Chapter 2; Plot of Operation

HOW COASTAL COMMAND IS ORGANISED

IN ITS PRESENT form Coastal Command is the development of Coastal Area of the Royal Air Force, formed in September 1919 "to control all air units working with the Navy." Its main functions were to be : first, the study and development, in close relationship with the Admiralty, of all aspects of air co-operation in a war at sea ; secondly, the eventual administration of the Fleet Air Arm on land, including the training of its units when on shore ; and, thirdly, the development of Service Flying Boats of which the duties would be to defend the trade of this country and ' to maintain communications with all parts of the Empire.

In 1937 the administration of the Fleet Air Arm was removed from Coastal Command and was placed under the Admiralty for all purposes. The effect of this change was to cause the principal task of the Command to be the provision of trained shore-based squadrons for the defence of trade and for co-operation with the Royal Navy in home waters. To provide them was not easy. The international scene was becoming more and more confused.

Across it passed processions of tortured figures holding one thing in common in addition to their common humanity - fear. Gas-blistered Abyssinians were succeeded by homeless and starving Chinese, who in turn gave place to sombre Europeans, fugitives from countries which had either been used as a practice battlefield by the armed forces of two irresponsible dictators or were about to suffer at their hands a form of alien protection indistinguishable from slavery.

To discerning eyes-and there were many- it was apparent that Great Britain would, soon once more be fighting to keep safe and open those routes across the ocean which are vital to her existence. But in this field. as in all others there was much that remained to be done in order to cope with war on a world-wide scale. Nevertheless, steady progress was made. General reconnaissance squadrons were formed and trained. Modern flying boats, such as the Sunderland, were slowly forthcoming for their equipment. The Anson, that most useful and dependable of aircraft, came into service in increasing numbers ; American-built Hudsons began to make their appearance.

There was one achievement of major importance. Co-operation with the Royal Navy, which from the outset had been close, became the watchword of Coastal Command. It was laid down as a principle that the ultimate decision concerning any operation must rest with the Royal Navy, whose duty it is to fight and win wars at sea. This did not, and does not, mean that Coastal Command should have no initiative of its own. Far from it. But the operational requirements of the Admiralty must come before all else. This is realised to the full, and close and harmonious co-operation with the Royal Navy is the happy result. How it is achieved is best seen by examining the organisation of Coastal Command.

At the centre is Headquarters, where the Commander-in-Chief is in constant and immediate touch with the Admiralty. This is maintained by Naval Officers stationed at the one place and Royal Air Force Officers stationed at the other. Each keeps the other " in the picture " throughout. The Command is divided into Groups whose geographical boundaries conform to those of the Naval Commands on shore with which they are associated. They cover the whole of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is a separate group in Iceland and a station at Gibraltar.

Each Air Force Group and Naval Command possesses an Area Combined Headquarters where the Operations Room, common to both Services, is situated. The Army staff responsible for the anti-aircraft and other defences are normally part of headquarters. The Air Officer Commanding the Group, usually an Air Vice Marshal, has his office next to that of the Naval Commander-in-Chief, who is an Admiral or a Vice-Admiral.

They fight their part of the 'war together. If, for example, the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet requires air support or a special reconnaissance, he asks for it through the Flag Officer Commanding the nearest Area Combined Headquarters, who passes on the request to his Air Force colleague. If for some reason-such as lack of aircraft available-the request cannot be met, it is referred at once to the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Coastal Command, who takes action.

All essential information and operational instructions given and received by Headquarters and lower formations pass through a special communications system common to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, and manned by ratings and aircraftmen, Wrens and WAAF. This system feeds both Services simultaneously.

For example, the Form Green, as it is called, on which the orders for an operation-an attack on enemy shipping, an anti-submarine patrol, or whatever it may be are set out, goes at once to the Naval and the Air Force Commanders and units concerned. This process is repeated with the Form Orange, on which the result of the operation is recorded after the crews who have carried it out have been interrogated at their Station by the Intelligence staff.

The Operations Room of an Area Combined Headquarters is of standard pattern. Some of them are sunk many feet deep underground and are approached by long flights of steps. All are surrounded by groups of offices containing the various branches of the staff, Intelligence, Signals, Cipher clerks, telephone and teleprinter operators and the rest. All rooms are air-conditioned.

Let us take as an example the room belonging to the Group most directly concerned with the Battle of the Atlantic. It is large and lofty, oblong in shape, and bright with a soft reflected light. Along the whole length of one of the longer walls is a huge board on which is painted the map of the Atlantic. The land is coloured brownish yellow and on it are marked the Stations belonging to the Group, the harbours used by -the Royal Navy, and such Stations of Fighter Command as are -in the Area.

On this huge map, some sixteen feet high and thirty feet long, the Battle of the Atlantic is shown in full detail, so that the exact position at any moment can be seen at a glance. The details thus visually recorded are known as the "plot." Each convoy and the nature of its escort, both sea and air, is marked with the appropriate symbol and its route by elastic strings of different colours. The position known or suspected of every U-boat is also shown, as are those of our own submarines and surface vessels.

The spot where an attack by Focke Wulf, U-boat or surface raider has been made or where a ship has been sunk is similarly recorded. If a U-boat is sunk, the symbol representing it on the " plot " is turned upside down. Cardboard arrows indicate the speed and direction of the wind.

In front of the " plot " is a tall step-ladder running along steel guides. It is used by the Naval and Air Force personnel, Wrens and WAAF, when symbols out of reach from the floor have to be moved or changed.

On each side of the main board are two smaller boards recording on the right information about convoys and their Naval escort, on the left information about aircraft. The information on these boards is written in chalk of various colours.

All of it and that on the " plot " itself is collected and checked by the duty officers-and their staffs, who work in two offices fitted with desks and telephones fronting the " plot," the Naval to the right, the Air Force to the left. There is a partition between the offices with a hatch through which messages can be passed at once by hand.

Above these offices are those of the two Naval and Air Commanders similarly situated and constructed. One wall of each office, that giving on the " plot," is of glass, so that both can tell at a glance the fortunes of this long, relentless battle.

The layout in the Operations Room of the Area Combined Headquarters of the other Groups is the same, mutatis mutandis. In one the North Sea and fjords of Norway take the place of the Atlantic and the East coast of America, and the information concerns " strikes " instead of convoy protection ; in another are depicted the Bay of Biscay and the changing areas where bombing attacks may be made, and where they may not lest the submarine be one of our own.

The " plot," a huge wall-map of the Atlantic, where the position of convoys, escort vessels and enemy raiders can be seen at a glance.

The Operations Room at Coastal Command Headquarters is, naturally, the largest of all, for on its boards and charts is set out all the information shown separately in the rooms of the various Area Combined Headquarters. All Operations Rooms are manned continuously throughout the twenty-four hours by staff divided into watches.

In each watch there are the Controller and his Assistant, the Naval Staff Officer and his, a navigator, it plotter, telephone, teleprinter and wireless operators, arid members of the Signal, the Meteorological and the Records staff. There are also the officers of the Air-Sea Rescue Service and of the Flying Control system. These have now been amalgamated to form the Directorate of Aircraft Safety, and deal with all aircraft in distress, of whatever Command. The Flying Control Officers try to bring the aircraft back to its base if it is off its course, or to divert it should its home aerodrome be unserviceable for some cause ; the Air-Sea Rescue Service controls the organisation for finding the crew in or on the water and bringing them safe to shore.

The smooth working and efficiency of the various headquarters of Coastal Command depend very largely on a rapid, sure and secret system Of Communications. These are ensured, in so far as telephones and teleprinters are concerned, by officials of the Genera! Post Office, whose high standard in peace is surpassed in war. The essential requirements in addition to speed are the maintenance of secrecy and that breakdowns shall be few and

of very short duration. Delayed and wrongly addressed messages are few and far between. In one Group their number is about one in thirty-three thousand, and this is a fair average throughout the Command.

Attached to Headquarters, to Groups and to Stations is a section of meteorologists. They are for the most part civilian experts, but there are also serving officers and WAAF among them. It is their duty to provide weather forecasts for the Commander-in-Chief, the Commanders of the Groups, and for the crews detailed to carry out the operations planned. The importance of their task needs no emphasis. The state of the weather, always a cardinal factor in flying, assumes special significance when the aircraft has to remain long hours over the sea and when its usefulness, indeed its only justification, lies in the ability of the crew it carries to see what they have been sent forth to see-the convoy which must be protected, the submarine which must be slaughtered, the enemy surface vessel which must be bombed or torpedoed.

At all Headquarters the Met. Officers keep a 24-hour watch. There is always a forecaster on duty with a number of assistants, among them members of the W.A.A.F. specially trained for Met. duties. These give forecasts and other meteorological advice to all entitled to receive them. The Met. Officers keep a series of weather or synoptic charts, as they are called, altered every three hours and covering an area which includes not only the vast field of operations of Coastal Command but indeed practically the whole world. Pressure systems are plotted and their movements traced and recorded.

The difficulties of a forecaster are greater in war even than they are in peace, for weather reports from ships are no longer available since wireless silence is maintained. Much of their knowledge is derived from the information gained from the " Met. flights."

The interpretation of photographs is one of the most important tasks of Coastal Command Intelligence. This photograph of Trondhjem revealed the presence of three German destroyers (1) in the roads: the arrival of destroyers, which were seldom seen in Trondhjem at this time, was connected with the sortie of the " Bismarck " and "Prinz Eugen" on the next day.

Other interesting details are -

(2) The island of Munckholmen, heavily defended with gun and searchlight positions ;

(3) oil tankers, one alongside, one moving away from, a destroyer ;

(4) merchant vessels ;

(5) a coaster ;

(6) a motor vessel in the harbour ;

(7) a "Huarasean" type cargo-liner, used as a depot ship for U-boats;

(8) two large motor vessels ;

(9) warehouses on the quay ;

(10) railway traffic yard ;

(11) a rectangular site, foundation for six large buildings to be constructed in connection with the German naval base;

(12) a coastal battery ;

(13) a flak position ;

(14) huts for personnel of the batteries.

The forecasters have daily, often hourly, personal consultations with the Controllers at Group Headquarters and also with their own officers at the stations. Perhaps the most frequent question to be answered is : " Will the weather at base be suitable for landing when the aircraft on patrol returns, and if not. which is the most likely alternative base to which the aircraft can safely be diverted ? " A word must also be said about the kind of work covered by the term " Intelligence." This ranges from the Operational Research section at Headquarters, in which officers and scientists together seek the solution of tactical problems, to the Station Intelligence Officer who briefs the crews and interrogates them when the patrol or sortie is over.

"Pure" intelligence, as distinct from that arriving through channels to be broadly described as "secret sources", is derived from photographs. These are of great and sometimes, as in the case of the first and last voyage of the "Bismarck", of the greatest importance. Some of those accompanying this record will give an idea of their value. Every Station, every Group, and the Headquarters itself of Coastal Command have photographic sections where many thousands of operational photographs are the subject of close study. It is the general rule for aircraft of the Command to carry cameras which record anything of interest that may be seen in the course of a patrol.

As soon as an aircraft has landed, the films are taken to the Station Photographic Section, processed and delivered to the Station Intelligence Officer within an hour and a half. Those of particular interest are sent to Group or Command Headquarters and subsequently to the Air Ministry. Processing calls for expert knowledge and is carried out by a specially trained staff, many of whom were professional photographers in the days of peace. Mosaics, which are photographic maps, are made from a large number of individual pictures. The result is an absolutely accurate map of the temporary or permanent " abodes of the guilty." Pictures, too, of enemy shipping go to swell the considerable gallery of targets kept on every Station. With all these the Intelligence Officer must be familiar. They are an unfailing and invaluable source of knowledge.

A good Intelligence Officer must have in him something of the qualities of Herodotus, Socrates and Voltaire. He must be avid for the collection of facts, expert in sifting the true from the false, concise and convincing in his presentation of them. It is his unending and not unworthy task to pursue knowledge of the enemy, his habits of warfare on land, sea, and in the air. He must know, or be able to find out without delay, all about enemy ships, their dimensions, armament, cargoes, about the convoys in which they sail and the ports they use and why, about enemy aerodromes and the aircraft based on them, about guns, balloons and other defences surrounding the targets chosen for attack, about the targets themselves, the ports, harbours, factories, barracks, wireless stations, oil dumps, everything that constitutes a military objective ' within range of Coastal Command.

He must be able to identify ships from photographs, sketches, the written and verbal reports of pilots. He must, with the aid of the Royal Navy, always and instantly forthcoming, become an authority on E-boats, U-boats, destroyers, cruisers, every kind of craft up to and including pocket-battleships. He must be able from his knowledge to give advice on tactics, from the best way to approach a heavily defended port like Brest to the most effective method of bombing a ten-thousand-ton tanker. The information he receives and the knowledge he acquires are constantly changing as the war develops. There is about his duties nothing static, and this flexibility is part of that which is a chief characteristic of the organisation as a whole.

It is, flexibility and the practice of close co-operation with the Royal Navy which are the twin hall-marks of Coastal Command. Its forces are not only sent into action instantly, they can be switched to any desired point with a speed never before achieved in warfare. They join with ship-borne naval aircraft in extending the vision and striking power of the Fleet. Though they are not everywhere at once, they are moved huge distances at great speeds. A Catalina or a Sunderland may on Monday be flying on the ice patrol above the Denmark Strait with " Greenland's icy mountains " on the horizon, and on Wednesday be rocking at its moorings in the sunny harbour of Gibraltar. A Hudson which has sunk a ship in Aalesund may two nights later be bombing a U-boat hundreds of miles West of Land's End.

The Royal Navy and Coastal Command are two separate Services with one common object, the defeat and destruction of the enemy. The men and women who serve in them wear uniforms of blue cloth. Those on the backs of the Royal Air Force are of a lighter shade. That is all the difference.