USN air groups on RN CV?

[Aerosol2207]

It is April 42, I have suffered a significant defeat which has left me short on carriers. I recently learned that in real life, the Royal Navy essentially "leased" a carrier to the USN to cover the gap in time between the carrier battles of 1942 and when the Americans went to ludicrous speed in producing late war carriers.

I have HMS Formidable available in the Indian Ocean, the FAA aircraft do not appear very useful, I was wondering if I move the ship out to, say Australia, would I be able to conduct operations with USN/USMC air groups?

Alternatively, is it even worthwhile trying to use the Albacores, Swordfish, et al in serious combat? Thus far I have only attempted one offensive operation which was an abortive raid on Singpaore launched from the west side of Sumatra, but to no good effect. Thanks for any insight.

[dr.hal]

Although the game is great and fun, it's unrealistic in many details. One such detail is carrier aircraft and what aircraft can go on or fit in which CV. In the game you can station any CV capable a/c on any CV, so yes you can put UK units on USA CVs and suffer no penalties. No training required! Like sub tenders, where a US tender can resupply a Dutch sub with torpedoes, a US CV can host Swordfish! But in the face of playability many historical details/difficulties were overlooked or ignored! BTW, in the absence of CAP, Swordfish can be quite deadly!

[Aerosol2207]

That is good to know. If I remember, in the actual war, the British carrier kept their own air groups but they swapped out their own aircraft and were given U.S.-types with a British paint job, e.g. Avengers, Wildcats, etc. (after some hasty refitting in Norfolk to accomodate these aircraft).

So if I understand correct, I could move the Formidable to Sydney and load her up with USN air groups. Will probably leave the FAA stuff behind to protect the coast ofSri Lanka / Southern India.

[dr.hal]

yes you can do that swop! However do remember that UK torpedoes are far more effective than US torpedoes (including air dropped) until late in the war.... so it's a tradeoff....

[RangerJoe]

The RN Torpedo aircraft operated from the (dry) US Aircraft carrier while the US fighters operated from the (wet) RN aircraft carrier USS Robin (HMS Victorious) so it did happen.

http://armchairgeneral.com/uss-robin-th ... -exist.htm

[Huw Jones]

Very Interesting link Ranger Joe, as it happened my father served on that carrier (I think) after the war, before becoming a submariner.

[RangerJoe]

Very Interesting link Ranger Joe, as it happened my father served on that carrier (I think) after the war, before becoming a submariner.

Well, the Victorious did serve for a long time after the war until an accident occurred during a refit/repair time. Here are a couple of more links, the first one has some first person commentary like:

The final addition to the ship, that he considered truly made Victorious into a USN ship, was the installation of three ice cream machines and a coca-cola machine.

https://www.armouredcarriers.com/uss-ro ... victorious

Those poor sailors having to eat freshly made ice cream while in the tropics!

embrace the suck.jpg (69.19 KiB) Viewed 587 times

Here is another article:

https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by- ... robin.html

[BBfanboy]

I wonder if Huw Jones' father's reassignment to submarines was because of his involvement in the 'refit accident'? /jk!

[Huw Jones]

BBFanboy, well he was a chief petty officer and the fire started in the chief petty officers mess, jajaja.

But he was on the submarines then in Gosport, HMS Dolphin, where I lived then at the ripe old age of 3, jaja.

[Huw Jones]

https://www.armouredcarriers.com/uss-ro ... victorious

Very interesting, thanks.

[RangerJoe]

https://www.armouredcarriers.com/uss-ro ... victorious

Very interesting, thanks.

You are most welcome.

Of course, the Royal Navy did have to get used to the American methods but they did learn how to have massive carrier raids from the Americans. Yes, the Royal Navy had done raids before but they were mostly lonely carriers and not the larger American carrier groupings with the larger air groups.