Exercise Sunrise simulated a convoy escorted from Britain into northern waters under attack by Soviet forces. Duke of York operated with three aircraft carriers carrying 66 aircraft, three cruisers, and eighteen destroyers. The opposing force was assumed to be weak in surface ships but strong in submarines and land-based aircraft, represented by eighteen submarines and more than a hundred RAF aircraft. A planned carrier strike targeted the simulated Soviet base at Plymouth. Poor weather allowed only the thirteen Barracudas to fly on every day of the exercise, while Vampires, Sea Furies, and Fireflies flew on just one afternoon. The strike had to be cancelled, prompting criticism that the light fleet carriers could not perform a task they were likely to face in war.
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Exercise Sunrise exposes carrier limits in bad weather
A 1948 convoy exercise forced the cancellation of a carrier strike when most embarked aircraft could barely fly.