Mobile Naval Air Base

The Mobile Naval Airfield Organisation (MNAO) was the shore-based component of the naval air logistics organisation. This comprised two types of units, a Mobile Operational Naval Air Base (MONAB) and a Transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard (TAMY). 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 HMS Flycatcher, 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 (USN) 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

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 (DNAD) drafted requirements for mobile bases in October 1942 and following a meeting in November the concept of a mobile naval airfield was created.^[1]

In September 1943, Colonel Fuller, RM, was appointed as Senior Officer Mobile Naval Airfields Organisation (SOMNAO) and this was effectively the beginning of the Mobile Naval Airfields Organisation (MNAO).^[2] 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.^[1]

The Admiralty had no suitable sites available so the search turned to the Royal Air Force. The Air Ministry proposed the airfield at Ludham, 11 miles (18 km) 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.^[3] The station was commissioned on 4 September as HMS Flycatcher, Headquarters Mobile Naval Airfields Organisation.^[4]

The Mobile Naval Airfield Organisation (MNAO) was eventually made up of two different types of unit: the Mobile Operational Naval Air Base (MONAB) and the Transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard (TAMY).

Initially, a Mobile Naval Airfield Unit (MNAU) 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 (TAB) 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 (Small) and a type B (Large). The former providing mobile maintenance, supporting 50 aircraft and the latter included mobile repair, supporting 100 aircraft (the equivalent of a TAB). A third unit was created, a Transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard (TAMY), to provide mobile aircraft repair facilities.^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[7]

There were eleven commissioned units, ten Mobile Operational Naval Air Bases MONABs and one Transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard (TAMY), ten of these saw active service for the British Pacific Fleet, most based in Australia. The last unit was decommissioned in 1946. Five further MONABs and a planned second TAMY were all cancelled after V-J Day:^[8]

^{^} note: Nabsfield, Nabstead and Nabsmere were originally promoted as the names for MONABs VII, VIII, & IX respectively. It's not clear why these units were renamed as Nabreekie, Nabcatcher, and Nabrock. It is assumed these names were still intended to be used by MONABs, and in the same order, as no other names were circulated.

• when HMS Flycatcher was paid off at Middle Wallop on 10 April 1946. MONAB X went around three different sites (RNAS Fearn, RNAS Inskip and RNAE Risley until it was able to move to RNAS Lossiemouth following the RAF vacating the site.

• List of Royal Navy shore establishments
• List of air stations of the Royal Navy
• Royal Navy Dockyard
• Seaplane bases in the United Kingdom
• Lists of military installations
• Operation Ivory Soap

• "Nabaron-1". Archived from the original on 29 November 2012. Accessed 2 May 2007

Bibliography

• Ballance, Theo; Howard, Lee; Sturtivant, Ray (2016). The Squadrons and Units of the Fleet Air Arm. Air Britain Historians Limited. ISBN 978-0-85130-489-2.
• Hobbs, David (2007). Moving Bases Royal Navy Maintenance Carriers and MONABs. Liskeard, Cornwall, UK: Maritime Books. ISBN 978-1-904459-30-9.
• Wragg, David (2019). The Fleet Air Arm Handbook 1939-1945. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-9303-6.

• MONABs Fleet Air Arm Archive
• Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm in Australia During WW2
• "The MONAB Story". Archived from the original on 20 July 2012.