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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1065.PDF
662 FLIGH: Illustrated by "Flight" Photographs Flying over the ship in salute, the 17th Carrier Air Croup, comprising 807 and 810 Squadrons, set course for Lee-on- Solent. "THESEUS" COMES HOME Welcoming Ceremony at Portsmouth and Presentation of Boyd Trophy by Lord Fraser UNDER a grey sky and in a drizzle of rain on Tuesdaymorning, May 29th, the light fleet carrier H.M.S.Theseus steamed slowly up Spithead to Portsmouth. It was nine months since she had been in these waters, and during that time she had not only upheld the greatest tradi- tions of the Royal Navy, but had lifted the prestige of British Naval Aviation to a level which, although it may be matched, will probably never be eclipsed. As she approached the harbour entrance, signal lights blinkedtheir welcoming messages from Fort Blockhouse, Gilkicker Point Fort Vernon and the dockyard signal tower. Slowly the ship camealongside the South Railway Jetty, and the packed ranks of waiting parents, wives, sweethearts and children raised continuous cheers;they vigorously waved handkerchiefs, and then started singing "All the nice girls love a sailor" and "There'll always be an Eng-land." Gently the dockyard tugs nosed the ship alongside; heaving lines were thrown and hawsers secured; the Jack and the WhiteEnsign were hoisted and, simultaneously, the ship's visual call- sign was lowered. Theseus was home. By invitation of the Admiralty, we were able to join Theseus atFalmouth on the Monday morning for her journey up-Channel. When we arrived there were grey skies and a hint of rain in the mildCornish atmosphere, but by lunch-time the clouds had lifted away before a fresh easterly breeze, and the sun shone brightly tomake the dark blue-green sea glint and sparkle. At four o'clock in the afternoon we weighed anchor and steamedout into the Channel. Thirty-five minutes later the signal "start engines" was given from Flying Control, and simultaneously theSea Furies and Fireflies ranged on deck belched blue smoke and started their airscrews turning. The 13 Sea Furies were all cata-pulted off, led by the Air Group Commander, 17th C.A.G., Lt. Cdr. P. M. Gordon-Smith, D.S.C., R.N., and here we wereable to see some measure of the ship's efficiency, for the average interval between launches for the whole Sea Fury squadron wasbut 44.5 sec, and this included the fitting of a new catapult strop. We were told, however, that this was "not particularly good";Theseus generally reckoned to achieve an interval of 42 sec and, in fact, on one occasion had got down to 40.2 sec. The Sea Furies werefollowed by four of the six Fireflies—the remaining two were delayed in order to take press photographs ashore—and all theFireflies made free take-offs with an average interval of 14 sec. The Air Group then formed up into four flights of four abreast inline-astern with the A.G.C. in the lead position and, to the accom- paniment of spontaneous cheers from those on deck, flew directlyover the ship in salute and headed for Lee-on-Solent. Capt. A. S. Bolt, D.S.C., R.N., commanding Theseus, said of theship's tour of operations in the Far East that, although it seemed not to be generally realised in this country that the British con-tribution to the war in Korea was not numerically as great as it might be, they in Theseus had realised it, and so felt that the ship Capt. A. S. Bolt, D.S.C. and Bar, R.N., Captain of the ship, and his Commander Air). Cdr. A. F. •lack, D.S.C., R.N. had to do "a quality job." Britain's light fleet carriers had^beenbuilt too late to engage in the last war, but we had more, light fleets than any other type of carrier, and in the event of anotherwar, they would be the mainstay of Naval Aviation. For this reason, 'Theseus was worked hard in order to show up any weakspots. In the event, it had been an agreeable surprise, for the ship stood up to operational conditions very well. Since the war, the personnel of Naval Aviation had been largelyreorganised, partcularly the maintenance side. The Korean tour had been the first real test of the new maintenance scheme, and theserviceability record of the Air Group spoke for itself. The air- craft were sound and were well-made, but they had needed a gooddeal of work done on them, and had constantly been operated- very successfully—at full load. Of the aircrews, Captain Bolt saidthat their flying had been exceptionally good, but that this was, perhaps, only to be expected, because they largely comprisedregular general-service officers whose experience was greater than would perhaps normally apply. Many of the pilots were potentialsquadron commanders, and would undoubtedly become so in rhe event of war in the comparatively near future. The ship's companyhad. been first-rate. Mostly the men were on seven- and five-year engagements, but there were a good many Reservists. Theseus took over from Triumph last September, and startedoperating on October 9th. At the end of October she went down to Hong Kong to take part in exercises for the Hong Kong DefenceForces, this being the other part of the ship's role in the Far East theatre. In December, however, when the Chinese suddenlyentered the struggle, Theseus left the exercises in a hurry, and from December 5th to December 28th operated virtually non-stco.The operational cycle embraced intensive flying to the extent oi roughly 50 sorties per day for four consecutive days, followed hyone day for replenishment; this was followed by four or five days continuous operation, after which the ship went back to harbourfor provisioning, re-arming, etc.; then the cycle started again. For the most part, the ship was operating in the Yellow Sea
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