It's worth saying that the Pacific Fleet off Japan wasn't the only @RoyalNavy fleet in the Far East on #VJDay. At Trincomalee lay the East Indies Fleet, under Adm Sir Arthur Power, just back from operating off Thailand, & preparing for the amphibious landings to recapture Malaya. https://twitter.com/navalhistorian/status/1294730601908637696

Though reduced from its peak the previous year by the transfer of the big, Illustrious & Implacable Class fleet carriers to the Pacific with Adm Fraser, the damage to HMS Valiant & the return home of HMS Queen Elizabeth & HMS Renown, Adm Power's fleet still packed a punch.

Replacing HMS Queen Elizabeth as flagship was HMS Nelson, fresh from refitting in the US, while the @MarineNationale battleship Richelieu would return just three days later, fresh from a refit at Durban in South Africa.

There were also a number of cruisers, including the heavy County Class cruisers HMS London & HMS Sussex, & the Colony Class HMS Nigeria & HMS Ceylon.

While in the absence of the big fleet carriers, air power was provided by a force of small escort carriers, including HMS Ameer, HMS Attacker, HMS Empress, HMS Hunter, HMS Stalker & HMS Shah, flying Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers & Grumman Hellcat & Supermarine Seafire fighters.

Among the pilots was Lt Y.N. Singh, the @RoyalNavy's 1st Indian fighter pilot, flying Grumman Hellcat fighters with 804 Naval Air Squadron, mainly from the escort carrier HMS Ameer (pic), but with flights aboard HMS Empress & HMS Shah too.

While among the escorts was the Black Swan Class anti-submarine sloop HMIS Kistna, under Cdr Sadishar Ganesh Karmarkar RINVR, one of six "trailblazers" sent to train in Britain in 1934, & the 1st Indian officer to command a Royal Indian Navy ship.

Though perhaps the most commonly neglected @RoyalNavy fleet in the Far East was the force that had been assembling at Sydney, Australia, throughout July & into August to reinforce Adm Fraser's Pacific Fleet: a force almost as powerful as that commanded by V/Adm Rawlings off Japan

Much like V/Adm Rawlings' force, this contained two modern King George V Class battleships - Adm Fraser's personal flagship HMS Duke of York, & HMS Anson - sisters to V/Adm Rawlings' flagship HMS King George V & HMS Howe.

At its heart lay four new Colossus Class light carriers, designed by the chief naval architect at Vickers JS Redshaw in early 1942 & built in an average of 27 months each, at 18,000 tons they were smaller, & lacked the speed (25kt), armour & 4.5in guns of the Illustrious Class...

Nonetheless, they each carried 40 aircraft (18-21 Corsair fighters & a similar number of Fairey Barracuda torpedo bombers). Commanded by R/Adm Cecil Harcourt aboard the flagship HMS Venerable, HMS Colossus, HMS Glory & HMS Vengeance were a powerful addition to the Pacific Fleet.

Ready, but not needed against Japan, these remarkable ships would go on to form the backbone of the @RoyalNavy aircraft carrier force during the Korean War & see service with other navies for decades, the last of them, HMS Vengeance, finally decommissioning from @marmilbr in 2001

This was despite, it must be said, a specified design life of three years, or until the end of the war, whichever came soonest... (presumably *which* war, was not specified!).