The British Pacific and East Indies Fleets

The forgotten fleets that fought the Japanese in the Pacific and Indian Oceans


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Headquarters, British pacific Fleet


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Battle Honours


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Location:
Seamen's Mission, Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Function:
Administrative centre for the British Pacific Fleet.

Commanding Officers:
Vice-Admiral C. S. Daniel, CBE DSO.  (Vice-Admiral (Q)(British Pacific Fleet) 10 Nov 1944 - Mar 1945

Rear Admiral J. W. Rivett-Carnac, CBE,
DSC (Rear, later Vice Admiral (Q), British
Pacific Fleet) Mar 1945 - Nov 1945

 

 

 

 

 

Related items

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Reminiscences


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Gallery


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H.M.S. BEACONSFIELD

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12 December 1944. The flag goes up for the first time at the new headquarters of the British Pacific Fleet. Vice Admiral C. S. Daniel RN, VA(Q) British Pacific Fleet watches.

History

The British Admiralty Pacific Mission, the RN Representative & Staff (Naval Party 480) arrived in Melbourne in October 1944 and established itself in the Port Melbourne Seamen's mission by the 11th. This was a modern building on the water front between the Princess & Station Piers. Over the next few months other buildings were requisitioned locally for accommodation as the staff grew.

On December 12th 1944 it became the headquarters of the new British Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral C. S. Daniel RN, VA (Q) BPF, hoisted his pennant in the grounds. The base was commissioned as HMS BEACONSFIELD February 15th 1945. At the beginning of March Rear Admiral J. W. Rivett-Carnac, CBE, DSC replaced Vice Admiral C. S. Daniel as; he was promoted to Acting Vice Admiral in June 1945.

 

12 December 1944. Members of the Women's Royal Naval Service on the staff of Vice Admiral C. S. Daniel RN, VA (Q) at the newly formed British Pacific Fleet. 2nd Officers Doreen Hartley of Cheshire (left), Bridget Charleton of Hampshire (centre) and Kathleen Martin of Norfolk, talk with the Admiral in the grounds of the building.

Post War history

After the war ended VA (Q) BPF transferred his headquarters to Sydney, becoming part of HMS GOLDEN HIND on December 1st 1945; HMS BEACONSFIELD paid off the day before.

Last modified: 23 February 2023

 


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HM Ships COLOSSUS, GLORY, VENERABLE and VENGEANCE. GLORY did not arrive in Sydney until August 16th.

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At the end of June 1945, the Admiralty implemented a new system of classification for carrier air wings, adopting the American practice one carrier would embark a single Carrier Air Group (CAG) which would encompass all the ships squadrons.

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Sturtivant, R & Balance, T. (1994) 'Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm’ list 899 squadron as conducting DLT on the Escort Carrier ARBITER on August 15th. It is possible that the usual three-day evolution was cancelled due to the announcement of the Japanese surrender on this date and was postponed for a month.

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The reminiscences of

Gordon served with the radio section of Mobile Repair UNit No.1 (MR 1) at Nowra, he was a member of the local RN dance band, and possibly the last member of MONAB I to leave Nowra after it paid off. .

Drafted to

Coming home

In March 1946 I joined 812 squadron, aboard HMS Vengeance, spending some time ditching American aircraft north of Australia. Eventually we sailed for Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) landing at Trincomalee and setting up a radio section at Katakarunda. In the belief that we were exhausted we were sent to a rest camp at Kandy for a few weeks. We moved down to Colombo to pick up Vengeance and returned to Portsmouth via the Suez Canal . I was discharged in November 1946.

Gordon Theaker