Philip Vian

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Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Vian, GCB, KBE, DSO and two bars, (July 15, 1894-May 27, 1968) was a British naval officer best known for the incident early in 1940 when a force under his command released captured British merchant sailors from the German supply ship Altmark in Jøssingfjord, Norway.

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[edit] Early life

He joined the Navy as an officer cadet in May 1907. On passing out from Royal Naval College in 1911, his first ship was the training cruiser Cornwall. Her cruise was terminated by an uncharted reef on the east coast of Canada. He next joined the pre-Dreadnought battleship Lord Nelson which was serving with the Atlantic Fleet.

After a period in a cruiser patrolling in East African waters he received an appointment to Morning Star, a Yarrow-built modern destroyer. It was in this ship that he took part in the Battle of Jutland, although the ship played no significant part. Promotion in 1917 resulted in two appointments as First Lieutenant in the destroyers Ossory and Sorceress. Following a gunnery course he served as Gunnery Officer of Australia then flagship of the Australian station.

[edit] Interbellum

On returning to the UK he was given an appointment to Thunderer then serving as a cadet training ship, followed by two appointments to battleships in the Mediterranean Fleet, followed by Kent then flagship of the China Station.

After a shore appointment he was given command of Active in the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla (part of the Mediterranean Fleet).

He was posted Captain in 1934 and expected to spend some time on half-pay. The Abyssinian crisis ended that as a destroyer flotilla was activated from the reserve and he was given command of it.

Return to the UK at the end of that crisis was disturbed by the start of the Spanish Civil War, his ships being involved in the initial evacuation of British citizens from the war zone.

His next appointment was as Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Lionel Wells in Arethusa. Wells commanded the 3rd Cruiser Squadron then part of the Mediterranean Fleet.

[edit] World War II

Vian returned to the UK just before World War II broke out and was appointed to command of another destroyer flotilla activated from reserve, his own ship being Mackay. This flotilla was based at Liverpool with the role of escorting convoys.

Early in 1940 he moved again, this time to command of the 4th destroyer flotilla, the famous Tribal class destroyers. The leader's ship at the time was HMS Afridi but as she was due for a refit he swapped ships to take over Cossack. Vian, in Afridi, led a small British convoy into Namsos in April 1940 to land British troops as a part of a pincer movement to seize the City of Trondheim in Norway.

In 1941 Vian commanded the destroyer flotilla which played an important role in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck. In a night attack, Vian's force, unable to risk closing to point-blank range against such a powerful ship, failed to score a hit in the darkness. Bismarck, however, was also unable to hit any of the destroyers, and the battle kept the majority of Bismarck's crew wearily awake all night long until morning, with no rest before having to face two British battleships.

From late 1941 onwards Vian served in the Mediterranean, in particular leading cruiser squadrons and other naval forces based in Malta and Alexandria, which caused great losses to Italian merchant shipping, ensured the supply of Malta and fight a number of successful engagements with the Italian Navy.

By September 1943, he commanded Force V, a flotilla of escort aircraft carriers providing air support for the Allied landings at Salerno, Italy. Force V comprised the escort aircraft carriers HMS Attacker, Battler, Hunter and Stalker, and the maintenance carrier HMS Unicorn, acting temporarily as a light fleet carrier. The planned period had to be increased and, when General Mark Wayne Clark requested Force V to stay longer despite fuel shortages, Vian replied: "My carriers will stay here if we have to row back."

In 1944, Vian was the commander of the main British naval force supporting the D-Day landings in Normandy.

In 1945 he was the commander in charge of air operations of the British Pacific Fleet - Task Force 57, providing air support for the American invasion of Okinawa (Operation Iceberg). Then they participated in attacks on the Japanese homeland and the eventual Japanese surrender.

After the war he became Fifth Sea Lord (1946) and Admiral of the Fleet. In addition to his other decorations he was Mentioned in Despatches four times, and received several foreign awards.

[edit] External references

Military offices
Preceded by
Sir Thomas Troubridge		 Fifth Sea Lord
1946–1948		 Succeeded by
George Creasy
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