Escort carriers and mobile air support off Burma

Nubian joined the 21st Aircraft Carrier Squadron in the Indian Ocean to protect escort carriers supporting the Burma campaign. Their aircraft could keep pace with troops more readily than newly built airfields. The force usually paired the carriers with Tribal destroyers, other escorts, and a Dido-class cruiser as flagship. Surface attack remained possible because Japanese cruisers could still enter the Indian Ocean. The Tribals supplied cruiser-like gunfire and torpedoes while taking the dangerous screening position between a threat and the carriers. The deployment also reveals a wider allocation problem: major units went to the British Pacific Fleet, while the Indian Ocean still needed a force strong enough to deny Japan an easy opportunity.