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Brifish Aircraft
Grriers d
Wbrld\ihrll
With a limited number of ships but with worldwide
rcsponsibilities, the Royal Navy deployed and operated its
carfierc in a very diffetent way to the Americans. Yet despite
thefu laek of nunhers and mediocre aircraft, British carrierc
made a vital conhibution to the victory at sea,
Though the British pioneered aviation at sea and at the end of World War
I were well ahead of everybody in the field, they lost their way badly
between the wars, squandering their great initial advantage, Probably
*,}re most contentious issue of the time was RAF control of the Fleet Air
Arm for the two decades from 1918, with interservice problems doing
nothhg for the spirit of the service. Second was the deteriorating per-
brmance standard of FAA aircraft in comparison with foretgn equiva-
-ents: this problem was as much naval as RAF in origin but meant that,
:mtially at least, the Royal Navy's aircraft were almost invariably outclas-
sed in combat. Lastly, there were the shlps themselves. The UK's naval
appropriations between the wars resulted in the first of the thlrd-
leneration carriers comlng irrward too late for worklng experience to
:e gained before the emergency progffammes began, Therefore the
icyal Navy entered the war with too few flightdecks, while those that
',','ere coming forward were, it could be argmed, over-protected. Wtth
:-assive vertical armouring, their aircraft capacity was drastically re-
i:ced and construction times lengthened. Late in the war, it was quite
::rvincingly shown that the later fleet carriers, with the same horizontal
::: much reduced vertical protection, survived kamlkaze strikes as well
w,i&i:-ii,rr iirurr:la
, "'iir8trN#dgray
The toughest campaigm for Britkh
carriers was the siege of Malta; they
were exposed to the full fury of the
Luftwaffe. An even greater menace
lurked below the uraves.'Ark Royal
and Eagle were both lost to U -boat
attack.
as their heavier sisters, while enjoying the benefits of an enhar:e:
aircraft capacity.
The Royal Navy fought a different type of war to the Americars a;-j
Japanese. In place of the latters' vast trials of strength in a comparai;e-_.-
hmited theatre were world-wide resporsibilities in the defence of tl=i=
and vital outposts, together with long and patient operations aga-:-_<:
unwillingly-disturbed fleets-in-beinQ that could not be ignored, The-
functions, together with the value placed on each carrier, engenderei =
fundamentally defensive approach. Only with the formation of the Br-''.:.
Pacific Fleet could the Royal Navy permit itself the luxury of hazari-;
major units by going on the offensive. For the first time, four and five --
=e
.
carriers worked together, the irony being that they were fightrrg a-,','-
already won by a US fleet that overshadowed their efforts in ever;'-,',-1-.-
Yet, a similar force working in European waters, even only a coup-: :-
years previously, would have rewritten maritime history,
HMSVictorious fought in every major theatre of operations during World
War II . Surviving fwo kamikaze suicide bomb attacks, she was eventually
recons tucted and sewe d until I 9 6 7.
alt,;iab::;U.tl:.irlt::,ru:,ul
@.,;&'
-C
>K finns Furious
The several guises of HMS Furrbus
represented the transitional stages be-
tween what miqht be termed 'air-
capable' ships and the true aucraft-
carrier. As the thud of Admiral Fisher's
'tin-clad' light battle-cruisers (laid
down in 1915), she was launched in
August 1916 but delayed in completion
to allow her to ship the navy's largest
gnm, a 457-mm (I8-in) weapon, in sing-
le mounts at each end. Although vir-
tua1ly complete in March 1917, she
then had her forward gnrn removed in
favour of a sloping flying-offdeck some
69.5 m (228 ft) in lenqth, A hangar be-
neath this deck accommodated up to
l0 aircraft (some seaplanes and some
wheeled), Completed thus in]uly 19lZ
she rapidly showed the limitations of
carrying aircraft that could not (official-
ly at least) be recovered after a flight,
In November 1917, therefore, her after
gn:n mounting made way for a B6.Sm
(284-ft) flying-on deck over a second
hangar. Much of her superstruch:re Abov e : L an ding or ;IMS Furious 3
sti-li remained, however, and the high fotwArd deck was very dangerous;
speeds at which she steamed to create S quadron Commander Dunning was
the necessary wind-over-deck re- killed when his Sopwith Pup
sulted in severe turbulence, causing overshot.InNovembr 1917 the after
an unacceptable accident rate among 1 f -in gan was removed in favour of a
would-be landers-on, Relegated agarn fuing-ond*k.
to flyrng-off only, the Furious still had
the distinction of mounting the first real Right:The first ship to launch an air
carrier-based air stnke when, on 19 striJre, HIVS t\uions was originally
luly 19 18, seven of her Sopwith Camels designd for Adtniral Fisher's plan to
destroyed two Zeppelins and thelr attack Germany's Bdtic coast during
sheds at Tondern, A through-deck was WorldWarL
obviously required, as on the new
,Argrus, and she was thus modified be- rRigit;.HMS Fwious in April I 927. The
tween 1921 and 1925. Even lollowingr superstructure was removed in I 92 l
this, she was still of rntenm desigm, as it czeated serious turbulence
havrng no island, Not until her final pre- problems. Further alterations took
war refit did she acguue a vestignal place in the I 930s, cross-dec/<
superstructure, topped-off by a arrestet gear was fitted and the AA
diminutive mast that supported a dis- Syun arranlement changed.
hnctive hominq beacon.
Despite her age and inflrmities, the Below : I n her World W ar I I gtuise
Funbus saw service in Atiantic hunting i1IMS Furious Jooke d r a dic ally
groups and convoy escorts, the ditferent from the ship that attacked
Norwegian campaign, aircraft- the Zeppelin sheds in I 9 I 8. By the
ferrying to both Malta and West Atica, lime sie fookp art in Oper ation
and the North African landings, Her 'Torch' , the Allied landings in North
last flying was agarrst the Tirpitz, nn- Africa, shecarried 33 aircraft.
mured in a Norwegnan fjord, before
she went into reserve during Septem-
ber 1944. She was scrapped in 1948,
Specification
HMSFurious
Tlpe: fl eet a:rcraft -carrier
Displacement: 22,500 tons standard
and 28,500 tors flr]l load
Dimensions: lengith 239.5 m (785.75 ft);
beam 27.4 m (90 ft); draught 7,3 m
(24 ft)
Propulsion: 4-shaft geared steam
trubines delivering 90, 000 shp
(67U3 kW)
Speed:31,5 kts
Armour: belt 5l-76 mm (2-3-in); hangar
deck38 mm(I.5 in)
Armament: six twin 102-mm (4-in) AA,
three octuple 2-pdr AA, and several
smaller-calibre gnms
Aircraft:33
Complement: 750 excluding aircrew

The World W ar I I camouflage

B elow :
does not concea/IfMS F\rrioust
battlecruiser origins. The island was
notaddeduntil 1939.
ffi fims Arsus
Proposals had been made before
British Aircraft Carriers of World War II

World War I for an aircraft-carrier with

a straight-through flightdeck capable
ofhandling the launch and recovery of
wheeled arrcralt, but the Royal Navy
had to 'make do'with improvised sea- -\ce-1
plane carriers, and it was not until 19 16
that the proposer, the Beardmore com-
mercial yard, u/as given the contract to
complete a half-flnished Italian liner as
a prototype carrier. The ship, the Con-
te Rosso, had been laid down in 1914
and had suitable dimensions plus the
high freeboard necessary for the job,
No superstructure was planned to in-
terrupt the flightdeckwhich, like those
of all pioneering carriers, was pointed
at the forward end, A single hangar
was provided and the necessary small
chadhouse was made retractable lnto
the flightdeck, As fuIl of character as
she was devoid of grrace, HMS Argrus In the late 1920s the Argus was H MS ArgJJs ofi the N orth African extensively used as a frials siip rh
was understandably known as 'The bulged to improve stability as much as coast, November I 942. The Royal the years after World War I, proving
Flatiron', to enhance survivability and, ailer the Navy's first flush-decked carrier the validity of the straight-through
Her name (fugms was all-vigilant, completion of the larger fleet carriers, started life as anltalianliner. Shewas Ilightdeckdesign.
wrth 100 eyes) suggests that she was acted as a training and target aircraft-
seen by planners as being strongly re- carrier, Small and slow by World War
connaissance-oientated, particularly II standards, she gave vaiuable sewice
with the recent memory of Jutland, a ferrying fighter aircraft to Gibraltar, Specification Propulsion: 4-shaft geared steam
victory lost for want of good intelli- Malta and Takoradi (for onward HlvLS.Argrus h:rbines delivering 21,000 shp
gence, She was wanted for the end of staged flights to Egypt), Lack of car- Type: training, atrcraft-ferry and (15660 kW)
1917 but was launched only in Decem- riers saw her also in operational roles second-line aircraft -carrier Speed:20,5 kts
ber of that year, and eventually com- from trme to trme, notably on an Arctic Displacement: 14, 000 tons standard Armour:none
missioned only weeks before the convoy and at the North African land- and l5,75Otonsfullload Armament: six 102-mm (4-in) AA, and
Armlstice of November l9l8, carrying ings, From mid- 1943 she was used only Dimensions: lengrth 172.2 m (565 ft); several smaller-calibre gmns
a squadron of the unpopular Sopwith for trarning in home waters, being pard beam 20,7 m (68 ft); draught 7,3 m Aircraft: about 20
Cuckoo torpedo aircraft. offin 1944, She was scrapped in 1947, (24 tt) Complement: 370 excluding aircrew

Handicapped by her lack of sped,

I
j HMS Argus wa s removed from front-
g
Iine service during the I 9 30 s. S he
* nevertheless had to actas a
};
Lj
replacement carrier for Force H alter
ArkRoyalwassunk

ffi fivrs
:e::re World War I, Chile ordered
Eagte
:,r: stretched 'lron Duke' class bat-
--:s:ips from Armstrong's Elswick
1-r Only one of these, the Almirante
i::rre, was well advanced by Augnrst
- : i compulsorily purchased by the
. than the large cruiser conversions, but
-r-r::i:a.lty, she was completed in 1915
=. fl'S Canada. Work on her unlaun-
:':i srster, the Almirante Cocfuane
,-: :own in 19 13), ceased with hostili-
::j ::i she was taken in hand, post-
-.---::-l for completion as an arrcraft-
Llke the Hermes she was far
-:::.'=:e for
r:,- the war; being iaunched in
_'::: -3lB and commissioning for ex-
e=::i [ra]s in 1920, Several versrons
:: -:: pioneering island superstruc-
:i:: riere tried after rnitial experi-
=--::= .:r the lrgus. This kept her in
::,:5-d harids for a grreat portion of
::e ;e:rcd betriveen 1920 and 1923,
w:-=:, -:-e Hermes was commissioned,
I- --='
.,.ersion of the rsland was longt
and low, topped-offby two funne1 cas-
lngs with the same thrck and thin pro-
portions as the ship's erstwhile sister,
Her more ample battleship propor-
tions made her considerably slower
she had better stabihty. Despite the
fact that she rntroduced the ftvo-level
hangar, she still had only modest au-
craft capacity,
Much of the Eagrle's pre-World War
II service was in the Far East, but the
carrier moved into the Indran Ocean in H M S Eagle fl ew SpjtEres lo Ma.lta
September I939, thence to the during Match 1942and rassunl.m
Mediterranean to replace the Glo- Augu s t d urin g Opera tion'Pedshti'-
nous, Following air strikes against Ita-
lian shipping at Tobruk she was badly ffMS Eagle spenf the bul& of.ircr
shaken by bombing dwing the action senil'c€ careeron dre C?r:ra s:aaon
off Calabria, suffering damage that returning to lheMed;'lerrarear tr
eventually caused her to miss the' spring 1940.
Taranto raid, Before she could refit in
the UK, she saw further action in the
Red Sea and the South Atlantic, Arriv-
ing back in the Mediterranean early in
1942, she was later involved in the
famous August convoy (Operation
'Pedestal') when 4l warships fought
through just five out of 14 merchantmen
to lift the Malta slege, TheEagle was a
major casualty, sunk by four torpedoes
fromU-73 on 11 August 1942,

Specification
HMSEag/e
Type: fl eet arrcraft -carrier
Displacement: 22,600 tons standard
and 26,500 tons ful]]oad
Dirnensiors: lengrth 203,3 m (667 ft);
beam32.l m(105,25 ft); draughtT,3 m
(24 ft)
Propulsion: 4-shaft qeared steam
hrrbines dellering 50,000 shp
(37285 kW) .
Speed:24 kts
Armour:belt 102-178 mm(4-7 in); 102-mm (4-in) AA, and eight 2-pdr AA HMS EagLe photographed trom a that month Eagle made ffi ree sorfi es
flightdeck25 mm(l rn); hangardeck guns 'Queen Elizabeth' class battleship, to Malta, flying off a total of 3 I Spitfire
102 mm (4 in), shields 25 mm ( I in) Aircraft:21 probably H M S Malaya, in ffi e MkVs.
Armament: nine l52-mm (6-in), four Complement: 750 excluding aucrew M editerranean, M arch I 942. During

ffi iius Hermes

Thelrgus concept was obviously con-
sldered sound for early in 19i8, before
her completion, the keel was laid
down for HMS flermes, Though she
was designed for the job, it was
obviously not with the benefit of oper-
atronal experrence, Lacking a prece-
dent, her designers made her too
small, prompting the Japanese to re-
peat the error with their pioneer
Hosho, lard down in the followrng year,
With the end of World War I, constrrc-
tion was lersurely, the ship being laun-
ched in September I9I9 and with com-
pletion delayed until 1923, As a result
she entered servrce after the much lar-
ger but converted HMS.6a9Je, which
had meanwhile proved the idea of the
lsland superstructure, Like that of the
Eagle, Hermes' island seemed dis-
proportionately large, wrth a massive
battleship-style tripod and fighting top,
bearing rangefinders for the unusual
amament of six 140-mm (5.S-in) gnms:
early carriers were expected to be
able to repel light surface attack, the
potential of their aircraft not having
been firlly evaluated, A light armour
belt was also worked in, An improve-
ment on the lrgus was a doubfng of
irstalled power to give a speed in-
creaise of over 4 kts,
A distinctive feature on the after
flightdeck was a low hump, desigmed
to decelerate incoming aircraft. This
was also copied by the Japanese, but
neither fleet found it a success and
abandoned it.
Though obsolete by World War il,
the Hermes made an extremely valu-
able contribution in lower-threat
areas, This found her hunting for raid-
ers in the Atlantic, undertaking spot-
trng and reconnalssance mrssions in
operations against the Vichy French in
West Africa and the Italians in the Red
Sea, gnving shore support during the
suppression of the Iraqi rebellion of
HM.S Hermes seryed in the Far East
for most of her career. This
photogiraph clearly shows her
unusually large island
superstructure. Purpose-built, she
carried almost as many aircraft as
Eagle, a ship of twice her
dlsplacement.
1941 and escorting Indian oceal con-
voys, She was sunk in April 1942 off
Ceylon during the Japanese carrier
raids, but had adequately demons-
trated the value of even a small flight-
deck in areas where no other anation
suppod exrsted.
Specification
HlvLSllermes . .,.,U iii:utl,ui&1u,,
Type: second{ine light aircraft -carrier
Displacement: 10,850 tons standard
and 12,950tonsfullload
Dimensions:lenqth 182.3 m (598 ft); ^.w - iai
.3rr':i,11: .
beam 21,4 m (70,25 ft); draught 6.9 m
(22 6 ft)
Propulsion: 2-shaft geared steam
hubrnes delivering 40,000 shp
(29828 kW)
Speed:25 kts
Armow: belt 5l-76 mm (2-3 in); hangar
deck 25 mm ( 1 in) shields 25 mm ( I in)
Armament: sx 140-mm (5,5-in), and
three lQ2-mm (4-in) AA surs
Aircraft: about 20
Complement: 660 excluding aircrew
The first British carrier actually Above: HMS Hermes sinks off Ceylon
designed as suci, IIM.S Hermes was (Sri Lanka) after aJapanese carrier
built along the lines of a light cruiser. aircraft attack in April I 942.
She carried six I 40-mm (5.5-in) gruns, Sym p tom atic of B r itish handling of
as itwas not believed that aircraft the war in the Far East at this time,
alone could repel enemy surface she had no aircraft aboard and no
attack. means of signallingfor help if
attacked.
Ttre WmshflngfonTrearg
The 1922 Washington Treaty put a temparary stap to the
frantic warsk:p cansfrue fi"on whieh preceded World War I , but
p/a eed ferv res fn'e#ons on th e bui lding of ai r er af t- c a r r ie r s "
The race to produce ffie foest carrier des:grn lta d begun.
Foi'the purposes of the Washington T:'eaty of 1922, Parl4 defined an aircraft-
cari-ier as any lvership erceedrng 10,000 long tons for the'specific and exclu-
srve' purpose of carrying aircraft so constructed as to enabie aircraft to be
'launched thereirom and landed thereon'. Signatories i,r,'ere allowed to bLrild any
numoer Lrp to ihe agreed total tonnage ceilings in Article Vli, which were
i 35,000 long tons eaih for the UK and the USA, 81,000 fcr Japan and 60,000
:ich ror France and taly. Article lX stat€d that no indivtdualships shc-,uld exceed
l- -!O tcns (standard). but powers co'uici build up two not exceeding 3.3,000
-'-'.- provrdedl^ethat the agreedpowe's
ceiiings were not breached. For thts purpose,
esr,rq Y, coniid( ''.g co-lo converl i lius 'wnetner ccttst'ucted
'-1' :r tne c6urse of constructJon', lvhrch would otherw se be scrapped under the
:ap'tal ships lirnitatlon clauses. Up to 10 guns of between 152- and 203-mrn (6-
:id 3-in) calibre could be f itted with no restnction on smaller weapons (Aritcle
X
'. =xcept
r n cases of loss, carriers cou ld, u nder Part 3, be replaced only 20 years
a;ier their completion dates but those alreadv exis{ing or building could be
regarded as 'experirnenlal' and be replaced al any time subject to the tctal
.','' rge cei ings.
To $ut this in the coniext ot the time \1921-2), it should be remembered thai
octh the LJK and Japan were stiil building therr first, small cari-rers designed for
-. e pJ rpose, i'.' nile lhe U SA was converttng a f leet collier to its CV.1 . France and
t: y nad hard y cons dered rhe sublect. Suddenly, f rom the leisurely falter ngs of
rre first generation of carriers, {he signatories found themselves wtth the
:rarameters defined for the seccnd generation, written to make full use of a
: ."r rlde ol .ncomplete cap lal sn o-hults.
-i'hus
the Americans werd able to apply the results of a destgn stuciy tc the
-rlls of two battle-cruisers. These, completed in i927 as the USS Lextngton
iV 2) anC USS Sarafoga (CV 3) were 210.5-m (887.5-ft) 34-kt monsters com-
. cd w;rr :^e I65 4-.-' 1542.6-t1\ l5 kl JSS Langley rCV llof on\ rive ,ea's
:arlier, with no interrnerjiate evolutronary stages. ihe'33,000-ton official 'tleaty'
.prace-ent was exceeoed bv rroo.lt I0 pe'cetrt.
-lc -dpanese'olioired a s rni.ar Dat" w.tn tne Akag, and Kaga. Both.'o'no
-,rcd reason other than lack of experience, were fitted with a 203-mm {B-in)
rain battery, demonslraiing agarn that treaty limitations tend to becorne targets
,i
.', re re ilo larget prevrously existed. Unsure of what therT hac done, both f leets
-:'rerted iemporarily to smailer ships, (USS Ranger and Ryuib) whose practrcal
.- .al ons serveo 1o urrderi:ne ihat b gger wds better.
-ne Bntish. wrth more available hulls and more experience, opted foi-a patr ol
12,500-tonners, HMS Glorious and HMS Caurageouswhich, with only 120-mm
-.7-:n) guns were in no,way treary-lirnited. By conservative design and'lhinking
- : ' the Foyai Navy found itself in 1930 with six carrters carrying far fewer
. :':': in totd Tlan t'e i1'ee ca,r ets ava lacle to t1e A-ericans. seer nglv a
- --e'aLe pol:uv.
Med Lerranean, ihe ltalians considered carriers unnecessary and, but
- ' i'relhetreetv, the French would probably have thought similariy. The choice of
:- 3p or converr', however, persuaded them to produce lne Bearn, too small
': -cc slow lor Lne Job. "ler rrns-cces5t"l design was lo inrlJence Fre"ch
,;11 lrorr nava' a\ cl o^ 'o' *any years.
JWaV
.1, rrre the
Washrngion Trealy successfully curbed rivalries tn capital ship
,-.:truction it unwritingly boosted competition in both carriers and crursers,
-::'r of which developed rap cily in their technology as a result.
The cautious attitude ofnavalplannersled lhefioyalNavy to cpe:a
air cr af t- car r ie r s than the American s o r J ap anese. HMS Cor::ag e . :
and Glorious, seen lere in 1933, carried 120 aircraft. in fofaJ, C-:l:' i *-. : --:
desified to survive the war.

Left: Built from lirelrulls ofmassrye Below: After bu;,rc:":,: .r-. r : : - :

hattlecru isers which were cancelled Ilaga- 3C,060- r;.: --:.-.-. :: j
because of tfte treaty, the' Lexington' aircralt each.l,t 9-'a: :.- : -. :
class had bigger hangars than any experimente= :r'. :.'. :- ..- -: -
earrier built untitr 1945. Carrying 8A aircraftLntoa:.: -'... :- . - .-
aircrafi anc! capable of 34 kts, they t}Ie Ryulo. U.::.::::-i--= : '
resoJved to.E.::.-: .': '=: : - -
=
were superior to any of their
eontemporaries. construat: ss.-.:-: :.'.:-.: :: :
ffi [nnS Courageous and HMS Glorious
Known, for political reasons, as largre
light cru:sers, Jackie Frsher's famous
trio of light battle-cruisers were sup-
posed to be the largest units of a 600-
strong, shallow-draught armada con-
structed to realze hrs vision of landing
an army on the Baltic coast of Ger-
many, only 130 kn (80 miles) from Ber-
ltn. The plan died unth Fisher's depar-
hue ftom the Admiralty in 1915 but his
strange ships were completed as a
legacy, Ready for sea in I9i7, the first
two were HMS Couragreous and HMS
Glorious (laid down in I9I5, and iaun-
ched in February and April 1916), but
were found to be virtually unemploy-
able in the active fleet, unprotected
and, with only four of theu erreat 381-
mm (i5-in) gnrns, slow to get on to the
target, On the only occasion when they
saw serious action, against convention-
al light crursers, they suffered more
damage than they inflicted.
Under the terms of the Washingrton
Treaty, the two ships were eligible for
conversion into aircraft-cafiiers. Re-
building of both started in 1924, the
Courageous completing in 1928 and IIMS Courageous and Glorious, lke
the Glonbus u:r 1930. Funbus (with no Furious, werc light battlecrur'sers
rsland) had had her uptakes led well intended for Admiral Fisher's ill-
at, detracting from her hangar space, conceived Baltic strategy. This is
but these later conversions had the be- Glorious on lrer sea trials in 1917. Her
nefit of developments on the Hermes speed rras an im pressive 3 I knots
and Eagrle, their combined funnel and but her lackof armour made her unfit
bridgre structure boosting therr air for serious combat.
complement considerably, The
Courageous and GJonbus had similar Specification
forward flightdecks, which terminated 'Courageous'class
about 20 per cent of the ship's lengrth Type: fleet aircraft-carrrer
back from the bows, The hangar deck Displacement: 22,500 tons standard
was extended forward at forecastle and 26,500 tons full load
level, allowing fighters to take offfrom Dimensions: length 239.5 m (785,75 ft);
the lower level in favowabie circum- beam 27,6 m (90,5 ft); draught 7.3 m
stances. Both ships were extensively (24 r't)
bulged to improve stabilrty, Propulsion: 4-shaft geared steam
The Courageous was the Royal turbines deliverinq 90, 000 shp
Navy's first major casualty of World (67i 13 kW)
War II, being sunk only a fortnight after Speed:31 kts
hostilities commenced. Her loss Armour: belt 38-76 mm (L5-3 in); IIMS Glorious could be distingrukhed was caught and sunk during the
brought the G/onbus back from the hansar deck 25-76 mm ( 1-3 in) from her sister by her longer flight withdr aw aI by the G erman
Mediterranean as a replacement and Armament: 16 120-mm (4,7-in) AA enrns deck aft. Her aircraft gave sterling ba tljecruisers Scharnhorst and
she, too, was lost only nine months later Aircraft: about 45 sewice over Norway in I 940, but she Gneisenau
during the evacuation of Norway. Complement: 1,2 15 including aircrew
ffM,S Courageous and Glorious
carried abalanced airgroupof 16
Flycatchers, 16 III F spotter/
reconnaissance aircraft and 16 Ripon
torpedobombers

ffi
Completed
finns
in
Ark Royat
1938, HMS Ark ^Royal
was the Royal Navy's first 'modern' car-
ner. A combination of meagre naval
budgets and the lowly status of the
Fleet Air Arm meant that she was the
first carrier to joln the fleet since the
remodelied Gloious back in 1930.
Plenty of time had thus been availabie
to plan her, resulting in a thoroughly
workmanlike and influential design
laid down in 1935 and launched in
April 1937. Though much of a size and
displacement as the G1orious, she
appeared much larger, having ftvo
levels ofhangars with adeguate head-
room. Three elevators were incorpo-
rated but they were small and, had the
ship enjoyed a ionger career, would
have required replacement to cater
for the rapidly increasing size of au-
craft, She had two catapr:Jts ( accelera-
tors') from the outset,
The&kRoyal's most innovatory fea-
ture was her strenorth, the ship intro-
ducing armoured flight and hangar
decks, with the hangar walls an integ-
ra1 part of the main huli girder. Despite
the space-consumrng aspects of this
confignrration, she could stow a far
greater number of aircraft than the
Glorious, Capable of 31kts, she was
also as fast as the earher ships.
Though the earlier conversions had
16 medium-calibre gruns, these were
poorly srted, mainiy with a view to de-
fence agalnst surface attack. The firk
Royal carried eight twin-barrelled
destroyer-type mountinqs, with high
elevations conferring a true dual-
pupose capabih$ and sited fow on
each beam at the flightdeck edges to
gnve good finng arcs, Designers were,
at last, alive to the dangers ofair attack
and a comprehensive fit of smalier
automatic weapons was also incorpo-
rated. Though aircraft were, indeed, to
prove the main hazard to both Amer-
rcan and Japanese carriers, the Royal
Navy was pitted primarily against
fleets without carriers, so suffering
most of its carrier casualties, the lrk
Roya.lincluded on 14 November I94i,
from submarrne attack,
Specification
lIJvlSArkRoyal
Type: fl eet aircraft-carrier
Displacement: 22,000 tons standard
and 26,700 tons full load
Dimensions: length 243,8 m (B0O ft);
beam2B.9 m(94.75 ft); draught6,9 m
(22.66 ft)
Propulsion: 3-shaft geared steam
trrrbines delivering 102,000 shp
(76061kW)
Speed:31 kts
Armour:belt 114 mm (4,5 in); deck
64 mm(2.5 in)
Armament: eight twin I 14 mm (4,5-in)
AA, sx octuple 2-pdr AA, and erght
quadruple 12, 7-mm (0. 5-in) AA gmns
Aircraft: about 65
Complement: 1, 575 including aircrew

- 126
 ArkRogclin Action
weapon failed to explode), the carrier -r,e::
Themostfamousof BritishcarriersinWorldWarll, ArkRoyalwastheRoyalNavy's south in company with HMS Hood tc )c:-
first purpose-built large carrier . Despite repeated German claims to have sunk her , Admiral Somerville's Force H,
she battled on until November l94I , when she fell victim to a U-boat. During her The position of the French Mediterrar:ea::
short career she saw action against theVichy French in North Africa, fought herway fleet was confusing. Its bulk lay rn Touion u:-
mobilized under the eye of the newly-irstajJei
to Malta and struck the decisive blow against the German bafflesfilp Bismarck.
Vichy regime, but powerful elemenls la_l' -:-
various ports in French Alrican territories. A:
Though the war career of HMS&kftoyal span- five out of slx enemy merchantmen that were Mers-el-Kebir, near Oran, lay a force rrcludi:g
ned only a brief 27 months, these were so pack- endeavouring to reach home from internment two modern battle-cruisers and a couple ci
ed with incident that the shrp seemed to be in Spain. elderly battleships. Under no circwnstances
rarely out of the headlines. Stil1 a new ship, she When Germany invaded Norway in April could the already-outnumbered British aLlo,";
was attached to the Home Fieet at Scapa when 1940 the Ark Royal was in the still-quiet these powerful units to fall lnto enemy hands
hostrlities opened. Events started quietiy at sea Mediterranean for a spell of training, TVro of yet French pride would not permit accession ic
mth only ihe enemy's U-boats particularly ac- her Skua squadrons, however, were in the UK the British alternatives of placing the slups
lrve, but the naval policy of aggressive patroll- and on I0 April I5 of these aircraft, working beyond hostile reach or of destroying then:
ing put the big ships in harm's way, and the ftk from the Orkneys to the limit of their range, The British cut short prevarication with ar-
Royal was narrowly missed by submarine tor- drve-bombed and sank the German cruiser ultimatum, backed up by the arrival offthe por:
pedoes on 14 September 1939. She was foitun- Konigsberg in the port of Bergen. Thts was on 3 Juiy of Somewille's forces, includrng three
another naval record, beinq the first instance of '381-mm (15-in) qunned capital ships and the
ate for, only three days later, HMS Courageous
was lost to a similar attack. Carrlers were even- a major warship sunk in action by arr attack. Ark Royal. Moored behind a substantial mcie
hrally to prove the masters of the U-boat, but the With HMS Fuious the only carrler in home and with the torrn at their backs, the French
time was still well in the future, waters, both the Ark Royal and HMS Gloious worked furiously to raise steam while discus-
Within a fortnight, the fleet was at sea in were returned with all despatch. Throughout sions dragged on, To prevent their sudden en:
strength to cover a strrcken submarine and the whole melancholy campaign until the in- the Ark Royal's aircraft mined the marke:
Biackburn Skuas from lhe Ark ftoyal chalked evitable Allied evacuation during june, thelr channel, a move which unfortunately seemed
up a 'first' by shooting down an enemy shadow- aircraft were active over land as well as sea, to stiffen French intractability. Concemed ab-
er, lhe first LuJtwaffe casualty to the RN. The the attrition rate being high. Durinq the with- out attack from without, the waiting Brltrsh be-
pnce was still a stiff dive-bombing attack that drawal, the Glonous was sunk by enemy sur- came edgry and, though the French made coi-
narrowly missed her. face action, but though the Ark Royal was at sea cessions, these did not go iar enough, A fi::a-
The following month saw Ihe Ark Royal de- she was unable to intervene as she was escort- demandwas not met andthe Britishheavy ur,=
tached to join Force K in the equatorial Atlantic, ing a vrtal troop convoy. opened fire at 17.54, with aircraft spottug
to engage in a search for an active enemy The enemy gained Norway, but his fleet suJ- Amid the vertlcal columns of smoke from a
raider. Her aircraft galned great experience in fered severely in the process, so the&kRoyaJ, dozen funnels grew the masthead-hig:
area search, locating enemy supply shrps and could reasonably be spared to proceed to Gib- splashes of the big shells from 13715 m (15 ?l,l
disrupting their organizatron. Uniortunately the raltar, lbr in the same month the Mediterranean
I{MS Ark Royal fighla off German air attack in the
rarder, which turned out to be the Graf Spee, balance had changed completely with the fa]] Mediterranean.ln the face of heavy bomb and
was apprehended much farther south, Some of France and ltaly's entry into the war, torpedo attacks she flew off about I 70 Hawl<er
:onsolation was gained early in 1940 when, on Thus, following a valedlctory raid on Trond- Hurricanes to reinforce Malta in I 94 L I t was while
'jre ship's return north, her aircraft were rn- heim on 13 June, when a Skua put a 227-kg returning from one sucfi rnr'ssrbn that she was
srumental in the lnterception of no less than (500-lb) bomb into the Scharnhorsf (the torpededbyU-81.
...---..-.--'---..-.".-....
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'*.'i'-'{-$$i*'
'l'Mrrs,*
Ark Royal in Action
yards), Moored end-on, unable either to flee or
to fight, the French suffered little more than
ntual execution: the new battle-cruiser Dunk-
erque took a three-shell salvo and had to be
beached; the oldBrefagne exploded and cap-
sized; and lhe Bretagne's sister Provence had
also to be beached to prevent her foundering.
The power of the shells was immense, the com-
plete after end of the large destroyer Mogador
being amputated by one hit Of the major units,
only the battle-cruiser Strasbowg made her
escape, by cutting the boom and keeping close
inshore. T\ro bomb and torpedo strikes were
mounted by the Ark Royal but the ship suc-
ceeded in escaping to Bizerta.
Anothertorpedo drop
As the beachedDunkerque was still thought
to be a threat, the carrier returned three days
later, her Fairey Swordfish aircraft carrying out
a different torpedo drop within the shallow
confines of the port, One hit the target without
exploding but a second sank a patrol craft
close aboard, this wreck then absorbing a third
which triggered a tull load of depth charges
adjacent to the battle-cruiser's hull, The whole
Oran affair was acutely distasteful to the British,
but the desperate post-Dunkirk sihration de-
manded resolute action.
A busy couple of months of operations
against the Italians were followed by another
against a French base, this time Dakar in
Senegal. The force here had Vichy sympathies
and included the brand new battleship Riche-
1ieu, damaged by an earlier strike from the
veteran carrier HMSHermes. Negotiatiors be-
gan, with a view to installing a Free French
administration. These failed and force again
had to be used, though the whole affair was a
failure. Despite lhe Ark Royal's aircraft being
used widely for spotting, reconnaissance and
grrouad support, the planned French landing
did not succeed and the operation was aban- Ark Royalp/ayed a maj or role in the British attacks HMS ArkRoyal
doned with several ships damaged. As sole on the French fleet during I 940 . Her aircraft mined
source of aerial support, the Ark rtoyal had Mers-el-Kebir to prevent the French escaping, but cutawaydrawing key
at Dakar in Senegal her aircraftwere roughly
achieved another Tirst', but her aircraft had
handled by French land-based fighters. '1 Safetynet 1 Hingedplatformforradio
been badly outclassed by the French land- 2 Rounddown
1
aerials
based machines and sulfered nine losses, 3 Searchlight '12 lvlotorcutter
4 Multiple machlne{uns '13 Balancedrudder
A short refit in the UK included the neces- rying fighters and escorting convoys to Malta, 5 Additional supportsfor '14 Support
sary updating of her fighter complement from and having a direct brush with the Italian fleet, overhang 15 Propeller
Skuas to Fairey Fulmars, but theft,kRoyal was which retired immediately on observing the 6 Flightdeck 16 Shaft
7 Arresterwires 17 Aviationstorelobbies
back with Force H in early November, Spotting presence of the carrier, 8 Twin 1 14-mm (4.5-in)quns 18 Companionway
for the bombardment of Genoa, softening-up In March I94i Force H narrowly missed 9 Radio aerials 19 '1 14-mm (4.5-in)thick
10 "1 14-mm i4.5-in) gunfire armourbelt
Italian airfields before the Taranto raid, fer- apprehending a particularly sought-after quar- director

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 British Aircraft Carriers of World War II

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20 Crane (handles 5443 kg/ 23 Multipleeight-batrelled 26 Cutter 45 Admiral'sbridge Force.tl.' Ark Royal, the battlecruiser Renown and
12,000 lbweiqht) 'pom-pom'gun 27 64-mm{2.5-in)thick 46 Plottingoffice
21 Motorpinnace 24 Hangarlift armourdeck 47 Compassplatform ffte cruiser Sheffield- Dunng tI e hunt for the
22 Fireproofcurtain 25 9-m(30-ft) motorcutter 28 Turbine 48 Wheel house Bismarck, Ark Royal's Swordfrshes attacked
29 Engineroom 49 Airintellioenceoffice Sheffield bymrstake but made up for thek error by
30 Boilerroom 50 Meteoroiooical office
3'1 Boiler 51 Upperhanjar cripplrng Bismar ck's steering by a daring torpedo
32 Bulkheaddividing boiler 52 Lowerhanoar attack delivered in appalling weather conditions.
rooms 53 Liferaft(s) "
33 Armouredfunnelcasing 54 Uppergallerydeck(two)
34 Doublebottom 55 Lowergallerydeck(two) 67 'Pom-pom'magazine 72 Rollerstotakesteelslat
35 Bridgestructure 56 Armoureddeck 68 3&mm{1.5-in)thick fire curtains
36 Funnelcasing 57 Hydraulic machinery longitudinal bulkhead 73 Transporterforll3-kg
37 Funnel uptake department down centre ofship {250-lb) bombs
40
\ 38 Affirmative/negative
39
landing signal
Direction-f inding beacon
58 Athwartships bulkhead
59
60
Canteen
Lobby
69 Bilge
70 Fuel
7'1 89-mm (3.5-in)thick
74 FaireySwordfish Mkll
75 Stores
76 Crew
40 Mainmast 61 Washroom armoured deck 77 Watedine
41 Signalhouse 62 Bombliftcompartment 78 Pneumo-hydraulic
42 l\,4eteorological instrument 63 Switchboardroom catapults
platform 64 Aviationspirit 79 Acceleratortrack pullev
43 Remotecontroloffice 65 Bomb rooms ( 80 Deoaussinocoil
-
44 'Pom-pom'direclors 66 Ammunition/bomb racks 81 Andhors
I 82 Prow
i 83 Forefoot
I 84 Keel
el. 85 Saltwater spraysprink :=

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Ark Royal in Action

Heavy flooding choked the boiler uptakes, which

While returning to Gibraltar after ferrying aircraft submanne U-81 and hit on the starboard side by a were vented through one large funnel ; total powet
to Malfa, Ark Royal was attacked by German single torpedo. failure resulted and a severe listdeveloped.

Crew members gather on deck as an'L' class Salvage tugs raced to the scene, but meanwhile the .lls tfie list increa sed, the order was given to
destroyer arrives alongrside llre s tricken carrier. flooding conlinued unchecked. abandon ship and in the small hours of I 4
iVovemberArk Royalsankfo ffi e bottom.

:f ihe German fast battleships (or battle-
:-:sers) Schamhorst and Gne;senau, retum-
commerce raid. Though
a-fter a successfi:l
=g
.- airsraft from the Ark
RoyaL achrally sighted
:em some 965 krn (600 miles) off Cape Finis-
rerre, a combination of communication prob-
b::.s and evasive manoeuvring on the part of
:e enemy prevented flrrther contact.
Jlvo months later another German raider
:rcught Force H into the Atlantic again. This
:ne it was the Elsmarck. Early on 24 May the
eiemy sank the Hood while breaking out of the
lenmark Strait but, damaged in the process,
:ad to make for home shadowed by two British
:ruisers. These were able to vector in the new
il =rrier HMS Victoious whose aircrews, de-
pite their inexperience, succeeded in putting
I a :orpedo into the battleship's midship section.
--::iortr:nately,the injurywas insuffi.cient to stop
-:e ship, which then managed to shake off the
:ruisers. With a dawn air search from theVicto-
rcus failing to re-establish contact, there be-
lan an anxious 32 hours until a Consolidated
ktalina sighted her, trailing oil but clear of the
Home Fleet and weil on her way to Brest. Force
3 had, however, been brought north for just
s:ch an evenhrality and was well placed, An
Ark Royal aircraJt was in touch by noon on 26
lvlay and, despite appalling weather condi-
fons, an aerial torpedo strike was launched. It
ras bad luck that the radar-fitted cruiser HMS
^fl:
A
British Aircraft Carriers of World War II
Sie/feid had gone on ahead, for the Swordfish The resultant alarming iist brought abou: a F:+-
leader also attacked by radar through the low matue abandonment. Neither of her esccr-rj
cloud base, wasting the torpedoes on the destroyers essayed a tow and, when sa--.=3e
wrong ship, which skilfully avoided them, A tugs finally arrived, they were too ia:e :c r=
further fi.ve hours elapsed before anotherstrike verse the situation, the Ark Royal rol-ling :;e:
could be mounted. In conditions that would and sinking in the early hours of 14 Novem.ber
have aborted flying in peacetime, the aircra-ft some I4Vz hours after being hit and only 4" k:
took oif and flew via the Shefteld to the target. (25 miles) from safety.
Two hits were scored, one severely damaging The loss of one of the UK's few modem car-
a rudder and propeller shaft. Now slowed sig- riers was to have a profound impact on -:e
nificantly, the Brsmarck was harried throughout conduct of naval operations.
the night by destroyers before being sunk after
a grunnery duel on the following morning. Suc-
cess was a close-run thing and would not have
been possible without carrier support.
A more mundane but hazardous task was the
constant ferrying of fighters to Malta. Between
April and September 1941, sometimes in com-
pany with another carrier, the Ark Royal car-
ried about I70 Hawker Hurricanes to the island
at a period of hiqh attrition. She also covered
two major convoys, one in July ('Substance')
and one in September ('Halberd') which, de-
spite every enemy eiicrt, lost only one mer-
chantman out of the 25 involved.
On 13 November 1941 thedrkRoyal's luck
ran out, Returning to Gibraltar from yet another
ferrying trip to Malta, she was hit by a single
torpedo fromU-81. Oniy 80 km (50 miles) from
harbour, she had a good chance initially but all
power failed, Ieading to uncontrolled flooding,
Ark RoyalSfiu/J was as longas dry docking
facilitieswould allow, andwas protected hy a
1 1 4-mm (4.5-in) armour belt. H er flightdeck had
64-mm (2.5-in) armour and the liftswere offsetand
rather naffow to maximize deck strength. The two
hydraulic catapults were capable of handling a
5443 kg ( 1 2,000 lb) aircraft and the positioning of i
her twin 4.5-in AAgruns a/ongside the flightdeck !I
gave them an excellent field of fire.
I
l
rj
t{
::
j'l
ffi tilustrious'class
The Ark Royal was very much a pro-
totype, combining speed with capac-
ity and new standards of protection,
Though late coming, she had hardly
been launched when a new 'Illustrious'
class of fow aircraft-carriers was laid
down ln i937 to respond to the aiready
increasing likelihood of war, Oper-
ational experience was, therefore, not
a part of the later concept, which took
the scale of the .Ark Roya/'s belt and
horizontal protection, and added a I 14-
mm (4.5-in) hangar well. Thus the
whole of the vulnerable aircraft
accommodation became an armoured
box, but so much weight high in the
ship limited the protection to only one
hangar and, though HMS lllustrious,
HMS l/icforious and HMSFormidabje
(all iaunched in 1939) were not signi
ficantly smaller than the Ark Royal,
they carried far fewer aircraft. There
must have been second thoughts on
reducrnq the ships' primary arm so
drasticaliy, for HMS Indomitable,
launched in I94O as last ofthe four, and
the two 'Implacable' class ships that
followed, reverted to liqhter protec-
tion and an extra half-lengrth hangar,
The immense strenelth of the ships
stood them in good stead, for their war
turned out to be one of air, rather than
submarine attack, Soon after Taranto,
the lllustrious suwived punishment
from dive-bombing that wor:ld have Above : HMS F ormidable, seen fi ere
sunk any other carier afloat, a Per- fro m H M S W ar spile, foug h t f or m os t
formance echoed by lhe Formidable of the w ar in the Mediterranean. An
after Matapan, In the Pacific War most attack by her aircrafton the ltalian
of them withstood one or even tlvo lleet on 28 March I 941 dantaged tfie
kamikaze strikes without having to batflesirb Vittorio Veneto and
Ieave station, But all these rmmerse crippled the crurer Pola, which was
biows were absorbed mainly by the subsequently sunk.
ships' horizontal protection and it
would seem in retrospect that the ver- Left: Joining the fleet in Augrust I 940,
[ca] armour was bought at an exces- IIM.S lllnstrious s teamed str aight to
sive price in operatlonal efficiency the M editerr anean, where her
even though, in the Pacific, the class airgroup sank two ltalian destroyers
worked with something like 60 per and raided N or th Africa.
cent over its desigmed aircraft comple-
ment. When the Americans copied the
armoured deck concept, it was not at
the cost of capacity, so carrier sizes
began their inevitable escalation. The
ships were scrapped in 1956, 1969,
1955 and 1953 respectively,

Specification
Tllustrious'class
Type: fl eet aircraft -carrier
Displacement: 23,000 tons standard
and 25,500 tons fr:Il load
Dimeruions: length 229.7 m (753.5 ft);
beam29.2 m(95,75 ft); draughtT,3 m
(24ft)
Propulsion: 3-shaft geared steam
nubines delivering I 10,000 shp
(82027 kW)
Speed:31kts
Armour: belt and hangarwall I 14 mm
(4.5 rn) exceptlndomilable 38 mm
(1.5 n); deck76 mm (3 in)
fr.rmament: eight twin I 14-mm (4. S-in)
DP, sixoch:ple 2-pdr AA, and eiqht D es pite having rather lighter
20-mmAAguns protection than her sisterships, HMS Below : The'l lluslrious' cjass were
Aircraft : about 45 exceptlndomr'tabJe lndomitable abs orbed a great deal of probably the toughest carriers afloat
about65 punjsftmen!, su rviving two hits from inWorldWar II. but although their
Complement: I,400 rncluding aucrew 500 l<g (1, I 00 lb) bombs during thickarmour enabled them to
Operation'Pedestal', a torpedo hit withstand some heavy blows itwas
ottSicily in 1943 and several only achieved by a large reduction in
intheFarEast. aircraft strength.
 'Implacable' class
Completed some 30 months after the
:cur 'lllustrious' class ships, the two'Im-
placable' class aircraft-carriers were
rore closely related to the prototype
*k Royal, wtth the hangar walls slim-
::red down to only 38 mm (I.51n), This
3llowed a betterweight distribution for
:he shrps' increased displacement, in-
:luding the all-important lower han-
;ar. The ships were slightly longer but
appeared much bulkier than their half-
sjsters, their larger hull containing also
a fourth set of machinery, Thrs gave
:hem the extra speed that enabled
Srem to pace an American 'Essex' class
unit in the Pacific war, although they
were considerably smaller in-terrns of
both size and capacity,
Though both were laid dovrn in 1939,
HMS /mplacable and HMS /ndefatr?-
abje were launched in 1942 and 1944
respectively, but their completion
went back becawe of higher shipyard
priorities, When they were most
:eeded, they were still on the stocks,
-'iaderlimng the truth that the navy
f,ghts a war largely rmth what it has
3var-lable at the beginning, Once final-
iy completed in 1944 they were active
ior a comparatively short period. ln
March 1944, while still a new ship, the
indefatigable achieved a 'first' in the
irst-ever deck landing by a twin-
engnne aircraft, a de Havilland Mos-
guito, Before headmg east to join the
rapidly-expanding British Pacific
Ileet, she participated in some of the
NIZ
Zzlr\ HMS Unicorn
With commendable foresight, con-
-
sidering the quantity of tonnage then
berng ordered, the 1938 Naval Esti-
mates allowed for the construction of
cne of a new type of ship, to be em-
ployed on the maintenance of the air-
craft of a Fleet Air Arm that was
obnously due for expansion. She was
to be the aviation eguivalent of a sub-
marine or destroyer depot shlp in pro-
viding major forward repair facilities
for jobs beyond the capabilities of the
average carrier. Though described as
an 'aircraft maintenance carrier', it
would appear that actlng as a carrier
was part ofher specification, an option
taken up due to the wartime shortage
of flightdecks, Like the&kRoyal, HMS
Unicorn was given hvo hangars and a
flightdeck increased in lengfth by an
ungainly overhang aft. She possessed
grreat freeboard with only moderate
length, gnving an oddly foreshortened
aspect,
The Unicorn was laid dom in 1939,
launched in l94I and compieted in
1943, in trme to join the CVEs of Force
V, tasked to provide the fighter cover
for both fleet and forces ashore in the
first 24 hours followrng the iandings at
Salerno. In{he event, it was near}y fow
days before the aaphne of an arfield
ashore could relieve the force of the
many carrier strikes against the ftr-
pitz, holed-up in Norwegian waters,
Though damaging the target sulficient-
ly to keep her almost permanently
under repair, the aircraft of the time
were the shrp's weakest link until they
were replaced. Once in the BPF, the
ships were engaged in a war already
won, in which the Britrsh participation
was not welcomed in all quarters. Post-
war, they were employed mainly in the
training role and were scrapped in
1955 and 1956 after hardly a decade of
sewice, belng thought not worth the
vast expense of a rebuilding along the
lines of the Victoious,
Specification
'lmplacable'class HMS Implacablewas faster and returning to Sydney in I 945 and
Type: fl eet aircraft -carrier carriedmany more aircraft than the (below) on her way through the Suez
Displacement: 26,000 tons standard 'I llustrious' class. Sfi e is seen (aboye) C anal to i oin the Pac ific F ler-t.
and 3 1, 100 tons fu-ll ioad
Dimensions: lenqth 233,4 m (765.75 ft);
beam29.2 m(95,75 ft); draughtT,9 m
(26 ft)
Propulsion: 4-shaft geared steam
hubines delivering i I0,0OO shp
(82027 kW)
Speed:32,5 kts
Armour:belt 114 mm (4,5-m); hangar
wal138 mm(1.5 in); deck76 mm(3 Ln)
Armament: eight twin 114-mm (45-in)
DP, six octuple 2-pdrAA and about 38
20-mmAAgmns
Aircraft: about 70
Complement: 1.800 includrng aircrew
responsibility, during which time the
combinatron of the CVEs' low speed
and small decks whrle operating in
near windless conditions, wrote off
over 40 fragile Supermarine Sealire
fighters in deck accidents alone, The
Unicorn's 6-kt speed advantage and
Iarger deck prevented even more los-
ses,
By early 1944 the Unrcorn was in the
' Far East, still doubling as operatronal
carrier pending the delayed amval of
the Victorious, Laid up for several
years after the war, she was reacti-
vated for the Korean War, finding at
Iast her true vocahon at a time when
shore air support was almost all car-
rier-based. Tlte Unicom shuttled with
replacement aircrat to and ftom Sing-
apore, her space frequently belng
used as short{erm trooplng accom- Speed:24 lls Desigmed as an 'aircraft maintenance
modation. She was scrapped in 1959. Armour: none caftier', wartime shortage of carriers
Armament: four twin I l4-mm (4.5-in) led to H MS Unicorn berngpressed
Specification DP, three quadruple 2-pdr AA, and 12 intofront line service. As part of
HM.SUnicorn 20-mmAAquns Force 7, Unicotnhelped provide
Type: maintenalce camer and Aircraft: 35 when used as a light fleet frghter support for the Salerno
secondary light fleet aircraff -carrier carrier landings in 1 943 and saw action ofl
Displacement: 14,750 tons standard Complement: I,050 Okinawa the nextyear.
Dimensions: lenqth 195.I m (640 ft);
beam27.4 m(90 ft); draughtS,B m(I9 ft)
Propulsion: 2-shaft geared steam
turbines deliverinq 40, 000 shp Equipped with a double hangar like
(29828 kvf) Ark Royal, Unic orn had a shor tened
hull, giving her a rather cumbersome
appearance. In resewe trom 1946 to
I 949 , she was recommissrbned as a
transport carrier for thb Korean war,
fenying aircraft and sewing as a
troopship.
I 133
X bnm ships
With the European coast from the
North Cape to the Spanish border
under enemy control by mid-1940,
Iong-rangre German aucraft began to
prove a serious menace to British con-
voys. The latter, beyond the range of
their own air-support and with the
escort carrier still in the future, were
shadowed relentlessly, the aircraft
vectoring in marauding U-boats and,
increasingiy boldly, attacking strag-
glers. In 1940, aircra-ft alone accounted
for I92 Allied ships of 580,000 sross
registered tons, a total passed in the
first four months of 1941, A somewhat
desperate measue to counter these
pests was the Catapult-Armed Mer-
chantman or CAM ship, a series of
whichwere convertedwhile the CVEs
were building, Initially, three mer-
chantmen and the old seaplane carrier
HMS Pegasus were each fitted with a
catapult upon which was mounted an
early Hawker Hurricane or Fairey Ful-
mar fighter. This grroup, termed Fight-
er Catapult Ships, proved the idea and
a S0-ship progrramme was initiated, us-
rng merchantrnen of various sizes. All
wore the red ensigm, carried cargo
and had civilian crews but, spanning
the forecastle and No. I hatch, was the
ungainly catapuit struchre fixed axial-
ly and facing forward, Pilots, drawn
from the MF's Merchant Ship Fighter
,i
''i'
ffi finns Audacity
Though contingency plans existed
pre-war to convert merchant ships to
au:cliary aircraft carriers, the produc-
tron of the first such ship seems, in re-
uospect, to have been leiswely con-
sidering the urgency of the situation.
The hull selected for conversion was
that of the fire-damaged Hannover, an
alnost new Hamburg-Amerika cargo
Iiner seized by the Royal Navy offSan
Domingo in February 1940. She com-
missroned as HMS Audacjfy in June
l94l with the functions of carrying
fighters to curb the menace ofthe long-
ralge German maritime aircraft and, if
possible, Fairey Swordfish to provide a
measure of anti-submarine protection,
Her facilities were basic, a I40-m (460-
ft) lhghtdeck being laid from the raised
forecastle over a lowered brldge
structure to a buiit-up poop, There
were just tlvo arrester wires and a bar-
rier; no elevator was fitted because
there was no hangar: the six aircraft
were stowed and serviced on deck,
flight operations involving much manu-
al rearrangement, Because of a shor-
tage of Hawker Sea Hurricanes, she
took Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats to sea
for the first time in the Royal Navy,
Conbastrng with the spartan aviation
'-:l
Unit, would sit for hours, strapped in
the cockpit, awaiting the sighting of a
'snooper', Once launched, they were
committed to catching the enemy and
returning on a limtted amount of fuel.
There was no landing-on; if ftiendly
Iand were ciose enough (a rare event)
the pilot wonld try to reach it, but, more
usually, he had to return to the convoy
(often getting shot at) and 'ditch' along-
srde a likely ship, hoping to be rescued
qurckly before death arrived ftom ex-
posure or drowning. It demanded a
special sort of bravery,
Once contact was made, the enemy
usually fell easlly to the high-
perbrmance eight-gnrn fighters. The
flrst recorded lcll was by a Hurricane
ftom the PCS Maplin early tn August
1941, shortly before the CVE HMSAU-
dacitls epic maiden run and, by the
end of the year, some six successes
had been achieved,
The first CAM ship was the Empre
Rainbow, The Empire Lawrence
formed part of the contentious USSR-
bound convoy PQl6 in mid-1942. Her making Soviet soil, Once launched from aCAM ship
aircraft dovuned one Hemkel He lll The CAMs served briefly before there was no way of landing; atter
torpedo bomber and damaged being supplemented and then dis- hopefully destroying the intruder,
another, returning to find her ship piaced by MACs and CVEs, but their the pilot had to bale out over the
sunk. Dwing PQ 18, the Empire M orn's gallant contributlon at a desperate convoy ktowing th at un le s s he was
Hurricane, during its briefflight, des- time deserves to be fully recognized, quickly rescred he would die in the
troyed one aircraft, broke up the No specification is possible for this tqwater.
attacks of others and succeeded in widely disparate erroup of ships,
Britain's chronic shortage of aircraft
carriers in the early years of the war
lef t the Ail an tic convoy s v ery
vulnerable to long-range Gerrnan
aircraft. A desperate solutionwas the
CAIlll ship, a merchantman with a
fighter plane on a forward catapult.
'll',,
'r-...
!i
\li
arrangements, Audacity retained merchantmen, With radar direction, Thetirst escort carrier, HMS
much of her original accommodation, the carrier had downed two more Audacity's lran dful of fighte$ could
September l94l saw the little car- snoopers and spoiled the attacks ofva- mean the ditference between IiIe or
rier's first trip, with the UK-Grbraltar rious U-boats. On 21 December she death for a convoy. With convoy
convoy OG41, HeaW attacks from both herself fell victim to three submarine OG4 t her airgroup desEoyed a
submarine and aircraft sank sx ships torpedoes but had proved the value of Focke-Wulf Fw 200C andchasedoff
but gireater losses were prevented by the escort carrier. severalU-boats.
the Audacily's aircraft, which caused
several U-boats to dive and lose con- Specification
tact, They also shot downa Focke-Wulf HMSAudacify 4,750 bhp (3542 kW)
Fw 200C and chased off other intrud- Type: escort arrcraft -carrier Speed: 15 kts
EIS. Displacement: 5,540 tons standard Armout: none
TheAudacity returnedwith the next Dimensions:length 144.7 m (474,75 ft); Armament: one I 02-mm (4-in) and
convoy, HG76, in mid-December 1941, beam 17, 1 m (56 ft); draught 8.3 m some smaller gn-:ns
Dwing a four-day nonstop battle the (27.25ft) Aircraft: six
enemy lost five submarines for two Propr:lsion: 2-shaft diesels delivering Complement:not known
Tcranto - Operafion Tudgemenf '
One of the Royal Navy's mosf audacious
and successfu I operations duringWorld
War II, the carrier strike on the ltalian
Teet had been planned severalyears
p r eviously when I taly's increasing
nelligerence made war in the
! 4 e diterranean a real pos sibility.
:.;une I940 the whole strategic balance of the
: ::vrously-quiet Mediterranean was upended
:',- the collapse of France and by Italy's entry
:-.: the war, The latter had a powerful fleet,
'-:-i-placed geographrcally to dominate the
--::lral nartows,
- he British Mediterranean Fleet, under
,:-::riral Cunningham, was divided between its
:=ses at Gibraltar, Malta and Alexandria, of
'':,-ch the first and last are about 3220 km (2 000
:-es) distant, Malta, near the mid-point, was
-=:cgnized as being a key position, to be de-
:..Ced at all costs, but the Axis powers,
=:parently not having envisaged a North Afri-
:::: war, realized its strategic signrficance too
-:::
-:ke the German fleet, the Italian navy had
.,: aircraft-carriers, lts sphere of influence,
'--.:cretically, belng easily serviced by land-
: -..sed airpower. Lacking this latter luxury, the
::-:lsh appreciated fully the value of a carrier
-. j one, at least, was usually attached, Before
:.= cnset of hostilities in the Mediterranean, the
:.,.91e flrghtdeck available, HMS G/onous, was
:=:sferred to the Indran Ocean on a raider
,-.,:: and thence to European waters to replace
:.: lost HMS Courageous. When the Glonous,
-:'cinwas lost in June 1940, HMS Eagle was sent
, Cunninerham's flag, reinforced further in
:.: Augnrst by arrival of the new HMS 111usl-
-:::s, Between them, these two shrps could
:. -.ster 42 Fairey Swordfish torpedo/search/re-
_ : :laissance arrcraft (the much-loved'String-
:-;') and 19 fighters comprising Fairey Ful-
:.=rs and Gloster Sea Gladiators.
the Royal Navy was active from the outset,
-'- =sinq reinforcements particularly from west
.
east and bullding up the forces at Malta.
",',
lle the Italian fleet was often observed at
,== it remained fairly passrve, but the latent
---:eat that it posed could not be ignored.
llie ltalian fleet's main base was the south-
=::r port of Taranto, only a few hour's dash from
Malta. The British, old Mediterranean hands,
had long planned an air strike on the port as a
war-qame, a possibility considered more
seriously in 1935 as a step in the graded re-
sponse to Mussohni's invasion of Abyssinia.
This plan was dusted-off once two carriers
were available, and preparations began for a
rard on Trafalgar Day, 2l October 1940, To this
end the RAF, using Malta-based Martrn Mary-
lands, began a regmlar reconnaissance sche-
dule, but a delay was imposed by a flre in the
hangar of the ///ustnous, whrch destroyed or
damaged several alrcraft,
Urgency was then injected by the unex-
pected ltalian invasion of Greece on 28 Octo-
ber, which presented the British wrth a whole
new range of naval commitments. Clearly the
east-west route through the Mediterranean
had to be kept open, and dealing with Taranto
would be a step in the right direction,
It was resolved to hit the base at the next
favourable moon-phase, on I I November, nav-
al activity being disgnlsed in a serles of convoy
movements, necessary because the enemy
anticipated an attack but needed to be kept
unaware of its timlng, Unfortunately the vener-
able Eagle, which had been heavily shaken-up
by bombing following the action off Calabria ln
the previous Ju1y, had to withdraw with a major
failure of her aircraft tuelling system. She left
Illustrious wiih a legacy of flve night-trained
Swordfish and crews to make up numbers,
The fleet sailed from Alexandria on 6
November 1940, covering convoys to both
Crete and Malta, and the passing{hrough of
<4
,*.ry . r**'
Taranto - Operation Judgement'
(551-1b) bombs, The flares were to silhouette
the main targets for the low-flying torpecio-
carriers, and the bombs were for diversionary
attacks on smaller warships in the Mar Piccolo,
the seaplane base and the oil fuel depot.
A final air attack on the Britrsh on the after-
nocn of I I November should have given the
Italians cause for concern throuqh the very
nature of the task group's composition, but
there was no apparent reaction. In dead calm
conditions under a three-quarter moon, the first
12 Swordfish iumbered, heavily loaded, into
the air. By 20 40 they were all away on the
275-km (170-mile) two-hour flrght, their crews
freezing in their open cockpits, Long before
their arrival the port was marked by a multi-
coloured cascade of fire, arcing aimlessiy in
the clean air, the jittery Itahans betng warned
of alrcra{t noises by listening apparatus but,
fortunately, lackrng night-ftghters.
At 23.02, the first Brttish flare blossomed at
1370 m (4 500 ft) followed by others in a neat
line at 805-m (880-yard) intervals, The torpedo
aircraft had gone their own way, splttting furth-
er into two groups to attack from the south west
and north west, Of these the first had to fly
belween the invisible balloon cables, and here
the stately 85mph (l37km,/h) oi a Strtngbag
was a positive advantage, Al] crews spoke of
the sheer volume of fire thrown up from all
sides but, apparently, there was no searchlight
Dodging between the barrage balloon cables
anid a hailof anti-aircraftfke, theSwordfish roar
low across thewater to drop their torpedoes.They
attacked in two waves, the second going in iust
be{ore midnight, andby the timethe attackwas
over three battleshjpsiadbeen sent to the bottom.
support, In the open cockprt of a Swordfrsh one The value of the attack 1ay in its demonstra-
was very close to the actron. Like whrrring grey tion of the sheer economy of a rvell-planned
moths the aircraft quartered the anchorage, carrier strrke, the firrther moral ascendency
rumbiing in and out at below tunnel height, the given to the outnumbered Royal Nalry and the
tracer following rn a multitude of flat arcs. Mira- withdrawal of all Italian heavy units io points
culously, only one of the aircraft was lost, whiie north, Cunningham signalled, on the foliowing
a single hit put the Cavour on the l:ottom and day, 'lltusirious manoeuvre well executed', and
another holed the new ftifono's port quarter, rndeed it was so.
The bombers, meanwhile, had raised a heariy
blaze in the seaplane base, which thus served
as a beacon to welcome the second strike,
about 40 minutes behind the first,
Again the flare-line worked well, throwing
tire statronary Italian ships into sharp reIlet
Only frve torpedo aircraft were in this group,
arriving from the north after a dtversionary jink
in the course. From a height of barely 6 m (20 ft)
the torpedoes went in, one by one, ihe attack-
ers dodging each other, the targets and the
bailoons, One crashed and another was hlt, but
so was the Dulio and, again, the trjftono, The
bombers sullered from faulty fusing and many
of therr weapons lailed to explode, including
one that penetrated well into the cruiser ?ren-
/o, but this d-etracted little from the scale of the
success,
In the early hours, close aboard the Greek
Islanci of Cephalonra, the llluslruous received
her brood as they arri,red singly and in pairs,
tattered and eiated, For the loss of only two
aircraft, three enemy battleships had been bot-
tomed confrrmed on the following day by ae-
rral reconnarssance, In deep water they would
have been lostl as it was, two were eventually
salvaged and returned to servrce.
,il ''*"'*::l'"-
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6
ffi ihnc ships
Lead orders for escort carriers (CVEs)
were placed in early 1942, but wgent
measures were required to close the
mid-Atlantic gap during their buildinar.
One such was the CAM ship, the other
the MAC (Merchant Aircraft Carrier),
an ingenious solution later copied by
the Japanese. The Ministry of War
TYansport was, understandably, reluc-
tant to release good-class cargo ton-
nage for conversion to dbdicated
CVEs, but the MAC retained the €rea-
ter part ofits cargo capacity while hav-
ing a flight deck topside. Breakbulkers
reguired hatches and cargo-handling
gear to function, but gEain carrters re-
quired only small aperh:res to their
holds, through which the hoses for
loading and discharging gnain could
be irserted. This arrangement was frrl-
ly compatible with fitting a flightdeck.
Like the CAMs, the MACs sailed
under the red ensigm, only theu flight
personnel being Royal Navy. Similarly,
they were integrrated more wlth the
convoy than its escort, though requir-
tng more manoeuvrrngi space,
Appropriately carrying Empire'Mac'
names (particularly so as they came
ftom Scottish yards), the first six were
aII converted from incomplete ships,
with 129 by 19 m (423 by 62 ft) flight-
decks and a diminutive hangar aft cap-
able of accommodating four Fairey
Swordfish aircraft.
From the point of vtew of cargo re-
quirements and dimensiors, tankers
were also very surtable candidates for
conversion, but the Admiralty had
grave doubts of the fire risk, Anglo-
Saxon Petroieum (now Shell) resolved
the problem on their behaif, resulting
in nine of their tankers being con-
verted (though retaining their famlliar
Shell names) and four more liquid-
cargo Empre 'Macs' belng launched
for the job, The matn difference be-
tvveen the wet and dry cargo carriets
lay in the'lack of a hangar on the tank-
ers, the aircraft remaining topside in
all weathers, Despite the urgency of
the programme, it was April 1943 be-
fore the first MAC entered sewice,
They were exceedingly fortunate
ships, all 19 srirviving the war to be
reconverted.
The dry-cargo 'Empire Mac' class
ships were the Empire Macalpine,
Empfue Macandrew, Empke Maccal-
lum, Empire Macdermott, Empire
Mackendrick and Empt're Macrae.
The equivalent tanker 'Empire Mac'
class comprised the Empire Mac-
cabe, Empfue Maccoll, Empire Mack'
ay and Empire Macmahon. Finally,
the units of the 'Shell' class were the
Acavus, Adula, Alexia, Amastra,
Ancylus, Gadila, Macoma, Miralda
and Rapana.
Specification
'Empire Mac'dryclass
Type: merchant aircraft -carrier
Displacement: 7,930 to 8,250 gnoss tors
Dimensions: lengrth between 135,6 and
139,9 m(445and459 ft); beam
between 17, I and I7.7 m (56 and 58 ft);
draught 7.5 m (24,66 ft)
Propulsion: I-shaft diesel delivering
3,300 bhp (2461 kW)
Speed: 12.5 kts
Armour: none
Armament: one 102-mm (4-in), two 40-
mm AA and some smaller gnrns
Aircraft:icur
Complement: I10
Specification
' Empire M ac' tanker c/ass
Type: merchant aircraft -carrier
Displacement: B,B5O to 9,250 Crross tons
Dimensions: length 146.7 to ]48 m
(481,31o485,5 ft); beam lB.0to 18,8 m
(59 to 61.66 ft); drausht 8.0 to 8,4 m
(26,25 to 27,5 ft)
Propulsion: l-shaft diesel delivering
3,300 bhp (246I kW)
Speed: II.5 ks
Armou:none
Armament: one i 02-mm (4-in) and
some smaller gnrns
Aircraft:four
Complement:110
Specification
'Shell'class
Type: merchant aircraft -carrier
Displacement: 8,000 grross tons
Dimensions: IenSrth 146.5 to 147 m
(480.66 to 482,25 ft); beam 18.0 m (59 ft);
draught 8.4 m (27.66 ft)
Propulsion: I-shaft diesel delivering
3,7s0 bhp (2796 kW)
Speed: 13 kts
Armow:none
Armament: one 102-mm (4-in) and
some smaller gnrns
Aircraft: four
Complement: I05
MAC ships weremercian f yessels
only partially converted into aircratt
carriers; a flight deckwasfitted, but
they could stillcarry cargo. Their
air cr af t protecte d co nvoys in the
'Atlantic Gap' , the area in mid-
Atlantic out of range of Allied shore-
based aircraft.

ffi tritish-built escort carriers

Few escort carriers were produced
by British yards, which worked on
more specialued shrps, leaving series
production to the Americans, There
was, understandably, also reluctance
to release good-quality mercantile ton-
nage for conversion at a time ofsevere
shortage, As a result, only five British-
buiit CVEs saw serrnce, HMS Tlndex
and the roughly-similar HMS /Vairana,
the smaller HMS Activity, the larger
HMS Campania and the ex-passenger
iiner HMS Pretoria Casile, Unlike
their American counterparts, built
from similar hulls, they were all diffe-
rent, tending to have longer but nar-
rower flightdecks, In addrtion the han-
qar was served by only one elevator,
which made for much manhandling of
aircraft, They were more solidly burlt
than the American CVEs, with stee]-
sided hangars and steel flightdecks,
On average, they stowed 15 to 18 air-
cra-ft, in the approximate ratio of two
Fairey Swordfish to one fighter (Haw-
ker Sea Hwricane, Grumman Wildcat
or Fairey Fulmar), TheActirzify stowed
fewer, and the larger Pretoria CasUe
spent most of her operational career rh
the training ro1e. The four smaller ships
were converted from twin-screw
diesel cargo liners of the Blue Funnel
and Port Lines, which could be recon-
verted post-war.
Short ofspare merchant tonnage,
Britain built few escort carriers, but
ships likeHMS Vinde:<, seenierein
I I 44, proved very successfuJ
working with submarine hunting
groups.
The British CVEs ran extensively
wrth convoys to and from Gibraltar.
Working in pairs, they became potent
anti-submarine ships, Their Sword-fish
were equipped wtth search radar and
they themselves wrth Asdic (sonar),
which allowed co-operation wrth dedi-
eated hunter-krller groups, a luxury Propulsion: 2-shaft diesels delivering Propulsion: 2-shaft dieseis delivering
possible only after all the convoys 12,000 bhp (8948 kW) 11,400 bhp (8501 kW)
were adequately escorted, Later in the Speed: 18 kts Speed: 16 kts
war they were used on the Arctic con- Armour:none Armout:none
voy roule, the significance of their con- Armament: two l02-mm (4-in) AAand Armament: tvvo twin 102-mm (4-in) AA,
tribution being recognized by their 10 twin 20-mm AA gmns four quadruple 2-pdr AA, and l0 twin
wearing the flag of the senior naval Aircraft: 15 20-mmAAgmns
officer, They were less successful in Complement: 700 Aircraft: 15
the severe northern conditions, their Complement: notknotm
Iack of lengrth making them extremely Specification
lively in pltch, which restricted flight HMSPrelon'a Casfle
operations. Tlpe: escort aircraft-carrier
Displacement: 17,400 tons standard
Specification Dimensions:length 18L l m (594 ft);
HMSActivity beam 23.3 m (76.6 ft); draught 8,8 m
Type: escort aircraflcarrier (28.75 ft)
Displacement: I 1,800 tons standard
Dimensions:lengrth i56,2 m (512.5 ft);
beam 20,3 m (66,66 ft); drauqht 6,7 m ffMS Nairanais seen here in her I 943
Q2ft) colourscheme.
Britislr Ccrriers in the Far East
As the naval war in the Mediterranean and Atlantic drew to a
close, the Royal Navy was able to concentrate its major
carriers in the Far East to form the British Pacific Fleet.
The strike on the oilrefinery atSabang, April 1944,was
modest by American standards yet involved four times as
many aircraft as were used at Taranto.

3y the final year of World War ll, when the British Pacific Fleet formally came
ito existence, the US Navy was using naval airpower on a grand scale with
:cerational doctrines to which the British needed to be re-educated. A first
s:age had been reached in early 1943, when HMS Vlctoriousworked in the
)acific for several months with the USS Saratoga. A year on, the Americans
'eciprocated with the temporary loan of the Saratoga to the nucleus of the new
S.itish fleet, then based on Ceylon. This included the lllustriousand other major
-'rits. which could be released to eastern service by virtue of the running-down
:= the sea war in the Mediterranean
Following a couple of Weeks' intensive work-up, the two carriers formed the
: rtting edge of a 27-ship task force, known as TF 70, formed to carry out a strike
: - the major: oil refinery at Sabang lsland, at the northern tip of Sumatra on 1 6
-cnl 1944. Though under a British flag officer, it was a multi-national force,
,,,earing six different ensigns. To the British it was a luxury to go on to the
:-ensive against the Japanese, the two caniers fielding 83 aircraft, or over four
--
-es the force employed at Taranto. The following month saw a repeat exer-
: se carried out on Surabaya in Java. Though losses were very light, results were
:^ n but, even so, the experience was valuable. Firstly, the British learnt the By thetime theRoyalNavy hadassemb,leda Iarge carrier force tfie reslJ: s:*e
,,' sdom of sailing the force commander in a carrier, where he had an immediate P_acific war was no longer in doubt. A carrier group of this size opratng n
:,'erview of the situation, rather than (as was traditional) having him wear his European waters a few years earlier could have dranatically afielc.ted. tne
' ag in a battleship. Further, the availability of a second flightdeck was found to courseof thewar.
:e vital for sustained operations if accidents were not to hold up proceedings.
3y the end of 1944, the quietening lndian ocean could be left to the six she was out of action only briefly.
:,ailable escort carriers of the East lndies Fleet, based on Ceylon, occupied After a month's continuous operations the British pulled out'i. : :-:.., :-:
:':marily with supporting the 14th Army campaign in Burma with their 150 were soon back as theirAmerican CVE stand-ins were unabie.l-: e::." :_
: 'craft, these being relieved finally by the new light fleet carriers. subdue Japanese aerial activity from the islands. On 4 May HVS ::*:::r:
in January 1945 the British fleet carriers, which had been exercising in twos was hit by a kamikaze, so hard that even the armoured flight ce:< ,'-a: :--,:-
:rad ihrees, primarily against oil-production targets in the East lndies, left to form tured. She was out of action for B0 minutes. Another bounced oi * \, S - :,:,-i :-
:^e nucleus of the new British Pacific Fleet (BPF) based on Sydney. On the way, able. Attrition in aircraft on both sides continued relentlessly dav a-::. :=, I - l
:-ey mounted the first British four-carrier strikes against the Palembang re- May the Formidablewas hit again, and HMS Victoriouswassri-3< :.., := --:.:
' ^ eries in south east Sumatra. These were successf ully carried out in the face of were few casualties, but aircraft losses aboard were considerac :
f
:: opposition and provided usefql experience in the operation of upwards of
''10 aircraft in the simultaneous strike and support roles.
On 25 May, with Okinawa in US hands, TF 57 left the area af rer :.,, : - :-:- : :'
concentrated activity. The heavy construction of the British c;--.-3 -.:,: :::--
On 15 March 1945, the British Pacific Fleet reported itself fully operational vincedtheAmericansof itsutilityfor,thoughtheytoohadlostr.:".--:--: -:-:
'':m its temporary base at Manus, in the Admiralty lslands, north of New campaign, several had been very seriously damaged and forcec it r, t-t-ri',
j rinea. Not the least of its problems had been the assembly and organization of Restyled TF 37, the BPF joined Admiral McCain'i TF 38, whic: :se' - a: : :--
:^e enormous American-style 'f leet train', necessary for the independent suste- fleet and six light carriers for the final assault against the Japa^ss: -: -:
=: :
-:nce of the fleet in all respects in a mobile war far removed f rom established This occupied the last month of the war with continlous ac:,:. i:= -:: :
:ases. As TF 57, the BPF was commanded by Vice Admiral Rawlings under the stilllively enemy who, fortunately, had apparently run out o' <e- q--=.
:,'erall direction of the American Commander-in-Chief Pacific, Admiral Nimitz, After the de facto Japanese surrender in mid-August, the A e: ':::: --
:-t serving as an element of Admiral Spruance's 5th Fleet. The BPF was centred mained on station off ihe Japanese coast until th6 fo;mal s g- -:: - :r:-,
:r fourfleet carriers and a couple of modern battleships and was supported also Septernber. They were struck by a typhoon in late August, a ::-ie :':-:
:,. six CVEs, its main strength equating roughly to a task group within the US A_merican carriers pitching heavily enough to collapse their ove-.--J':-u.1-1
::sk force. lts first involvement was in the taking of Okinawa.
-ihe flightdecks. Again the British design proved superior and the sma e.l -- -- ::.-..
British were tasked with suppressing th-e Japanese airfields on the bow', plated right up, was introduced to later US designs.
s ands between Okinawa and Formosa, the Sakishima Gunto. Attacking by day The BPF effort had extended to nearly 8,000 aircrait sorries v, :- :-: ::: -
::C withdrawing by night to replenish and renew aircraft, the force was little action of 85 aircraft. Half that number again were lost to kami<aze :-.'r :: -: -
:: posed for the first few days but, on 1 April 1 945, the day of the main landings, achievements had been considerable and both fleets had bene'::: '':- :-q
'',4S nd ef ati gable was hit sq uarely by a ka m i kaze. f hanks to her armou red deck
l other's experiences.

::-'rlS Victorious and Implacable, seen from HMS Formidable on I 0 July I 945 as
:e British Pacific Fleet prepares to launch air strikes against the Japanese
:ainland. Even when cartying a bigger air group than they were designed
-'br the8rjfrsi sI ips carried far fewer aircraft than their American
:E|fiterparts.
Time and timeagain, Britishcarrierswere saved by theL thickdeckarmou.r
from destructionbrz kamikaze af tack. H er e, ak ct a{t burn onI{MS llhrsrrcs.ls
after a suicide bomber has struck. Several Anerican carriers had to b
withdrawn for repair but British carriers were quickly hr,ck in action.
>K ffi ifi"ri"an-built escort carriers
Lke the British, the Amencars had
pre-war rdeas on the conversion of
mercantile hulls to arxiliary carriers.
Early in 1941, two C3 hulls were thus
earmarked and the first was rebuilt in
only three months, commtssiontng as
the USS Lons Island (AVG, 1) within
days of the British Audacity. In con-
cept, the American ship was well
ahead, having both hangar and eleva-
tor, though making poor use of avail-
able space. Such early AVGs had a
hangrar occupying only the after quar-
ter or so of the underdeck space, a
simrlar voiume ahead of it being de-
voted to accommodation (which
should have qone below in the original
cargo spaces in the huli proper). Be-
1ow the forward half of the flightdeck
the space was open, the overheads
being supported on frame structures,
What they did have was a catapult
(known as an 'accelerator') and the
popular bunk beds and cafeteria mes-
smg.
The longlsJands first sister was not
completed until November I94I, and
was transferred to the Bntish as HMS
Archer (BAVG 1), being jotned later
by three more'Archet' class ships. As
the progrramme got into its stride the
Royal Navy received eight of the
'Attacket' class and 26 of the very stmi-
lar 'Rule/ class, Both had fuIl-lenqth
hangars, the later class having im-
proved stowage factors. Following
early experience, the British required
higher standards of fuel and fire pro-
tection than the Americans, promotinql
a measure of criticism of 'gold-plating'.
Early Americhn ships were diesel-
dnven, later umts having steam plant;
both types experienced a fair share of
Britain received eight'Attacker' class
and 26 'Ru[er' class escort carriers
from the USA. They were used both
for convoy escort and anti'
ffi firvrs Perseus and HMS Pioneer
Far Eastern operations had to be con-
ducted far from established bases and
maintenance facilities, Hiqh attritlon
rates ln aircraft would demand 'repair
by replacement to keep the front-line
carriers fully operatronal, CVEs being
Lrsed extensively in the exchange pro-
cess. Lightly damaged aircraft or
routine maintenance tasks could be
carried out on the fleet carrier herself
but lack of space and time demanded
that anything more complex be ship-
ped out for repair and, bY the very
nahre of things, the repair facilities
had to be afloat, With the only spectal-
ist marntenance carrier Unicorn used
permanently in an operational role,
two ofthe new ligrht fleet carriers ofthe
'Colosstts' class were earmarked as re-
placements, Though lacking the extra
machinery problems,
With limited capacity for flexibiltty,
CVEs tended to be fitted out for roles
either in convoy escort or in assault
support, their organization and aircrafi
complement being tailored to suit,
Once available in larger numbers they
were often integrrated drectly vrrth AS
gnoups. They often worked in larger
grroups (five at Salerno and nine for the
South of France landings), but some
saw no action, being engaged on air-
craft ferryrng, All that were still fit were
converted back to mercantile roles af-
ter the war.
The 'A:che/ class comPrised five
ships, namely HMS ArcIer, HMS
Avenger, HMS Bifer, HMS Cfiarger
and HMSDasier, though the Charger
was retained by the US NavY as
CVE.30 for the training of British air-
crews in American waters. The
'Attacker' class was larger, and was
made up of HMS Atfacker, HMS Bat'
fJer, HMS Chaser, HMSFencer, HMS
Pursuer, HMS StalJ<er, HMS StriJ<er
and HMS ?rarler, Finally there was the
'Ruler' class, which was made uP of
HMS Patroller, HMS Puncfier, HMS
Ravager, HMS Reaper, HMS ^Sear-
c}er, HMSSJinger, HMSSmjfer, HMS
.Spea/<er, HMS fracker, HMS ?roun-
cer, HMS Trumpeter, HMS Ameer,
HMs.Arbifer, HMS Afieling, HMS Be-
grum, HMS Emperor, HMS EmPress'
HMS Klredive, HMS /Vabob, HMS Pre-
mier, HMS Queen, HMS r?a.|'afi, HMS
rtanee, HMS RuJer, HMS Sfiafi and
HMS ?hane.
Specification
'Archer'class
Type: escort aircraft-carrier
submarine warfare as well as
providing air support during several
of the M editenanean arnPhibious
assauJls. i
hangar, they were margdnally faster
but looked 'unfinished' with few of the
deck-edete fixtures sported by the
operatronal carriers,
Both HMS Perseus and HMS
Pioneer were completed by the end of
the war, but only the Pioneer suc-
ceeded in getting to an operational
theatre, with the 1]th ACS, arriving in
the Far East just in time for the
Japanese surrender, Paradoxically,
earlier in the war when they could
have been of use, they would (like the
Unicorn) almost certarnly have been
pressed into an operational role, leav-
ing CVEs to be used as auxliaries,
while in peace too few active flight-
decks were maintained to warrant
their existence, With little post-war ap-
p[cation, the Plbneer was scrapped as
Displacement: 8,250 tons standard IIMS Avenqer and Biter, pjcf ured
except lrcler 9, 000 tons standard here in heavy seas, were both
Dimensions:length 150.0 m (492,25 ft); 'Archer' class escort caniers.
beam 20.2 m (66.25 ft); draught 7, i m
(23.25 ft)
Propulsion: -shaft diesel delivering
1 Armament: tl,vo 102-mm (4-in) AA, four
8,500 bhp (6,338 kW) exceptlrcirer 1- hrin 40-mm AA, and 15 20-mm AA
shaft diesel delivering 9,000 bhp guns
(671r kW) Aircraft: 18
Speed: 16.5 ktsexceptlrcfier 17 kts Complement:645
Armour:none
Armament: three l02-mm (4-in) AA, Specification
and I520-mmAAguns 'Rulet' class
Aircraft: l5 Type: escod aircraft -carrier
Complement: 555 Displacement: I 1,400 tons standard
Dimensions:length 150,0 m (492,25 ft);
Specification beam21.2 m (69,5 ft); draughtT.T m
'Attacket'class (2s.25 ft)
Type: escort atrcraft -carrier Proprrlsion: I -shaff geared steam
Displacement: I I,400 tons standard turbine delivering 9,350 shp (6972 kW)
Dimensions: length 150.0 m (492.25 ft); Speed: 17 kts
beam2L2 m(69,5 ft); draughtT,3 m Armour: none
(24ft) Armament: tvvo 102-mm (4-in) AA,
Propulsion: I -shaft geared steam eight twin 40-mm AA, and 20 20-mm
h:rbine delivering 9,350 shp (6972 k\ D AAquls
Speed: 17 kts Aircraft:22
Armour:none Complement:645
early as i954 (earller intentions of con- Displacement: 13, 300 tons standard
versions to passenger liners were not Dimensions: Iength 2I 1,8 m (695 ft);
pursued due probably to a combina- beam 24.4 m (80 ft); draught 5,6 m
tion of cost and a diminishing demand (rB 4 ft)
for these ships by a public acqurring a PropuJsion: 2-shaft geared steam
taste for air travel), The Perseus was turbines delivenng 42, 000 shP
nearly recommissioned for the Suez (31319 k\ D
affair of 1956, but then scrapped in Speed:25 l.ts
1958, Armour:mrnimal
Armament:three quadruple z-pdr AA
Specification and 1020-mmAAgrms
HMS Perseus and HMS Pioneer Aircraft: none
Tlpe: jnlenance aircraft-carrier Complement:not known
ma
!
*
IIMS Perseus and Pioneer were
'CoJossus'class carriers, completed
as m ainten ance ships un able to
operate in a combat role. Too late to
serve in lhe wartime fleet, they were
among the first British carriers to be
scrapped.
 6rps ffi
Armed Forces of the World Part I

US f{arine
Organization
Since World War ll, the US Marine Corps has tradi-
tionally been organized into three ground combat
divisions: one on the east coast of the United
States, one on the west, and one headquartered on
Okinawa. Each division has its own aircraft wing.
The 2nd Marine Division is based at Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina (supported by the 2nd
Marine Aircraft Wing at MCAS Cherry Point, North
Carolina), and acts as the nucleus of the Fleet
Marine Force Atlantic (FMFLant), providing the
manpower to support naval operations with the 2nd
Fleet in the Atlantic and the 6th Fleet in the Mediter-
ranean.
The 1st Marine Division is located at Camp
Pendleton, California (supported by the 3rd Marine
Aircraft Wlng at MCAS El Toro, California), and
operates primarily as a component of the Rapid
Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF), providing a
combat force ready to be sent into action in any
climate and in any location, at only a moment's
notice.
The 3rd Marine Division is on Okinawa (supported
by the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at MCAS Futema,
Okinawa), and forms the nucleus of the Fleet
Marine Force Pacific (FMFPac), providing troops in
Support of the US Navy's 7th Fleet in the east Asian
and western Pacific region,
Each division is broken into battalions (nine
infantry, one reconnaissance, one armour, one of
combat engineers and one for specialized Mention must also be made of the 4th Marine M arinesin their ampirbious pers onnel carriers,
amphibious operations) and has an artillery regiment Division, together with lts own 4th Marine Aircraft LWP-7s. Assisted by a formidable array of aircraft
Wing, the former at Camp Pendleton, the latter at and sustajned jn action by a fleet of support ships,
with towed guns. The aircraft wings supporting the Marines' primary mission remains assault from
these divisions each have up to eight squadrons of NAS Glenvlew, lllinols. This division is the US the sea. Renowned Ior their toughness and
tactical jet aircraft, seven helicopter squadrons, and Marine Corps Reserve, kept in being by inegular professionalism, they are ready for combat
three transport/observation squadrons. Addition- call-up of reservists who train at locations close to anwhere in the world.
ally, the US Marine Corps has two independent their homes. ln wartime or in emergency, the Presi-
brigades, one in Hawaii intended for Pacific opera- dent can call the Reserves to active duty.
tions and one at Camp Pendleton as a further Among bases where US Marines make thelr Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where a reinforced US
component of the RDJTF. homes is the beleaguered US Navy base at Marine company some 420 strong is used for
security purposes. ln the Pacific region, some US
Marines are stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines
and at Yokosuka in Japan. ln the Mediterranean,
another key base is at Naples.
Operationally, the US Marine Corps can be organ-
ized into any of three types of formation. The largest
is the Marine Amphibious Force (MAF) formed from
an entire division plus an aircraft wlng. Next in size is
the Marine Amphibious Brigade (MAB) one of
which, as noted, is kept in being for the RDJTF. The
more usual formation is the Marine Amphibious Unit
(MAU), based on a composite US Marine battalion
and from five to seven US Navy assault ships. Each
composite battalion has its own armour, artillery and
helicopters. Normally, one MAU is in being at any
time in the Mediterranean with another in the
Pacific. Avariation of the MAU is the Marine Landing
Team (MAT), which is a MAU minus the helicopler
component. Normally one of these is kept in being in
the Pacific region and from time to time another is
formed for deployment in the Atlantic. lt must be
stressed that US Marine forces are Jormed and
deployed as required, so the 'order of battle' out-
lines are subject to change at any time.

AnLWP-7 swims ashorefrom USS Saipan A sfijpo/

this class can deploy and support a Marine
tunphibious Unit of I ,900 men. On the right is a
'Newport' class LST , the largest vessel capable of
beaching. LWP-Is spearhead the assau/l,
carrying 25 Marines towards the beach.
Armed Forces of the World

Marines come ashorefrom anLCU. Deployedto

separate thewarring factions inLebanon, they
suffered heavycasualtl'esaf tft e hands of Muslim
Iana6cs. Their mere presence failed to subdue the
militias, and political considerations ruled out
anything more than token military action.

Current troop strength of the US Marine Corps is

198,574, of whom 162,881 serve in the continental
USA, including those commltted to the RDJTF;
3,467 US Marines are in Europe and 2B,B5B in East
Asia, mostly on Okinawa.
The US Marines have a reputation for tough dis-
cipline arrrd hard training. lt begins during 'boot
camp'at Parris lsland, South Carolina, or San Diego,
California, where the drill instructor (Dl) reigns
almost godJike over recruits who have volunteered
from civilian life.
Not even the toughest US Marine wants to return
to the era of mindlessly stern discipline exemplified
by the night march at Parris Island in April 1956
when, because of an error by Dl Staff Sergeant
Matthew C. McKeon, six men drowned fording a
swamp. But the 12-week basic training course,
much of it conducted under starkly realistic condi-
tions, is intended to breed an elite fighter. ln the US
Marine Corps, unlike the other US services, every
member is first and foremost a rifleman. No matter
what his military occupation specialty (MOS), each
US Marine is expected to be ready to be hurled into a
pointblank fire fight,
Once through boot camp, the typical private first
class (salary $109.20 per month) can be assigned to
any one of nearly 500 training schools. These vary
from Air Command/Control Electronics (six weeks
at Tustin, California) to Journeyman Plumbing and
Water Supply Specialist (11 weeks at Camp
Le.ieune, North Carolina) to Manual Morse lntercept
Electronic Warfare Operator (20 weeks at NAS
Pensacola, Florida). Butwhether plumberor missile
technician, every US Marine must meet demanding
standards of physical fitness and be prepared to
fight on the front line.
US Marine officers come from the 57 colleges
and universities which offer Naval Reserve Officer
Training Corps (NROTC) programmes, or from
officer training programmes within the US Marine
Corps itself , The elite regular officer is a graduate of
one of the service academies and most come from
the United States Naval Academy, the hallowed
institution on the Severn River ln Annapolis, Mary-
land, which boasts the world's largest dining room, Trucks are unloaded over the bow ramp of a men. They are desigmed to transport 520 troops ,.:'.'.:

offers four years of scholarly and military education,
tums out good football teams, and produces the
future leaders of the US Navy and US Marine Corps.
Annapolis sent hundreds of fresh second lieuten-
ants to command platoons in combat in Vietnam,
men like Peter A. Messenies, who won the Medal of
Honor for taking out a gun position at An Hoa, and
James Webb, much-decorated author of the novels
Fields of Fireand A Sense of Honor.
'Newport' class LST. There are 20 ships in this
class, each with a complement of 225 officers and
Like the other services, the US Marine Corps has
made increased use of wombn since the armed
forces became all volunteer in 1975. As of 31
December 1982, the US Marine Corps had 591
woman officers (3.1 per cent of its total) and 8,039
enlisted women (4.5 per cent). An 'all-women' crew
and 500 tons of vehicles or cargo at speeds of 20 .''
knofs. .' ..'tl:
operates a McDonnell Douglas C-98 Skytrain :ie.ti
transport assigned to NAS Memphis, Tennessee.,r,;
Actual combai is legally ruled out for female U€ ''i'
Marines, but the ruling might be unenforceable in a;i :''
sudden crisis, since men jnd women serve cheek:li:'
by-jowl in nearly all units. ,,, :i,

-'i
ESVct Z( :.