Captain Dickie Bates
Fleet Air Arm officer who survived three crashes
CAPTAIN DICKIE BATES, who has died aged 91, was a Fleet Air Arm observer who survived three helicopter crashes, went on to command ships and, at 39, became the youngest captain on the Navy’s active list.
He qualified as an observer in 1950 and soon joined 812 NAS (Naval Air Squadron), equipped with Fairey Firefly fighter-reconnaissance aircraft and embarked in the light fleet carrier Glory in 1952 for Korean War operations.
Bates flew with the squadron on March 17 1952, when Glory launched 105 sorties against targets in North Korea, a new record for a British Commonwealth light fleet carrier, surpassing the previous record of 89.
The Communists were attacking Allied troops on the island of Sok-to, so Glory sent two squadrons – 804 NAS, with Sea Furies, and Bates’s own 812 NAS, with Fireflies – which together dropped 68,500lb bombs and fired 408 three-inch rockets during the day. Fireflies contributed 40 successful sorties; Sea Furies 65.
The last launch of the day involved every aircraft being airborne (bar one that had been damaged earlier). By the time they had all landed, each pilot had flown three sorties, and some of them four. The task force commander, Admiral Scott-moncrieff, described Glory’s effort as “a truly remarkable achievement”.
Richard John Bates was born on September 25 1930 in London to Richard Bates, a businessman, and Catherine, née Beadle. His love of aviation was kindled as a wartime evacuee in Weston-super-mare, where he would gaze at the aircraft passing overhead.
Aged 18 he joined the Navy and a year later was flying with the Fleet Air Arm. He became a specialist in airborne early warning and in 1953 flew the new Douglas Skyraider with 849 NAS, enthusing in his diary about the aircraft’s AN/ APS-20 radar, an American innovation that could detect objects at then-phenomenal distances: a ship at 200 nautical miles and a low-flying aircraft at 65.
Bates then re-specialised as an anti-submarine observer, flying in Westland Whirlwind helicopters. In 1958 he served in the first ever front-line antisubmarine helicopter unit, 845 NAS, which embarked in the carrier Bulwark for operations east of Suez. On August 15, however, his Whirlwind suffered engine failure and crashed. He and his three companions fired a flare to attract the attention of a passing RAF Dakota, but to no avail. So, armed with rifles, they walked to safety instead.
This was not to be his only crash. In 1959, as an antisubmarine helicopter training unit instructor, he ditched in the sea. And in 1962, having returned to the front line flying the new Westland Wessex with 815 NAS in Ark Royal, he found himself in the water again.
Mercifully, on both occasions, he and his crew managed to extricate themselves from the aircraft as it sank.
In 1965 he was promoted to Commander, and given command of the destroyer Carysfort, then serving with the Far East Fleet on operations against incursions into Malaysia during its confrontation with Indonesia.
In 1970 he was selected early for promotion to captain; at 39 he was the youngest in the Navy List at the time. He just missed selection for Admiral, but was made Aide-de-camp to the Queen in July 1979. He retired from the active list in December 1980.
An excellent sportsman, Bates had played cricket for Middlesex Schools, hockey for Dorset and Cornwall, and cricket, golf and hockey for the Navy, culminating in the captainship of the Royal Navy Golf Team in 1976-77.
He married, in 1953, Jean Margaret (née Axford) and they had three daughters. After Jean’s death in 2002, he married Anne Sayer. She survives him with his children.
Richard Bates, born September 25 1930, died April 7 2022