Battle Honours Won HMS Nabob, 1944
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Canadian Military History Volume 19 Issue 3 Article 2 2010 Battle Honours Won HMS Nabob, 1944 Shawn Cafferky Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Shawn Cafferky "Battle Honours Won HMS Nabob, 1944." Canadian Military History 19, 3 (2010) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : Battle Honours Won HMS Nabob, 1944 Battle Honours Won HMS Nabob, 1944 Shawn Cafferky he genesis of Canadian naval resulted in their withdrawal from the aviation can be traced to the Abstract: The Royal Canadian Navy transatlantic run in early months of T provided much of the crew for the difficulties the Royal Canadian Navy that year for upgrades in equipment British escort carrier HMS Nabob, (RCN) encountered in its battle both to relieve a manpower shortage and training. In fact, the British for the convoys during 1942. The in the Royal Navy and to give Canadian surface groups that replaced them shortcomings of the service’s modest, personnel experience in operating had equal difficulty against the hastily constructed and ill-equipped aircraft carriers. Nabob’s Canadian massed U-boat “packs” in the central crew achieved these goals. They escorts sharpened the naval staff’s ocean, underscoring the need for operated the ship in two major British determination to develop a fleet fleet actions, and through outstanding escort carrier support, especially in of substantial warships, in which damage control saved the ship after the “air gap” south of Greenland that aircraft carriers would be an essential she was severely damaged by a U-boat was beyond the range of most land- element. The birth of the RCN’s air attack. based maritime patrol aircraft. arm came about as a result of the The origin of the escort carrier was efforts of a handful of Canadian was over. This was no way to build a a response to the initial deployment officers who recognized the value of service that would endure in the post- of U-boats in large groups or “packs,” naval air power to the prosecution war period. The Navy wanted bigger and the use by the Germans of of the war.1 and more diverse ships that together long-range air reconnaissance, in During the Second World War would make a “balanced” fleet late 1940 and 1941 in order to catch anti-submarine operations became capable of carrying out a wide range convoys far out at sea, beyond the a top Allied priority demanding of operations, either independently or reach of the bulk of the surface and massive resources that had been as a significant component of an allied air escort forces then available. By entirely unanticipated prior to 1940. combination. It was for this reason December 1941, the Royal Navy In less than three years the RCN, that during the war the RCN, even (RN) had a modest force of four which had only 3,500 personnel while rushing large numbers of anti- armoured and four unarmoured and six ocean-going warships in submarine escorts into service, also aircraft carriers, and only one more September 1939, mushroomed in exerted generally effective pressure of each was expected to be completed size to fill this gap in British and on the government to acquire larger, by 1946. This was something like American preparations and became more sophisticated warships such as the bare minimum or less needed a major ocean-going fleet. However, Tribal-class destroyers, cruisers, and for operations by the main fleet. In most of the Navy’s more than two aircraft carriers.2 order to provide air support for trade hundred ocean-going anti-submarine The importance of naval air convoys, and also for amphibious escorts were emergency-built, single- power was driven home by the operations to land army forces – purpose types, whose designs success of the Royal and US Navy’s another new requirement that could incorporated many compromises specialized anti-submarine escort not have been foreseen prior to the for quick construction; they were, in aircraft carriers against German defeat of France in 1940 and Britain’s fact, intended for early disposal from U-boats in 1943 soon after the poor ejection from continental Europe – it military service as soon as the war showing of Canadian escort groups was estimated that the RN needed Published© Canadian by Scholars Military Commons History @ ,Laurier, Volume 2010 19, Number 3, Summer 2010, pp.3-18. 3 1 Cafferky - HMS Nabob.indd 3 9/27/2010 11:09:10 AM Canadian Military History, Vol. 19 [2010], Iss. 3, Art. 2 HMS Nabob – a Royal Navy escort carrier crewed largely by Canadian personnel. Canadian War Museum (CWM) 19900321-016 Canadian War 34 additional carriers as soon as escorts, and recognized Canada as a matter with Admiralty officials. With possible. To make up the shortfall full partner in the Atlantic battle. the information Creery obtained, the in numbers it was necessary to Equally important in progress staff in Ottawa agreed that Canada convert large merchant ships, built or of Canadian plans for naval aviation would follow Britain’s lead and building, by installing a flying deck was Britain’s manpower crisis, which reduce both the frigate and corvette on top of the hull. In the event, the paved the way for the RCN to crew construction programs in order shipbuilding program undertaken by British escort carriers. Soon after the to release personnel for manning the US to supply merchant ships to Atlantic Convoy Conference, and additional RN warships. The specific Britain under “Lend-Lease” proved sooner than anyone had expected, proposals called for the RCN to take to be the major source of hulls for the the worst crisis in the Atlantic over ten frigates and two escort RN’s escort carriers.3 passed. On 30 October 1943, the carriers.5 The RCN took the first tentative Admiralty announced its intention HMS Nabob6 (CVE 41 – the former steps toward the establishment of its to cut down its escort building USS Edisto Bay), the first carrier own naval air branch in early 1943, program. Soon after, Admiral Sir slated for crewing by the RCN, when Rear-Admiral G.C. Jones, Andrew Cunningham, first sea lord, was commissioned into the Royal vice-chief of the naval staff, advised appealed to the Canadian chief of the Navy on 7 September 1943, as she the chief of the naval staff (CNS), naval staff for additional assistance lay alongside the fitting-out wharf Vice-Admiral P.W. Nelles, that both with manning beyond what had of the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding the director of operations division, been already agreed at the first Company at Seattle, Washington. Captain H.N. Lay, and the director of Quebec Conference in August 1943 Having completed with stores, and plans division, Captain H.G. DeWolf, (the latter was a summit between manned by a skeleton Royal Navy “should examine and report on what President Franklin Roosevelt and crew, Nabob steamed to Vancouver, practical steps the Royal Canadian Prime Minister Winston Churchill, British Columbia, for modification to Navy can take in this matter.”4 during which the Canadian services Royal Navy standards. On 15 October Further impetus came from the allied took the opportunity to liaise with 1943, Captain H.N. Lay, RCN, took Atlantic Convoy Conference held in senior British and American staffs). command and Canadian personnel Washington in March 1943 to find Before responding to the Admiralty’s began to join the ship. means of countering the success of request, Naval Service Headquarters The work carried out at Vancouver the mid-ocean U-boat operations. (NSHQ) sent Captain W.B. Creery, on Nabob and other American-built The conference underscored the assistant chief of the naval staff escort carriers delivered to the RN importance of air support to surface (ACNS), to London to discuss the was the result of contention between https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol19/iss3/24 2 Cafferky - HMS Nabob.indd 4 9/27/2010 11:09:10 AM : Battle Honours Won HMS Nabob, 1944 the two senior allied navies. On of these latter modifications would involved in this further conversion, 27 March 1943 the escort carrier play an important role in saving HMS which included the installation of HMS Dasher sank with heavy loss Nabob as we shall see later. an operational telephone system, a of life as the result of an explosion Finally, American-built escort new briefing room, an army plot, below decks as 891 Squadron’s carriers had their flight decks extra cabins and bunks, was done Fairey Swordfish aircraft were being lengthened by 42 feet to operate the following spring, in April 1944, in refuelled. The Admiralty board of British aircraft “which could not use the United Kingdom by the Caledon enquiry attributed the explosion to the American catapults and perhaps, Shipbuilding Company at Dundee.11 a leaking valve, badly sited below like the Swordfish, needed a longer By 28 December 1943, the a mess deck in the petrol control take-off run when fully loaded than Canadian portion of HMS Nabob’s department, which was touched off the original deck provided.”10 complement had all joined the by a carelessly dropped cigarette. The RCN was particularly carrier.12 Early in January of 1944, The RN blamed American safety anxious to man the two British Nabob embarked fuel, ammunition Canadian War Museum (CWM) 19900321-016 Canadian War arrangements which were, they said, escort carriers as quickly as possible.