大象传媒

As part of the American lend-lease help, six banana boats under construction in the USA had a flat top deck built on them in order to be used as aircraft carriers. These six were commissioned as HMS Hunter, HMS Attacker, HMS Pursuer, HMS Stalker, HMS Emperor and HMS Searcher.

HMS Hunter was built at Pasoagoula at Irgalls Ironworks of Birmingham, Alabama, USA and was commissioned on 10 January 1943 and brought to Northern Ireland.

Of these, Hunter, Attacker and Khedive were equipped to carry Seafires, a newly-designed aircraft which was a Spitfire aircraft but with the wings adapted so that they could be folded and lowered by lift into the bowels of the carrier between flights.

HMS Searcher and Emperor carried the American Martlett and Hellcat planes. These six ships arrived at three-week intervals in Long Kesh, Northern Ireland, the base from which the aircraft were flown, and were immediately occupied by the pilots of the Fleet Air Arm Squadrons 804, 807, 879, 899, 882 and 898.

4 Carrier Borne Air Liaison Section (鈥楥BALS鈥�) was formed on 30th September 1943. The duty of the section was to represent the Army and to interpret to the Naval pilots how best to assist the Army in carrying out the task of an assault landing on enemy soil. The work involved prizing information from returning pilots, checking this against photographic evidence taken and coordinating with other sources of intelligence. The intelligence gained and conclusions had to be passed without delay to the Army HQ, either afloat or ashore.

I was given command of the Section on 28th October 1943 and the Section was mobilised on 31st October 1943. On 10th November, the Section moved to RNAS Burscough, Ormskirk, Lancashire where Captain G.B. Groasdell joined the Section. Sergeant Marriott also joined us in the change over and Gunner Johnson completed our strength.

On 19th January 1944 we joined HMS Hunter, one of four carriers making up the fleet in the Mediterranean. The tasks allocated to the squadron were 鈥渟earch and cover鈥� fighter patrol over the assault beaches, spotting for naval bombardment and close spotting by bombing and strafing for the invading troops. Each carrier had 18 fighter planes adapted for reconnaissance and photographic work. One squadron of 12 pilots was allocated to each carrier. Over the next 2 years, Hunter sailed from Gibraltar to Alexandria on 7 occasions chasing the Germans from Africa, Crete and Malta.

In August 1944 Number 4 CBALS took part in Operation Dragoon, with HMS Hunter supporting the American forces landing in Toulon in the South of France. Unfortunately, the Americans spent so much time getting their troops ready that the Germans had ample opportunity before they retreated to completely demolish any landing jetties on which the American troops could land. By the time the Americans struggled ashore the Germans had completely withdrawn and German casualties were minimal. I did not hesitate in sending the Americans our aerial reconnaissance photos over to the Americans to point out the error made in delaying their attack.

During 1944-5, HMS Hunter sailed from Gibraltar to Alexandria seven times, relieving Malta and other islands and chasing the German Army out of Greece. The Greek railways were blown up to stop the Germans escaping north.

Finally we were based in Egypt, where new pilots joined us and desert training was carried out on the abandoned battlefield of El Alamein, where Rommel鈥檚 Army was defeated and the rout of the German Army began.

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