HMS Audacity: Escort Carrier 1940-1941 World Naval Ships Forums Archive

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HMS Audacity: Escort Carrier 1940-1941 World Naval Ships Forums Archive

HMS Audacity: Escort Carrier 1940-1941

Posts 1 to 26

The ship began life originally as a German merchant ship named MV Hannover she was captured by the Royal Navy in the West Indies in March 1940, eventually she was reconfigured as an escort carrier and renamed HMS Audacity, she was also the very first escort carrier of the Royal Navy.. The Hannover was a 5537 BRT Lloyd ship by Bremer Vulkan which entered service in 1939 under Kapitän Wahnschaff. While attempting to return as a blockade-runner to Germany from the West Indies she was sighted and ordered to stop on the night of 7/8 March 1940 by the light cruiser HMS Dunedin and the (Canadian) destroyer HMCS Assiniboine. The order was ignored and she unsuccessfully attempted to escape, whereupon the captain instructed that the sea cocks be opened and the ship be set on fire. Nevertheless the British boarded her, closed the sea cocks and fought for four days against the fire, eventually saving the ship which was then towed to Jamaica. She became first Sinbad, then Empire Audacity and was commissioned as an "Ocean Boarding Vessel" in November 1940. She was then given over to Blyth Shipbuilding Ltd in January 1941 for conversion to an escort carrier. Conversion was completed in time for commissioning on 20 June 1941. She was renamed HMS Audacity on 30 July 1941. Since no serious problems came to light in her trials she was put into full service, embarking eight Grumman Martlets of No. 802 Squadron FAA. The Martlet was the Fleet AirArm name for the Grumman F4 Wildcat of US Navy Avaition. The use of only fighters was a major departure from later practice where the main component was anti-submarine patrol aircraft, but she was used to support Gibraltar convoys and the only perceived threat was the German long-range Focke-Wulf Condor reconnaissance/bomber aircraft. She sailed with her first convoy to Gibraltar in September 1941. One of her aircraft shot down a Condor bomber which had made a bombing run on the convoy rescue ship Walmer Castle, although not without the ship being damaged sufficiently to be sunk. She sailed with two more convoys. She was torpedoed and sunk some 500 miles west of Cape Finisterre on 21 December 1941 by three torpedoes from U-751 under Kptlt. Gerhard Bigalk whilst on the convoy HG 76. Her survivors were picked up by the convoy's escorts. Only a few days earlier one of her Martlets had contributed its depth charges to the sinking of U-131. Part of the reason for her short life was her placement with respect to the convoy. Escort carriers could either sail within the convoy, giving them the protection of the convoy's escort vessels, but at the cost of limiting the manoeuvring space which is required to turn the carrier into the wind to operate aircraft, or they could operate outside the convoy. Operating in the area near the convoy gave the carrier all the space it needed to turn as required for aircraft operations but necessitated a second escort for the carrier alone. The carrier could also prove a target for the convoy's attackers, leading them to target it first, to which the answer would be to operate at some distance from the convoy. HMS Audacity had been operating outside the convoy when she was sunk , a procedure that was later prohibited by the Admiralty as too risky. Risky indeed as this ship had a service life of around 6 months after her escort carrier configuration was commissioned.
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Interesting post Digger. It's fascinating how the short career of "Audacity" led in two years to the construction of more than a hundred such ships. It was a risky idea but worth it. Harley

When you look at the cost of the refit and then the victories she obtained being 1 sub and 1 plane this seemed to be very cost prohibitive. Looks like she had the shortest service life in the British Navy

I know of plenty ASW ships which didn't get a U-Boat during the war. Plus hopefully the lesson of NOT placing the carrier outside the convoy was worth the loss of a captured German ship. It probably wasn't cost effective due to the swiftness of the conversion, albeit without a hangar deck to complicate things. Harley Edit:P.S. I think there was a British submarine which lasted a week or something similarly shocking. Will have a look

Further to the U571...This U Boat was sunk on July 17th 1942 west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, by depth charges dropped from a British Whitely and Lancaster aircraft. All 48 hands were lost.

Hi, my Grandfather William Dawes served on HMS Marigold, which got the uboat and crew that sunk the Ark Royal. The photo shows my grandafather at the front holding a cigarette with mates aboard the Marigold. The main thing I want to show on here is what the Audacity sent to the Marigold on the 21st of November 1941 (21/11/41). Highest regards and would love to hear from anybody connected.[ATTACH]35074[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]35075[/ATTACH]
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From Audacity the Marigold 21/11/1941, please read the Ode to the Marigold. A growing Marigold dug up on Gibraltar Rock was sent to the ship today from " Audacity" and with it came the following lines:- To " Marigold" This is a token of esteem your prowess great success supreme the bagging a Uboat and the crew A really worthy thing to do. And in the future great success attend your effort greater less, To make bold Huns "blood run cold" At the sound or smell of "Marigold".

[QUOTE=Harley;4432] Harley Edit:P.S. I think there was a British submarine which lasted a week or something similarly shocking. Will have a look[/QUOTE] I think you may be referring to VANDAL ex-P64 which lasted a few days into their first work-up. Completed 20.2.43 Wrecked 24.2.43 Regards Gerry

Fencer had the promblem of turning into the wind to fly off and receive aircraft, by the time this was done , we had to go flat out to catch up with the convoy. we even tried flying aircraft off the stern, it was not a success Doug.Birch.

[QUOTE=SCRG1970;37665]I think you may be referring to VANDAL ex-P64 which lasted a few days into their first work-up. Completed 20.2.43 Wrecked 24.2.43 Regards Gerry[/QUOTE] Its not long since they found the VANDAL wreck in the Clyde estuary . She was ordered to do crew independant exercises and disappeared . The RN searched the usual submarine exercise areas and no trace found . Finally located and name confirmed by sub aqua divers off Lochranza . Fred

Gents; A few notes and corrections to the Audacity biography. HMS Audacity carried fighters only largely because her role was to escort UK to Gibraltar convoys that were taking high casualties to Luftwaffe bombers or had to sit and watch the Luftwaffe recon planes sit on the horizon homing in U-boats. She made two voyages. On the first she carried six fixed-wing Martlets. On the second she carried eight folding-wing Martlets. The planes could not carry bombs so the oft seen references to bombing should say strafing. The ship was unique at the time in that she was commanded by an aviator. The air staff developed the tactic of sending pairs of fighters up to circumnavigate the convoy and drive U-boats under and then climb to allow the escorts to get a fix on their location for subsequent attacks. This proved highly successful. The problem was that there were many days of very poor weather when the planes could not fly or had very limited visibility. 802 squadron was credited with five air-to-air kills over Condors but in reality they only got three. The days when they were credited with double victories there was only one plane that had actually survived the first encounter. The ship had no hangar and, thus, the planes remained topside in the elements throughout the voyages. This made maintenance very difficult and left the mechanics working in a very cold, wet environment. Being the first escort carrier at sea, sher Air Staff had to develop all of the Air Doctrines "on the job". Much of what they came up with became standard thereafter, a tribute to their professionalism. Her Captain was Cdr. Douglas William MacKendrick, MiD, RN (P), her Lieutenant-Commander (Flying) was Lt.Cdr. Douglas McIver Russell, RN (P) and her Lieutenant-Commander (Operations) was Lt.Cdr. George Albert Carline, DSC, RN (O). MacKendrick and Carline were lost with the ship. Luftwaffe Condors were shot down on 21 September, 8 November, and 19 December 1941. A Condor was damaged on 18 December and a Ju-88 run off on 21 September. The officer commanding [A/Lt.Cdr.(A) John Milnes Wintour, MiD, RN] and one other pilot [T/S-Lt.(A) Graham Reynell Phillips Fletcher, RNVR] of 802 Squadron were lost on operations. Two others [Lt. John Rory Carden, RN and S-Lt.(A) Norris Henry Patterson, RN] were lost when the ship was sunk. Hope this is of interest. Mark E. Horan

Thanks Mark, very informative;)

The excellent first post in this thread by Digger gave a good history of the first ever RN escort carrier - HMS Audacity. To quickly recap, before conversion she was originally the 12,000 ton German merchant ship SS Hannover who was captured by the cruiser RN Dunedin during March 1940 and towed to Jamaica. There she was renamed Empire Audacity and eventually arrived on 22nd January 1941 at Blyth Shipbuilding for conversion to an escort carrier finally being commissioned as HMS Audacity on 17th June 1941. As it happens I have put together hopefully an interesting little set of photo`s and pictures of the process of conversion which I hope will prove to be of value. Picture one shows the Hannover manned by a boarding party crew and with her stop-cocks now closed being towed by her captor HMS Dunedin on the three day long voyage to Jamaica. She had shipped in a fair bit of water as can be seen from her list. Picture two shows her as she was immediately prior to conversion. Picture three shows her immediately as she was after conversion to a carrier and is the best picture of her I have seen to date. Picture four shows an interesting view of the deck immediately after conversion. Picture five shows Audacity at sea.
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Nice one Terry, escort carriers seem to be very popular on the forum for some reason.

Thanks Kc. I think you are right. I think that Escort Carriers are particularly of interest because in their own way they epitomised British ingenuity at a time when backs were truly up against the wall. HMS Audacity is clearly the ultimate example of this. Not only an invaluable ship and the first of many but as well for this example of ingenuity to be based on a captured German merchantship was truly inspiring IMHO.

Great Pics AGAIN Terry I wonder it this is the government's plans for emergencies. i.e. Instead of Armed Merchant Cruisers (AMC) we'll be having A.M.F (Frigates) and A.M.D (destroyers). I would like to admit that I was joking, but I wouldn't put anything past this Government!!!!!! If they haven't thought about it I would like this post to disappear quickly before they get to like the idea!!!!!!!!!

[QUOTE=kc;61113]Nice one Terry, escort carriers seem to be very popular on the forum for some reason.[/QUOTE] I think it's because they look so 'Fit for Purpose', I remember the first time I saw a pic of one , my first thought was 'Oh what a good idea'.

Terry is photo no 2 Hannover?. Personally I doubt it. Hannover was a cargo liner with the typical centre superstructure and funnel, the ship in photo 2 has her funnel at the stern and looks like a tanker. Another picture of Hannover while being seized by Dunedin is attached, this more clearly shows Hannover's layout. Dave
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I'm with Tinduck, Terry Pic #2 I would say is one of the MAC tanker conversions, #3 showing her converted. Audacity's f/d goes right up to the bow, and I dont think she had as many decks in the area where the bridge was.

Some more pix of SS HANNOVER after capture. As you can see one photo shows the German crew trying to put out the fire they, themselves started.
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Guys after consideration it looks like you could well be right. All I can say is that in an HMSO wartime publication that I own, I found an article about this conversion from which pictures 2, 3 and 4 were taken, and as I already had the other pictures I thought it would make a useful sequence. I apologise if any of these pictures were mis-captioned as I used them in good faith.

Not your fault Terry, I find thar I learn a lot about a ship or class when painting them, and it is not long since I finished the MAC Ship painting. I think it was AUDACITY that my old skipper flew from, Capt 'Winkle' BROWN Now there's a man who can tell you a thing or three about aeroplanes.

Anyone have family that were lost on HMS Audacity 21/12/1941 ?

Hi Tiffy, My great-grandfather was Chief Steward on HMS Audacity, sadly lost off Cape Finisterre just before Christmas. I believe he was about 62 years old at the time! The names of those lost are on the memorial on the river front in Liverpool, not far from the Liver Building. I'm proud owner of a few photographs of him, as well as a magnificient malacca walking cane that belonged to him. Lest we forget...

Hi Goldfinch, sorry for delay in answering. I lost my father on this ship he was the Gunner on board, he was 41, and I was 2, what a waste. I see one of the pilots on board was Eric Brown, he was a Subby, and he is still alive at 92. I would love to have a chat with him but I'm in Australia and he is in the UK. I believe he is still very much with it,and he has a very interesting history. Give him a google. All for now mate. tiffy.

[QUOTE=tiffy;146060]Anyone have family that were lost on HMS Audacity 21/12/1941 ?[/QUOTE] My father served on carriers during WWII. He was into operating the RDF and ASDIC and was on HMS Audacity when it was sunk. He survived the war. Regards Keith

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