British Pacific Fleet COD Norseman VI

[comrade harps]

Noorduyn Norseman VI
724 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm,
HMS Speaker,  British Pacific Fleet
Operation Unsaid, South China Sea off Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina, August 1945

724 NAS was a specialist unit, establsihed in February 1945 at Mascot, New South Wales, Australia, but soon moving to Nowra. Outwardly a light transport squadron tasked with establishing the carrier on-board delivery (COD) mission for the British Pacific Fleet, this acted as a cover for a more clandestine range of roles. Initially equipped with standard Beech Expediter, Noorduyn Norseman and Taylorcraft Auster aicraft for training, these aircraft were supplemented by carrier capable models during April and May, the Beech JRB-7 Expediter IV (with tailhook and folding wings), Noorduyn JA-2 Norseman VI (with tailhook) and Auster Vb (also with tailhook). Of the 27 JA-2s delivered to the Fleet Air Arm, 14 were to JA-2N standard with AI Mk XV (APS-6) radar.




724 Norsemans and Expediters began aircraft carrier operations and deployments from July, 1945. Their first major mission came during Operation Unsaid, the seizure of Binh Ba Island land the Cam Linh peninsula on the western side of Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina. This operation was a necessary step in preparation for the re-taking of Hong Kong by British Commonwealth forces, the timeline for which had been hastened by the Red Army's 9th August invasion of Manshuria and China and the rapid retreat of the Japanese Army. Wanting to beat both everyone else to Hong Kong (the Chinese Nationalists, the Chinese Communists and the Red Army), and having to do so without direct American support, British commanders saw the need for an airfield and a deep-water naval base in Indochina to provide the necessary logistic support. As the main force of the British Pacific Fleet steamed north from Australia in from 15 August, 725 NAS were already flying several Expediter IVs and Norseman VI's northward.




On 16 August, they landed aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Speaker, steaming in the South China Sea. HMS Speaker had been serving as an "logistics carrier" in support of Operation Oboe off North Borneo before being ordered north in response to the Red Army's actions. In fact, the ship was a "commando carrier", with special forces on board from the South-East Asia Command's Small Operations Group, including Royal Marines, the No.2 Special Boast Section, the Special Air Service and the Australian Z Special Unit. Up top were Royal Marine Auster Vbs. This was the kind of carrier force that 724 NAS had always been intended to join.



From 18 August, 724 NAS aircraft flew missions over Indochina, delivering special forces personnel and their supplies via parachute in preparation for Operation Unsaid, which was successfully launched on 25 August. During the first two days and nights of the invasion, the Norseman VI depicted here and two others flew several missions under fire into the airstrip on the Cam Linh peninsula to deliver troops and supplies and perform medical evacuations.



724 NAS went on to support the British liberations of Hong Kong and Singapore, additional Allied operations in Indochina, further Operation Oboe actions in the Dutch East Indies and missions against the Japanese home islands before, during and after the Y-Day invasion of Honshu. With their highly trained crews, radar, dark sea blue all-over camouflage and carrier capability, the aircraft of 724 NAS were especially appreciated for their night infiltration work.

[zenrat]

Excellent.  Both the story and the model.
Good job.

[Old Wombat]

Nice one, comrade!

[sandiego89]

Really great. COD's do not get much love. Well done.

[NARSES2]

Terrific back story and model

[Captain Canada]

Agreed. Nice story and a great looking model ! Love the way it looks with the beefed up tail wheel and hook.

[kitbasher]

Very nice indeed.  Surely in the archives there must be some colourised    pictures.

I don't think you can go wrong with the Matchbox/Revell Norseman kit - good, chunk, forgiving kit, so many possibilities for plausible whiffery.  I rebuilt one in post-war Army Air Corps colours, but I think a goody would be an RAF SEAC finish.

[NARSES2]

Very nice indeed.  Surely in the archives there must be some colourised    pictures.

I don't think you can go wrong with the Matchbox/Revell Norseman kit - good, chunk, forgiving kit, so many possibilities for plausible whiffery.  I rebuilt one in post-war Army Air Corps colours, but I think a goody would be an RAF SEAC finish.

Very much so

[Knightflyer]

Well looking at the pictures (brilliant bit of modelling by the way!) the light-bulb went on!

One for the ideas bank - Update to the 1950s/60s ...The DHC Beaver or Otter

The former of course which DID land and take-off from a carrier 

[comrade harps]

Kitbasher asked"

Surely in the archives there must be some colourised  .

There were few photos of Norseman VI taken. Major AR Burch, RM, who commanded 724 NAS during the invasion of Japan has cites several reasons for this*:

- They were boring. They weren't colourful. They had no glamour and this was deliberate. Seen as simple COD machines, they were hidden in plain sight and usually ignored by photographers who focused on the combat types. They are obscured background objects in most of the photos that they appear in. When visiting carriers on COD duties, their visits were often brief and if not they were usually found in the clutter of the permanent deck park among other types.

- They were secret. They were deliberately little photographed, their security suggesting that photographers had more interesting subjects. They were also often in places where few photos were taken, or where the photographers operated under tight control, such as on HMS Speaker. At land bases they were often parked in hangers or in the shadows behind and between buildings or at distant locations around the airfield. We kept a low profile.

Although having little colour (dark sea blue and white are hard to photograph), there is this:



* Private correspondence quoted by Robert F. Dorr in Night Raiders of the British Pacific Fleet, Squadron Signal Books, Carrollton, Texas, 1997