Number of Hurricanes ferried to Ceylon by Indomitable

[Rob Stuart]

As is well known, HMS Indomitable ferried the Hurricane IIB’s of 30 Squadron and 261 Squadron from Port Sudan to Ceylon in Februay-March 1942. 30 Squadron flew from Indomitable to Ratmalana on 6 March and 261 Squadron followed the next day. Sources disagree, however, about the number of Hurricanes involved. The 30 Squadron history, Flat Out, says that there were 70 but the war diary of the C-in-C Eastern Fleet says there were 60 and other sources say 50 or 42. However, I have a 222 Group report dated 10 March which says that on that date 30 Squadron had 27 Hurricanes and 261 Squadron had 31, for a total of 58. Unless two of the Hurricanes were lost between 7 and 10 March, it seems to me that the total of 58 in the 222 Group report is probably correct and that the figure of 60 in the Eastern Fleet war diary was a rounding up from 58. Would anyone have any other figures?

Thanks,

Rob

[afcbsimon]

Hi Rob,

30 Sqn's ORB for the 5th March 1942 reads "All available personnel of main party on board HMS Indomitable working throught the day and night assembling Hurricanes in Aircraft hangar and by late on 6th March SEVENTY aircraft had been assembled"

This is where John Hamlin would have got his figure from for Flat Out.

The ORB goes on to read - 6th March 1942 "20 aircraft flown by pilots of 30 Squadron took off from the Aircraft Carrier succesfully. One Hurricane piloted by Sgt Whittaker developed a glycol leak, he decided to return. HMS Indomitable assisted by steaming into the wind and increasing speed. The crash nets were raised, Sgt Whittaker after making one dummy approvach landed his Hurricane (without arresting hook) bringing it to a halt some fifteen yards from the crash barrier.

Six additional 30 Squadron pilots flew from the Caarrier at 1600 hours landing at Colombo at 1615 hours.

Hope this helps in some way even though it doesnt exactly answer your question.

Regards,
Simon

[afcbsimon]

Rob,

A bit of additional information for you, I read through a few more pages of 30's ORB and on 29th March it stated that the Sqn's establishment of Hurricanes was 24 A/C and all were serviceable.

Simon

[Graham Boak]

As a sidelight, the Hurricane that returned unserviceable has been recorded as returned to RAF India and destroyed by sparks from the engine whilst undergoing transfer by rail. However, after this ferry 881 Sq operated a Mk.II Hurricane (BD771, 7.Z) that had been re-engined with a Merlin III and converted to Sea Hurricane standards, at least until after Operation Pedestal. The aircraft was unpopular because of the excess weight.

[Rob Stuart]

Simon and Gaham,

I think the ORB is mistaken to say that there were 70 Hurricanes. The author may have meant to write 60. There is very little chance that there was more than 60.

Here’s how I think the delivery went. The Hurricane did not have folding wings and could be accommodated only on Indomitable’s forward lift, which was larger than the aft lift. (Illustrious, Formidable and Victorious had no lift that could take a Hurricane.) The forward lift served only the upper hangar. There is no way that this hangar had enough room for 58-60 fully assembled Hurricanes, especially since they had to share it with the nine Sea Hurricanes of 880 NAS, which likewise had non-folding wings. (The 12 Albacores of 827 NAS and the one Swordwish on board would have been struck down in the lower hangar.) Even after the first 20 Hurricanes to be assembled were taken to the flight deck after last light on 5 March, there still would not have been room in the upper hangar for the nine Sea Hurricanes and the remaining 38-40 Hurricanes if the latter were fully assembled. I would think that few of these 38-40 Hurricanes could have been fully assembled until the first 20 had flown off. The second range of Hurricanes, presumably consisting of the last six 30 Sqn aircraft and 14 from 261 Sqn, were evidently not flown off until 1600 because it took until then to complete their assembly. The last 18-20 Hurricanes could then be assembled during the night of 6 March and flown off at first light on the 7th. Indomitable left Port Sudan on 27 February. I think we can be pretty sure that the reason why the Hurricanes weren’t all assembled until the night of the 6th, instead of the night of the 5th, was due to lack of room and not lack of time.

Two Hurricanes returned to Indomitable. One was Z4961, flown by 261 Sqn CO’s, S/L Lewis, and Bloody Shambles makes it clear that his aicraft was repaired and he took off again for Ceylon. He probably took off at 1600 on the 6th and then again on the morning of the 7th. The other was Sgt Whittaker. I had inferred that his Hurricane was also repaired and sent off again but actually neither Bloody Shambles nor Flat Out say this, and thanks to your posts it seems clear that it was not. Indomitable was in Bombay in mid-April, so if his Hurricane was unloaded there that might explain why it was on a train in India.

So it would appear from your info that 26 Hurricanes from 30 Squadron took off from Indomitable on 6 March but only 25 arrived. Four days later it had 27 Hurricanes, so presumably two of the other Hurricanes flown off Indomitable had been given to it by then. As 30 Sqn and 261 Sqn had 58 Hurricanes between them on 10 March and Whittaker’s aircraft was still on Indomitable, it seems that Indomitable carried 59 Hurricanes from Port Sudan, rather than 58.

Thanks for pointing out that 30 Sqn had 24 aircraft on 29 March. Prior to 6 March, 258 Squadron, which was in the process of being stood-up at Ratmalana, had eight Hurricanes and on 21 March it had 20. There is an early March 222 Group document saying that 258 was to be brought up to strength by transferring aircraft from 30 and 261, so my tentative deduction is that by 29 March 30 Sqn had transferred three Hurricanes to 258 Sqn and 261 Sqn had transferred nine.

Graham,

There is a posting by yourself at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31047&st=120 which says that BD771 was an ”ex-RAF Mk.IIb, engine failed on Java ferry and converted to Merlin III Sea Hurricane”. Indomitable’s ferry run to Java was completed on 28 January. It then went to Ceylon, then to Port Sudan, and then did its ferry run to Ceylon. Indomitable certainly had more than one opportunity to return BD771 to its rightful owners. Did they get permission to keep it, do you suppose?


Thanks to both of you for your helpful postings,

Rob

[maxs75]

naval-history.net says:

3 jan 1942:

British 800 Squadron and 827 Squadron had been flown off at Aden to take on board RAF Squadrons 232 and 258 for delivery to Java. The aircraft carrier [Indomitable] maintained nine Sea Hurricanes of 880 Squadron and twelve Albacores of 831 Squadron for her defence.

28 jan. 1942:
In Operation OPPONENT, aircraft carrier INDOMITABLE, escorted by destroyers NAPIER, NIZAM, and NESTOR, flew off 48 Hurricanes of 232 and 258 Squadron to Batavia. A Swordfish of INDOMITABLE’s 831 Squadron failed to return from an anti-submarine search, and Lt B C Willoughby, S/Lt G T Shaddick, and Leading Airman G C G Tew were lost. The force arrived back at Trincomalee on 2 February.

That were 48+ 9 Hurricanes and 12 Albacores.

27 feb. 1942:
Aircraft carrier INDOMITABLE, having embarked *sixty* Hurricanes, departed Port Sudan for Aden, escorted by destroyers NAPIER and NESTOR.

6 march 1942:
Aircraft carrier INDOMITABLE flew off the first of two batches of Hurricanes of RAF Squadrons 30 and 261 to Ceylon aerodromes. The remainder were flown off next day. INDOMITABLE and destroyers NAPIER and NESTOR arrived at Trincomalee early on the 7th.

I believe that even sixty plus nine Hurricanes are really many for a single carrier. As noted before, probably only the partial disassembling allowed that number.

Best,


Max

[Graham Boak]

881 Sq retained BD771, and it was delivered to Yeovilton when the squadron returned to the UK after Pedestal. It was handed over to 759 Sq from 2.43, in whose hands it had a landing accident 26.11.43, and was declared Cat.X - which should mean repairable but no further service is known. The FAAM does have a rather nice sideview photo of her in a temperate surrounding, still carrying 881's codes.

The story about the Indian train appears to be a confusion with some other Hurricane altogether.

[Rob Stuart]

Graham, are you saying that DB711 was Whittaker's Hurricane? In your posting at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31047&st=120 you say that BD771 was acquired during the ferry run to Java. I'm a little confused.


Thanks,

Rob

[Graham Boak]

Java is a presumption: it may be a mistake but it seems unlkely. Sturtivant's text states "u/s Mk.IIb conv Sea Hurricane at Aden. TOC 880 Sq 21.2.42." This is before the Ceylon trip. I rather doubt that "Aden" converted any random Hurricane, so the unserviceable aircraft from the Java trip is most likely, and the actual work done in Indomitable's own workshops. If 880 was down to only 9 operational SH at this stage, it makes the comandeering more understandable.

From the dates given, it cannot be Whittaker's aircraft.

[Rob Stuart]

Graham, thanks for your response. Indomitable arrived at Aden on 11 January and disembarked its Fulmar squadron (800 NAS) and one of its two Albacore squadrons (827 NAS). It arrived at Port Sudan on 14 January, loaded 48 Hurricanes and sailed on 15 January. On 21 January it arrived at Addu Atoll, refuelled and left the next day. On 24 January Indomitable and its escorts (Nestor, Nizam and Napier) refueled from Appleleaf off the Cocos Islands. The Hurricanes were flown off to Java on 27 and 28 January, and Indomitable arrived at Trincomalee on 2 February. Indomitable visited Aden a couple of times during this period but dropping DB711 off for repairs at the RAF station there might have meant not getting it back, so like you I’d suspect that it was repaired on board.

Hugh Popham was a pilot with 880 NAS. In his book Sea Flight he wrote about the January ferry run, noting that assembly of the Hurricanes began two days after they refueled from Appleleaf. “The hundred R.A.F. men turned out to have worked only on Blenheims and Lysanders and did not know one end of a Hurricane from another; the mainplanes had all got mixed up and had to be sorted out; and the [880] squadron ratings and officers were in the hangar, almost without a break, for seventy-two hours, staggering around, twelve or fifteen to a wing, juggling with them till the right ones were found, and juggling with them again until the bolt-holes on wing-root and main plane could be made to correspond and the bolts fitted. Then fillets had to be out on, guns loaded and checked, ailerons connected up; then fuelling, ranging, engine-testing, lashing down, and back on to the lift for the next one with eyes blurred with sweat and bodies raw with prickly heat.”

Popham adds that the Hurricanes were flown off in two ranges of 25 each, but a number of reliable sources say there were 48 Hurricanes and that they flew off in three ranges of 16 each. He makes no mention of any Hurricane returning to Indomitable.

Gordon Wallace was an observer with 831 NAS. In Carrier Observer he wrote that at Port Sudan “The dusty dockside was an amazing sight, packed with row upon row of Hurricanes which had been stripped of their wings. We counted 48 of them, a mixture of II As and II Bs, and they had all been flown by their RAF pilots all the way across Africa in stages from Takoradi ... It was a long hot day before wings and fuselages were packed like sardines in the upper hanger.”

After refueling at Addu Atoll and off the Cocos, “In the upper hangar work proceeded night and day assembling the first batch of RAF Hurricanes – a difficult and exhausting business in the heat and confined space. The wings and fuselages had got muddled up and the RAF ground crew taken aboard
were not familiar with the Hurricane, so the men of 880 had to shoulder most of the work as well as keeping their own planes servicable.”

“On 27 January 1942 we were about 100 miles from the coast of Java [and not too far from Christmas Island] and dawn was just breaking as the first batch of 16 RAF Hurricanes of 258 Squadron was brought up on deck to have their engines tested and then be manhandled down the deck and ranged.” They then took off for Java and “Through the [next] night the struggle had gone on to assemble the next batch of Hurricanes, and by the end of the following day [28 January], 32 more had climbed away from our floating airfield. Of the last batch, one pilot radioed that he had low oil pressure and proposed to land back on.” Wallace then describes the successful recovery of this aircraft, but makes no further mention of it.

Wallace’s book also has a photo captioned “RAF Hurricane IIBs of 258 Squadon prepare to fly off Indomitable to Java, 28 January 1942” in which I count 22 Hurricanes. The shadows under the leading aircraft suggest that the sun is almost directly overhead, so possibly the photo is of the second range of 28 February. If the six aircraft at the rear are Sea Hurricanes (I can’t tell if they are or not) that would be consistent with the accounts which say there were 16 Hurricanes in each of three ranges.

Hector Mackenzie was an observer with 827 NAS. In Observations, he wrote about Indomitable ferrying “Spitfires” to Java. “They all got off OK as might have been expected; one in fact had engine failure after getting off and we landed him on again [...]. This plane we kept in the ship and rigged on it an arrestor hook taken from a Sea Hurricane. Flown by Dicky Cork, it proved its worth in the later convoy to Malta.”

It sounds very much like you were right and DB711 was the Hurricane which returned to Indomitable on 28 January. If Wallace is right about it having been one of the last 16 flown off, then there was of course no way that Indomitable was going to stick around off Java to repair and launch one Hurricane. Its pilot and the rest of the RAF people on board would have disembarked at Trincomalee on 2 February. Indomitable may have then obtained RAF agreement to keep BD711, with the TOC being backdated to 21 February arbitrarily. When they arrived at Trincomalee again on 7 March with Whittaker’s Hurricane also aboard, they may again have persuaded the RAF to let them keep it. (If there was a shortage of Merlins on Ceylon it would have done the RAF little good to take over two Hurricanes with duff engines.) Interestingly, most secondary sources say Indomitable had nine Sea Hurricanes at this time but I have seen a document dated 31 March 1942, probably produced by the Eastern Fleet, which says Indomitable had 11 Sea Hurricanes on that date. The addition of DB711 and Whittaker’s Hurricane to 880 NAS’s strength would explain the discepancy between these sources.

Cork has written his own book, called Naval Fighter Pilot. Perhaps it sheds some more light on the history of DB711. I’ve ordered a used copy via Chapters and when it arrives I’ll add another posting to this thread with whatever I can glean from it.

Cheers,

Rob