We
cannot be certain if John intended to finish his story at this point. He
covered the main aspects of the MAC ships. Looking for other information
about these ships the following episodes are added: the first, because it
included Reg Singleton- a stalwart of 836 Squadron and secondly shows
Empire Macalpine having problems in its convoy!
Extract from: MAC ships:
MERCHANTMEN WITH CLOUT by David H Grover
MAC
ships had relatively few encounters with German submarines but,
nevertheless, their planes and pilots had many harrowing adventures.
Simply getting back aboard the carrier could become a nightmare for
a Swordfish pilot. An incident in September 1943, within
Halifax-bound Convoy ONS 18 dramatically illustrates this
difficulty. This convoy marked the baptism of fire for the MAC ships
and planes. With U-boats reportedly trailing the convoy, the Empire
MacAlpine was asked to launch an aircraft during a brief lifting of
the heavy fog that prevailed. A Swordfish, piloted by Sub-Lieutenant
R.A. Singleton, was launched, only to have the fog immediately close
in again around the convoy. The plane carried out its assigned
patrol, but saw nothing. Returning to the socked-in convoy, the
pilot used the images on his own radar to obtain a bearing on the
convoy and also homed in on the output of the carrier's radar. The
crew of the ship then streamed a fog buoy at a prescribed distance
astern so that the pilot would have some means of judging the
distance if he came in low. When the carrier crew heard the plane
making its approach, they turned on signal lights to aid the pilot.
However, in spite of all these procedures, Singleton was unable to
see the ship even when it was directly beneath him.
As the plane's fuel dropped to a
disturbing level, Singleton recognized that he had to bring the
plane down soon. He flew out ahead of the convoy, then circled to
begin an approach to the Empire MacAlpine. With visibility of about
100-yds, less than the length of the short flight deck of the
carrier, the pilot brought his plane down as slowly as he dared. His
radar-assisted let-down left him in a relatively good position for
landing but, when visual contact was eventually established, the
batsman, waved off the attempt with his lighted paddles, and sent
the plane back around for another approach. Finally, with visibility
reduced to about 50yds, Singleton brought the plane in for a perfect
landing. The entire evolution was a credit to the skill and nerve of
the pilot and to the simple but reliable electronics of the ship and
plane.
