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Commander in Chief, North Atlantic

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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

  • Rear Admiral Norman Wodehouse, May 1939 - 1 November 1939
  • Vice Admiral Sir Dudley North, 1 November 1939 - 9 December 1940
  • Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Edward-Collins, 9 December 1940 - 9 September 1943
  • Vice Admiral Sir Harold Martin Burrough, 9 September 1943 - January 1945

    • Components

  • Base ship Gibraltar: HMS Cormorant

    • Before 1939, there was a small force of destroyers based at Gibraltar.

    Task Forces

  • Force H (see history although stationed at Gibraltar was under the command of Flag Officer, Force H from 1940).

    • Capital Ships

  • Battleship: HMS Resolution (16/12/1939)
  • Heavy Cruiser: HMS Berwick (31/12/1939)

    • Squadrons and Flotillas

  • 11th Cruiser Squadron 9 October 1939
  • 13th Destroyer Flotilla September 1939- May 1945
  • 8th Submarine Flotilla December 1940 - December 1942 (flotilla then moved to Algiers)

    • Sub-Divisions

  • Destroyer Division 25, (assigned to 13th Destroyer Flotilla)
  • Destroyer Division 26, (assigned to 13th Destroyer Flotilla)

    • Submarine and Minesweepers Groups

  • 7th Anti Submarine Group
  • 92nd Minesweeping Group

    • Escort Groups were based at Gibraltar (although they were part of Western Approaches Command).

  • Escort Group 28
  • Escort Group 36
  • Escort Group 37
  • Escort Group 38

    • References

    Commander in Chief, North Atlantic Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA