The Escort Carrier of the Second World War

Combustible, Vulnerable and Expendable!

David Wragg

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Maritime
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781844152209
• eBook ISBN: 9781783409327
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

To the US Navy they were CVEs! To the Royal Navy auxiliary carriers! To crews of endangered merchantmen in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans they were heaven-sent protection! To their crews they were Combustible, Vulnerable, Expendable!The need for air cover against enemy aircraft and submarines brought unprecedented demand for carriers. Over 100 vessels were converted on specially built for convoy duty. This is their story, warts and all.

VII

THE ARCTIC CONVOYS

It has often been said that on the Arctic convoys, the weather was as much an enemy as the Germans, since the only route for the Arctic convoys lay around the northern tip of occupied Norway to the Soviet ports of Murmansk and Archangel. In summer, almost constant daylight left the ships open to attack from the air, as well as from U-boats and surface raiders. In winter, with almost constant darkness and just three hours of weak twilight in the middle of the day, the weather was worse, with extremely low temperatures and high seas with freezing snow. Ships could be overwhelmed as the build-up of ice made them unstable. One officer having difficulty eating a meal as his cruiser rolled to angles of 30 degrees consoled himself with the thought that life must have been even more difficult in the destroyers and corvettes, which rolled 50 degrees or more! The cold meant that airmen tried to wear as much as possible, limited only by the need to get into and out of the cockpit. Metal became so brittle that tail wheels could, and did, break off on landing.

The bad weather was a friend in one sense, since at the very height of the winter storms, not only were German aircraft grounded, but U-boat action also became difficult. The weather was such an important factor that, together with the long hours of daylight in the summer months, convoys had to be suspended at the height of summer, especially in 1943. Convoys were also suspended at the time of the Normandy landings in June 1944 as the number of escort vessels available was insufficient to cover the demands of the Allied armies in France and the convoys to North Russia. The shortage of escort vessels meant the destroyers and corvettes that were the staple of convoy protection as aircraft carriers were not involved in covering the Normandy beachheads, although many Fleet Air Arm squadrons were based ashore under the control of Royal Air Force Coastal Command for operations to protect the landings from submarines and motor gun and torpedo boats; the E-boats.

A total of 811 ships sailed in the Arctic convoys to Russia, of which 720 completed their voyages, another thirty-three turned back for one reason or another, and fifty-eight were sunk, giving a loss rate of 7.2 per cent. Of the ships that reached Russia, 717 sailed back (some were being delivered to the Soviet Union), and of these twenty-nine were sunk, a loss rate of 4 per cent. This was the price of delivering to Russia some 4 million tons of war stores, including 5,000 tanks and more than 7,000 aircraft. It is worth reflecting that the sinking of a 10,000 ton freighter was the equivalent, in terms of lost equipment and ordnance, of a land battle. First Sea Lord at the Admiralty, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham recalled:

Although much of the matériel from the United States to the Soviet Union went via the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean to what was then known as the Persian Gulf, and was offloaded at an Iranian port and taken overland, for aid from the United Kingdom, the main convoy route was from Scotland, often via Iceland, especially when some of the ships were also coming from the United States. This route involved sailing off the coast of enemy-occupied Norway and around the North Cape, calling for the larger aircraft capacity of the escort carriers, for both anti-submarine and fighter protection was needed. CAM-ships also appeared on the Arctic convoys. The convoys were looked after by Royal Air Force Coastal Command, operating from bases in Scotland, Iceland and the Soviet Union, and in British coastal waters often aided by Fleet Air Arm shore-based squadrons under Royal Air Force control.

If the surface escorts and merchant ships suffered in the heavy gales and the bitter cold the young men of the Fleet Air Arm operating from the frozen flight-decks of the carriers took their lives in their hands every time they took off. The conditions in which they worked were indescribable. The aircraft patrols might be flown off in clear weather but when the time came to land on again with petrol nearly exhausted the carrier herself might be invisible in a lashing snowstorm. This happened many a time, and the number of close shaves in the recovery of these valiant young naval pilots is unbelievable. Many, numbed with cold, had to be lifted out of their cockpits. Their work was beyond all praise.¹

Convoy PQ18

After the terrible fate that had afflicted the ill-fated convoy PQ17, the last Arctic convoy to be without its own air cover, the first Arctic convoy to have an escort carrier was PQ18 in September 1942. This was an indication of the impact of the mauling given to PQ17 as escort carriers were an innovation, even a novelty, at this early stage of the war.

Convoy PQ18’s escort carrier was the US-built HMS Avenger. She carried three radar-equipped Swordfish from 825 Squadron for anti-submarine duties as well as six Sea Hurricane fighters, with another six dismantled and stowed beneath the hangar deck in a hold, for fighter defence. The fighter aircraft were drawn from 802 and 883 squadrons. The CAM-ship, Empire Morn carried another Hurricane, one of the expendable standard aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force’s Merchant Service Fighter Unit. Other ships protecting the convoy included the cruiser Scylla, two destroyers, two anti-aircraft ships converted from merchant vessels, four corvettes, four anti-submarine trawlers, three minesweepers and two submarines. There was also a rescue ship whose presence meant that the escorts would not be distracted from their work to rescue survivors, an urgent matter in such cold seas. Three US minesweepers being delivered to the Soviet Union were also assigned to act as rescue ships.

Even getting to the convoy assembly point off Iceland was difficult. Rough seas swept a Sea Hurricane off Avenger’s deck, while steel ropes failed to stop aircraft breaking loose, crashing into one another and into the sides of the hangar. Fused 500-lb bombs stored in the lift well broke loose, and had to be captured by laying down duffle coats with rope ties, to be quickly tied up as soon as a bomb rolled on to the coats! On her way to the assembly point, Avenger suffered engine problems due to fuel contamination. Even Iceland was not completely safe, with the carrier bombed by a Focke-Wulf Fw200 Condor long-range maritime-reconnaissance aircraft, which dropped a stick of bombs close to the ship, but without inflicting any damage.

The engine problems meant that the convoy, already spotted by a U-boat whilst on passage to Iceland left without the carrier. On 8 September, PQ18 was discovered by another Condor. By 12 September, Avenger had caught up with the convoy, only in time for a Blohm und Voss Bv138 flying boat to appear through the clouds. The carrier promptly launched a flight of four Sea Hurricanes, although not quickly enough to catch the flying boat before it disappeared.

The fighters’ role was not limited to protecting the convoy from aerial attack. They also had to provide air cover for the Swordfish whilst they were on patrol, and vulnerable to attack by German fighters. Typical of the work of the Swordfish were general reconnaissance patrols, which in at least one instance found Bv138s dropping mines ahead of the ships. Sometimes, U-boats were discovered on the surface, but attempts to attack them were foiled by heavy AA fire from the U-boats.

At 04:00 on 13 September, Sea Hurricanes were scrambled after Swordfish on anti-submarine patrol were discovered by another two Luftwaffe aircraft, a Blohm und Voss Bv138 and a Junkers Ju88 reconnaissance aircraft, but these disappeared into the low cloud before the fighters could reach them. Later that day a formation of Ju88 medium-bombers made a high-level bombing attack on the convoy. Again, the convoy’s fighters were unable to shoot down a German aircraft, largely because the early Sea Hurricane’s machine guns could not concentrate enough fire on the bombers to have any effect. While the fighters refuelled and re-armed, the Luftwaffe attacked at 15:40. As twenty Ju88s flew over the convoy in a high-level attack, distracting the defences and causing the ships to take evasive action, twenty-eight Heinkel He 111 and eighteen Ju88s made a low-level torpedo attack, followed by a second wave of seventeen Ju88s. Sweeping in at around twenty feet above the waves, the attackers ignored the escorts and concentrated on the merchant vessels, the correct strategy. The Sea Hurricanes were still on the carrier’s deck and could not take off.

A mass 45 degree turn was attempted, but the inexperience of many of those aboard the merchantmen, and the large size of the convoy, meant that not all of the ships managed this manoeuvre. Inexperience also showed in the wild anti-aircraft fire against the low-flying aircraft which exposed the anti-aircraft crews on other ships to fire from shells and bullets. Pressing home their attack with considerable courage, the Germans sank eight ships, the more fortunate crews being able to jump direct from their ships onto the ice-encrusted decks of the escort and rescue vessels. The less fortunate had minutes in which to be rescued or die in the cold sea. The temperature of the sea was academic for the unfortunate crew aboard the Empire Stevenson, loaded with explosives, as they disappeared with the ship in one huge explosion. During this attack, the convoy’s combined AA fire accounted for five aircraft. The Sea Hurricanes drove off a later attack by Heinkel He 115 floatplanes, but one was shot down. A change of tactics saw the Sea Hurricanes rotated, each spending twenty-five minutes in the air before landing to refuel, keeping a constant CAP over the convoy.

On 14 September, the first Swordfish of the day found U-589 on the surface, but she dived leaving the Swordfish to mark the spot with a smoke flare. Once the aircraft had gone, the submarine surfaced and continued charging her batteries. Alerted by the Swordfish, the destroyer Onslow raced to the scene. Once again, U-589 dived, but she suffered for her impertinence when the destroyer attacked with depth charges and destroyed her.

The...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• I - A SHORTAGE OF FLIGHT DECKS
• II - THE ESCORTS APPEAR
• III - LIFE ABOARD
• IV - THE AIRCRAFT
• V - WINNING THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
• VI - HUNTER-KILLER FORCES
• VII - THE ARCTIC CONVOYS
• VIII - TAKING THE WAR TO THE ENEMY
• IX - TAKING THE WAR TO THE ENEMY
• X - THE JAPANESE AUXILIARY CARRIERS
• XI - AFTER THE WAR
• XII - THE LIGHT CARRIERS
• Appendix I - STANDARD CONVOY AIR PATROL CODENAMES
• Appendix II - MERCHANT AIRCRAFT CARRIERS – MAC-SHIPS
• Appendix III - ROYAL NAVY ESCORT CARRIERS
• Appendix IV - UNITED STATES NAVY ESCORT CARRIERS
• Appendix V - UNITED STATES NAVY ESCORT CARRIERS BY PENNANT NUMBER
• Appendix VI - JAPANESE AUXILIARY CARRIERS
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX