Active (1939-1945) Branch Royal Navy Garrison/HQ Gibraltar | Country United Kingdom Type Fleet | |
The Commander in Chief, North Atlantic was an operational commander of the Royal Navy. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Flag Officer Gibraltar and North Atlantic they were charged with the administration of the RN Naval Base, Gibraltar and North Atlantic geographic area.
Contents
History
At the outbreak of the Second World War the Gibraltar command was elevated to North Atlantic Command with responsibility for the sea lanes on either side of the Straits of Gibraltar. Those duties remained in place although the flag officers' mission was often unclear due to the operations of both Force H and Western Approaches Command. It was these ambiguous boundaries of command responsibility between Gibraltar and Force H that led to confusion when conducting naval operations in the stated area. In the book The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean, the author David Brown discusses this problem and the Admiralty's response: The division of responsibility between the Flag Officer North Atlantic Command (FOCNA) and the Flag Officer Force H and the Commander in Chief Mediterranean was defined as follows:
F.O.C.N.A was responsible for preventing the passage of Gibraltar Straight by all enemy vessels and by vessels of other nations as maybe ordered by the Admiralty from time to time.
While Force H was based on Gibraltar, F.O.C.N.A was to call on, Flag Officer, Force H for such assistance as be necessary. Except when directed to carry out specific tasks by the Admiralty.
On 1 January 1941, the Admiralty acted and decided that the command's primary function was to house and then protect convoy escorts; from that point on it became a component area command of the allied naval forces Mediterranean.
Commanders
Flag Officer commanding
Styled as: Rear Admiral Gibraltar then Vice Admiral Gibraltar, then Vice Admiral Gibraltar/North Atlantic Command & Admiral Superintendent Gibraltar Dockyard
Components
Before 1939, there was a small force of destroyers based at Gibraltar.
Task Forces
Capital Ships
Squadrons and Flotillas
Sub-Divisions
Submarine and Minesweepers Groups
Escort Groups were based at Gibraltar (although they were part of Western Approaches Command).