"HMS Implacable" Topic

"The aircraft carrier that the recently featured Sea Hornet was landing on in the 7th February 1950 photograph in THE TIMES was HMS Implacable. She was a member of a group of armoured aircraft carriers designed just before the Second World War and built between 1937 and 1944. The first four ships formed the Illustrious-class (HMS Illustrious, HMS Formidable, HMS Victorious, and HMS Indomitable) and the second group was the Implacable-class (HMS Implacable and HMS Indefatigable). The latter pair were a development of the Illustrious-class, and mainly differed in having two hanger levels rather than one. This enabled them to carry a larger number of aircraft, even though the height of the hangers was less.

HMS Implacable was commissioned in May 1944, but was not fully worked-up until the September of that year. Her first operation was to locate the German battleship Tirpitz, which had left her berth in Kaafjord. A flight of reconnaissance aircraft from HMS Implacable found Tirpitz off Håkøya Island near Tromsø on 18th October 1944, but the ship did not mount a strike against the German warship as she was still awaiting her complement of Supermarine Seafire fighters to fly aboard.

Between December 1944 and March 1945, HMS Implacable underwent a refit to prepare her for service in the Far East as part of the British Pacific Fleet. She had arrived at the Admiralty Islands by the end of May, and in June she took part in an attack on the island of Truk. She then took part in a number of attacks on the Japanese home islands…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Great class for dealing with Kamikazis.

There is something remarkably menacing about the profile of an aircraft carrier.

Great class for dealing with Kamikazis.

Indeed… but unfortunately totally unsuitable for the jet age due to low-ceiling hangers and cumbersome elevator arrangement.