Lieutenant Hammy Gray attacks a Japanese destroyer, off Honshu Island, 9th August 1945.
The Royal Navy and its aircraft and aircraft carriers played an essential part in the Second World War. Naval aircraft provided air cover to convoys keeping the Atlantic life-line open, supported the land campaigns in north Africa and Europe, changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean and helped secure victory in the Pacific.
From the iconic action against the Italian Fleet at Taranto in 1940 and throughout the gruelling Battle of the Atlantic, which lasted the entire six years of the war, naval aircraft were a vital weapon at sea. However, months after Victory in Europe had been declared, it was to be the unremitting and inestimably cruel war in the Pacific where the Fleet Air Arm was to earn its place in history. The only British aircraft to attack Japan were operated by the Royal Navy flying from the decks of Royal Navy aircraft carriers.
For four years in the Far East, British servicemen fought and suffered, alongside Australians, New Zealanders, Americans, Indians, Chinese, Dutch and others, to defeat a pitiless and ruthless enemy. Over 50,000 British were detained in Prisoner of War camps as the Japanese military machine swept all before it. The devastating attack on Pearl Harbour and the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in December 1941 proved only the beginning, as in rapid succession Japanese forces swept through British Malaya, capturing Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Burma and the islands of Sumatra and Java in a relentless advance through Southeast Asia to the edge of the Indian Ocean.
By the end of 1944, the urgency of the war in the Pacific brought together the mightiest combined fleet the world has ever seen, as with grim determination the Allied coalition fought its way back across the Pacific, island by island.
In August 1944 the British Pacific Fleet didn’t exist but six months later it was the most powerful strike force in the history of the Royal Navy, fighting as professional equals alongside the US Navy in the thick of the action. The aircraft carriers, HMS Illustrious, Victorious, Indomitable, Implacable and Indefatigable and light carriers, Colossus, Glory, Venerable and Vengeance, with their embarked Naval Air Squadrons made a huge contribution to the defeat of Japan in the final months of the war.
34 Naval Air Squadrons of Avengers, Seafires, Corsairs, Hellcats, Fireflies and Barracudas were in action against the Japanese right up until the end of the war, including carrying out intensive air strikes on the Japanese mainland, facing fierce enemy action and Kamikaze attacks – and winning a VC.
HMS Formidable is hit by a Kamikaze attack on the 4th May, 1945.
Palembang
The first large scale action carried out by the Fleet Air Arm against the Japanese was the devastation of the oil refineries at Palembang and Soengei Gerong in Sumatra in January 1945. The attack force of Avengers, Corsairs, Hellcats and Fireflies, successfully put the refineries out of action for months, severely hampering Japan’s ability to continue the war in the islands. As important as the destruction of the oil refineries, was the fearlessness of the Fleet Air Arm Seafire pilots proving more than a match for the Japanese in the air.
Okinawa
Shortly after Palembang, the Fleet Air Arm was in action again carrying out an intensive assault on the Sakishima group of Islands in the Pacific, neutralising Japanese airfields ahead of the American assault on Okinawa. Operations began in March with airfields and infrastructure subjected to intensive and continuous attacks. Between 26 March – 25 May, the Fleet Air Arm flew 5,335 sorties. Despite the islands being heavily defended, 42 enemy aircraft were destroyed in the air and more than 100 on the ground preventing the Japanese flying aircraft to Okinawa. Forty one naval aircrew were lost in action and nineteen Naval Air Squadrons were awarded Okinawa 1945 Battle Honours.
Kamikaze
From May onwards Kamikaze attacks took a heavy toll on the Fleet. The Royal Navy’s armoured deck carriers were much more resilient than the wooden decks of the American carriers. As a result, the British Pacific Fleet was tasked to take the fight to the enemy and do as much as possible to lessen the attacks by denying the Japanese use of their airfields, bases, and fuel supplies.
The late Sir Roy Beldam, who was an Observer flying Avengers with 848 Squadron in HMS Formidable, was on duty on the day HMS Formidable was attacked by Kamikaze on 4 May 1945.
“I was thrown off my feet by the impact but luckily not hurt” said Sir Roy. “My pilot, Don Jupp DSC, was caught taxiing forward in his aircraft on the flight deck and unfortunately died. Eight men were killed and forty-seven wounded in the attack but after the fires were extinguished, the two foot deep hole in the flight deck was filled with quick drying cement, covered with steel plate, and the ship was back at flying stations a couple of hours later.”
This painting, ‘No Place To Land’, depicts HMS Illustrious after a Kamikaze attack, the Corsairs unable to land on her deck.
Japanese Mainland
The most challenging operation for the British Pacific Fleet, was the final attack on the Japanese mainland. Despite deadly accurate anti-aircraft fire, barrage balloons, typhoons and sea fog as well as operational fatigue, the Fleet Air Arm managed to do a vast amount of damage, destroying enemy aircraft and shipping and disabling vital installations. Thirteen Naval Air Squadrons were awarded Battle Honours for operations against targets on the Japanese home islands from 16 July 1945 to 11 August 1945.
When the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 7 August, it was hoped the surrender of Japan would be imminent.
However, when no Japanese surrender was forthcoming, a second bomb fell on Nagasaki.
In his speech to the Combined Fleet on 15 August 1945, Admiral Halsey said “The war is ended. Brothers in Arms, you have brought an implacable, treacherous and barbaric foe to his knees in abject surrender. Wherever you have met the foe, on the sea, on the land or in the air, you have been supreme. You have helped write finis in golden letters on the pages of history.”
While hostilities ceased on 15 August it was to be many months before those serving with the British Pacific Fleet returned home. Over 4,000 naval aviators lost their lives in WW2 including 200 who were killed in action in the Pacific between VE and VJ days. The quiet sadness of each loss was keenly felt, and their bravery and sacrifice will never be forgotten. To help keep the aircraft of the Navy Wings collection flying as a living memorial to all who served in the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm during WW2 please donate here.
Victoria Cross for Supreme Courage
Lieutenant Robert ‘Hammy’ Gray VC DSC RCNVR
Almost the last strike of the war saw a second award of a Victoria Cross to a pilot of the Fleet Air Arm.
Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, the Senior Pilot of 1841 Naval Air Squadron was serving in HMS Formidable. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for supreme courage leading his section of Corsairs in an attack on a Japanese destroyer lying in the harbour of Onagawa Wan, on the Japanese Island of Honshu on 9 August 1945.
Diving to low level and making his approach, Gray came under intense anti-aircraft fire from ships and shore batteries. His aircraft was hit and caught fire. Despite the smoke and flames, he held his aim unflinchingly and pressed home his attack and by brilliant flying obtained a direct hit on the destroyer before his Corsair crashed into sea. Gray’s target was the destroyer Amakusa; it sank in under five minutes with the loss of 157 lives. Only weeks earlier Gray had been awarded the DSC for gallantry in the sinking of a Japanese destroyer near Tokyo on 28 July. The award was not announced until 21 August when the notice appeared in the London Gazette with the citation for “For determination and address in air attacks on targets in Japan.” Hammy Gray’s courageous fighting spirit and inspirational leadership epitomised the bravery and resilience of the Fleet Air Arm in the Pacific. His posthumous award of the Victoria Cross was announced by the Admiralty on 12 November 1945.
