She arrived at Greenock on 21 December and permanent repairs were made from 30 December to late February 1942 at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead. The carrier participated in the early stages of the Battle of Okinawa until mechanical defects arising from accumulated battle damage became so severe she was ordered home early for repairs in May 1945. On 2 May 1950, she arrived at Birkenhead to commemorate the launch of the new carrier Ark Royal the following day with the First Lord of the Admiralty, George Hall, 1st Viscount Hall, aboard. Crew: HMS Illustrious has 1,400 compartments and 15 lifts, and has a top speed in excess of 30 knots. Two years later, she made 29.2 knots from 111,450shp (83,110kW). No. Second of the Invincible class aircraft carriers, she was in the latter stages of construction at Swan Hunters on the Tyne during Falkland's war of 1982. British Swordfish torpedo bombers from carrier HMS Illustrious attacked the port of Benghazi, Libya, bombing shipping and laying mines. HMS Illustrious was launched on 5th April 1939, where she was christened by Lady Henderson, wife of the recently retired Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, Third Sea Lord of the Royal Navy. Over the next several months she conducted deck-landing practice for Avenger and Seafire pilots before starting a short refit on 2 April. She embarked the Barracudas of 810 and 847 Squadrons of No. For the next six weeks she carried out an intensive flying regime in preparation for the next operations against the Japanese together with the other carriers of the fleet. 2. 2930, Hobbs 2011, pp. CPO. [57] Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten relieved her acting captain on 12 August, although he did not arrive aboard her until 28 August. In early June, she loaded the personnel from 806, 815, and 819 Squadrons at Devonport Royal Dockyard; 806 Squadron was equipped with Blackburn Skua dive bombers and Fairey Fulmar fighters, and the latter two squadrons were equipped with Swordfish. A Z.501 searching for the fleet was shot down on 10 November by a Fulmar and another on the 11th. June 1945, on Board HMS Illustrious. When the 1,000-kilogram (2,200lb) bomb that it was carrying detonated in the water only 50 feet (15.2m) from the side of the ship, the resulting shock wave badly damaged two Corsairs parked on the deck and severely shook the ship. 1. The HMS Illustrious was an aircraft carrier. #1. Early on the morning of 17 May, the ship launched all 18 Avengers, escorted by 16 Corsairs. 21 Naval Torpedo-Bomber Reconnaissance Wing, "Bomb Damage to British Naval Vessels: Summary of Damage by Bombs to September 2, 1941", "Pictures: Remembering the 29 men who drowned in HMS Illustrious liberty boat disaster", "Ship models in the Monaco Naval Museum: Aircraft and Helicopter Carriers", Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy, Armoured aircraft carrier action and damage reports, 19401945, Maritimequest HMS Illustrious photo gallery, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMS_Illustrious_(87)&oldid=1115451789, In front of a trumpet erect two trumpets in saltire gold, This page was last edited on 11 October 2022, at 14:53. HMS Illustrious (R 06): HMS Illustrious is a light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and the second of three Invincible-class ships constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. THE AIRPLANE SCRAPED . Before the Illustrious steamed for Malta she transferred six Seafires to the Unicorn to replace some of the latter's aircraft wrecked in deck-landing accidents. Her first assignment brought her to the Mediterranean Sea where her main mission was to launch aircraft which covered Malta convoys. Vice Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings, commander of Task Force 57, ordered the recently arrived Formidable to join the task force to replace Illustrious on 8 April. Sold for scrap She set sail two days later and arrived at Famagusta on 11 November. This was complete by 23 July, when she arrived in the Clyde and flew off her aircraft. After another round of flying operations, she visited Trondheim, Norway, on 19 June. The aircraft were pushed back until the main wheels were near the edge of the flight deck to allow more aircraft to be stored on the deck. [11], The completion of Illustrious was delayed two months to fit her with a Type 79Z early-warning radar; she was the first aircraft carrier in the world to be fitted with radar before completion. 122123, 126, Brown 1971; Brown, J. D., p. 76; Shores, pp. In Nov 1940, she launched 21 torpedo bombers against the Italian fleet at Taranto, and achieved spectacular success after sinking one battleship and damaging two others. [53][54] The naval historian J. D. Brown noted that "There is no doubt that the armoured deck saved her from destruction; no other carrier took anything like this level of punishment and survived. Illustrious was a British battleship of the Majestic class, launched in 1894 and sold for scrap in 1920. The noise of the on-coming first airstrike was heard at 22:25 and the anti-aircraft guns defending the port opened fire shortly afterwards, as did those on the ships in the harbour. 279283, Brown 1971, pp. [18] Two more twin Oerlikon mounts were added, and her boilers were retubed. She was sold on 3 November 1956 and broken up in early 1957. As the fleet was withdrawing, Illustrious's CAP intercepted and shot down a Nakajima Ki-43 (codenamed "Oscar") fighter and a Mitsubishi Ki-21 "Sally" medium bomber on reconnaissance missions. DURING BRITISH PACIFIC FLEET OPERATIONS THE ILLUSTRIOUS EXPERIENCED A JAPANESE SUICIDE ATTACK. [45] On the night of 16/17 December, 11 Swordfish bombed Rhodes and the island of Stampalia with little effect. 25758; Brown, J. D., pp. The facilities there could provide only emergency repairs, enough to allow her to reach the bigger dockyard in Sydney. While running trials in 1948, after another refit, she reached a maximum speed of 29 knots (54km/h; 33mph) from 110,680shp (82,530kW). [14] These changes increased her aircraft capacity to 57[17] and caused her crew to grow to 1,831. She made her first foreign port visit in many years at Le Havre, France, on 2022 March, where 13,000 people came aboard. She was reunited with the four other carriers that served with the BPF for the first time since the war for the Coronation Fleet Review of Queen Elizabeth II on 15 June at Spithead. She arrived on 16 April and the examination by divers revealed that some of her outer plating was split and that some transverse frames were cracked. She began her postrefit trials on 24 June 1946 and flying trials the following month. Illustrious's air group consisted of 32 Corsairs and 21 Avengers by now and she contributed 12 of her Avengers and 16 Corsairs to the first attack, which destroyed most of the oil storage tanks and cut the refinery's output by half for three months. The brand-new armoured aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, and a powerful escort left Gibraltar. Find An Object; IWM Collections; Stories & Videos . WW2DB site administrators reserve the right to moderate, censor, and/or remove any comment. The vessel is currently moored in Portsmouth Harbour after 32 years of active service. The flight deck was extended forward, which increased her overall length to 748feet 6inches (228.1m). On the morning of 7 May, Martlets from 881 Squadron intercepted three Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 fighters on a reconnaissance mission. Two of the Barracudas were forced to return with engine trouble before the attack began and another was shot down over the target. [32], Repairs were completed before the end of the month, and she escorted a convoy to Greece, during which her Fulmars shot down one shadowing CANT Z.506B floatplane. The most damaging hit was a large bomb that penetrated through the deck armour forward of the aft lift and detonated 10 feet above the hangar deck. Later that morning three of the five Fulmars on Combat Air Patrol (CAP) engaged three SM.79s at low altitude, claiming one shot down. 21 TBR Wing were landed to make room for the additional fighters. R.L.B. War Hero. HMS ILLUSTRIOUS ASSOCIATION The 5th HMS ILLUSTRIOUS was named and launched on 1st December 1978 by HRH Princess Margaret and Admiral of the Fleet, Earl Mountbatten of Burma. The carrier and her escorts arrived back at Trincomalee on 23 June where 847 Squadron was merged into 810 Squadron a week later. He believed that carriers could not be successfully defended by their own aircraft without some form of early-warning system. A Hawker Sea Fury crashed while landing on 15 May, killing the pilot and two members of the deck crew. A flight of nine SM.79s was intercepted later that day and the Fulmars claimed to have damaged one of the bombers, although it actually failed to return to base. Fancourt, DSO, RN) escorted by the destroyers HMS Termagent (Lt.Cdr. After 1861 only a sample of crew lists and agreements and log books are held at The National Archives. The Royal Air Force (RAF) had positioned a Short Sunderland flying boat off the harbour to search for any movement to or from the port and this was detected at 17:55 by acoustic locators and again at 20:40, alerting the defenders. [14] This increased her aircraft complement to 47 aircraft by use of a permanent deck park of 6 aircraft. pilot and ground crew aboard HMS Illustrious April 1945. Between the three squadrons they had 20 Fireflies and 8 Sea Furies when they participated in the major NATO exercise Main Brace later in the month. She was assigned to Force H for the operation which was tasked to protect the amphibious force from attack by the Italian Fleet and provide air cover for the carriers supporting the assault force. During the return voyage to Alexandria, the Italian submarineCorallo made an unsuccessful attack on the British ships. [16] After her return to the UK later that year, her Type 79Z radar was replaced by a Type 281 system and a Type 285 gunnery radar was mounted on one of the main fire-control directors. A Chance-Vought Corsair JT208 buckles a wing on . The only way to do this was to completely armour the hangar in which the aircraft would shelter, but putting so much weight high in the ship allowed only a single-storey hangar due to stability concerns. 17, 19; Shores, Cull & Malizia 1987b, pp. Her aircraft attacked several targets in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies over the following year before Illustrious was transferred to the newly formed British Pacific Fleet (BPF). HMS Victorious, ordered under the 1936 Naval Programme, was the third Illustrious-class aircraft carrier after Illustrious and Formidable. Home. [47] On the morning of 22 December, 13 Swordfish attacked Tripoli harbour, starting fires and hitting warehouses multiple times. The underwater defence system was a layered system of liquid- and air-filled compartments backed by a 1.5-inch (38mm) splinter bulkhead. British carrier HMS Illustrious and the escort carrier HMS Atheling, with covering forces, began a series of diversionary raids on Sabang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, with the goal of tying down Japanese forces during the American Operation Forager attack on the Mariana Islands. When the aircraft approached the target on the morning of 20 December, it was obscured by clouds so they diverted to the secondary target of the port at Belawan Deli. Class and type: Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Displacement: 104,600 long tons Length: Overall: 1,092 feet (332.8 m) Waterline: 1,040 feet (317.0 m) Propulsion: 2 Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors 4 steam turbines driving 4 shafts 260,000 shp (194 MW) Speed: 30+ knots (56+ km/h; 35+ mph) Range: Unlimited distance; 20-25 years [85], On 1 February, she joined the other ships of the Home Fleet as they rendezvoused with the battleship Vanguard, which was serving as the royal yacht to escort King George VI as he set out for the first royal tour of South Africa. The following day, the Fireflies of No. The opportunity was too good to pass up. She returned to Norfolk on 9 December, to rendezvous with Formidable, which had also been repaired there, and the carriers sailed for home three days later. It was partially obscured by clouds and heavy squalls so the attacking aircraft had only moderate success, setting some structures on fire and destroying several aircraft on the ground. A Type 272 target-indicator radar was mounted above her bridge. The American bombers attacked the shipping in the harbour while the British aircraft attacked the shore installations. The design was unique in the sense that the flight deck was armored, unlike many of her contemporaries outside her class; however, the added protection also limited the total number of aircraft she was capable of carrying. The RN planned to fit her out as a flagship, remove her aft 4.5-inch guns in exchange for increased accommodation, and replace some of her Oerlikons with single two-pounder AA guns, but the end of the war in August caused the RN to reassess its needs. 9293; McCart, pp. The first flight of 6 Swordfish, carrying torpedoes, unsuccessfully attacked the aviso D'Entrecasteaux, but sank the armed merchant cruiser MSBougainville. The British Royal Navy, particularly, suffered a damaging defeat after the Japanese raids into the Indian Ocean in Mar-Apr 1942. Pete and Jan Owens Records of seafarers and ships British seafarers of the late 19th and early 20th century are the best documented workers that there have ever been - millions of documents survive, recording in detail the crews of a hundred thousand ships. sgtpepperband. HMS Illustrious arrived at Alexandria, Egypt. The carrier launched four replacements at 12:35, just when 2436 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers of the First Group/Dive Bomber Wing 1 (I. Gruppe/Sturzkampfgeschwader (StG) 1) and the Second Group/Dive Bomber Wing 2 (II. [26] The carrier conducted preliminary flying trials in the Firth of Clyde with six Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers that had been craned aboard earlier. Type 282 gunnery radars were added for each of the "pom-pom" directors, and the rest of the main directors were fitted with Type 285 radars. It dived out of the clouds on the port bow and from the time it emerged from the clouds until the time it hit the water was only 11 seconds. News stories in brief from around the World. 30, 32, Brown 1971, pp. . Those known to have sailed in HMS Illustrious during the Second World War 1939-1945. 16th Jan 1941 HMS Illustrious 22nd January 1941 Italian airfields attacked If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Jellicoe was relieved by Captain R. D. Watson on 26 September and Illustrious resumed training until 9 December when her crew was granted leave and the ship began a refit. During the morning of 10 January, her Swordfish attacked an Italian convoy without significant effect. Lava's technical capabilities. The Royal Navy's 1936 Naval Programme authorised the construction of two aircraft carriers. 254, 257; Brown, J. D., p. 80; McCart, pp. [46] Four days later Illustrious's aircraft attacked two convoys near the Kerkennah Islands and sank two merchant ships totalling 7,437GRT. In 32 years . The ship was laid down on 10th November that year and launched on 26th March 1940 as the 3rd RN Warship to carry the name. 25859, 261; Hobbs 2011, pp. She conducted deck-landing trials for prototypes of the Blackburn Firebrand and Fairey Firefly fighters, as well as the Fairey Barracuda dive/torpedo bomber from 8 to 10 February. Eight Corsair and 15 Barracuda aircraft attacked the Japanese airfield and harbour. [34] At this time her air group was reinforced by several of Eagle's Gloster Sea Gladiators supplementing the fighters of 806 Squadron as well as torpedo bombers from 813 and 824 Squadrons. Led by HMS Illustrious (aka "Lusty"), elements of the UK's Response Force Task Group (RFTG), left Portsmouth on Oct. 1, to take part to part to a series of exercises around the UK as well . [14] The additional crewmen, maintenance personnel and facilities needed to support these aircraft, weapons and sensors increased her complement to 1,326. She was captured by. All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB. It has been sold for scrap for 2m. Since the beginning of the operation, her aircraft had flown 234 offensive and 209 defensive sorties, claiming at least two aircraft shot down. Hundreds watched in quiet reflection as the ship sailed out of Portsmouth on her final . Her length was 640 feet with a beam of over 90 feet and a draught reaching 23 feet. She returned to Portsmouth on 7 December and she did not leave harbour until 30 January 1952 when she resumed her customary role as a training ship. A follow on airstrike was planned for the next night based on the pessimistic assessments of the aircrews, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, was determined not to simply modify the previous unarmoured Ark Royal design. Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History 19 December 1796 - HMS Courageux (1753/1761 - 74), Lt. John Burrows (Act. He chose the naval base and oil refinery at Surabaya, Java (Operation Transom), and the distance from the newly renamed East Indies Fleet's base at Ceylon required refuelling at Exmouth Gulf on the western coast of Australia before the attack. British carrier HMS Illustrious left Malta for Alexandria, Egypt. Second, it is to showcase [74], The Saratoga was ordered to depart for home for a refit by 19 May and Somerville wanted to mount one more attack as she was leaving the Indian Ocean. . Only one Fulmar was serviceable on 19 January, when the carrier was attacked several times and it was shot down. Is there a list of. In the meantime, she continued to conduct operations with the rest of the fleet. ww2dbaseIllustrious was the lead ship in her class of aircraft carriers. The destroyer Aquilone later struck one of the mines and sank. The new ship class was named the Invincible-class and would constitute three vessels led by HMS Invincible and followed by HMS Illustrious and HMS Indomitable. The hangar was 456 feet (139.0m) long and had a maximum width of 62 feet (18.9m). Boyd was promoted to rear admiral on 18 February and relieved Lyster as Rear Admiral Aircraft Carriers. [4], Illustrious was 740 feet (225.6m) in length overall and 710 feet (216.4m) at the waterline. HMS Illustrious' casualty list was terrible: 126 dead and 91 wounded. In this role she conducted the deck-landing trials for most of the British post-war naval aircraft in the early 1950s. Free shipping for many products! Her air group was reinforced at this time by four more Martlets each for 878 and 890 Squadrons. In Sep 1943, her aircraft covered Allied troops in the Sicily invasion. With HMS Invincible laid down during July of 1973, HMS Illustrious followed when ordered during May of 1976. 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