Mobile Naval Airfields Organisation

Mobile Operational Naval Air Bases (MONABs) were a series of mobile units first formed in 1944 to provide logistical support to the Fleet Air Arm aircraft of the Royal Navy's British Pacific Fleet towards the end of World War II.

Each unit was self-contained and designed to service and repair aircraft and engines. Each were initially assembled at the MONAB Headquarters at HMS Flycatcher (first at Ludham then Middle Wallop in the UK).

When the naval threat in the Atlantic was clearly vanishing, with the decline of Nazi Germany, proposals were made to involve the Royal Navy in the Pacific War. The United States Navy's Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Ernest King, did not welcome this, however. A well-known anglophobe, King preferred to exclude the British and, in addition, he laid down operating requirements that could not be met at the time. One of these was that the Royal Navy should be self-sustaining and independent of United States Navy (USN) logistical resources for extended periods of active service.

King was effectively overruled, however, and the Royal Navy set about establishing an adequate logistical infrastructure which included MONABs.

Ten MONABs were established, most based in Australia. The last unit was decommissioned in 1946.

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