What was the name of the force that conducted a mission that taught advanced techniques such as carrier deck landing?
The 1919 plans incorporated a Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation (MNBDO) which could develop and defend a forward base. The MNBDO had a strength of 7,000 and included a brigade of antiaircraft artillery, a brigade of coastal artillery and a battalion of infantry, all drawn from the Royal Marines. In one paper exercise, the Royal Marines occupied Nakagusuku Bay unopposed and the MNBDO developed a major base there from which the fleet blockaded Japan. Actual fleet exercises were conducted in the Mediterranean in the 1920s to test the MNBDO concept. However, the Royal Marines were not greatly interested in amphibious warfare, and lacking organisational backing, the techniques and tactics of amphibious warfare began to atrophy. By the 1930s the Admiralty was concerned that the United States and Japan were well ahead of Britain in this field and persuaded the Army and RAF to join with it in establishing the Inter-Service Training and Development Centre, which opened in July 1938. Under its first commandant, Captain Loben Edward Harold Maund, it began investigating the problems of amphibious warfare, including the design of landing craft.Nor was this the only field in which the Royal Navy was lagging in the 1930s. In the 1920s, Colonel the Master of Sempill led the semi-official Sempill Mission to Japan to help the Imperial Japanese Navy establish an air arm. At the time the Royal Navy was the world leader in naval aviation. The Sempill mission taught advanced techniques such as carrier deck landing, conducted training with modern aircraft, and provided engines, ordnance and technical equipment. Within a decade, Japan had overtaken Britain. The Royal Navy pioneered the armoured flight deck, which enabled carriers to absorb damage, but resulted in limiting the number of aircraft that a carrier could operate. The Royal Navy had great faith in the ability of ships' antiaircraft batteries, and so saw little need for high performance fighters. To maximise the benefit of the small numbers of aircraft that could be carried, the Royal Navy developed multi-role aircraft such as the Blackburn Roc, Fairey Fulmar, Fairey Barracuda, Blackburn Skua and Fairey Swordfish. As a result, the Royal Navy's aircraft were no match for their Japanese counterparts.The possibility of Japan taking advantage of a war in Europe was foreseen. In June 1939, the Tientsin Incident demonstrated another possibility: that Germany might attempt to take advantage of a war in the Far East. In the event of a worst-case scenario of simultaneous war with Germany, Italy and Japan, two approaches were considered. The first was to reduce the war to one against Germany and Japan only by knocking Italy out of the conflict as quickly as possible. The former First Sea Lord, Sir Reginald Drax, who was brought out of retirement to advise on strategy, called for a "flying squadron" of four or five battleships, along with an aircraft carrier, some cruisers and destroyers, to be sent to Singapore. Such a force would be too small to fight the Japanese main fleet, but could protect British trade in the Indian Ocean against commerce raiders. Drax argued that a small, fast force would be better in this role than a large, slow one. When more ships became available, it could become the nucleus of a full-sized battle fleet. Chatfield, now Minister for Coordination of Defence, disagreed with this concept. He felt that the flying squadron would become nothing more than a target for the Japanese fleet. Instead, he put forward a second approach, namely that the Mediterranean be abandoned and the fleet sent to Singapore.
The Royal Navy