Mission to Britain

by J Eugene Porter

  “Captain,” James was writing things down as they came to him, so he had a barrage of questions to ask, “why only a dozen aircraft? I know the Audacity had only six aircraft but from talking to Commander Walker about the various attacks on Convoy HG76, the planes were the salvation to the convoy but were overwhelmed. If I have my data correct, the ship was very small, say under six thousand gross tons, and the designs for the new escort carriers are looking at ten thousand to twelve thousand tons. Would an aircraft complement of say sixteen to twenty afford you more security and less burnout of the planes and pilots?”

  “Yes, I agree with you Lieutenant, but we cannot be too choosy, can we? The Audacity was a quick and dirty conversion, and I know the ships you are building are based upon various hull plans for large merchants and oilers. They will not be true carriers because of their low speed, but for escort work, we do not require much speed. The use of a catapult is necessary because we cannot get up to the necessary speed required for takeoff on a flight deck of five hundred feet in length.”

  The British captain now looked at the young American and asked, “Are you a pilot, Lieutenant?”

  The question was interesting, thought James. “Yes sir, and no sir. I have a multi-engine commercial rating in the U.S., but I have not trained as a naval aviator.”

  The captain was stunned by the comment thinking the young man naïve at best or just ignorant about what it takes to fly a plane, let alone fly one off a small ship. “Since you have flown aircraft, you know some of the issues surrounding long flights over water, and I do agree that the more planes, the better for the sake of both pilot and aircraft.”

  Captain Samuels looked at the ceiling for a brief moment as he thought through the problem. “We figure a plane needs a minimum of one hour of maintenance for every three hours of flight. Pilots need to stand down every twenty-four hours if possible. We are still working these things out, but our experience in the Battle of Britain showed we were losing many pilots from sheer exhaustion which led to mistakes. But those times required extra human endurance and heroics which we may not see again in our lifetime. We are now training more and more pilots, so we can rest them between combat missions which will minimize flight accidents and combat error. I think you will find the same thing to be true as your lads get more involved in the war.”

  “Captain,” Brand quickly asked, “do you think you will need more pursuit aircraft or bombers on these escort carriers and a second part of the question, what ordinance do you believe is appropriate for these missions?”

  Ramsey looked over at the lieutenant who became more interesting every time he encountered him. This was an intriguing question. What do you use to kill the U-boat? What is the right mix of planes, weapons, skills, ships, etc., to make the submarine menace go away?

  He looked at Captain Samuels for an answer. “Good question, Lieutenant, but I fear there isn’t just one answer. The Swordfish we have now can carry up to two thousand pounds of weapons. Since this is a torpedo plane, its weapons are on a center line. The wings cannot carry the weight, so this limits our load. We can put four, perhaps six, depth charges on these planes, but they would be the smaller one hundred fifty-pound units. The standard three hundred fifty pound unit, because of its size, limits the plane to four depth charges. The Fulmar is more of a fighter and can only carry one two hundred fifty pound bomb on the centerline and two one hundred pound bombs on the wing mounts. Machine guns are their primary defense weapon and use the standard .303 machine gun used on the Spits and Hurricanes. That is why we are interested in your Avenger which has a bomb bay to carry a two-thousand-pound torpedo or the same number of bombs or depth charges, plus it is much faster and has a great range. With a group of perhaps six fighters and the rest bombers, say ten or twelve, I think we would have a very effective weapons system.”

  James nodded his head then dug deeper into the tactical employment of this new class of ship. “Sir, if you had a few of these escort carriers, do you see a way to deploy these vessels in independent groups supporting a convoy at a far distance but independent of the convoy itself?”

  The captain again looked at Ramsey who smiled, so he knew he could do no wrong with whatever answer he gave. “Lieutenant, if we had three or say five of these escort carriers and then each one had an independent escort group of three to four of your new destroyer escorts, then we could sit off a convoy, say one hundred miles. We could range far and near and hunt down the Germans before they even got close to our convoys. But to do this, we first need ships of all classes and enough of them to maintain the integrity of the convoy itself. Then we need the men who have been trained to use these new weapons of war. So, if you provide us the tools, we can rid the Atlantic of the Germans for good.”

  Ramsey looked at the captain and said, “Here, here. Good answer, Captain Samuels, I could not say it better myself.”

  He turned to look at Jameson, inhaled deeply on his cigarette, and with a long blow of smoke coming out of his mouth and nose continued. “Captain Jameson, our man Samuels just put it as succinctly as anyone in this room or in His Majesty’s Navy could say it. We need more ships, especially of the types we have discussed. The merchant ships are wonderful, but even if we outproduce the Germans, we can ill afford to lose the men on these ships. Experienced merchant seamen are getting harder and harder to find. These men are rightly concerned about their very existence.”

  The admiral then took another puff, seeming to be caught up in another idea. As he exhaled, he looked at the Americans saying, “We must ramp up the delivery of the escort ships. We are working very hard in this country and in Canada to make more of the Flower-class frigates and more trawlers which work very well as designated rescue vessels. These trawlers are very important additions to every convoy because they give the merchant seaman hope of rescue in the event of being torpedoed. If your country can give us as many of these new destroyer escorts as possible, we can slowly kill this menace. And, if you can start building the escort carriers and even more importantly, man these ships and provide them with your aircraft, we can make the Germans flee from the sea forever.”

  Jameson looked closely at the hero of Dunkirk and knew his passion was in this work and knew what he had said was very true. To win the war at sea, it took the tools of war and the men who knew how to use them. And if you add in improved intelligence, combined with new or improved technologies, then you win the war. Production will be the key, he thought, to winning this part of the war at sea. Right now, the Germans were winning many of the battles but not the war. If the Allies could continue to get organized around a common strategy and focus on a few key issues, this war would swing quickly to their favor. Knowing this was possible gave Jameson a good feeling, but he knew many men would die while what he called the “war in the background” was being waged. Getting everyone on the same page in the United States was one thing, but you had to complicate this with the British view and the views of the Commonwealth who added significant resources to the war effort.

  The meeting concluded after another hour of looking at graphs, manning tables, and convoy charts. Brand appeared happy with this last bit of information and told Jameson he felt confident he could prepare a sound report on his findings and suggestions for future activities. They took a short lunch break with Admiral Ramsey and his aide before the afternoon session began.

  The afternoon meeting was the long sought-after conversation with Coastal Command’s commander in chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Phillip Joubert de le Ferté. He used Joubert the most, so most individuals became very comfortable with this name. He was known as a taskmaster and had looked critically at his command and saw room for much improvement. The area he worked on most was in planning schedules for routine and extensive maintenance of all aircraft to ensure the maximum number of planes being available. He was passionate about developing a strict regimen for pilot training and a schedule for all pilots that allowed suitable downtime between flights. These flights often lasted up to a d
ozen or more hours in planes such as the American PBY Catalina and the Sunderland flying boats, which were proving critical in the submarine war.

  Joubert was a technician as well as a general officer, and James took to him quickly. His aide began the presentation and talked about operations, flight statistics, number of submarines sighted, and all manner of facts and figures James could simply read.

  He wanted more, so he decided to ask the air marshal directly. “Air Marshal, your aide is doing a marvelous job of giving us some background information which is helpful, but I would like to understand two things. First, why are your planes not sighting more submarines and why are your sinkings just now improving?”

  The aide was about to answer, but Joubert smiled at the American and began to speak in a deep voice that sounded like a command pilot over an intercom. “Lieutenant, you are a typical American, and I appreciate your directness so let’s all stop the facts and figures and get down to, as you say, business.”

  He looked at his aide and then back at the Americans. He had been briefed on the Americans’ mission and how they were being briefed by the top levels of the British military and government. He decided to forge ahead and in his best command voice said, “I know you have talked to Professor Blackett and he has reviewed with you some of his suggestions which increased our sightings of submarines by a factor of two. We are improving our ability to kill the U-boats we see, but we are still not making a difference. It is not sufficient just to hold these bastards under the water for a few hours so they cannot attack our convoys. No, it is our job to kill them each time. The use of newer and larger depth bombs is helping, but the real breakthrough is the ten-centimeter radar we are now putting on some of our larger planes such as the Catalina and the Sunderland. With this device, we can find them long before they can find us and then we can attack them with more confidence and precision. I think you have had some personal experiences in attacking submarines, so we are on the same page, I think.”

  James looked up from his notes and asked about some of Blackett’s suggestions for bombing patterns and attack profiles.

  Joubert was quick to answer. “The good professor uses hard numbers which are out there in the nether regions of our action reports. He was the first one to pull the information together, and with it could prove to the most skeptical of commanders the reasons we were missing on bombing runs, not finding the submarines in the first place and not using common sense on everything from the color of our planes to flying out of the sun. His work has demonstrated to me and some others, that this is a war of science, technology, and analytics. We must look at ourselves, what we have and have not accomplished and not hold back the criticism. My command is in turmoil because we are keeping planes grounded for proper maintenance and crew rest. We now have the numbers to prove that without a well-rested crew who are scanning the emptiness of the ocean or looking at a radar screen in a bouncing aircraft, we will not see or hit anything.”

  “Sir, what else do you need from America?” Jameson interjected so James could formulate more of his hard questions. They called each other the pencil twins because of their fondness for constantly scribbling notes and formulating questions to underscore their need for better and more accurate information. Right now, Jameson wanted the emotional side of the equation from a commander who was battling a relentless enemy plus constant sniping from other leaders fighting over the same dwindling supply of men and material.

  Joubert stared at the information the aide had put on the board then to the American navy captain who might be the key to securing more and better aircraft. The British factories were building lots of planes, but most of them were the big bombers for Harris’ Bomber Command. Harris held Churchill’s interest by attacking the enemy and hurting them in their homes. Everyone viewed Coastal Command as a defensive operation. This was his reason for trying to get more planes from the Americans so his men could take offensive actions.

  “Captain Jameson, in order of preference, I would like your superb B-24 bomber. It has the longest range of any plane the Allies currently possess, and the Canadians have just improved its range by putting additional fuel tanks in one of its two bomb bays. It still can carry a large load of bombs and depth charges, but with these modifications it now has a range of twenty-seven hundred miles, which can nullify the advantages the U-boats possess. More of your wonderful Catalinas would be helpful as they have a long range and have already been adapted for the radar systems you are now building for us.” Joubert went quiet for a moment and then added something new to the discussion.

  “One of our officers has come up with a wonderful idea which helps our planes perform nighttime attacks. The radar can find the German when he is on the surface, and this is true night or day. But at night, we can see it on the screen, but it is hard to hit something small on a dark night. So, this Commander Leigh has developed a light system using an onboard generator which allows the radar operator to flip a switch when the plane gets near to the surfaced U-boat, and it lights up the entire area in front of the plane, allowing the Bombardier to drop his bombs on target. We have only been testing it, but I think it will work and allow us to hunt the Germans down in the Bay of Biscay before they get to the Atlantic. I plan to make the Bay the graveyard of the German submarine force.”

  James thought it a beautiful idea for its simplicity and the complementary use of the radar system to guide the plane to the target. “Sir, could we get some additional information on these lights? Perhaps we can get some help for you regarding building these lights and getting them on some of our planes as well.”

  Joubert looked at his aide and told him to get the technical details sent over to the Americans and have him send photographs of the test planes and anything else which could help the Yanks build some of these for installation on Allied planes.

  “Sir,” James again considered going into politically gray areas, but he sensed the air marshal did not care for politics and its sensitivities. “Would you accept American units in your command, not for full-time participation but just for cross-training purposes?”

  “Yes, Lieutenant, that is a good suggestion, and if you have the planes or the pilots and other crew members, I will be glad to use them or train them or whatever would help us win the war. I do not care for who wins the public relations’ battle. We are losing men and planes each day in a way which is hard to fathom.”

  The air marshal looked troubled as he thought about the great losses of men and airplanes. His job was to send them out, knowing full well, some may not return. He looked at Brand and then slowly stated,

  “If one of our planes has a catastrophic failure and crashes into the sea, even if they gave us a radio signal, the chances of them surviving are very slim. We don’t have the resources now to have a credible air-sea rescue capability. Admiral Ramsey and I have been trying to expand this capability, and if a plane goes down in the Channel, we have both the planes and the sea craft to rescue the crew. But if they are out in the Bay of Biscay or plying the skies off Norway, then the possibility of even launching a rescue attempt is very poor. The addition of more and newer planes and the ability to have fresh crews could have a major impact on our ability to get more planes in the sky to kill more Germans.”

  James decided to open a new line of thinking in this conversation concerning the development of the aerial rocket which was now under full-scale development in the States. “Sir, I know Britain has spent a considerable amount of effort in developing an aerial projectile, which is a three-and-a-half-inch diameter rocket-propelled weapon. I have expanded upon that concept, and we are now working with a group of my former colleagues at the California Institute of Technology to improve the range, accuracy, and thrust of this weapon.”

  Brand looked at the blackboard and stood up so he could express himself with a piece of chalk. He put a formula on the board and then turned to face the Coastal Command leader. He took a breath and then with chalk in hand spoke.

  “I have proposed
the weapon use a twenty-pound armor-piercing projectile with or without any explosive device attached. The weapon, as envisioned, will have a terminal velocity of over one thousand miles per hour which should be able to penetrate a three-inch hardened steel pressure hull. This weapon will be fired by a plane in a shallow dive with a maximum range of fifteen hundred yards, thus allowing an Allied aircraft to damage a submarine before the submarine dives below sea level. We believe tests will verify my calculations that the rocket could also hit a submerged submarine at a depth of twenty feet or more.”

  He turned from the board and his analysis stating, “Sir, does this sound like the type of weapon which would be beneficial to Coastal Command?”

  Joubert had seen the reports of the rockets the British had developed but knew they were not adequate in range or power. This American had at his disposal the intellectual power of a major university developing a powerful enough rocket motor to make this weapon a reality.

  “Lieutenant, any weapon that would meet the specifications you just outlined would be a war winner from my perspective. Our aircraft often will lose a submarine to a crash dive before they even get close enough to drop their bomb loads or they lose track of it when the submarine dives. If you could slow it down with a rocket attack from half a mile away, this could render them defenseless. Please let us know how this weapon system develops, and I will ensure our liaison officers in Washington are made aware of your offer. This could be a great addition to our arsenal.”

  Joubert and his staff along with Admiral Ramsey discussed the merits of several other systems including the hedgehog system now being deployed on the escort vessels. James took note of the system and how the escort commanders were not receptive to it, but he thought they needed better instruction on how to employ it. While the radar upgrades now underway would be helpful, not every ship could have radar added. Ensuring each convoy had at least two escorts so equipped was agreed on as a baseline for all future convoys to Britain.