H.M.S. Audacious at War 1939 – 45
H.M.S. Audacious is not a name that is well known in WW2 naval history, largely as she is a totally fictitious ship, bought to life to portray the Fleet Air Arm at war in miniature from 1939 to 1945.
Audacious is a half-sister ship of H.M.S. Ark Royal, but with a fully armoured flight deck as found on the slightly later Illustrious class carriers. She will make her presence felt in many of the theatres of war that the RN fought, from the icy seas off Norway in 1940 to the heat of the Pacific in 1945. While in the course of her service she may be damaged and out of action for some time as a result of enemy action, Audacious herself will survive the war to allow her service to be recorded up to the end of 1945.
She is regarded as the FAA’s ‘cutting edge’ carrier by the Admiralty, operationally trialing many new aircraft and tactics throughout the war before they go to sea with the rest of the fleet.
Throughout her service her air group will consist of 3 main squadrons:
No 839 Fighter Squadron
No 843 TBR Squadron
No 844 TBR Squadron
None of these squadrons were actually commissioned, however their numbering does fall amongst contemporary FAA squadrons which were formed during WW2.
Audacious’s story will be told though the eyes of the CO’s own section in 839 Fighter Squadron, with the other squadrons playing their parts as required. I am using my own simple home baked air combat rules to cover the aerial actions along with Joe Lagan’s “Squadron Forward” from TFL to help fill out the narrative and events between missions.
Rather than using scripted campaign sequences that I have made in the past for the Zero shotai I depicted in Operation C and the Aleutians I will run with Squadron Forward’s mission system, but pick a certain number of missions per campaign that reflect each particular campaign. I will produce my own mission allocation tables for each campaign based on the actual activities that the FAA was involved with during that time.
The ship’s first commission began at Portsmouth in July 1939, just as Europe is about to plunge into war. She was destined for the Home Fleet initially and after an intense work up she was declared operational, based at Scapa Flow. Her war began in earnest in early April 1940 when the Germans invaded Norway…..
My initial time line for the various campaigns is as follows:
|
Time |
Campaign |
Air Group Composition |
|
April 1940 |
Norway |
Skua/Sea Gladiator/Albacore |
|
July 1940 – March 1941 |
Force H in the Med |
Skua/Fulmar/Albacore |
|
June 1941 |
Arctic – Petsamo |
Fulmar/Albacore |
|
November 1941 – May 1942 |
Indian Ocean |
Sea Hurricane/Albacore |
|
June - August 1942 |
Med -Operations Vigorous, Pedestal and Torch |
Sea Hurricane/Albacore |
|
Early – Mid 1943 |
Pacific with USN |
Corsair/Seafire/Avenger |
|
July 1943 |
Med - Operation Husky |
Seafire |
|
1944 – 45 |
Indian Ocean/BPF(?) |
Corsair/Seafire/Avenger |
There are also opportunities for the Air Group to participate in operations ashore if Audacious herself is out of action – Home Defence during the Battle of Britain in 1940, Malta and North Africa in 1941 and early 1942 and Ceylon in April 1942.
There’s a fair bit to achieve before the campaign can begin. While I have all the necessary aircraft models most of them still need to be painted up and have decals added. I also need to find some suitable locally available flight bases, I have a couple of ideas but we’ll see where that goes over time.