The British Pacific Fleet

HMS Indefatigable entering Captain Cook graving dock, Garden Island, Sydney, 1945

After the fall of Singapore and the subsequent raids on Ceylon in early 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) had expelled the Royal Navy (RN) from the Pacific and effectively restricted British naval operations to the fringes of the Indian Ocean. The British subsequently gave priority to the war in Europe, and the United States Navy (USN) was left to lead the resistance against the IJN in the Pacific. The successful landings at Normandy and the advance on Germany convinced the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that the time was right for a return of the White Ensign to Far Eastern waters. At the second Quebec conference in September 1944, the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted Churchill's suggestion that a British fleet be used in the main theatre of operations against Japan. Subsequently the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was formed on 22 November 1944 under Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser. As the island hopping Pacific war moved through the Philippines inexorably toward Japan, the British fleet was to operate from a main base to be established in Sydney, with an intermediate base at Manus in the Admiralty Islands.

The BPF remained in the Indian Ocean conducting operational training and re-equipping its units. This included substantial changes to British carrier and Fleet Air Arm doctrine, as the air operations in the restricted waters of the European theatre were replaced by large numbers of aircraft operating with a single purpose from several carriers simultaneously, as well as the introduction of superior American aircraft. As the BPF was to operate upon the great expanses of the Pacific Ocean it needed to support itself far from base, hence the fleet expanded its floating supply organisation, along the lines of the 'Fleet Train' of their American allies. In spite of a worldwide shortage of afloat support ships and the difficulties inherent in creating a large supply organisation some 12,000 miles away from home, the RN was able to assemble about 60 ships for the Fleet Train; a mixed group including many nationalities and vessels from the RN, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, as well as numerous merchant ships from Britain and the European Allies. Unfortunately the BPF Train was short on fast tankers capable of refuelling ships at sea, and this subsequently became a serious handicap for the fighting ships. By the time of their departure from Ceylon on 16 January 1945, the BPF included; four aircraft carriers Indomitable, Victorious, Indefatigable and Illustrious, one battleship King George V, three cruisers and ten destroyers.

While on their way to Australia, aircraft from the BPF successfully attacked two oil refineries at Palembang in eastern Sumatra and inflicted heavy losses on the defending Japanese aircraft. When the fleet arrived at their main base in Sydney on the 11th and 12th February 1945, they were full of confidence for the future. Admiral Fraser established his base ashore, while his second-in-command, Vice-Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings, commanded the fleet at sea. Australia had been under 'American occupation' since 1942 and many Australians were delighted to see the British fleet. The people of Sydney raised £A200,000 by public subscription to build the British Centre staffed by over 4,000 volunteers and which provided 1,200 beds and at times 6,000 meals each day. Three hundred young Australian women attended dances each night as hostesses, while some 12,500 homes in New South Wales offered hospitality to British sailors. Australia managed to perform a host of refit and repair facilities in support of the BPF from February 1945 until well after the end of the war. This included an emergency docking of Illustrious in the newly constructed Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island Sydney, three weeks before the opening ceremony. Not only did many Australian sailors serve in RN ships of the BPF, but by early March the Australian Navy had allocated all its 'N' and 'Q' class destroyers and eighteen of its Australian corvettes (minesweepers) to that fleet.

Admiral, later Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Bruce Fraser, commander British Pacific Fleet

On 24 February the fleet sailed for its base in Manus, conducting air, gunnery and replenishment at sea exercises in transit. On the way to Manus the fleet practiced, for the first time, USN tactical fleet formations, manoeuvres, and communications. It is perhaps understandable that the USN was somewhat reluctant to include the BPF in the forefront of their operations against Japan. USN fleet units had developed into close-knit teams during long years of difficult operations in Pacific waters, while the BPF was as yet largely untried in joint operations against Japan where interoperability was essential. The acceptance of the Australian Squadron within the US Seventh Fleet proved that integration was possible, however RN ships were at the time an unknown quantity. In addition, at the time the deployment of USN fighting ships was essentially limited by the logistic capabilities of the Fleet Trains so additional logistic demands by British ships could have led to reductions in the deployment of USN ships. The Allied commanders in the Pacific had differing opinions on how the BPF should be employed; General Douglas MacArthur preferred to use the fleet in the Philippines and Borneo, whereas Admiral Chester Nimitz thought the fleet would be best used to cover the invasion of Okinawa (the ICEBERG series of operations). Ultimately political pressure from London led to the BPF being allocated to the Okinawa operations and the subsequent advance directly upon Japan. During the early part of 1945, many in the BPF felt that while they enjoyed themselves in Sydney and waited for orders at Manus, the world was passing them by.

The BPF received orders on 15 March 1945 to report to Admiral Nimitz for duty in the ICEBERG operations. By 26 March the fleet was stationed off the Sakishima Gunto islands, between Okinawa and Formosa (now Taiwan), and on that and subsequent days the fleet's carrier aircraft attacked the Japanese airfields of the group. The main American assault on Okinawa commenced on 1 April. The British carriers next attacked the Japanese airfields in Northern Formosa before returning to neutralise the remaining aircraft in the Sakishima group. After replenishing at Leyte, the BPF returned on 4 May to bombard the Sakishima Gunto airfields. Recognising that IJN ships could no longer effectively challenge Allied sea control in the approaches to Japan, the Japanese resorted to large scale Japanese suicide plane 'Kamikaze' attacks. The first Kamikaze attack against the BPF occurred on 6 April when the carrier Illustrious had been hit but the British carrier's armoured flight deck saved her from serious damage. From 4 May the BPF was subjected to intense Kamikaze attack, with four major hits on the carriers resulting in many of the aircraft on the flight decks being destroyed. The fleet continued air operations against the Japanese at Sakishima until 25 May 1945 when the fleet set a southerly course for Manus and then Sydney. The fleet spent three weeks in Sydney where it was replenished, repaired and refreshed. The Formidable required major repairs after its armoured flight deck was ripped apart by a Kamikaze attack.

The BPF departed Sydney on 28 June 1945 to join the US Third Fleet, under Admiral William Halsey. On 17 July the fleet went into action with air attacks and bombardments against targets on the Japanese mainland, and these operations continued for the succeeding weeks. Having destroyed many of Japan's towns, dockyards, airfields and industries in the south-east, the US Third Fleet (including the British) moved north-east up the Japanese coast leaving a path of destruction behind it. The BPF was attacking Honshu when the first atomic bomb exploded at Hiroshima on 6 August, but hostilities did not cease until the 11 August when Japan formally surrendered. Most of the BPF left the Japanese coast, as planned, on 12 August due to an absence of tankers for refuelling. The flagship King George V and the carrier Indefatigable remained behind to attend the formal surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945 (Australia's Shropshire was also present).

After hostilities ceased, the BPF was employed on urgent political and humanitarian tasks including: accepting the surrender of Japanese forces, re-establishing British government presence in the region (including the ZIPPER landings in Malaya); the rescue and repatriation of prisoners of war; and supplying food and medical supplies to the starving people of South-East Asia. The BPF was not represented at the Victory Celebrations held in the United Kingdom during June 1946. Admiral Rawlings was appointed Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet and relocated to Hong Kong; while the BPF, once the largest array of British Commonwealth ships ever to have operated under a single command, was dispersed and largely forgotten.

Gregory P. GILBERT

The British Pacific Fleet

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