small escort and merchant aircraft carriers, and it was one of the few combat aircraft to operate throughout the Second World War. These Swordfish, photographed in 1944, carry underwing rocket rails with which to attack U-boats. (David Hobbs)
Queen Elizabeth was subject to a more complete modernisation than Warspite, the main difference being that she received a uniform secondary battery of 4.5in guns in the new BD mounting which had been under development since the 1920s. The turret-top guns are twin power-driven Oerlikons. Unlike later battleships, she could not accommodate more pom-poms in addition to the four installed on modernisation. She is shown off Hampton Roads after a US refit, 2 June 1943.
Throughout the inter-war period, the Royal Navy tried to maintain a modern fleet by adding weapons and equipment on a step by step basis. The basis of anti-aircraft fire control, the HACS, came first, because once it was in place medium-calibre guns could be added as required. Photographed in 1934, Ramilles shows what was done before the major fleet rearmament begun in 1936. She has a HA director atop her foretop, an octuple pompom (on the platform abeam her funnel, under the two searchlights), and four 4in guns Mk V. These upper-deck guns were relatively easy to replace later with twin mounts, because neither they nor the twins was power-driven or penetrated the upper deck. The major pre-war upgrade to this and similar ships was to replace the single guns with twins.
Warspite was subject to an elaborate modernisation which provided her with the standard automatic battery of a modern capital ship: four octuple pompoms. She also had sided HA directors, so that she could engage attacks from both sides simultaneously (less modern battleships with a single director could not do so). She was also given the new quadruple 0.5in machine guns, which are visible atop her superfiring turrets. The coloured stripes on ‘B’ turret were added during the Spanish Civil War, to indicate to the combatants that she was part of the neutrality patrol. Note that the pom-poms were not shielded.
Once it accepted that war in European waters was possible (in the mid-1930s), the Royal Navy took steps to provide air protection to shipping, in the form both of new escorts (sloops and ‘Hunts’) and conversions of older warships. The air part of a sea war in the Pacific would have been fought, it was imagined, far from shipping routes. European trade routes were all within easy range of land-based aircraft. The potential of air attacks against shipping was demonstrated during the Spanish Civil War, 1936–9. Coventry was the first, armed with 4in Mk V guns taken from ships being rearmed with twin 4in mounts under a major fleet upgrade programme. She is shown in 1940. The shrouded object in ‘B’ position is a multiple pom-pom.
Although war with Italy was averted, European war was increasingly possible, presenting a horrific nightmare in which Britain might have to fight Japan and a European power (probably Germany and possibly Italy as well) at much the same time. Throughout the late 1930s, the Admiralty’s only solution was to fight and defeat the Japanese fleet first, then swing the British fleet back to Europe to face the less powerful fleets there. The opposite sequence did not bear thinking about, because war in Europe would exact attrition and might also occupy so much of the fleet that it would be badly outnumbered in the East – which was exactly what happened.
In 1937–9 the Spanish Civil War demonstrated that in European waters aircraft were an effective anti-shipping weapon, perhaps on a par with (or more dangerous than) submarines, because land-based aircraft would often be within range of shipping and because Asdic (sonar) was thought to have largely solved the submarine problem. From 1937 on considerable effort went into converting warships (and preparing to convert merchant ships) specifically to defend merchant shipping against air attacks. This was apart from the threat, which may not have been appreciated before the outbreak of war, of air-laid mines in harbours. Only the Royal Navy seems to have paid attention to shipping protection against air attack during the run-up to the Second World War. The other major navies concentrated on the air threat to warships.
Anti-aircraft is more than defensive guns. Given limited carrier capacity and a much larger Japanese carrier force, how could the Royal Navy protect itself? The Blackburn Skua was one answer. By dive-bombing it could destroy or at least disable the Japanese carriers and thus gain air superiority. It also had air-to-air capability, but that was a distant second to dive bombing. This Skua is diving with its dive brakes open, in an attitude which would later be called glide bombing. (David Hobbs)
King George V shows the standard anti-aircraft outfit as applied to a first-line battleship at the outbreak of war: a fully dual-purpose secondary battery (in this case of 5.25in guns) and four octuple pom-poms. This was more powerful than that of any other navy: the US standard automatic battery at the time was three or four quadruple 1.1in guns and eight single 0.5in. As in the Queen Elizabeths, all four pom-pom mounts were concentrated in her forward superstructure, each with its own director in a small tub at a higher level. No pom-poms or other anti-aircraft weapons were mounted atop the after superstructure, which at this stage was used for the ship’s boats. The Royal Navy view was that to retain its mobility the fleet had to carry its own ships’ boats. The US Navy set up boat pools at its bases, which enabled it to spread more light anti-aircraft guns over its ships. The Y-shaped structure carried two HA director towers which controlled the twin 5.25in guns on the deck below. Around the base of the main battery director are anti-aircraft lookout sights, used to indicate incoming targets to the Air Defence Officer – a feature unique to the Royal Navy at this time. This air defence platform, open to the sky, was adjacent to the open upper bridge (compass platform) on which the ship’s officers stood, so that the ADO could have immediate access to the ship’s CO. No lighter weapons are evident in the photographs. The design originally called for four quadruple 0.5in guns, but they were apparently eliminated when the turret-top pom-poms were added. By February 1940, plans called for six pom-poms, the other two atop ‘B’ and ‘X’ turrets (rockets were mounted instead when the ship was completed, due to a shortage of pom-poms). Both ships armed with rockets (King George V and Prince of Wales) had them replaced with octuple pom-poms when the latter became available in sufficient numbers later in 1941, and Prince of Wales also had a single hand-operated Bofors on her quarterdeck at the time of her loss (it continued to fire after she lost power). King George V is shown on the voyage to the United States in January 1941 on which Ambassador Lord Halifax was taken to Annapolis, the closest port to Washington. (Naval Institute Collection)
Until about 1936, the Royal Navy expected the major air threat at sea to be against its fleet. Since destroyers were agile, they were unlikely to be singled out for attack, which would be concentrated on capital ships. It followed that a destroyer gun elevating to 40° could usefully support the capital ships. The ‘Tribal’ class was designed specifically for such support, with four twin 4.7in guns capable of 40° elevation. The subsequent ‘K’ and ‘N’ classes had the same gun. An RAN destroyer displays her forward twin 4.7in guns in the Southwest Pacific during the Second World War. (State Library of Victoria)
Caledon, shown here on 1 February 1944, typified the production version of the anti-aircraft (shipping protection) cruiser,
