Rear-Admiral "Chico" Roberts, who has died aged 93, was one of the Royal Navy's most experienced aviators and saw action in two of the last century's major conflicts.
Rear-Admiral 'Chico' Roberts
On August 12 1942 Roberts was flight commander of the two Walrus seaplanes carried by the light cruiser Manchester on Operation Pedestal, a convoy to supply the besieged island of Malta, when the ship was torpedoed by Italian motorboats off Cap Bon.
Roberts, who was standing immediately above the area where Manchester was hit, saw the torpedo tracks approaching the ship. He remembered a great flash but nothing of the hours that followed; the next thing he knew, he was carrying ammunition to the vessel's pom-pom guns. Manchester was drifting without power and listing heavily. The order was given to abandon ship, and she was scuttled.
Of Manchester's crew, 312 were picked up by the destroyer Pathfinder, but Roberts was in a group surrounding a raft which was being paddled and pushed towards the North African coast. At dawn the next day an Italian motorboat swept up and fired its guns over their heads. Demands for the name of the British ship, punctuated by bursts of machine-gun fire, were greeted by dead silence until a sailor stood up in the raft, shook his fist, and in colourful Anglo-Saxon told the "macaroni eaters" to go away. Roberts – expecting a burst of gunfire in response – tried to lower himself deeper into the water, but to his amazement the Italian boat turned away.
When they reached the shore, Roberts and his fellow survivors were interned by the Vichy French at Laghouat in southern Algeria. Conditions were appalling and several prisoners, weakened by starvation, died of disease. Roberts was rescued by the advancing US Army in November 1942.
A decade later he was involved in the Korean War. By now one of the Fleet Air Arm's most experienced pilots, Roberts commanded 825 Naval Air Squadron in intense operations from May to October 1952, leading rocket and bombing raids on road and rail bridges, railway turntables, gun positions and warehouses.
Things started badly. On the morning of May 16, after an unsuccessful attack on a radio station, Roberts made a second pass to photograph the target and was hit by small arms fire.
Oil covered the windscreen and fire licked round him as he gained a little height and then dived out to sea. The flames went out as he switched off the fuel, but his engine died and his Fairey Firefly dropped quickly.
Roberts managed to ditch five miles off the coast, and 25 minutes later was picked up by an American amphibious aircraft. He was back on the light carrier Ocean by teatime.
He was forced to make two other emergency landings: one in Seoul, when his tail hook refused to lower; another on Ocean, after he was hit by flak and his engine malfunctioned.
For his service off Korea he was promoted commander and awarded a DSO.
Cedric Kenelm Roberts was born on April 19 1918 and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham. He volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm, learned to fly and in 1940 was commissioned into the RNVR, where he was always known as "Chico".
After being released from internment in Algeria, Roberts was appointed personal pilot to Vice-Admiral Sir Lumley Lyster, the Flag Officer Carrier Training. In 1944 he qualified as a batsman with responsibility for signalling aircraft in to land on the moving deck of an aircraft carrier, and joined the escort carrier Trumpeter on Artic convoys and mine laying duties off Norway.
At the end of the war Roberts chose to remain in the Royal Navy and gained his bridge watchkeeping certificate in the replenishment carrier Vindex. By 1946 he was an acting lieutenant-commander in the light fleet carrier Glory. He was later senior pilot of 815 Naval Air Squadron, and commanding officer of 813 and 767 NAS.
After the Korean War, Roberts was lent to the Royal Australian Navy as Deputy Director Naval Air Warfare, to help build up the Australian Fleet Air Arm. He then returned to Britain, where he commanded the naval stations at Portland (1962-64) and Culdrose (1964-65); he was Flag Officer Naval Air Command from 1968 to 1971 and appointed CB in 1970.
In retirement "Chico" Roberts farmed in Somerset before emigrating to New South Wales in 1979. He died on July 29.
He married, in 1940, Audrey Elias, with whom he had four sons.
Oil covered the windscreen and fire licked round him as he gained a little height and then dived out to sea. The flames went out as he switched off the fuel, but his engine died and his Fairey Firefly dropped quickly.
Roberts managed to ditch five miles off the coast, and 25 minutes later was picked up by an American amphibious aircraft. He was back on the light carrier Ocean by teatime.
He was forced to make two other emergency landings: one in Seoul, when his tail hook refused to lower; another on Ocean, after he was hit by flak and his engine malfunctioned.
For his service off Korea he was promoted commander and awarded a DSO.
Cedric Kenelm Roberts was born on April 19 1918 and educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham. He volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm, learned to fly and in 1940 was commissioned into the RNVR, where he was always known as "Chico".
After being released from internment in Algeria, Roberts was appointed personal pilot to Vice-Admiral Sir Lumley Lyster, the Flag Officer Carrier Training. In 1944 he qualified as a batsman with responsibility for signalling aircraft in to land on the moving deck of an aircraft carrier, and joined the escort carrier Trumpeter on Artic convoys and mine laying duties off Norway.
At the end of the war Roberts chose to remain in the Royal Navy and gained his bridge watchkeeping certificate in the replenishment carrier Vindex. By 1946 he was an acting lieutenant-commander in the light fleet carrier Glory. He was later senior pilot of 815 Naval Air Squadron, and commanding officer of 813 and 767 NAS.
After the Korean War, Roberts was lent to the Royal Australian Navy as Deputy Director Naval Air Warfare, to help build up the Australian Fleet Air Arm. He then returned to Britain, where he commanded the naval stations at Portland (1962-64) and Culdrose (1964-65); he was Flag Officer Naval Air Command from 1968 to 1971 and appointed CB in 1970.
In retirement "Chico" Roberts farmed in Somerset before emigrating to New South Wales in 1979. He died on July 29.
He married, in 1940, Audrey Elias, with whom he had four sons.
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