![]() ![]() Mr Churchill noticed that the American Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Ernest King, was by no means enthusiastic over British participation. ![]() Vice-Adrmiral Philip Vian, who would command the British Pacific Fleet's carriers, outlined the political wrangle in his autobiography, Action This Day:ĭifficulties soon arose. ![]() He also pointed out that the targets available in South Asia were barely worth the effort. He proposed the deployment of two armoured carriers supported by the heavily updated battlecruiser HMS Renown out of the Eastern Fleet to operate under US control in the Pacific. Noble went on to tell Admiral King the Royal Navy did not need its carriers for Operation Overlord, the invasion at Normandy. The side-show that had been called Admiral Sommerville’s Eastern Fleet could no longer be justified, and increasing numbers of effective capital ships and carriers were now slowly being committed.Īs early as January 4, 1944, Admiral Sir Percy Noble, head of the British Admiralty Delegation in Washington, began advocating the deployment of a British Pacific Fleet. It argued that its few fleet carriers were already too thinly stretched across the Arctic, North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean theaters.īut, with the Italian fleet surrendered and the remaining units of the German navy neutralised, Britain was forced to turn her attention towards her responsibilities in the Far East. The Royal Navy had repeatedly turned down pleas for support from US chief of naval operations Admiral Earnst King during 19. ![]() The British Pacific Fleet was born in a maelstrom of political compromise. ![]()
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