Admiral Ernest King, Commander-in-Chief United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, was reluctant to concede any such role and raised a number of objections, and insisted that the BPF should be self-sufficient. The Admiralty had proposed a British role in the Pacific in early 1944 but the initial USN response had been discouraging. Naval planners, supported by the Chiefs of Staff, believed that such a commitment would strengthen British influence and the British Chiefs of Staff considered mass resignation, so strongly held were their opinions. He also considered that a British presence would be unwelcome and should be concentrated on Burma and Malaya. Churchill, in particular, argued against it, not wishing to be a visibly junior partner in what had been exclusively the United States' battle. The British Government was not initially unanimous on the commitment of the BPF. The British Government was determined that British territories, such as Hong Kong, should be recaptured by British forces.

It was therefore seen as a political and military imperative by the British Government to restore a British presence in the region and to deploy British forces against Japan. The US was liberating British territories in the Pacific and extending its influence. The fleet took part in the Battle of Okinawa and the final naval strikes on Japan.įollowing their retreat to the western side of the Indian Ocean in 1942, British naval forces did not return to the South West Pacific theatre until, when an Anglo-American carrier task force implemented Operation Transom, a joint raid on Surabaya, Java. One of the largest fleets ever assembled by the Royal Navy, by Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day) it consisted of over two hundred ships and submarines and more than 750 aircraft including four battleships and six fleet aircraft carriers, fifteen smaller aircraft carriers, eleven cruisers and numerous smaller warships, submarines, and support vessels. The British Pacific Fleet's main base was at Sydney, Australia, with a forward base at Manus Island in northern Papua New Guinea. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944 from the remaining ships of the former Eastern Fleet then being re-named the East Indies Fleet and continuing to be based in Trincomalee. The fleet was composed of empire naval vessels. The British Pacific Fleet ( BPF) was a Royal Navy formation that saw action against Japan during the Second World War.

World of warships british carriers