The Whale Has Wings Vol 1 - Rebirth (5 page)

At the same time, the DCN continued to finish its design for the next carrier. This was to be an improved Ark Royal class, slightly heavier but with better facilities and somewhat better protection; studies since the design of the Ark Royal had made Admiral Chatfield concerned that the level of protection of the ships should be improved. They would also have a heavier close in AA armament of eight octuple 2pdrs.The other obvious difference was the length of the stern round-down. In the first two ships, this had been quite large, as aerodynamic studies showed this improved the airflow over the deck for landings. However it also reduced the space available for spotting aircraft prior to a strike. This hadn't been considered important before, as the RAF had insisted that only small strikes were possible. After taking to the Americans, and after some experiments, this was shown to be completely false. As a result, the round-down, while not eliminated completely, was shortened considerably, allowing another 100' of deck spotting area. The ships were also slightly longer, making them a little faster. This made it more difficult to dock, but the advantages of a longer ship (with a correspondingly bigger flight deck and upper hanger) were considered worth it by the FAA. In fact the new ships would carry 68 planes rather than the 64 of the original class. This was actually exaggerated to 85 (the Ark Royal had been stated publically to hold 80; not exactly untrue as this was quite feasible with a deck park) in order to hide the amount of armour used for protection of the lower spaces in the ship. A number of studies had looked again at the concept of putting the armour on the flight deck rather than the lower hanger, but the FAA had pointed out that in the event of heavy attacks the carrier would still be put out of action as a carrier, and that the damage, while probably less severe, would be more difficult to repair as in order to achieve any sort of feasible weight the armour would have to be worked structurally. The extra weight so high up in the ship would mean the ship would be single hanger only, and that some of the space would be further reduced by facilities originally lower in the ship having to be at flight deck level - indeed, the internal capacity of the ship would be halved. Showing their calculations and based on exercises, they were able to prove that with the new fighters they would be getting (and with the assumption that at least a prototype version of RDF would be available in a few years), the average damage taken to the carrier (and to the ships in company) would be less with more fighters than with heavier armour.

The arguments were still ongoing when international relations again took a step closer to war.

In October Italy, with intentions of being a great power in the Mediterranean and in Northern Africa, invaded Abyssinia
(Ethiopia). The British Mediterranean fleet was put on alert, however the only diplomatic steps taken were that the League of Nations imposed economic sanctions against Italy. This was actually a relief to the Navy, as the air defence of the fleet was seen as inadequate against Italian air power, and there was concern that while victory against Italy at sea was highly probable, this would involve losses that would take time to recover from, and in view of the steady deterioration of the international situation this might not be possible.

In view of the area to monitor, and its remoteness, it was decided to use air power, in particu
lar carriers, to enforce the League of Nations sanctions. The navy was actually very happy with this, as while it did impose wear and tear on the ships and crews involved, the experience gained in intense carrier operations in near-war conditions turned out to be invaluable. As the first pilots from the enlarged training scheme were now available, the patrols were also used to give them more intense training.

The patrol of course only strengthened the navies case for more carriers, and the treasury finally released more money for the 1936 vote as the year ended. It was looking more and more as if the new treaty would allow (at worst) more
carrier tonnage, and given the worst case possibility of using new carriers to replace the inefficient older ships, the 1936 estimates would include two more fleet carriers to the improved Ark Royal design - HMS Formidable and HMS Victorious.

It was noted that although enhancements in the supply or armour plate had been made, and that more increases were planned, the need to reserve capability for the battleships planned for 1937 meant that there was going to be a shortfall. Accordingly a foreign supplier of armour was looked for
. This caused considerable difficulty - at one point Germany was asked to bid - but in the end 20,000 tons of armour would be supplied by the Czechs.

Chapter 5

In January, the Air Ministry had organised a series of trials between various calibres of air
craft weapons, basically .303", .5" and 20mm cannon. These tests showed the .303" calibre would be an inadequate weapon for future air combat, and that the .5" calibre wasn't much better (and weighed more). The best solution was the 20mm cannon. The results of these tests were passed on to the Navy.

At the end of January the government announced an expansion of the shadow factory program
for aircraft production (these were intended as factories to be activated in time of war). The navy was promised that some of this effort would be allocated to them.

The international situation was
however getting worse with increasing speed during the year.

On the 7th March Hitler denounced the Rhineland provisions in the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno treaty, and German troops marched in to occupy the Rhineland. This was seen, in the navy at least, as a sign that Germany would only be increasing its naval and anti-shipping capability in the near future, and that the proposed fleet levels and makeup would need to be accelerated. Unfortunately while the government agreed that there was a need for more defence spending, the Treasury was still insisting that this had to be moderate and not disrupt normal commerce. While the Admiralty did make the point that at the present moment the shipyards were still not fully utilised, there were bottleneck
s (both current and approaching) in a number of areas such as guns, armour and Fire Control systems which would limit the number of hulls that could be sensibly laid down. While there were plans in place to improve this situation, it wasn't going to change overnight.

In addition, the main area of concern to the government was air defence - while it was appreciated that the naval threat was growing, the Royal Navy was still the most powerful in the world. The navy realised that this priority
wasn't going to change immediately, but that it would be possible to get some improvements that were connected to the worries about air attack. A Shadow Factory system was being set up for the RAF, and it was pointed out that this would not only be important for the navy, but that in extremis navy planes would also be available to defend British airspace. Secondly, that improvements in the fleets light AA equipment, which they had been looking at for some time, could be developed partly with the (official) aim of improving land based defences. The government had already promised a portion of the effort would be for the navy, but the Admiralty retained certain suspicions of the RAF.

In May the Air Ministry issued specifications for new cannon armed aircraft. Demonstrations of the Hispano 404 cannon had convinced them that this was currently the best gun available. The Navy (who had been invited to the demonstrations as observers) were in agreement, and it was agreed that the 20mm would be developed to fit both RAF and FAA planes. Since this would be an identical fit in RAF and FAA aircraft,
and the bulk of the aircraft would belong to the RAF, the Air Ministry was given full control of the project.

Studies had been ongoing for some time of the problem of close defence. This was intended to stop torpedo bombers and dive bombers - the HA systems were seen as adequate against high level bombing, as it wasn't
actually necessary to shoot them down (although that was ideal), but to disrupt the attack so as to render it ineffective. However torpedo planes had far more opportunities to evade while attacking (and indeed the RN's own exercises had shown how effective they could be), and the speed of a dive bombing attack meant that the HA system just wasn't capable of stopping it - the system simply wasn't able to cope with the rate of change of the gun aiming required to intercept a diving plane.

These facts had been addressed some 10 years ago with the development of the multiple pom-pom system. However it was 10 years old (although thanks to the treasury there had been considerable delay in getting it into production), and as the latest trials and input from the FAA showed, it could use
considerable improvement. However resources were limited. There were also two foreign weapons available; the Swiss Oerlikon 20mm and the Swedish Bofors 40mm. The Bofors in particular was of interest as it was a much more modern system and had the range and stopping power the fleet needed. 20mm was seen as really too short ranged (although it was at least better than the 0.5" multiple machine guns currently in use) to be an ideal defence.

The report recommended two
main actions. The first was the use of the 40mm Bofors gun in single and double mountings for lighter ships or merchant ships, where heavy mounts and director control were inappropriate or unavailable. Because the gun used clips rather than a belt feed, they were much lighter (and without director control were felt not to need the long firing time of the belt-fed pom-pom). Since it was expected that these mounts would be used without a director, a heavy proportion of tracer was specified for them. It was noted that efforts needed to be made to speed up the manufacture of the guns in the UK, as the demand was seen to be high for both the land and sea based system. The navy would also consult with the army, who needed the single mounts for their own air defence.

The second action was t
o improve the 4 and 8 barrel pom-pom. Given the shortage of these, any improvements must cause minimal disruption to production for maximum benefit (refit would of course be ideal), and not add to the production time. Three main points were chosen for improvement. First, Remote Power Control was recommended for all 8 barrel, and if possible 4 barrel, systems, allowing training of the guns under direct control from the gun director. This had been recommended before, but the cost had made the treasury decline to fund it. This would also add weight, so new construction and larger ships would be the intended first recipients. Second was improvements in the belt feed, which was felt to be rather too fragile and temperamental. Any improvements or changes should be straightforward to retrofit. The third change was to the guns themselves and the ammunition. Tests seemed to show a considerable advantage to the Bofors over the pom-pom. The gun was longer, and the shells thus had a better range, improving the chances of shooting down at attacker. While the explosive charge was a little lighter, this wasn't thought important as a direct hit from a contact-fused 40mm would bring down any torpedo plane or dive bomber currently anticipated. It was therefore suggested that new and existing mounts should be modified to take replacement barrels as per the Bofors (this would be connected to the improvements in the belt feet mechanism), thus giving a notably better performance with the desired minimum changes. Finally some reports from the manufacturer and relevant engineering consultants indicated that the mechanics of the mount could be improved (and the mount itself lightened) by application of current manufacturing methods. Since this would entail changing the production line (which was not practical), it was recommended that some prototypes would be made, and all the improvements rolled into a new version for which new production would be set up (thus helping address the current shortage). The existing production line would then either be modified to produce the new mounts, or used to provide the older ones for air defence of land based targets (for which the deficiencies were not such an issue)

The treasury was not happy at the preference for the 40mm, as they pointed out that there were huge stocks of 2pdr shells available in storage. The navy didn't object on principle to using these, but considered that the value of ships mandated the best possible weapons for them, and that the older 2pdrs would be adequate for shore based defence.
They pointed to their tests showing that the current mount would not be adequate against dive bombers, and that a ship cost a lot more than ammunition. New ammunition for the ships allowed the existing stocks to be allocated to home defence (the navy was well aware that AA defence of the UK was a very high priority), so strengthening it.

As the existing Naval treaty limitations were now seen as the bare minimum force level, it was expected that at least Courageous and Glorious would be retained for some time (and one of the other old carriers as a training carrier, at least for the next few years). It was pointed out that while this was good, the original assumption was that the new ships would be replacements, and therefore would use the escort vessels assigned to the older ships. If the Royal Navy were to be deploying more carriers, more escorts would be needed.

There was an additional problem regarding the endurance of destroyers. An aircraft carrier had a large fuel load as it was expected that its normal operations would involve more (and higher speed) steaming
while launching and landing aircraft into the wind. While escorting destroyers could refuel from their carrier, this took time and was not currently a well-practised procedure. So ideally destroyers designed to escort carriers should have a longer range. Secondly there was the issue of numbers. The ideal the Admiralty was now aiming for (though it didn't expect to get there before around 1944) was the 8+8 fleet and light carriers. Assuming a reasonable escort of 4 destroyers per carrier, this meant 8 flotillas of destroyers! While the staff appreciated that carriers were important, allocating them over a third of the current destroyer strength as escorts was certainly not possible. The solution was to assume that half the carriers (on average) would be with the fleet or fleet units, and hence would share their escorts (they would still need a dedicated ship as plane guard to rescue crews who crash-landed) so 5 additional flotillas of destroyers would actually serve. This was thought possible to achieve in the 8 year period under discussion.