The British Pacific Fleet - Foundations to First Strikes

Today we take a look at the start of the British Pacific Fleet, an oft-forgotten aspect of WW2 in the Pacific.

00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:00 - British Pacific Strategy in the Interwar Period
00:04:39 - Early WW2 for the RN in the Pacific
00:06:24 - The situation in 1944
00:19:22 - The fleet starts to form
00:26:57 - New carrier paradigm
00:29:45 - First operations

Sources:

[mitchm]

"And armed with working torpedoes"

Yeah, yeah, rub it in

[jon-paulfilkins]

I remember a story my Grandad told me (Royal Navy, Escort Carrier HMS Slinger, Running supplies and replacement aircraft/air crews up from Brisbane to US and UK fleets). He was sent across in a bosuns chair to a US Ship to fix something he was uniquely skilled to do. You see pre war he apprenticed to the company that did all the screens and curtains for the cinemas and music halls in south London. And this carrier had taken a hit right in the cinema and it needed replacing (for Morale reasons). They insisted in feeding him as a thanks, the guy in the que in front of him complained "not chicken again" as a whole quarter of Chicken go slapped on his tray! It has been since 1940 that he had last seen a chicken that was not pictured on a soup can! Yes, there were certainly supply differences between the two!

[Blockio]

Drachism of the day: "Introducing German panzers to the concept of 'there's always a bigger fish' in comically unequal artillery duels during the landings in Normandy"

[M.FranciscoPalomo]

One humorous bit: Initially the BPF's Seafires could only be used for CAP because of their limited combat range. Comander Evans, Implacable's air wing commander, solved this problem in June 1945 by trading a few cases of whiskey for surplus P-40 drop tanks lying around a USAAF depot in New Guinea.

[saltyroe]

My 99 year old dad who was a Lt. Cmndr. often talked about how the British had alcohol an the US didn't. When the opportunity would present itself, the Royal Navy Officers would invite the US officers. The US officers would bring ice cream and cigarettes. Dad also said that when on leave in the UK he would bring cartons of cigarettes. Dad did not smoke and saved his ration for trade. Dad said he could get anything for carton or two of cigarettes. In the early part of the war he would take eggs with him and give 6 eggs in exchange for a 2 egg omlet. He referred to the alcohol used as torpedo fuel as "torpedo juice"

[Bans]

We don't hear nearly enough about the British Pacific Fleets contribution to the Far Eastern Campaign. Great vid Drac!

[ph]

One more thing. I was digging through my Grandad's service records the other day and i found out that his service on HMAS Lismore (A Bathurst-Class Corvette) was when it was deployed to the BPF.

[JayWC]

As a former SeaBee, I always appreciate our Battalions getting a mention...and...such a positive mention!

[ph]

Fun fact, Bankstown Airport in Sydney was handed over temporarily to the British Pacific Fleet from the Royal Australian Air Force as an aircraft replenishment base.

[dhjoe]

Very detailed and as usual entertaining discussion of the British Pacific Fleet. As an American, I rarely heard about attacking Japanese held southern resource centers, which was the whole reason Imperial Japan went to war in the first place.

[dogloversrule]

Drach, please make more videos about the Brits in the Pacific during WW2. It’s an under covered area of history.

[Macca]

My grandfather was commander of the 27th destoyer flotilla in the BPF from formation to the end of the war. Which means he was one of the first British people to encounter Japanese Kamikazes

I'm interested to see if the flotilla his ship (kempenfelt) or he himself gets mentioned in this
Edit: no mention so far but I will be looking forward to further parts

[derekonxbox]

Me: I wish Drach would cover the BPF

Drach: proceeds to drop this fire video

[rokuth]

Timestamp 28:10 - 28:45 - The main issue with the Fairey Barracuda being used at the time was the powerplant/engine. It was woefully underpowered with the Rolls Royce Merlin engines. Later variants, as shown in the picture, were equipped with the Rolls Royce Griffon engines (propeller rotated counter-clockwise, as the one in the picture) and solved many of the power issues plaguing the Barracuda in service.

[BobK]

I served on the USS Sacramento AOE-1 in the 70's. Looking at the UNREP operations brings back memories.

[NVRAMboi]

Thanks very much Drach! As a fan of WWII Pacific and USN operations, this is the FIRST detailed description I've encountered of Royal Navy Carrier/Naval/FAA operations in that theater. I'd say Meridian I & II more than validated the RN's value to existing and future Allied operations on the road to the home islands of Japan.
I can't prove it, but I suspect Admiral King hated his own mother.:o) Thanks again.

[Grundag]

This was really excellent to see. I knew that the British Navy had a lot of Ships available during the later years of the War, I had just not known where they were deployed from or to. For the Empire to assemble and sail such a Fleet and considerably damage the Japanese War Effort with it is heartening to hear. Other videos have reduced the British presence there in 44' and 45' to a blurb. This was pretty cool! Thank you, Dr. Drach.

[jeromethiel]

The logistics of WW2 played such a large part in the US war effort, and you don't often hear much about it. But it was critical, and without it, the US would have been next to useless, as we were too far away from the various conflict areas. Being able to move material to where it could be put to good use, was essential.

Second to that was a very heavy emphasis on damage control in the USN. Lots of ships were saved that for other nations would have been lost. And even minor damage could usually be either made good or a non-effective on combat ability.

[stevewindisch]

Ahh, who would have thunk that the RN carrier groups also had troubles with coordinating their air groups and maintaining radio discipline. Those who frequent this channel, would have surmised those were uniquely American problems ;)

I think it was hard lines for those young men, winning a tough 5 year war and then having to go to the Pacific to fight another war. I'm pretty sure none of them cared about the optics to Singapore or Hong Kong natives. They were brave heroes and gave their youth, and lives, for their country.

[TankBuilders]

Your comment at 28.44 that the Avenger would supplant the Barracuda needs qualification as it’s a commonly held myth. In fact four squadrons of Barracudas were in training for the four light fleet carriers to be deployed in July 45. They were to perform night dive bombing, a capability unique to the BPF at that time and required for Op Olympic. A further twelve Barra squadrons would have followed had the war gone into 1946. Pending the Mk V, the Barracuda IIs and IIIs were to operate with two rather than three crew to restore performance. Entertaining and astute commentary though, thanks.