The British Carrier Strike Fleet After 1945

This is an interesting book for those that are interested in Post WW2 UK Naval policy, Royal Navy Aircraft carrier developments and the larger role or purpose of aircraft development. The overall thesis of this book seems to be that if the RN and the larger UK government had chosen to support building and maintenance of even a modest carrier force with a one for one replacement, then they could have been able to be stronger allies in the post colonial world and potentially been better able to respond to various world crisis. Now it should also be said upfront that the author has a vested interested in this topic and the discussion because he was there on the ground from the end of conventional fixed wing aviation and the arrival of the Harrier and the Illustrious class of ships. That said, it isn't until the vary end he interjects personal opinions about the topics on hand and instead tries very hard to remain outside as a historian looking in. The text is heavy with notes both for personal notes as the author viewed a subject at the time (again trying to not clutter his historical view of operations and developments with personal basis) and to references of actual memos, reports and interviews with individuals that helped to make decisions to eliminate the Royal Navy carrier force after the end of the 2nd World War.The book starts at end of the Second World War in Tokyo Bay and talks of how the Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Navy was supposed to participate in the multi national fly over at the conclusion of the peace ceremonies but couldn't because they couldn't get the aircraft into the air. It then moves thru how the new government in the UK at the time instead of trying to pay the US for the leased aircraft offered to return them. Scores of TBM Avengers, F6F Hellcats, F4U Corsairs were then loaded onto barges and just dumped into the sea because the US didn't want these aircraft back as well and were willing to take the write off. Personnel issues and trying to make manning work in a leaner and smaller force saw a number of folks who were enrolled for the duration being discharged from all over. That lead to a large skills drain. On top of that there were a number of ships that were heavily damaged after the invasion of Okinawa. Moving forward the introduction of jets to the Navy and the Royal Navy tries to go down paths which wasted money and time for a number of years, the rubber deck concept and seaplanes, even when those ideas were falling out of favor. The Korean War, the Suez Crisis, the various colonial spats and the development and retreat of aircraft and ship development in the Royal Navy are all discussed in this book. The framing device that the author uses is a major combat operation, such as the Korean War, and in the same process talks of the development of aircraft, the discussions about the future ships or upgrades to ships and the manpower issues within some of the larger gun vs butter debates that the UK government had during the seventy years that the 2nd World War ended and into 2015 when the manuscript was published.A couple of interesting take aways in this book is that for the better part of a decade the Royal Navy had the same bomber vs carrier debate the US Navy and US Military had in 1949. However, instead of having a revolt of the admirals like the US Navy had. Instead you had some who chose to try and give a little ground and lessen the threat from the RAF wanting to preserve a bomber force. Which was only reduced to nothing after the ballistic missiles arrived and the surface to air missiles removed the bomber command's ability to fly high and fly fast.Another interesting take away that blew my mind was that the British Aviation industry wasn't really an industry, at least according to the author's descriptions, instead it was almost comical in how they built aircraft. Handcrafted prototypes with minimal input on how to actually build the design. Then having to pull apart the winning design piece by piece to "build" the drawings on how to manufacture the aircraft. This lead to large scale cost increases and long lead times to get new aircraft into service. Finally, it appears that the author describes a number of times in weapons design and selection the RN and FAA could have had modern US weapons, but the "not built here" syndrome struck and the financing of mediocre weapons over long periods when there were more capable or outright better designs in the US inventory which could have been purchased or licensed.This is an interesting book and worthwhile addition to any military historian's library.

A very readable history of the Fleet Air Arm and the fight to resource it since 1945 in the face of RAF parochialism and duplicity, and ignorance and anti-aviation partisanship at the highest levels of the RN in the 60s. Should be required reading for any naval officer in a procurement role.

A fascinating study of British naval air power since World War II, covering not just operational details - though that is covered in extensive detail - but also the philosophy, planning (or lack thereof), design and execution of naval aviation policy. Hobbs hold back no punches in his criticism of political ignorance and meddling, and of lack of understanding by RAF and, yes, Royal Navy brass as they charted a wobbly course in the late fifties and sixties. Hobbs is, obviously, biased in his championing of naval air power, but his arguments are cogent and well made. I found this a good read and can highly recommend it to those who want to understand the subject better. Not recommended for those with high blood pressure who lament the decline of British sea power....... ;0)

A good overview history, marred (in the Kindle version) by an absence of specifications and excessive details on operations. But a useful history, particularly on the decline of the Admiralty and a British nuclear policy.

A long needed evaluation of the role and develpoment of british carrier thought and praxis. Unmissable.

Well research and written piece. A must have for serious amateurs of naval matters.

This is a valuable addition to the literature on post war British naval aviation; but that is hardly surprising when Commander Hobbs served through the fixed wing era of the big carriers that came to a close when Ark Royal was retired in early 1979 and was later the Curator of the Fleet Air Arm Museum.This book neatly bridges the gap between Eric Grove's 1987 'From Vanguard to Trident' and more specialised books published in the period from 2011 to 2013 by Ashgate in the Corbett Centre For Maritime Policy Series by Gjert Lage Lyndal, Tim Benbow and Edward Hampshire. Hobbs' book can be read alone but access to Norman Friedman's excellent book on British Carrier Aviation usefully provides more technical detail on the ships of this period and has a wider collection of quality photographs. Nevertheless Hobbs' book covers the gap between the policy focus of the Corbett Centre books and the more naval architecture orientated focus of Friedman's work.In common with most Fleet Air Arm personnel of the pre-1979 fixed wing period Hobbs deeply rues the 1966 decision to retire the post-war carriers, and not to build CVA-01; he also describes the highly partisan position taken by the RAF at that time.Hobbs explains in a thorough manner why that 1966 decision was so deeply flawed and he then moves on to describe the numerous unforeseen consequence, one of which was the Falklands War which would have been deterred by an adequate RN Strike Carrier. Hobbs also explains why naval aviation continues to be such a contentious issue in his comprehensive debunking of historic and ongoing claims that land based aircraft can do all that a carrier based aircraft can do.Most importantly this is a well written, well argued and enjoyable book to read and it is far from dry and is recommended as an addition to any good naval history bookshelf.

In my view this book is one of the finest naval reference books I have ever read. David Hobbs has compiled a book which deserves to be on the bookshelf of every student of Royal Navy history and / or the Fleet Air Arm post war. It is packed with fascinating in depth information on the Strike Carrier Fleet post war and throws light on its fluctuating fortunes and the factors contributing to them. He gives a reasoned judgement of the decision making which shaped the history of the Strike Carrier Fleet since the war right up until the recent advent of the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers. Thoroughly recommended.

A thorough and comprehensive account of the Royal Navy's carrier capability since World War 2. It emphasises how important a carrier is, as when one arrives in a theatre, the whole balance of power can change. Carriers can deter potential aggression as well as deal with it once it has started, such as in the Mombasa Channel in the 1960's. They also have a humanitarian role in disaster relief, as well as moving supplies and troops. The book is well written by David Hobbs who served in carriers himself, so he knows a lot about them. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in this subject.

An excellent book on the history of carriers since WW2. This sets out the need for carriers which can often prevent conflicts starting. The presence of these ships can give a country an advantage beyond those of land based aircraft. A must read especially for politicians.

Very comprehensive story of Britain's aircraft carrier fleet and the multifarious carrier air-power projection activities that they were involved in over the decades. Very readable by a respected naval aviation historian - David Hobbs. My only qualm is that the photographic pages would have been better served by glossy paper.