The story of aviation in the Royal Australian Navy divides into three phases, characterized by distinctive roles and equipment.

The first phase, marked by cruiser-borne reconnaissance aircraft, lasted from World War I until 1944. The second phase began after World War II and lasted until 1983. This phase was characterised by aircraft carriers operating a variety of aircraft for control of selected ocean areas and for projecting limited power ashore. The third phase, barely begun in 1986, is characterised by helicopters operating from frigates and other ships on a variety of maritime tasks.

Cruiser Aircraft

The first phase began in World War 1 when the Royal Australian Navy cruisers serving with the Royal Navy in the North Sea took part in the wartime development of naval aviation. British ships were subjected to reconnaissance by German Zeppelins which flew too high to be shot down by ships’ guns while they collected invaluable information.

Attempts to use fighter seaplanes against them failed because the sea was usually too rough for take-off, or drag from their floats reduced the fighter to impotence. Either way the Zeppelin escaped. As a desperate measure, wheeled fighter aircraft took off from platforms built over gun turrets to shoot down Zeppelins; the fighter ditched near a friendly ship after its task. This wasteful procedure was justified by the need for defence against Zeppelins. HMA Ships Australia, Sydney and Melbourne each carried a fighter on a flying-off platform.

Australia also carried a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft on a second flying-off platform. The Australian ships landed their aircraft before they left Britain after the war but the idea that warships needed aircraft had been absorbed by the RAN. However, Naval Board attempts to continue operating aircraft from warships were frustrated by the size of the ships available in Australia after HMAS Australia was paid off for economic reasons in 1920. In 1923 the naval staff regretfully decided that existing ships were too small to carry worthwhile aircraft under Australian operating conditions.

Interest in naval aviation revived with the 1924 Defence programme and, in January 1925, the Minister for Defence approved formation of the RAN Fleet Air Arm. Later in the year the Government announced that a seaplane carrier would be built inAustralia. This Australian Fleet Air Arm was a direct copy of the British scheme and needed co-operation between Navy and Air Force. However, the two services disagreed deeply on naval aviation and cabinet resolved the deadlock by abolishing the Fleet Air Arm. After 1 July 1928 the Air Force provided aircraft, pilots and maintenance personnel; the Navy provided observers and telegraphist air gunners and exercised command of embarked aircraft. This division of responsibility remained until the end ofWorld War II.

The seaplane carrier, HMAS Albatross, remained in commission from January 1929 until April 1933; she embarked Seagull Mark Ill wooden amphibians operated by 101 Flight of the RAAF. Albatross was designed to launch her aircraft by catapult and to recover them by crane after they alighted on the water. For a variety of reasons she did not have a catapult in this period and was reduced to finding sheltered bays in which she could hoist amphibians out onto the water for take-off. Despite her limitations, the seaplane carrier provided essential reconnaissance and gunnery spotting capabilities. The heavy cruisers sometimes carried a Seagull Mk 111 while Albatross was in commission and after she was paid-off, they regularly carried one until it was replaced a few years later. Use of aircraft by cruisers was also restricted by lack of a catapult.

Seaplane Carrier HMAS Albatross

Australia received the first operational aircraft catapult in the RAN in 1935 when she embarked the initial production Seagull Mark V. This amphibian was designed to a specification drawn up by the RAAF to improve on the Seagull Mark III. Twenty four were ordered by Australia and hundreds more were later built for the British services as the Walrus. When the Seagulls reached Australia, Albatross had been transferred to the Royal Navy and they operated from the cruisers only.

During the first years of World War II, cruisers took part in fleet operations in the European theatre and in trade protection in other parts of the world. Embarked aircraft proved useful for reconnaissance and spotting for the guns but vulnerable to fighters; aircraft from Sydney, Perth and Australia were shot down by other aircraft. Catapult aircraft were very successful in trade protection operations searching for raiders preying on commerce, and utilisation could be high if conditions were favourable for aircraft recovery. For example, HMAS Hobart’s aircraft flew 12 searches, mostly of three hours duration, in six days while searching for a German raider in the Indian Ocean.

Seagull Flying Boat Catapulted from HMAS Canberra

Japan’s entry into the war changed the character of war at sea for the RAN and fleet operations took priority over commerce protection; sweeps through the Coral Sea with USN ships underlined the value of cruiser aircraft. During one sweep in June 194 2four aircraft were catapulted at dawn from the task group to search ahead for Japanese warships. Cruiser aircraft flew anti-submarine searches around the entrance to Noumea as the cruisers entered the harbour at the end of the same operation. The highpoint for RAN cruiser aircraft was the landing at Guadalcanal where carrier-borne aircraft were employed exclusively in supporting the landing troops and were not available for ocean patrols. Cruiser aircraft maintained vitally important continuous daylight anti-submarine patrols of the amphibious assault area expecting that Japanese submarines would appear.

Amphibious operations came to characterise war in the Pacific after 1942 and, after Guadalcanal, there were many American aircraft carriers and numerous shore-based aircraft available. Cruiser aircraft were no longer needed, especially after tests had shown radar could record gunnery splashes. Australia was the last RAN cruiser to operate an amphibian and she landed her aircraft in April 1944 to end the cruiser phase in the Fleet Air Arm story.

Left: Flight Commander Robert Alexander Little, from Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia.

Although never serving with an Australian Unit he was and still is Australia's top scoring fighter 'Ace'.

Little travelled at his own expense to England and joined the Royal Navy Air Service in 1915.

He was shot down and killed in France in 1918 after achieving 47 confirmed victories.

In his time as a flyer with the RNAS he was awarded the DSO and Bar, DSC and Bar and a Croix de Guerre.

Little once stated "I did not want to live the life as an old coward".

He once single-handedly attacked a flight of 11 Albatross Scouts of the Baron Von Richthofen 'Flying Circus'.

 

 

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