Conrad Waters looks back over the career of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, which served two navies in a variety of roles.
At sunset on 6 March 2017 the Indian naval ensign was lowered for the last time on the veteran aircraft carrier INS Viraat. The ceremony marked the formal end of a 56-year career under two flags for a ship that was commissioned as the Royal Navy’s HMS Hermes on 25 November 1959. During this time the carrier achieved household fame as the flagship of the British task force sent to recover the Falklands following the 1982 Argentine invasion.
ORIGINS
HMS Hermes traced her origins to World War II and a massive programme of aircraft carrier construction intended to boost numbers of a type which was becoming recognised as the dominant factor in naval warfare. In 1942 no fewer than 16 small light fleet carriers of the Colossus and Majestic classes were ordered as part of a crash programme intended to remedy this deficiency.
With the immediate requirement met, attention turned to a new design that would be better able to accommodate the new generation of larger naval aircraft entering production. These inevitably required a bigger ship to accommodate them. The new design’s speed also needed to be higher to generate sufficient wind over the flight deck to launch and land heavier aircraft. Other changes included the incorporation of more powerful anti-aircraft armament and a degree of armour protection.
Eight of the new carriers were ordered in the summer of 1943. However, the extent of wartime demands on an overstretched shipbuilding industry meant that only four had been started when hostilities ended. Hermes – laid down as HMS Elephant at the Vickers-Armstrong yard in Barrow-in-Furness on 21 June 1944 – was renamed to take the name of one of the cancelled ships, thereby perpetuating the name of the carrier sunk in the Indian Ocean by Japanese forces in April 1942.
Bu hikaye Ships Monthly dergisinin November 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Ships Monthly dergisinin November 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
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