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The Royal Canadian Naval Air Branch was established in 1945 and disbanded upon unification of the Canadian Armed Forces in 1968. During that period, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) operated a succession of three aircraft carriers: HMC Ships Warrior, Magnificent and Bonaventure. The ability to exercise air power at sea was fundamental to the RCN’s core role of anti-submarine warfare (ASW) against the Cold War Soviet submarine fleet. As the nature of that threat evolved, the RCN Air Branch underwent a nearly continuous process of adaptation to incorporate new equipment and tactics, with increasingly higher performance aircraft and supporting equipment.
Origins
Aviation was only in its early stages when the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) was established in 1910; moreover, it was not immediately appropriate to the needs of the small force. During the First World War, more than 900 Canadians served with Britain’s Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), including Red Mulock, Raymond Collishaw and Wilfred Curtis. But as the war progressed, enemy U-boat submarines became a serious threat in home waters. Thus, on 5 September 1918, the Borden government established the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service (RCNAS) as Canada’s first air force, to undertake flying boat patrols off the east coast. However, the war ended before any RCNAS airmen completed their training and the organization was disbanded in December 1918.
There was renewed interest in naval aviation during the Second World War, although Canada still did not have its own naval air branch. As in the First World War, many Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) recruits were seconded to the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm (FAA, as the RNAS had been re-styled). They included Lieutenant Robert Hampton “Hammy” Gray, who earned a posthumous Victoria Cross flying off the British carrier HMS Formidable on 9 August 1945.
Did you know?
The Victoria Cross awarded to Hammy Gray is unique in many ways. It is the only VC earned by a member of the Royal Canadian Navy, as well as the last VC ever awarded to a Canadian. He is also the last VC recipient of any Commonwealth nation for the Second World War.
By early 1944, the RCN itself was manning two British escort carriers, HM Ships Nabob and Puncher, with British FAA squadrons embarked. (The Nabob was torpedoed in August 1944 while attacking the German battleship Tirpitz and was taken out of service.) Importantly, the Canadian Cabinet War Committee approved the establishment of a “Royal Canadian Naval Air Branch” in October 1943; plans for the Pacific theatre included two aircraft carriers and ten Naval Air Squadrons, totalling nearly 2,000 personnel.
RCN Air Branch
On 19 December 1945, Cabinet confirmed the establishment of the Royal Canadian Naval Air Branch, but with only a single carrier. The first Canadian aircraft carrier, HMCS Warrior (a larger “fleet” type on loan from the Royal Navy), was commissioned in January 1946. It was served by 803 and 825 Canadian Naval Air Squadrons, which flew Supermarine Seafire fighters and Fairey Firefly anti-submarine aircraft, respectively. In December 1948, the navy took over RCAF Station Dartmouth in Nova Scotia as its ashore base, renaming it HMCS Shearwater. The same year, Warrior was returned to the Royal Navy and exchanged for the updated carrier HMCS Magnificent.
By 1949, the RCN Air Branch was flying the more advanced (but still piston-engined) Hawker Sea Fury fighters and Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers. Helicopters were introduced with three Bell helicopters in 1951; a year later, Sikorsky HO4S Sea Horse helicopters were introduced in both Search and Rescue (SAR) and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) variants.
In 1957, HMCS Magnificent (“Maggie”) was returned to the RN for a new carrier, HMS Powerful (renamed HMCS Bonaventure for RCN service), which was purchased rather than loaned from the RN. “Bonnie” featured an angled landing deck, mirror landing sight, the latest steam catapult technology and carrier approach radar and carried McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee jet fighters and Grumman S-2F Tracker anti-submarine aircraft.
After the Banshees were retired in 1962, Bonaventure became a dedicated ASW carrier and embarked Sikorsky CHSS-2 / CH-124 Sea King helicopters to supplement the Trackers. Meanwhile, the RCN had spear-headed development of the helicopter-carrying destroyer (DDH) concept, with all seven of the original St Laurent-class destroyer-escorts being converted to this configuration. The DDH subsequently became the organizing principle for navies everywhere, including the Royal Navy and the United States Navy.
Operational demands led to other technological developments as well. In the 1960s, the Air Branch Experimental Air Squadron, VX10, developed the Helicopter Haul Down and Rapid Securing Device known as the “Beartrap.” This system allowed crew to rapidly secure helicopters on deck, even in rough seas. The RCN also pioneered the ASW Tactical Navigation System (ASWTNS), which during trials in July 1959 enabled an RCN VX10 Tracker crew to continuously track the newly-developed American nuclear submarine USS Skipjack for an extended period — a task deemed “impossible.”
Disbandment
The Royal Canadian Naval Air Branch was effectively disbanded upon the unification of the Canadian Armed Forces in 1968. At that point, it became part of Maritime Air Group, a sub-unit of the integrated Maritime Command. In 1970, Bonaventure was taken out of service without replacement, and the Tracker fleet became shore-based, although Sea King helicopters continued to fly as air detachments from destroyer decks. The Naval Air Branch was truly relegated to history in 1975, when Air Command assumed control of Maritime Air Group.
Although the era of the Royal Canadian Naval Air Branch had come to an end, air service remained an essential component of Canada’s navy and continues to this day as embarked shipboard elements of the reconstituted Royal Canadian Air Force.
