Merwehaven, 6 August 1946. NIMH 2158_101511

Getting right with her gunnery, just in case. Note the peculiar arrangement of the twin Oerlikons on Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman, complete with early aiming computer. NIMH 2158_101519

She proceeded to Glasgow to pick up 15 new (to the Dutch) Firefly Mk Is, transferred from Royal Naval Air Station Fearn, which would be assigned to VSQ 860. Besides the aircraft, Karel Doorman would also pick up some 2,000 tons of parts, tools, and ordnance, as well as 130 aircrew and enlisted.

Another 15 Firefly Mk Is, sold to the Dutch from FAA stocks just after Karel Doorman left Glasgow would go on to equip VSQ 861, then eventually be reassigned to 1 Sqn in the Dutch Antilles. In 1947, the Dutch purchased another 40 upgraded Firely FR.4s, which would be used by 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 Sqns. This would be augmented by 14 Mark NF.V radar-equipped night fighters delivered in 1949. The final Fireflies acquired by the Dutch were a quartet of ex-Canadian Navy aircraft purchased in 1952. 

Karel Doorman at the George V Docks in Glasgow, 26-to-29 August 1946 giving a good shot of her aft 4″/45 twin mount. NIMH 2158_025464

A VSQ 860 Firefly Mk I, one of 15, being stowed in Karel Doorman’s hangar on 26 August 1946. Note it still carries RN FAA roundels. NIMH 101445.

Observe the small Dutch orange and black triangle national marking applied near the cockpit. This style had already been replaced by the current four-color (blue, white, red, and orange) roundel. NIMH 101375

Leaving Glasgow on 1 September, her crew crossed the equator and called at Simonstown on the way to Java.

Crossing the Line ceremony on board Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman with Captain A. de Booy receiving the “Grand Cross in the Order of the Floating Bar” from Neptune, 11 September 1946. NIMH 101459

While near the Cocos Islands, her Fireflies launched on 13 October and flew some 500 km to the Kemajoran airfield near Batavia, with almost all arriving safely (one cracked up on landing without casualties).

MLD Firefly coming up the elevator on Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman, 13 October 1946. It still has its mix of British and obsolete Dutch markings. NIMH 2158_005348

Fairey Fireflies Mk.I taking off from Karel Doorman. NIMH 2158_000834

A group of four Fairey Fireflies Mk.1 airborne over Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman on their way to Kemajoran airfield. On the left is the frigate Hr.Ms. Van Galen. NIMH 2158_101547

Een formatie van drie Fairey Firefly I carrier-jager-verkenners, behorend tot de vloot van 860 Vliegtuigsquadron. NIMH 2158_012904

Soon afterward, VSQ 860 flew on to Morokrembangan, near Soerabaja in the east of the island, and the Dutch assumed responsibility for air support in the East Indies from the RAF, which had been hard at work doing it since before VJ Day.

Our carrier then commenced in a series of port calls in the region, stopping at Surabaya, Makassar, Moena, Ambon, and Banda.

While at Tandjong Priok near Jakarta, she picked up two captured Japanese floatplanes to be taken back to Holland for tests and display: a Kawanishi N1K (Rex) and an Aichi E13A (Jake).

Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman with a Japanese Aichi E13A floatplane on her deck on 7 November 1946. NIMH 2158_000839

A view showing both the N1K and E13A. NIMH 2158_005346

It was important for the Dutch to police up these former Japanese military planes as the local Indonesian forces (the TKRO) were gathering as many as they could for the coming struggle against the colonial forces. Of note, the Fireflies of VSQ 860 spoiled this in a big way on 27 July 1947 when they destroyed 36 Indonesian aircraft including seven very dangerous Ki-43-II Oscars on the ground at Maguwo airfield, leaving the TKRO in the area just four working aircraft to their name: two Yokosuka K5Y1 Willow (Cureng) biplane trainers, one Mitsubishi Ki-51 Sonia bomber, and one remaining Hayabusha. Interestingly, some of these still survive in the Indonesian Air Force Museum.

On the way back to Europe, by way of Dakar and Casablanca, Karel Doorman visited South Africa from 8 to 18 January 1947, where she was swamped by a local outpouring from the ethnic Dutch Boers.

Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman, sans visible aircraft, at Cape Town with Tafelberg in the background, January 1947. Note her hull numbers have been down-sized from the big white numbers seen earlier. NIMH 2158_000843

Back in Holland, the carrier had a brief refit at NV Dok en Werf Maatschappij Wilton-Fijenoord in Schiedam.

In het dok bij de NV Dok en Werf Maatschappij Wilton-Fijenoord, Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman. 18 February 1947. NIMH 2158_005336

NIMH 2158_005341

She then ventured out to make a series of port calls in Western Europe, in particular visiting London for a week in April. There, she received a silver salver from Albert Victor Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough, KG, CH, PC, then the 1st Lord of the Admiralty.

Right 1st Viscount G.H. Hall, First Lord of the Admiralty, talking to Capt. A. de Booy, commander of Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman 18 April 1947. De Booy would go on to become the Dutch Navy’s CNO in 1950 and retire as a vice admiral in 1956. He passed in 1990, aged 89. NIMH 101443

This was followed up with a series of tactical exercises and a trip to Norway and Iceland with the River-class frigate Hr.Ms. Johan Maurits van Nassau (ex-HMS Ribble) and D-Day veteran gunboat-turned-training ship Hr.Ms. Soemba as escorts.

Karel Doorman at Eidfjord, Norway, where she called 18-20 July 1947. NIMH 0018_101559

Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman on the piles at Maashaven, Rotterdam, 7 October 1947. Note she doesn’t have a camo flight deck any longer but still has her side camo. NIMH 2158_005338

In October 1947, she took members of Parliament and government ministers to sea for a series of trials with the country’s first naval helicopter, a Sikorsky S.51/H-5 (“Jezebel”), and Auster liaison aircraft.

The MLD’s Sikorsky S-51 Air Sea Rescue (ASR)/training helicopter H 1 “Jezebel.” In U.S. Navy service, the type was classified as the HO3S and saw much service in Korea on C-SAR missions for downed aircrew. NIMH 2158_026176

A second trip to the Dutch East Indies in the winter of 1947 saw her bring some replacement Fireflies to the country– three (F-22, F-24, and F-27) had been lost to ground fire and one to an accident– along with several Austers.

Taylorcraft Auster Mk.IIIs coming up from Karel Doorman’s hangar to fly ashore at Java. Note the new style roundels. NIMH 2158_005337

Taylorcraft Auster Mk.III taking off from Karel Doorman. NIMH 101381

A group photo of OVW members in front of the OO accommodation of the Marine Air Base Morokrembangan after the arrival of the aircraft carrier Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman in the Dutch East Indies, late 1947. NIMH 2158_025462

Three Fairey Firefly fighter-reconnaissance aircraft of VSQ 860 at Maospati airfield during the so-called Second Police Action (Operation Megatan). Also visible in the photo is an Auster AOP Mk.3 reconnaissance aircraft and a MLD-Catalina maritime patrol flying boat. NIMH 2158_023056

Review of Karel Doorman on 20 December 1947 by Vice-Admiraal Albertus Samuel Pinke, the commander of the naval forces in the Dutch East Indies from 1946 to 1949. Note the height-finding radar on a short tower by the deckhouse. NIMH 2158_101504

Repatriation

On 9 March 1948, Karel Doorman left Holland for the last time, returning to Plymouth where she was returned to the Royal Navy’s custody. Disarmed and with her sensors removed, she was sold for pennies on the pound to Port Line, the shipping company that had originally ordered her in 1941.

Following a conversion back to her more or less planned configuration at Harland and Wolff in Ireland, ex-Nairana/ex-Karel Doorman embarked on her third life as MV Port Victor in September 1949.

She continued her commercial service until 1971 when the well-traveled ship and twice-former aircraft carrier was sold to a breaker in Taiwan.

Her two near-sisters, Vindex and Campania, were the final two escort carriers in RN service.

Vindex and Campania in the 1946 ed of Jane’s.

Like Nairana/Doorman, Vindex was sold back to the Port Lines as the unimaginatively named MV Port Vindex in October 1947 and scrapped at Kaohsiung in August 1971.

Campania, decommissioned in December 1952 after supporting British atomic testing in the Pacific, was scrapped in 1955.

Epilogue

Karel Doorman is remembered fondly by the Dutch Navy as she was essentially the cradle of their sea-going naval aviation.

Maritime art of Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman in the Dutch Naval collection. NIMH 2158_005340

The second Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman (R81), the 19,000-ton former Colossus-class light carrier HMS Venerable, was commissioned into the Dutch Navy on 28 May 1948 and operated until 1970 when she was third-handed to the Argentines as the Veinticinco de Mayo.

Vliegkampschip Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman (R 81) ligt gepavoiseerd op de boeien. 2158_009425

The third Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman (F827), commissioned in 1991, was the lead ship of a new class of ASW frigates for the Dutch. She retired in 2006 and continues to serve the neighboring Belgians as Louise-Marie (F931).

Fregat Karel Doorman (F 827) 2158_009637

The fourth Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman (A833), a 27,000-ton is a replenishment and logistic ship, commissioned in 2015 and is the largest ship to ever serve in the Dutch fleet.

Zr.Ms. Karel Doorman (A833)

As for VSQ 860, they continued flying air support missions over the Dutch East Indies until Indonesian independence in December 1949. After chalking up more than 2,000 sorties over the islands, the 11 remaining Karel Doorman-delivered Fireflies were shipped out.

The Dutch continued to use the type on Biak and Curacao in the West Indies. The last time the Firefly was deployed in anger by a European nation was in 1962 when the MLD flew its remaining aircraft in Biak against Indonesian forces encroaching on Dutch New Guinea before its transfer to Jakarta the next year.

A period Kodachrome of a full-color radar-equipped Firefly FR.Mk.IV night fighter of the Marine Luchtvaartdienst at Biak, Nederlands Nieuw-Guinea, ready to roll, circa 1961. In all, the Dutch operated some 80 Fireflies of all types during the Cold War, losing 25 to accidents and three (all of VSQ 860) to combat, withdrawing the last one in 1963. NIMH 2158_012906

Today– after flying Hawker Sea Fury FB.50s (5 July 1950 – 25 June 1956) and Sea Hawk FGA.50s (18 Sept 1957 – 30 Oct 1964) from the second Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman–860 is in the rotor wing business and has flown Wasps, Lynx (from the third Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman), and now NH90s, which it occasionally flies from the fourth Karel Doorman.

Some things never change.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Warship Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020: Spaghetti & Stringbags

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020: Spaghetti & Stringbags

U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1977.031.085.071

Here we see a great bow-on shot of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (87) underway in the Indian Ocean during the Spring of 1944, while the British flattop was operating with USS Saratoga (CV-3) during WWII. “Lusty” was one of the luckier of HM’s early fleet carriers during the conflict, and a handful of hopelessly obsolete aircraft flying from her decks, borrowing a bit of that luck, would pull off an amazing feat some 80 years ago today.

While today the U.S. Navy is the benchmark for carrier operations, the British would be incredibly innovative in the use of such vessels in warfare. This included being the first country to lose a carrier in combat when HMS Courageous (50) was lost to a German U-boat in the third week of the war and sistership HMS Glorious was embarrassingly lost to the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the withdrawal from Norway in June 1940. With that being said, it was a good thing that Illustrious was on the way to make up losses.

Laid down at Vickers Barrow-in-Furness on 27 April 1937, 13 months after German troops marched into the Rhineland as part of the British rearmament due to such muscular action, Illustrious was the lead ship of a new class of a planned six aircraft carriers designed from the first steel cut to be modern flattops. Displacing 25,000-tons full load, they had a 740-foot overall length and the ability to touch 30-knots on a trio of steam turbines.

U.S. ONI sheet on the Illustrious class

Carrying up to 4.5-inches of armor– to include an armored flight deck designed to withstand 1,000-pound bombs– and protected by 16 excellent QF 4.5-inch Mark I guns, both of which would have rated her as a decent light cruiser even without aircraft, the class could carry 36 aircraft in their hangars, which was smaller than American and Japanese carriers of the same size, but keep in mind the Brits guarded their birds inside an armored box. Further, they were fitted with radar, with Illustrious having her Type 79 installed just before she joined the fleet.

HMS Illustrious (87) underway 1940. Note the 4.5″ (11.4 cm) Mark I guns in twin Mark III UD mountings. IWM FL2425

Commissioned 25 May 1940, during the fall of France, Illustrious was to do her workup cruise to Dakar but plans changed once the French surrendered, sending the carrier instead to do her shakedown in the relative safety of the West Indies. Meanwhile, Italy had clocked in on Germany’s side, declaring war on 10 June.

HMS Illustrious landing Swordfish in June 1940. Picture: Fleet Air Arm Museum CARS 1/171

By 30 August, she set out for the Mediterranean on her first operational deployment, sailing for Alexandria in convoy with Force F. Within a week, her airwing, which included Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers of Nos. 815 and 819 Squadrons, would be flying combat missions against Axis-held airfields on Rhodes.

While Illustrious carried a mix of quaint Fairey Fulmar and Sea Gladiator fighters, it was her embarked Swordfish, biplanes capable of just 124 knots and nicknamed “flying stringbags,” that made up the bulk of her strike capability.

Swordfish could carry a torpedo or up to 1,500 pounds of bombs or mines, although their combat radius while doing so was only about 200nm. Self-defense amounted to two .303-caliber Vickers guns.

On the 17th, Swords from Illustrious drew blood during shipping attacks on Benghazi harbor, sending the Italian Turbine-class destroyer Borea to the bottom while air-dropped mines would take out several merchantmen. The proven carrier then spent the next several weeks riding shotgun on convoys between Malta and Egypt.

Then, on 10 November, Illustrious was detached on Operation Judgement, a planned midnight home invasion of the Italian fleet’s main base at Taranto under the cover of darkness, where her airwing would target Rome’s mighty battleships at anchor. As an ace in the hole, they had up-to-date reconnaissance photographs of the harbor, taken by Martin Maryland light bombers flying from Malta.

The carrier strike force? Even including aircraft cross-decked from HMS Eagle, Illustrious could count a mixed bag of just 21 Swordfish of Nos. 813, 815, 819, and 824 Squadrons. To give them a boost in range, each would be fitted with a spare av gas tank that they only had to leave their rear gunner behind to accommodate– what could go wrong?

The first wave, of 12 aircraft, would launch at 20:40 on 11 November and consist of six Swords each with a single 18-inch torpedo, backed up by four Swords each with a half-dozen light 250-pound bombs, and two aircraft with a mix of 16 parachute flares and four bombs each.

The second wave (!), of nine aircraft, would launch an hour later and included five torpedo carriers, two with bombs and two flare-droppers. In all, the Brits planned to bring a total of 11 Mark XII torpedoes and 52 almost lilliputian bombs.

250-pound bombs that would later be dropped on the Italian fleet at Taranto on HMS Illustrious’s flight deck

The tiny force of biplanes faced some serious opposition.

Besides the masses of guns on the Italian ships themselves– which were under standing orders to keep their AAA batteries at least half-manned even when the vessels were anchored– around the Regia Marina’s primary roadstead were land-based anti-aircraft batteries that held no less than 21 4-inch, 84 20mm and 109 13.2mm guns at the ready in addition to smaller numbers of 125mm, 90mm, and 40mm guns. While there was no air-search radar at Taranto, the Italians did have at least 13 “war tuba” sound-detection devices capable of hearing aircraft engines as far out as 30 miles away. Two dozen powerful searchlights scanned the heavens.

Even if the British bombers could get inside the harbor, the Italians had over 23,000 feet of counter-torpedo netting ready to catch any trespassing Royal Navy fish. Further, there was a flotilla of 90 barrage balloons tethered by steel cables, deployed across the harbor in three rows.

While the Brits caught some breaks– two-thirds of the barrage balloons were not on station due to storms and a lack of hydrogen; and 2.9km of the torpedo nets were coiled up, in need of repair– it was still a dangerous mission as witnessed by the more than 12,000 shells of 20mm or greater from shore-based batteries alone during the strike.

Cobb, Charles David; Taranto Harbour, Swordfish from ‘Illustrious’ Cripple the Italian Fleet, 11 November 1940; National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/taranto-harbour-swordfish-from-illustrious-cripple-the-italian-fleet-11-november-1940-116445

In the end, just two Swords were lost while three of six Italian battleships present were seriously damaged, and the last of 18 recovered aircraft were aboard Illustrious by 0230 on 12 November.

The brand-new 35,000-ton fast battleship Littorio suffered three torpedo hits, while the older battlewagons Caio Duilio and Conte di Cavour picked up one each, with the latter so wrecked she would not be repaired for the duration of the war. Bombs lightly damaged the 13,000-ton heavy cruiser Trento, the destroyers Libeccio and Pessagno, and two fleet auxiliaries in addition to falling on the dockyard and oil depot. The fleet suffered nearly 700 casualties, although less than 10 percent of that figure was mortal.

The raid upset the balance of power between the strong Italian fleet and the weaker British force in the Med at a crucial period.

As a booby prize, the Italians captured two downed British Fleet Air Arm members and were left with several dud bombs and torpedoes to examine. Two RN aircrewmen were killed. The morning after the Taranto raid, the undamaged battleship Vittorio Veneto, assuming ADM Inigo Campioni’s flag from the crippled Littorio, led the Italian fleet to Naples. Campioni would be relieved of command three weeks later, replaced by ADM Angelo Iachino.

Interestingly enough, this attack took place while both America and Japan were at peace and each country’s navy took notes from the engagement, although they were applied very differently by the respective note takers a year later.

As encapsulated by the Royal Navy today, “The Fleet Air Arm’s attack on Taranto ranks as one of the most daring episodes in the Second World War. It transformed the naval situation in the Mediterranean and was carefully studied by the Japanese before their carrier-borne strike on the American fleet at Pearl Harbour in December 1941.”

Much more on Operation Judgement can be read at Armoured Carriers.com and the 26-page paper, The Attack at Taranto, by Angelo N. Caravaggio in the Naval War College Review.

Post-Taranto

How do you top a 20-aircraft raid from a five-month-old carrier that sidelined half of the Italian battlefleet? For the rest of the war, Illustrious was a one-ship fire brigade supporting operations in the Med to include earning honors for keeping Malta alive during Operation Excess.

Her luck ran out on the Excess run on 10 January 1941– hit by five bombs from a swarm of 18 He 111s and 43 Stukas 60 miles west of Malta. “Illustrious was the main target and was enveloped in waterspouts and mist of exploding bombs. Some bombers diving from an altitude of 12,000 feet delayed bomb release until they pulled-out lower than the height of Illustrious’ funnel.”

THE BOMBING OF HMS ILLUSTRIOUS AT MALTA. 10 JANUARY 1941, ON BOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER. (A 9793) The view of the flight deck from the ship’s bridge.(Same as MH 4623). Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205143579

Even so, she reached Malta that day and would suffer 126 dead and 91 wounded by the time she departed the besieged island stronghold– the subject of continuing German and Italian air attacks the entire time she was there.

She was sent to Norfolk Naval Shipyard in the ostensibly neutral United States for repair, eventually arriving there via the Suez Canal on May 27.

HMS ILLUSTRIOUS At the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, following battle damage repairs, November 1941. NH 96323

Post repairs, Illustrious was soon back in the war, covering the landings at Diego Suarez in Vichy-held Madagascar during Operation Ironclad in 1942, where her Swords were back at work.

The Royal Navy battleship HMS Valiant fires its 38.1 cm guns during exercises as seen from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (87). 22 December 1942, Indian Ocean. The planes in the foreground are Fairey Fulmars of B Flight, 806 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, with Grumman Martlets of 881 NAS parked aft. Lt. D.C. Oulds, Royal Navy official photographer IWM A 15152

She then shipping back to the Med for the Salerno landings in 1943.

BIG SHIPS AT MALTA. OCTOBER 1943, ON BOARD HMS FORMIDABLE AT GRAND HARBOUR, VALLETTA, MALTA. (A 19815) The aircraft carrier HMS ILLUSTRIOUS steams into Grand Harbour, as men line the flight deck of HMS FORMIDABLE to watch her progress. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205152374

From there she set out for the Indian Ocean in 1944 where she worked alongside USS Saratoga and raided the Japanese-held island of Sabang (Operation Cockpit).

HMS Illustrious and USS Saratoga Trincomalee, Ceylon part of Operation Cockpit

HMS Illustrious (87) steaming past the U.S. carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) in the Indian Ocean, 18 May 1944. Note the crews of both ships assembled on deck to pay farewell. NNAM.1977.031.085.012

HMS ILLUSTRIOUS, part of the Eastern Fleet, stationary, coastal waters (photographed from the cruiser HMS MAURITIUS). IWM A 13559

HMS Renown and Illustrious in Trincomalee Harbor, Ceylon in early 1944.

Royal Navy aircraft repair carrier HMS Unicorn (I72, left) and HMS Illustrious (87), probably pictured at Trincomalee, Ceylon, in 1944. NNAM No. 1996.488.037.044

Corsairs in the armored box hangar of HMS Illustrious. Tight spaces!

A long way from Sea Gladiators! HMS Illustrious in the Indian Ocean. The flight deck being cleared of Corsairs at sunset ready for the Avenger dusk patrol to land on. May 1944

By January 1945, she was off Sumatra in the Japanese-held Dutch East Indies, launching raids on the vital Soengi Gerong oil refineries near Palembang while dodging kamikazes.

She was the first ship in Green Island’s Captain Cook dock, 11 February 1945

Speaking of which, she continued to reap the divine wind off Okinawa in April, with a Japanese D4Y3 Judy making contact with her deck, leaving the carrier with a vibration in her hull and the remains of a Japanese rubber dinghy as a trophy.

The Bridge and Island crew of HMS illustrious had a remarkably close call on 6 April 1945 when a kamikaze attack plane scored the thinnest of glancing blows with its wingtip ripping the ray dome just forward of the Bridge with the plane spinning into the sea causing no casualties to the crew

Sailing at a reduced speed of 19 knots for Sidney and emergency repairs, she ended the war in the dockyard.

Post-war

The Illustrious class entry in the 1946 edition of Jane’s Fighting Ships

Post-VJ-Day, Illustrious was used for deck-landing trials until being place in reserve in late 1947.

Armoured carrier HMS Illustrious carrying out flying trials in 1947. Seafire is on an out-rigger just forward of the island, and the aircraft aft is a Sea Fury

Hawker Sea Fury about to land on HMS Illustrious 1947. Just a great view of her stern QF 4.5″ gun batteries as well, with the turrets trained seaward

Recommissioned the next year, she was used for further trials and training duties, clocking in as a troop carrier to Cyrus in 1951.

HMS Illustrious, off Norway, 1954, at the tail-end of her career. Note the long-serving TBM Avengers on her deck and twin 4.5-inch guns forward. Via the Municipal Archives of Trondheim

She attended Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation Review at Spithead in June 1953 and continued to provide some service, she never again deployed as an operational carrier. 

Battleship HMS Vanguard at Spithead on June 1953, with the bruiser old aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious.

Illustrious was sold to BISCO for breaking-up at Faslane, arriving there on 3 November 1956.

As for her three sisters that were completed, HMS Formidable (67) and HMS Indomitable (92) had been broken up shortly before Illustrious leaving only HMS Victorious (R38) to soldier on, paid off in 1968 and scrapped the next year.

What could have been: Blackburn Buccaneer flies past Illustrious-class aircraft carrier HMS Victorious note Sea Vixen, Gannetts and Westlands on deck

Epilogue

While the name HMS Illustrious would go on to be used by an Invincible-class Harrier carrier, which was retired in 2016, several artifacts of the WWII-era vessel endure.

Of course, as a great ship, she was the subject of great maritime art:

HMS Illustrious entering the Basin at John Brown’s Shipyard, Clydebank (Art.IWM ART LD 1371) image: the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious is guided into the basin of John Brown’s shipyard at Clydebank in Scotland by three tug boats. Another Royal Navy warship is moored to the side of the dock. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/3031

Hamilton, John Alan; HMS ‘Illustrious’ under Attack: Excess Convoy, January 1941; IWM (Imperial War Museums); http://www.artuk.org/artworks/hms-illustrious-under-attack-excess-convoy-january-1941-7670

Cobb, Charles David; Operation ‘Excess’, ‘Illustrious’ under Air Attack, 19 January 1941; National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/operation-excess-illustrious-under-air-attack-19-january-1941-116447

Macdonald, Roderick; HMS ‘Illustrious’ under Air Attack, 10 January 1941. The scene of the attack is viewed from the cockpit of one of ‘Illustrious’ own Fairey Swordfish aircraft. By Roderick Macdonald circa 1980 via the Fleet Air Museum E00728/0001http://www.artuk.org/artworks/hms-illustrious-under-air-attack-10-january-1941-40645

Macdonald, Roderick; HMS ‘Illustrious’ under Attack in the Grand Harbour, Malta; Fleet Air Arm Museum; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/hms-illustrious-under-attack-in-the-grand-harbour-malta-40646

“Task Force of Two Navies” Watercolor by Dwight Shepler, USNR, 1943, depicting U.S. and British warships in the Pentland Firth during an operation toward the Norwegian coast, coincident with the Sicily invasion, July 1943. Alabama (BB 60) is in the lead, followed by HMS Illustrious and HMS King George V. Three British carrier-based fighters (two “Seafires” and a “Martlet”) are overhead. Official USN photo # KN-20381, courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC, now in the collections of the National Archives.

No place to land by Michael Turner, showing FAA Royal Navy F4U Corsairs return to their carrier HMS Illustrious after the April 1945 Kamikaze attack

And of a variety of scale models from Heller, Aoshima, Revelle, and others.

The plans for Illustrious are in the Royal Museums Greenwich.

The rubber survival dinghy recovered from the kamikaze that struck her deck off Okinawa is in the IWM.

Japanese Kamikaze pilot’s aircraft dinghy (MAR 595) Dinghy from a Japanese Kamikaze aircraft, recovered from HMS ILLUSTRIOUS, 1945. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30004058

While both her original ship’s bell– which was damaged in 1941 by the Germans off Malta– and her U.S.-cast replacement, presented while she was at Norfolk, are preserved.

This week, the Royal Navy is planning a spate of remembrance activities concerning the 80th anniversary of Taranto, keeping the memory of Lusty and her 21 stringbags alive.

Specs:
Displacement: 28,661 tons, full load
Length: 710 ft
Beam: 95 ft
Draft: 28 feet
Propulsion: 6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 3 Parsons geared turbines producing 110,000 shp, three shafts
Speed: 30.5 knots, range= 10,700nm @ 10 knots
Complement: ~1,200 designed. Up to 1,600 during 1944-45
Armor: 3 to 4.5-inches
Aircraft: 36, later increased to 60
16 × QF 4.5-inch naval gun (8 × 2)
40 x QF 2 pounder naval gun (5 × 8)
Later fitted with:
3 x Bofors 40 mm gun (3 x 1)
38 x Oerlikon 20 mm cannon (19 x 2), (14 x 1)

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

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Warship Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020: U-Boat Hat Trick

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020: U-Boat Hat Trick

Photo # A 22465 from the collections of the Imperial War Museum.

Here we see the Attacker-class escort carrier HMS Chaser (D32) as observed from the Telegraphist Air Gunner’s position in a just-launched Fairey Swordfish Mk II biplane strike aircraft of 835 Squadron NAS, while escorting Russia-bound Convoy JW57 in February 1944. Constructed in Mississippi of all places, she had the hull of a freighter but the heart of a lion– and proved particularly deadly to one of Herr Donitz’s wolfpacks.

Most people think the business of making these short flattops, derided as “Jeep Carriers” was one that kicked off post-Pearl Harbor. This is fundamentally incorrect as the U.S. Maritime Commission, under orders from the Navy Department and the guidance of FDR’s White House, got into the “AVG” (Aircraft Escort Vessel) game in late 1939, at a time when the so-called “Phony War” was underway in Europe and both England and France were both very much in the war.

The first two such ships, USS Long Island (AVG-1, later CVE-1) and HMS Archer (D78) respectively, were converted Type C3-class merchant hulls that were brought into naval service in 1940. Capable (in theory) of carrying up to 30 light aircraft and defended by a couple of pop guns, these 13,500-ton vessels were declared an initial success and a follow-on class, the 4-unit Avenger-type with a half hangar, was soon ordered under Lend-Lease. Then followed the much more substantial (45-ship) Bouge-class, which utilized a fuller hangar.

With the Royal Navy in desperate straits in 1941 when it came to aircraft carriers, 9 of the 14 Bogues laid down that year eventually went to the Brits, forming the Attacker-class in RN service. One of these, an 11,900-ton C3-S-A2 type freighter, Hull Number 162, was ordered originally for the Moore-McCormack Lines as the SS Mormacgulf. She was soon requisitioned by the Navy and converted on the builder’s ways at the newly formed Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula to become our HMS Chaser, using the name of an RN sloop that ironically served in the War of Independence era.

Mrs. Jennie Mae Turner, a welder at the Ingalls shipyard, Pascagoula, Miss. Circa 1943. U.S. Maritime Commission photo in Library of Congress. It is still super common to find female welders at Ingalls today.

Nominally commissioned into the U.S. Navy as on 9 April 1943 as USS Breton (AVG-10), she was transferred that day as Chaser in the RN, then marked on U.S Naval List as BAVG-10, with the “B” denoting the British loan.

Some 14,170-tons full load, the 486-foot vessel had a wooden “roof” made up of a 442-foot flight deck. Below deck, she had an 18-foot high hangar that ran 262-feet long and 62 wide. This was serviced by a pair of elevators. When it came to handling equipment, she had a single H2 hydraulic catapult and a 9-wire/3-barrier arrestor system.

Up-armed from the original Long Island-class, Chaser carried two 4″/50s– which had typically been recycled from old Flush Decker tin cans— for warning off surface contacts, and 34 Bofors/Oerlikon AAA guns. She had British radar outfits and commo suites.

Bogue (Attacker)-class sistership HMS Trumpeter (D09) drydocked at Rosyth, Scotland, 4 June 1944. Note the single rudder/screw arrangement, freighter hull, wooden flight deck “roof” and gun sponsons. The angular ones are for 4″/50s while the more rounded are for AAA (IWM A 24056)

In June 1943, equipped with 12 Grumman Avengers of 845 Squadron, the brand-new HMS Chaser sailed across the Atlantic as part of Convoy HX245.

HMS Chaser (D32/R306) underway on 20 June 1943, showing single 20-mm guns on her forecastle and twin 40-mm guns in the forward deck-edge sponsons. Three Avenger strike aircraft are ranged aft. U.S. National Archives photo. Photo and text from Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, by Roger Chesneau. Via Navsource. 

HMS Chaser (D32), commanded by Captain H.V.P. McClintock, at anchor at Greenock, Scotland, date unknown. The photo was taken by Lt. S.J. Beadell, Royal Navy official photographer. Photo # A 17859 from the collections of the Imperial War Museum.

Same day/place/photographer. Photo # A 17861

After a minute spent operating with Fairey Swordfish Mk. II biplanes and Hawker Sea Hurricanes of 835 Squadron, Chaser would later embark 11 Swords and 11 Martlet Mk IVs (British-variants of the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat) of 816 Squadron (commanded by a South African, T/A/Lt.Cdr. (A) Fred Charles “Freddie” Nottingham, DSC, RNVR) for the job of running shotgun for the 42-ship Convoy JW57 from the UK to Murmansk in February 1944.

On the way, several German U-boats had assembled in Norway to jump the convoy but scrubbed their attack due to the heavy air cover, for which Chaser and 816 Squadron could take credit.

A Fairey Swordfish about to be waved off on anti-submarine patrol by the deck control officer aboard HMS Chaser Note the Fairey Swordfish flying above ship to port which has its bows covered in ice. © IWM A 22468

Martlets (Wildcats) and Fairey Swordfish on the flight deck of the CHASER. Note the ice-covered ship astern and the folded wings of the Martlets. © IWM A 22466

Capable of just 140 knots when wide open, while dated when it came to any sort of warfare in WWII, Mark II Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers by 1943 proved valuable once again as, equipped with eight underwing 3-inch rockets, it became a formidable ASW asset against surfaced U-Boats due to their low-speed and stable flight. On 23 May 1943, a rocket-equipped Swordfish destroyed German submarine U-752 off the coast of Ireland, the first such kill, but not the last. IWM A 24981

With JW57 under her belt, then came the Scotland-bound return convoy, RA57, which sailed from Kola Inlet on 2 March. Rolling the dice, the Boreas Wolfpack, which included up to 12 Type VII German subs, moved in to give it a shot as the weather conditions seemed too harsh for aircraft to fly.

They would be wrong.

On 4 March, southeast of frozen Bear Island in the Barents Sea, U-472 (v. Forstner) was sunk by a combination of rockets fired by Chaser’s Swordfish and gunfire from the destroyer HMS Onslaught. 

“THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER HMS CHASER’S U-BOAT SUCCESS. MARCH 1944, ONBOARD A FAIREY SWORDFISH OF THE CHASER. PICTURES FROM THE AIR OF THE END OF ONE OF THE TWO U-BOATS DESTROYED BY AIRCRAFT OF THE CARRIER HMS CHASER ON A RECENT ATLANTIC CONVOY. (A 22727) The wash of the submarine has been caused by her last vain maneuvers.” Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205154897

“THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER HMS CHASER’S U-BOAT SUCCESS. MARCH 1944, ONBOARD A FAIREY SWORDFISH OF THE CHASER. PICTURES FROM THE AIR OF THE END OF ONE OF THE TWO U-BOATS DESTROYED BY AIRCRAFT OF THE CARRIER HMS CHASER ON A RECENT ATLANTIC CONVOY. (A 22729) The wash of the submarine has been caused by her last vain maneuvers.” Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205154899

The next day, on 5 March, U-366 (Langenberg) was sent to the bottom by Chaser’s Swordfish alone in the Norwegian Sea north-west of Hammerfest, with no survivors. 

Finally, on 6 March, U-973 (Paepenmöller) was destroyed by rocket-firing Swordfish in the Norwegian Sea north-west of Narvik.

Three German U-boats in three days*. A record any carrier could be proud of. 

[*A similar event nonetheless occurred two months later when Swordfish from 842 Squadron, flying from one of Chaser’s sisterships, HMS Fencer (D64), sank three U-boats (U277, U674, and U959) of Wolfpack Donner & Keil during Russian Convoy RA59. However, it should be noted that, instead of scratching three boats on three subsequent days, Fencer managed to bag her trio on just two days, 1st and 2nd May 1944.]

To Points West

In the end, RA57 arrived at Loch Ewe having lost just one ship, the 7,000-ton British freighter Empire Tourist, sank by U-703 with no losses. The submarine would later go missing in the Norwegian Sea.

With a collision sidelining Chaser for the rest of 1944, it was decided to send her to the Pacific once she was repaired. Leaving Clyde in February 1945, she carried 20 brand-new Seafires for the British Pacific Fleet’s 899 Squadron.

Chaser arrived in Sydney in May, destined to join the eight other RN baby flattops of the 30th Aircraft Carrier Squadron, which included several of her sisters. Around this time her pennant number shifted to R306.

HMS Chaser arriving at Cochin on the Malabar Coast of India, July 1945, with her flight deck packed with Corsairs, Seafires, and Avengers. The aircraft were to be delivered to the Reception Unit, Royal Naval Air Station Cochin. Some arrived practically fully assembled lashed to the flight deck. Others arrived in packing cases. The photo was taken by an unknown Royal Navy photographer. Photo No A 29289 from the Imperial War Museum Collections.

Used to shuttle replacement aircraft to the BPF’s larger carriers and recover unserviceable aircraft for repair, Chaser was in operations in the Fleet’s train at Leyte in the Philippines and kept up her yeoman service off Iwo Jima and Okinawa, ending the War in Japanese Home Waters where she remained past VJ Day. The then-aircraft-less carrier was used as a troop transport until she returned to the UK in 1946.

HMS Chaser, Hong Kong, 1946 (Art.IWM ART LD 1187) image: a view of the aircraft carrier HMS Chaser moored in Hong Kong harbor. A Chinese junk sail towards the carrier and a small landing craft approaches from the foreground right. Note her R306 pennant. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/19665

Epilogue

After removing her British equipment, Chaser sailed for America with a skeleton crew and was handed over to the U.S. Navy 15 May 1946, resuming her spot on the Naval List as USS Breton (CVE-10) until stricken 3 Jul 1946.

With the U.S. Navy in no need of a partially stripped British escort carrier, she was handed over to MARAD, stricken, and sold 20 Dec 1946. The U.S. launched an astounding 50 Casablanca-class and 45 Bogue-class escort carriers between September 1941 and June 1944. Of these 95 carriers, 87 survived the war but were disposed of.

As for Chaser, flight deck scrapped, she returned to active merchant service as SS Aagtekerk, operating for 21 years with the Dutch N.V. Vereenigde Nederlandsche Scheepvaartmaatschappij (VNS) line. A respectable civilian life. 

Ex-Breton, ex-HMS Chaser, as Aagtekerk, berthed in Bremen, Germany, in the late 1950s with her hull high in the water. Published in a Bremen Port promotion brochure in 1960. Photo by Gerhard Mueller-Debus via Navsource.

Sold again in 1967 to Chinese Maritime Trust, Taipei, she became SS E. Yung. In late 1972, she reportedly foundered and was salvaged then broken-up in Taiwan at Kaohsiung.

Of her sisters, none were quite as successful as Chaser, but all survived the war. Like her, they were returned to U.S. custody, then resold into merchant service, with several lasting for decades. The last Attacker-class afloat, HMS Attacker herself, was only scrapped in 1980, having spent the last years of her life as a floating hotel and casino.

HMS Chaser‘s drawings are located in the National Archives. 

As for 816 Squadron, whose “Flying Stringbags” bagged the trio of U-boats back in March 1944, they had originally formed aboard HMS Furious in October 1939 and were disbanded by the Fleet Air Arm in 1948. Today their WWII lineage, which included the Malta Convoys and total loss on the destroyed HMS Ark Royal in 1941, as well as their later sub-busting exploits and coverage of the Normandy landings, is carried forward by 816 Squadron RAN, flying MH-60R Seahawks off Australian frigates.

Specs:

CVE-53, D79 – HMS Puncher – Booklet of General Plans, 1944, Bogue/Attacker Class

Displacement: 14,170 tons, full
Length: 486 ft (overall); 465 waterline
Flight deck: 442ft x 80ft wood covered mild steel plate
Beam: 69ft 6in; 107 ft. max over flight deck gun tubs
Draft: 24 ft. full load
Propulsion: 2 Foster Wheeler boilers (285 psi); 1 x Allis-Chalmers geared turbine (8,500 shp), driving 1 shaft
Speed: 18.5 knots
Endurance: 27,300 nautical miles @ 11 knots
Complement: 44 Officers, 766 crew + 94 aviation det. 922 Berths
Armament:
2 single 4″/50 U.S. Mk 9 guns
8 40mm/60 Bofors in 4 twin mounts
26 20mm Oerlikon in 8 twins, 10 single mounts
Aircraft: “Up to 30” single-engine planes, but typically carried 20-22

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I am a member, so should you be!