Home Fleet
Home Fleet ( German Heimatflotte) is the traditional name for the Royal Navy fleet , which serves to protect the territorial waters of Great Britain .
During the First World War , the Home Fleet was renamed the Grand Fleet . In the course of the Invergordon mutiny of September 15-16, 1931, which broke out on some ships of the Atlantic Fleet , the successor to the Grand Fleet , it was decided in 1932 to rename the Atlantic Fleet back to Home Fleet in order to alleviate the mutiny Get rid of the Atlantic Fleet .
During the Second World War , the Home Fleet's area of operation was never precisely defined, which is why sub-units were relocated to other areas relatively quickly from time to time. For the southern part of the North Sea and the English Channel , extra commands were set up, which had light and fast units and could therefore be used flexibly. Because the sea war in the Atlantic became increasingly violent, a special command, the Western Approaches Command , was set up. It was only after the destruction of the German battleship Tirpitz in 1944 that the Home Fleet lost its strategic importance for the battle in Europe, and so most of the heavy units of the Home Fleet could be relocated to East Asia , where the Second World War was not yet over.
The commanders in chief of the Home Fleet during World War II were:
- 1939-1940: Sir Charles Forbes
- 1940-1942: Sir John Tovey
- 1942-1944: Sir Bruce Fraser
- 1944-1945: Sir Henry Moore