>>10336750>pacific bongs lacked supplies to keep the equipment up to snuff or just incompetence?Man oh man the rabbit hole I went into studying the BPF was interesting politics wise and technical wise. I don't like spacing for obvious reasons but I have to do it here. It was basically the latter since unlike the Americans who had worked out the logistics for resupply after 2-3 years of war, the Royal navy was legitimately thrust into a type of warfare they really never had any clue how to run.
Most of the time they fought in areas they had bases nearby to resupply and restock when they went to port. In the Pacific they didn't have this since the only "bong" port nearby was Australia and they didn't use American bases so they came up with the idea of a fleet train for supplies. They fought and launch strikes against the japs, turn around and meet up with the fleet train, resupply what they could for a couple of days and turn back around and continue fighting against the japs. This lasted until the end of the war which by then the RN had a general grasp on this whole fleet train thing but they somewhat strapped for items, for instance the Corsair and seafire drop tanks. Those where snatched up from aircraft depots with the payment usually being cases of alcohol and stored where they could in the carriers. Pilots were instructed to keep their tanks the whole journey unless they were under attack by jap planes which then they can dump the tanks and fight but otherwise had to keep the tanks because they were that strapped for replacement parts. I would recommend watching armored carriers since they go indepth with the British Pacific Fleet with interviews of the guys who were there.
Pic related was in 44', probably the raids against the oil fields in Borneo because of the roundels which were changed to resemble the US stars and bars. Already you can see how messy those hellcats were since the planes and pilots came straight from the European theater.