HMS Pursuer in the Pacific summer 1945

Pursuer is not listed with the BPF in August 1945.
Striker,Arbiter,Chaser,Ruler,Slinger and Speaker are listed as replenishment carriers.
Vindex, Fencer and Reaper are listed as Ferry carriers.
Formidable,Indefatigable,Indomitable,Colussus,Glory, Venerable,Vengeance, Implacable and Victorious are listed as “carriers’

The British Pacific Fleet….David Hobbs

Most of what I can remember of his war stories is summarised below in a piece I wrote for his son to read at his funeral.
Leslie was bitten by the flying bug when, as an Air Training Corps cadet, he had a flight in a Fairy Fulmar (a carrier based fighter) from Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. At 17 ½, he joined the Fleet Air Arm as an officer cadet having volunteered for pilot training (which he justified to his family as avoiding being conscripted into the mines as a Bevin Boy). He began flying training in Canada where his adventures included crashing a Harvard and being briefly arrested by the Americans when a social trip accidentally crossed the border. Continuing training in South Africa, he crashed a Hellcat at the foot of Table Mountain, leaving an imprint of the gun-sight on his forehead for the rest of his days. Sub Lieutenant Leslie Barber RNVR joined the escort carrier HMS Pursuer in Ceylon and flew Hellcat fighters against Japanese air, land and sea forces until the war ended. He shot down two Japanese aircraft alone and shared two others with colleagues. Following a brief interlude test flying Hellcats returned to US specification before being dumped at sea, he returned to the UK and flew communications flights from Oban until demob’ in 1946.

My various books about the FAA either don’t mention Pursuer or only briefly, cover her work in Europe. The one exception is British Naval Aviation (Sturtivant) which puts 898 with Hellcats on Pursuer in the “East Indies” on VJ day. A long piece in that book quoting a member of 898 says that the Hellcats were disembarked on 18th August. The rest of that piece is about post VJ day events.

So, I am pretty sure my uncle’s stories put Pursuer in the right place at the right time but I just cannot find any detail.

PS my local independent book shop could not source the Winton novel new but has found it second-hand for me.

It seems that 881 was still at Wingfield on VJ Day, but Pursuer would not have hung around waiting. She’d have been given some other duty, and the Zipper operations seems as likely as ferrying aircraft to the BPF.

I haven’t found any other reference to squadrons being on board Pursuer in 1945, until 898 Sq boarded her in Katukurunda 20 Nov 1945. They were without aircraft. Although the date is late it may point to Indian Ocean operations rather then Pacific.

Thank you very much everybody.

The John Winton looks to be the correct one and I seem to be able to find plenty of second-hand copies on’t’internet if my local independent book shop cannot find it new.

I have found various passing references to Pursuer being in the Pacific for those last few weeks / months of the war to support my uncle’s stories (told to me 30+ years after the event). I will dig-out the books at home and combined with the above might be able to get somewhere. I might have a note somewhere of the relevant squadron number as well.

Before anyone else comes in, the Panama Canal would also have been an answer.

I was relying upon the brief history in Air Britain’s FAA Squadrons, and it gives no operational history for Pursuer after Normandy. Checking 899 Sq (mentioned in the link) this had Seafires and did not go out to the Far East on Pursuer but Chaser. Digging a bit further I find Pursuer had 881 Sq with Wildcats in the Aegean (after Normandy), and sailed to South Africa where the squadron re-equipped with Hellcats. However, the squadron history says that they should have left SA in September, working up for the 12th Aircraft carrier group in the Pacific, but the war ended first.

Checking the 12th CAG, this was to be a spare CAG for Indomitable having 881 and 885 with Hellcats, 845 with Avengers and a planned 1774 with Fireflies, but cancelled after VJ Day. The 21st CAG (from the link) was intended for a Colossus-class carrier with 806 Seafire and 817 Barracuda squadrons, but never formed.

So the references seem to be in a bit of a tangle, between themselves and among themselves, but it does seem that Pursuer did indeed cross the Equator. How much further it got remains doubtful. The details in the original posting does fit well with the 881 Squadron history, which leaves us puzzled as to where the Zipper story should apply.

HMS Pursuer naval-history.net info

http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-05CVE-Pursuer.htm

Looks like she didn’t make it to the pacific till late 45 was involved in the malayan landings Operation Zipper in August 1945

Accessed via the North East or North West passage?

HMS Pursuer carried only Wildcats and only operated in the Northern Hemisphere.

That covers much of the combat zone in the Pacific then … 😀

I recognise the book, which is a bit imaginative in its final conflict, but HMS Pursuer carried only Wildcats and only operated in the Northern Hemisphere.

The CVEs in the Pacific were almost entirely (entirely?) in the role of ferry vessels. For example, Speaker was with the BPF but only operated one unit of Hellcats from Dec 1944 to April 1945. Ruler however did have Hellcats until September 1945. Other CVEs did see a lot of service in the Indian Ocean in the final years of the war, often with Hellcats. Shah, Rajah.

I think we need a little more information – the squadron number would be ideal.

i think i remember the book you mean, it might be ‘aircraft carrier’ by john winton, main character called ‘skipper’!