Operation Hurry
Operation Hurry | |||||||
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Part of the Second World War | |||||||
HMS Argus, photographed in the late 1920s | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom | Kingdom of Italy | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
James Somerville Andrew Cunningham | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Force H Fleet Air Arm |
Regia Aeronautica Regia Marina | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 aircrew killed 2 aircrew taken prisoner 2 aircraft lost |
4 aircraft destroyed in Sardinia 2 aircraft shot down |
Operation Hurry (31 July – 4 August 1940) was the first British operation in a series that have come to be known as Club Runs. The goal of the operation was to fly twelve Hurricane Mk I fighters from HMS Argus to Malta, guided by two Blackburn Skuas. Force H, based in Gibraltar, took the opportunity to raid Elmas airfield in Sardinia and conduct a deception operation with HMS Enterprise. The Mediterranean Fleet conducted diversions in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.
A squadron of Hurricanes had reinforced Malta, Elmas airfield had been bombed and Italian bombers had been deterred by anti-aircraft fire and the Skuas of Ark Royal. Attacks on the Italian mainland had been shown to be possible and the Regia Aeronautica had been found to be less formidable than had been feared; both fleets had been attacked but only one bomb hit by a dud and some near-misses on the British ships had been achieved; the battle fleet of the Regia Marina remained in port.
Background
Malta, 1940
Prelude
HMS Argus
Flying Hurricane reinforcements across France to North Africa in June, thence to Malta had been a partial success but after the French surrender in June 1940 this practice became impossible. Aircraft could be carried in merchant ships to West Africa, assembled and flown to Egypt on the
The FAA had no pilots trained on modern fighters; during July, nine fighter sergeant-pilots from RAF Fighter Command were sent to RAF Uxbridge and called 418 Flight.[6] The pilots had served secondments to the FAA and had received training in flying from aircraft carriers. The pilots collected Hurricanes and travelled to Glasgow where they were briefed on the first Club Run and joined by five RAF officers. The aircraft and pilots were embarked on the aircraft carrier Argus (Captain Henry Bovell) which sailed on 23 July with twelve Hurricane Mk1s, escorted by the destroyers HMS Encounter, Greyhound, Gallant and Hotspur.[7] A suggestion that two Blenheim bombers be embarked on Argus to act as guides was dismissed as impractical, leading to two Skuas being substituted, along with a couple of spare pilots, who were to travel in the Skuas. The voyage to Gibraltar was uneventful and the Hurricanes were reassembled and put on the fight deck. A Sunderland flying boat, one of two which were to fly with the Hurricanes to rescue pilots who came down in the sea, was loaded with spare parts. The second Sunderland embarked 23 RAF ground crew to maintain the Hurricanes on Malta.[6][a]
Plan
The plan for Hurry was for Group II, the aircraft carrier
Club Run, 31 July
On 31 July, after a reconnaissance by aircraft from
Operations
Operation Hurry
On 1 August, the pilots received a briefing from Bovell, Captain of Argus, revealing that they were bound for Malta. The pilots were aghast when they were told where they were to take off from, which was far outside the range of a Hurricane. Flight-Lieutenant Duncan Balden, the commander of 418 Flight, refused to take off so far west of Malta and eventually the captain broke radio silence to consult the authorities in Britain who supported the Hurricane pilots. The take of point was moved to 37° 40', N 007° 20' E 360 nmi (670 km; 410 mi) instead of 400 nmi (740 km; 460 mi), about 120 nmi (220 km; 140 mi) south-west of Cagliari. Now that the position of Force H was known, Bovell decided that the Hurricanes must fly as soon as possible after dawn the next day, 2 August.[6]
Two flights of six Hurricanes each led by a Skua, which carried a navigator, were to make the journey but it was found that the two FAA pilots lacked experience on Skuas and two of the Hurricane pilots, Flying Officer Bradbury and Sergeant Harry Ayre volunteered, with Sub Lieutenant W. R. Nowell and Captain K. L. Ford (Royal Marines) as navigators. The fourteen aircraft ranged on deck made the take-off run look exceedingly small to the pilots and at 4:45 a.m., the first Skua took a long time to start, delaying take-off for thirty minutes. The Skua began its take-off run, bounced on the ramp at the end of the flight deck and sank below the bows, skimming the sea, building up flying speed.[6]
The six Hurricanes took off easily, having more powerful engines and this made room for the second flight. The Skuas and Hurricanes avoided Pantelleria and arrived at Malta after a flight of two hours and twenty minutes, having flown 380 nmi (700 km; 440 mi).[11] As the Hurricanes began to land at Luqa, Sergeant Jock Robinson crashed on landing, due to a "faulty petrol gauge" but really because his vic of three aircraft beat up the airfield, Rose rolling his Hurricane as the other two climbed steeply. Rose came in to land with a low steep turn and as he lined up with the runway, the engine cut, the Hurricane flipped on its back and ran through three stone walls, Rose being lucky to suffer only mild concussion. The Hurricane pilots had been under the impression that their carrier experience was being used to ferry the Hurricanes to Malta and there was uproar when they were told that they were to stay on the island, rather than fly back to Gibraltar in the Sunderlands. The Hurricane pilots had to wait for the rest of the spares to arrive in the submarines HMS Pandora and Proteus. The pilots took turns to be the readiness flight, sitting in their cockpits waiting for the Italian bombers but there were no attacks, only reconnaissance flights for the next three days.[11]
Mediterranean Fleet
The Mediterranean Fleet sailed early on 27 July to cover Convoy AS 2 (Aegean South, Alexandria to Piraeus) from the north which was escorted by two cruisers and four destroyers. On 23 July the cruiser HMS Orion and the destroyers HMAS Vampire and HMS Vendetta practised a ruse, off Kastellorizo near the Turkish coast, pretending to make landing preparations. The deception was repeated on 26 July before Convoy AS 2 sailed, when the armed boarding vessels Chakla and Fiona also made spurious preparations for a landing on Kastellorizo. A delay to the departure of Argus from Gibraltar to 31 July required Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, to alter his plans to divert Italian attention from the western Mediterranean. The battleships HMS Malaya, Royal Sovereign and Warspite and the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle with the cruisers Neptune and HMAS Sydney and ten destroyers, were to sail between Crete and Libya during 1 August. [9]
Cruisers and destroyers conducted a sweep in the Aegean with a demonstration westwards, via the
Operation Crush
Group I, Ark Royal, Hood, the cruiser Enterprise and the destroyers Faulknor, Foxhound, Foresight and Forester detached from the main force to conduct Operation Crush, an attack on Elmas airfield at Cagliari in Sardinia as Group II, Argus, Valiant, Hotspur, Greyhound, Gallant. Escapade, Encounter and Velox continued towards the Malta flying-off point.[7] On 2 August, at 2:30 a.m. nine Swordfish bombers and three minelayers began to take off from Ark Royal. Somerville wrote later that he watched,
...in the pitch dark... a small shadow detach itself from the great shadow of the Ark. The first Swordfish taking off. And then I thought of those incredibly gallant chaps taking off...to fly 140 miles.[15]
A Swordfish crashed on take-off but a search by the destroyers for its crew could not find them. The rest waited until daylight then flew the 140 nmi (260 km; 160 mi) towards the target. The wind veered from south to west which ruined the flight plan, blowing the Swordfish to the south, delaying the aircraft so that they attacked in daylight, rather than at dawn. The Italian anti-aircraft fire was intense and damaged one Swordfish which made an emergency landing on the airfield. The two hangars were hit and set on fire, four aircraft and several buildings were destroyed. The Swordfish mine-layers dropped their mines in Cagliari harbour without loss.[16] After the Swordfish had taken off the ships turned south to rendezvous with Group II and at 4:45 a.m. swordfish were sent eastwqards to search for the Italian ships reported to have sailed north through the Straits of Messina and south-south-east to find Group II; Nine Skuas flew overhead to protect the fleet and the Swordfish returning from Cagliari.[15]
Operation Spark
At 8:30 p.m. Enterprise departed from Group I to carry out Operation Spark, a wireless deception to the north of
1–4 August
On 1 August, the British submarine
Aftermath
Analysis
A squadron of Hurricane aircraft had reinforced Malta, Elmas airfield had been bombed and Italian bombers had been deterred by anti-aircraft fire and the Skuas of Ark Royal. Attacks on the Italian mainland had been shown to be possible and the Regia Aeronautica had been found to be less formidable than had been feared. The training of Force H instituted by Somerville had been a success and Force H had begun to establish itself in the Mediterranean.[19] Operation Hurry, the first Club Run to reinforce the RAF on Malta, had succeeded..[20]
Casualties
The British suffered the loss of two Swordfish aircraft, one crew being killed and the other taken prisoner. Four Italian aircraft were destroyed on the ground at Elmas airfield near Cagliari in Sardinia and two bombers were shot down by the Skuas of Ark Royal, with no survivors.[19]
Notes
- ^ Operation Hurry became the first of the Club Runs which, from August 1940 to March 1942, delivered Hurricanes and then Spitfires until October 1942. The runs carried 764 fighters, twelve turned back and landed on the aircraft carrier and 34 of which were lost.[8]
- ^ Malaya had chronic problems with salt water leaking into its condensers.[13]
- ^ On his return to metropolitan France, Daladier was imprisoned in the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps until the liberation of 1945.[13]
Footnotes
- ^ Roskill 1957, pp. 293–294.
- ^ Richards & Saunders 1975, pp. 169–170.
- ^ Holland 2003, p. 417.
- ^ Shankland & Hunter 1961, p. 92.
- ^ Ireland 2003, p. 29.
- ^ a b c d e Cull & Galea 2001, pp. 21–22.
- ^ a b Woodman 2003, p. 58.
- ^ Dannreuther 2005, p. 43.
- ^ a b c Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 34.
- ^ Titterton 2011, p. 52.
- ^ a b c Cull & Galea 2001, p. 22.
- ^ Woodman 2003, pp. 58, 60.
- ^ a b c Woodman 2003, p. 478.
- ^ Playfair et al. 1957, p. 159.
- ^ a b c Woodman 2003, p. 59.
- ^ Woodman 2003, p. 59; Rossiter 2007, pp. 109–110.
- ^ Woodman 2003, pp. 60–61.
- ^ Woodman 2003, p. 60.
- ^ a b c Rossiter 2007, pp. 109–110.
- ^ Smith 2008, p. 122.
References
- Cull, Brian; Galea, Frederick (2001). Hurricanes over Malta June 1940 – April 1942. London: Grub Street. ISBN 1-902304-91-8.
- Dannreuther, Raymond (2005). Somerville's Force H: The Royal Navy's Gibraltar-based Fleet, June 1940 to March 1942. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 1-84513-020-0.
- Holland, James (2003). Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege, 1940–1943. New York: Miramax Books. ISBN 978-1-4013-5186-1.
- Ireland, Bernard (2003). War in the Mediterranean. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-84415-047-2.
- OCLC 494123451.
- Richards, D.; Saunders, H. St G. (1975) [1954]. Royal Air Force 1939–45: The Fight Avails. Vol. II (repr. ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 978-0-11-771593-6. Archivedfrom the original on 1 January 2019.
- ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
- from the original on 27 February 2022.
- Rossiter, Mike (2007) [2006]. Ark Royal: The Life, Death and Rediscovery of the Legendary Second World War Aircraft Carrier (ePUB ed.). London: Corgi. ISBN 978-1-4464-6394-9.
- Shankland, Peter; Hunter, Anthony (1961). Malta Convoy. London: Collins. OCLC 10394061.
- Smith, Peter Charles (2008). The Great Ships: British Battleships in World War II. Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3514-8.
- Titterton, G. A. (2011) [2002]. The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean: September 1939 – October 1940. Naval Staff Histories. Vol. I (published version of a secret document of 1952 ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-5179-8.
- Woodman, Richard (2003). Malta Convoys 1940–1943. London: John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-6408-5.
Further reading
- Jones, Ben, ed. (2012). The Fleet Air Arm in the Second World War: Norway, the Mediterranean and the Bismarck 1939–1941. Publications of the Navy Records Society (No. 159). Vol. I (ePUB ed.). Farnham: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society. ISBN 978-1-4724-0422-0.