Mobile Naval Air Base


The Mobile Naval Airfield Organisation was the shore-based component of the naval air logistics organisation. This comprised two types of units, a Mobile Operational Naval Air Base and a Transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard. These were mobile units, the first of which formed in 1944, to provide logistical support to the Fleet Air Arm squadrons of the Royal Navy's British Pacific Fleet, towards the end of World War II.
There were a number of units within and each unit was self-contained and designed to service and repair aircraft and engines. Each were initially assembled at the MNAO headquarters at, which first commissioned at RNAS Ludham, Norfolk, then later at RNAS Middle Wallop, Hampshire, both in the UK, and then were forward deployed.
When the naval threat in the Atlantic was clearly vanishing, with the decline of Nazi Germany, proposals were made to involve the Royal Navy in the Pacific War. The United States Navy's Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Ernest King, did not welcome this, however. A well-known anglophobe, King preferred to exclude the British and, in addition, he laid down operating requirements that could not be met at the time. One of these was that the Royal Navy should be self-sustaining and independent of United States Navy logistical resources for extended periods of active service.
King was effectively overruled, and the Royal Navy began establishing an adequate logistical infrastructure which included MONABs.

Concept

During the Second World War, to meet the Royal Navy Eastern Fleet's requirements, to provide serviceable aircraft for aircraft carriers, along with trained aircrew, airbases were constructed in Africa. They were just about completed by the time the fleet returned to Ceylon but at that point they were then no longer required. The Director Naval Air Division drafted requirements for mobile bases in October 1942 and following a meeting in November the concept of a mobile naval airfield was created.
In September 1943, Colonel Fuller, RM, was appointed as Senior Officer Mobile Naval Airfields Organisation and this was effectively the beginning of the Mobile Naval Airfields Organisation. November saw a proposed structure and size for a MNAO and at the beginning of 1944 the plan for the location of operations was likely to be Ceylon. However, in the spring a British Pacific Fleet was to form and the plan for the location of the operations moved to Australia. On 1 August 1944, the formation of a headquarters for the MNAO and the first two MONABs in the United Kingdom was considered.
The Admiralty had no suitable sites available so the search turned to the Royal Air Force. The Air Ministry proposed the airfield at Ludham, north east of Norwich, Norfolk. It was agreed to take up the offer of the fighter station to use as an HQ and forming centre, and the Royal Navy started moving into Ludham on 23 August. The station was commissioned on 4 September as HMS Flycatcher, Headquarters Mobile Naval Airfields Organisation.

Mobile Naval Airfield Organisation

The Mobile Naval Airfield Organisation was eventually made up of two different types of unit: the Mobile Operational Naval Air Base and the Transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard.
Initially, a Mobile Naval Airfield Unit was the first type of mobile unit conceived. This was envisaged to be set up in forward areas. The second type of unit devised was a Transportable Air Base which was more akin to an aircraft repair yard. Due to the modular "component" system an MNAU could be upgraded to a TAB if required. However, these had developed and renamed Mobile Operational Naval Air Base by the middle of 1944 and there became a type A and a type B. The former providing mobile maintenance, supporting 50 aircraft and the latter included mobile repair, supporting 100 aircraft. A third unit was created, a Transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard, to provide mobile aircraft repair facilities.
The initial idea of the MONAB was
"the rapid provision of facilities at airfields and airstrips for the training and maintenance of naval air squadrons disembarked from carriers operating in advance of existing bases".
These were not envisaged as an active shore base for naval aircraft to operate from against the enemy. These were to supply personnel and material, typical of naval aviation, to facilitate naval aircraft to utilise airfields controlled by the Royal Air Force or any other Service.
The TAMY was much less mobile than a MONAB and much more complex. These were not intended for the forward areas and were expected to be situated close to the main fleet, and their personnel needed to be highly skilled. They were equipped with a full range of workshops, included aircraft stores and equipment, and were capable of under-taking major repairs and overhauls to airframes, engines and components.
A decision was made to form five MONABs and one TAMY early in 1944. These were to be assembled in the UK and transported to the Far East for service there. The Royal Air Force station at Ludham, Norfolk, was acquired and commissioned as HMS Flycatcher, known as Royal Naval Air Station Ludham, in August. It was used to assemble the MONABs at around one per month, however, at the end of 1944 Ludham was returned to the RAF, and swapped for the Royal Air Force station at Middle Wallop, Hampshire. The MNAO HQ, HMS Flycatcher, moved in and the airbase was known as Royal Naval Air Station Middle Wallop.
In November 1944 four Royal Australian Air Force airfields were chosen for transfer to the Royal Navy. These were the RAAF Station at Nowra, around south of the city of Sydney, and was planned as a MONAB to hold up to ninety aircraft and to have a Mobile Aircraft Torpedo Maintenance Unit. RAAF Jervis Bay, which was about east of Nowra, and was also planned as a MONAB to hold up to ninety aircraft and to have a MATMU. RAAF Station Schofields was also chosen and was initially planned to support fighter squadrons. The airbase was located approximately west of Sydney. Bankstown Airport, which was south west of Sydney, was needed as a Receipt and Despatch Unit and possess the ability for assembling seventy aircraft at first, then rising to two-hundred per month.
By May 1945 it was clear the programme of works at these four airfields were overrunning. To mitigate, other airfields that needed less adjustments than those already selected, were considered. These sites were put forward by the Royal Navy to fulfil its increasing requirements, including a required by date:
Greenhills and RAAF Base Coffs Harbour were singled out for further inspection. However, the Second World War ended before anything further could be realised with these.
By V-J Day, nine MONABs and a single TAMY had assembled and left the UK, and a tenth MONAB was forming at RNAS Middle Wallop. Six of the nine, and the TAMY, had taken over air stations or establishments, but some of them were only half built in Australia.
The surrender of Japan on 15 August prompted a stop to the work at RNAS Middle Wallop, although MONAB X still commissioned on 1 September 1945 as HMS Nabhurst. As there was no operational need for this unit it paid off on 12 October, but its equipment, along with Mobile Repair No. 4, were kept on Care & Maintenance. MONABs XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV and a proposed second TAMY were all cancelled.
The airfield at Middle Wallop was to be handed back to the RAF in April 1946. A review of the organisation was to take place and the MNAO was to become a lodger unit at RNAS Lossiemouth, Moray. In particular MONAB X and MATMU 1 were to be housed at RNAS Lossiemouth while MR 4 was to be installed at Lossiemouth's satellite airfield RNAS Milltown. Lossiemouth was scheduled to be commissioned on 12 July, therefore as an interim measure the MNAO was to be accommodated across three sites: RNAS Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, RNAS Inskip and RNAE Risley, both in Lancashire, England, whilst awaiting a move to their new home.

MONAB Development Unit

The Mobile Naval Airfield Organisation's name was changed to reflect its new role, becoming the MONAB Development Unit. By 1950, MONAB X was held in storage at RNAS Lossiemouth, however, it was decided in the autumn of that year to reactivate it at a reserve airfield and RNAS Henstridge, Somerset, was chosen.
Confidential Admiralty Fleet Order 139/51 took MONAB 10 out of storage from 7 September 1951. Spring 1942 saw the initial components arrive at RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset, approximately from RNAS Henstridge, and by the autumn MONAB 10 was in place. The unit disbanded on 2 July 1955, but by the end of the decade the MONAB Development Unit had disappeared from official records.
It was confirmed in April 1956, by the Director of Air Operations and Training, that the MONAB
Development Unit had been dispersed. Also adding that its equipment, located at RNAS Henstridge and RNAS Yeovilton, was regarded obsolete.

MONAB

A MONAB was designed to have all of the effectiveness of a naval air station, or an aircraft carrier, and could be conveyed to any spot around the world. It was made up of a number of non-technical and technical units. There were non-technical units such as a command & executive unit, a medical unit, stores, a flying control unit and a radio & radar unit. The technical units included componenets such as a mobile maintenance unit, a maintenance servicing unit, maintenance air radio and maintenance air gunnery units. There were also some supplementary add-on expert units such as a maintenance storage & reserve unit, a mobile repair unit and a mobile air torpedo maintenance unit.
In order to support the mobile bases the MNAO needed to find large numbers of specialist vehicles and trailers to cater for the mobilisation. Vehicles for functions and roles such as: containerised workshops and offices, air traffic control and Very high frequency and Direction finding vans, meteorological van for weather forecasting, photographic tender, bakery, electrical generating, crashtenders, ambulances, and more.