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The Far Eastern Fleet, January to August 1945: By Wunnovit

Speaking recently with serving sailors and some who have retired but had joined since the mid-fifties, I discovered a regrettable lack of knowledge of the part played by the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm in particular the war against Japan. Most were under the impression that that part of WW2 was won by the USA and Errol Flynn in particular.
Perhaps, therefore the following may remind and even inform our comrades of their heritage in this respect.
It was Allied policy to first defeat Hitler and then concentrate all their efforts on the defeat of Japan. The RN began to prepare in earnest for the latter in mid 1943 when RN squadrons of US made aeroplanes were acquired and formed in the USA in succession until mid 1944. This resulted in; from January 1945 the RN Far Eastern Fleet, which was the largest fleet ever deployed in the entire history of the RN that statement has to be read in the context that until the USN expanded after Pearl Harbour the RN was the largest navy the world has ever known and without taking up too much space again this the situation was as follows.
The Far Eastern Fleet came to its full strength in June '45 and was divided into two parts — The East Indies Fleet under the command of the Supreme Commander South East Asia Louis Mountbatten, and the British Pacific Fleet under the command of Admirals Nimitz and Halsey of the USN. In total there were some 720 RN ships including 17 battleships, (including the Free French 'Richelieu') 35 aircraft carriers, including 6 fleet carriers, 5 light fleet carriers, and 24 escort carriers. There were 14 second line and 50 front line RN squadrons, using both US and UK manufactured aeroplanes. There were 111 shore stations and base ships including 8 air stations, 6 mobile naval air bases (MONABS) 1 transportable air repair yard, 1 air station/transit camp and 2 RN bases with air sections. There were 47 Cruisers including 2 Dutch, 1 French, 1 Italian, 1 Canadian and 7 Australian. The remainder of the 720 consisted of frigates, sloops, submarines and a great miscellany of other ships such as landing ships, supply ships, depot ships, etc…
As part of Task Force 37 the battleship King George V and the fleet carriers Indefatigable, Implacable, Victorious and Formidable were attacking the Japanese mainland when they were withdrawn a bit for reasons which became all too apparent to the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they had already inflicted serious damage especially to the oil refineries.
Probably the most significant contribution made by the RN was the air strikes on the oil installations in Sumatra from whence came 75% of Japanese aviation spirit in January 1945. This was more instrumental in the defeat of Japan than the atomic bombs. The Japanese would have run out of fuel two months after the atomic bombs anyway. The four above named ships along with the battleship Howe carried out these attacks.
Without wishing in anyway to denigrate the enormous efforts of the US forces in the Pacific, it is worth mentioning here that British Commonwealth forces inflicted more casualties on the Japanese in the Burma campaign than did the US forces in the Pacific. The foregoing is a very basic outline but it will perhaps illustrate the apparently forgotten enormous effort the Limeys put into assisting the Yanks to defeat Japan.
When I and my contemporaries returned to UK in a trooper in December '45 having ditched all our US made aeroplanes in the sea and in company of about 1000 ex-POW of the Japs, we were rather disappointed to be met only by the representatives of His Majesties Customs which was rather a contrast to the bands and cheering crowds which greeted those we had dropped of in Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle on the way.
On my subsequent leave I was asked where I had been and when I replied 'The Pacific Fleet' it was dismissed with the comment, 'Oh you missed the end of the war then?' Pass the sick bag.

(I have since attended a parish meeting to discuss the VE day celebrations. At the end I asked the chairman what he was going to propose for VJ day, his reply - If I knew what it was I may be able to tell you When I told him VJ day was the day WW2 ended, on 14th August 1945, he insisted that VE day was the end of the war. It was only when some other old fart interjected that we convinced him. He was at least 40.)

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