In November 1942, with the U.S. Navy down to just two fleet carriers in the Pacific– Saratoga and Enterprise— the Royal Navy helped out its ally with the loan of the Illustrious-class aircraft carrier HMS Victorious (R38).
Using the code name USS Robin, Victorious picked up American equipment and a very Yankee camo scheme in Norfolk in January 1943 and, with 36 Martlet IVs (British F4F-4B Wildcats) of 822, 896 and 898 NAS, and 12 Avenger TBF-1s of 832 NAS, she arrived at Pearl Harbor in March 1943 where she was fitted with heavier arrester wires for the big TBFs as well as more AAA guns.
By May, she formed Carrier Division 1 along with Saratoga and the next month, chopping her Avengers and 832 NAS over to Sara, welcomed aboard two dozen F4F-4 Wildcats from the Tomcatters of Fighter Squadron 3 (VF-3) to provide air cover for U.S. landings in the Solomon Islands while Sara concentrated her efforts on strike.
HMS Victorious in 1943 as USS Robin. She has Wildcats of VF-3 from USS Saratoga on deck and an Atlanta-class lighter cruiser, either USS San Diego (CL-53) or San Juan (CL-54), on the outside of the tanker USS Cimmaron. Photo via Armoured Carriers.
Victorious spent the next three months in the West Pac, operational with her joint Commonwealth-U.S. airwing, steamed some 23,000 miles and conducted 2,101 deck landings, many of which were done in combat. While VF-3 left the British carrier after that summer, and “Robin” returned to the Atlantic and Admiralty use by September 1943, it was an interesting page in carrier warfare that hasn’t been repeated…
…until this week.
F-35B fighter jets have flown their first operational sorties from the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08), striking targets in Syria with aircraft provided by the joint RN FAA/RAF-manned 617 “Dambusters” Squadron and the “Wake Island Avengers” of the USMC’s VMFA-211.
Three F-35B Lightning, one of RAF 617 and two of VMFA-211, on the deck of HMSQE in the Med off Syria, June 2021 (MoD photo)
“The Lightning Force is once again in action against Daesh, this time flying from an aircraft carrier at sea, which marks the Royal Navy’s return to maritime strike operations for the first time since the Libya campaign a decade ago,” Captain James Blackmore, Commander of the Carrier Air Wing, noted.
“This is also notable as the first combat mission flown by US aircraft from a foreign carrier since HMS Victorious in the South Pacific in 1943. The level of integration between Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, and US Marine Corps is truly seamless, and testament to how close we’ve become since we first embarked together last October.”