HMS Indomitable (92)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Indomitable.

Indomitable in 1943
History
United Kingdom
NameIndomitable
Ordered6 July 1937
Builder
Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down10 November 1937
Launched26 March 1940
Commissioned10 October 1941
IdentificationPennant number: 92
FateSold for scrap, 1955
General characteristics
Class and typeModified Illustrious-class aircraft carrier
Displacement23,000 long tons (23,000 t) (standard)
Length230.0 m (754 ft 7 in)
Beam29.2 m (95 ft 10 in)
Draught8.8 m (28 ft 10 in)
Installed power
  • 6 ×
    Admiralty 3-drum boilers
  • 111,000
    kW
    )
Propulsion3 shafts; geared steam turbines
Speed30.5 knots (56.5 km/h; 35.1 mph)
Range11,000 nmi (20,000 km; 13,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement
  • 1,392
  • 2,100 (later)
Armament
Aircraft carried48–55

HMS Indomitable was a modified Illustrious-class aircraft carrier built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Originally planned to be the fourth of the class, she was redesigned to enable her to operate more aircraft, 48 instead of 36. A second hangar was added above the original, raising the flight deck by 14 feet (4.3 m), although the hangar-side armour had to be reduced to compensate. The lower hangar was made shorter than the upper hangar due to the need for extra workshops and accommodation to support the added aircraft.[1]

Construction and early history

An LSO aboard Indomitable in 1942

Indomitable was

launched on 26 March 1940 and commissioned the following year in October. She was christened by Clementine Churchill
.

She sailed to the

surrendered to the Japanese
on 15 February.

After the fall of Britain's remaining Far Eastern colonies

Sir James Somerville. Indomitable, and her sister ship Formidable were the only modern aircraft carriers of the Fleet, and were a vital asset to the Allies in the Far East; the only other carrier, Hermes
, was obsolete.

In April 1942 Somerville attempted to intercept the Japanese carrier strike force during their Indian Ocean raid. Incomplete intelligence led him to abandon his ambush just hours before the Japanese force arrived. Over the next few days Indomitable was part of a force that attempted to intercept the Japanese fleet at night, where the slow but radar-equipped British torpedo planes would have the best chance of a successful strike. Despite several days of searching no decisive action was achieved and Somerville eventually withdrew his fast carriers to Bombay. Hermes, the Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire, the corvette HMS Hollyhock and two heavy cruisers, Cornwall and Dorsetshire, were sunk in action during this Japanese raid, as were a score of merchant ships.

In May 1942 the British launched Operation Ironclad, the invasion of French Madagascar. It was feared that the Japanese would themselves occupy Madagascar and use it as a submarine base to attack Allied convoy routes in the Indian Ocean.[2]

Indomitable was detached from the Eastern Fleet to take part in the invasion, rendezvousing with the covering force (which included sister ship

Sea Hurricanes flying ground attack sorties. French forces in Diego Suarez surrendered on 7 May.[6] On 8 May, the French submarine Monge attempted to torpedo Indomitable but was sunk by depth charges from the destroyers HMS Active and Panther.[3][7]

The Mediterranean

12 August 1942: Indomitable on fire after being bombed. HMS Charybdis is screening the carrier.

In July, Indomitable returned to the

convoy to supply the besieged island of Malta. This convoy comprised 14 cargo ships and an unprecedentedly large escort of warships: Cairo, Charybdis, Eagle, Indomitable, Victorious, Kenya, Manchester, Nelson, Nigeria, Phoebe, Rodney, Sirius and 32 destroyers. One objective was for Furious to launch her Spitfires to land at Malta, where they would remain; this was done on 11 August, and Furious returned to Gibraltar
.

During the operation Indomitable was hit by two 500 kg bombs (by

Mediterranean
in the build-up to Operation Husky.

She was torpedoed by a

Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 of 204a Squadriglia of the 41° Torpedo Bomber Group on 16 July[10][11] while supporting the buildup for the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) and returned again to the United States, where repairs were completed. She commenced sea trials 10 April 1944.[12]

The Far East

Indomitable returned to the Eastern Fleet in early 1944. She and Victorious launched bombers against Sumatra in August and September. They later bombed the

Medan and Sumatra again on 20 December. The following year, Indomitable joined the British Pacific Fleet. On 4 January 1945 she, her sister ship Victorious and another fleet carrier Indefatigable attacked Medan. Subsequent actions were taken against Palembang and Sumatra, later in January. On 4 May 1945 she was hit by a kamikaze, but her armoured flight deck saved her from serious damage. In August, with the war ending, Indomitable supported the liberation of Hong Kong, arriving after a landing party from HMCS Prince Robert
had taken the Japanese surrender. Her aircraft flew the carrier's last combat missions of the war and of her career on 31 August and 1 September against Japanese suicide boats which were attacking British forces.

Post-war

Indomitable returned to the UK in November 1945. The following year she carried the Great Britain national rugby league team to Australia on their first post-war tour, earning the team the nickname, 'The Indomitables'. In 1947, she was placed in reserve, and then given a refit that took three years, from 1947 to 1950. Late in her refit her boilers were discovered to have only 10 years of life, and the engine spaces had to be torn apart and rebuilt to replace the boilers. Upon the completion of her refit she returned to operational duty with the Home Fleet in far cooler climates than her wartime operations. She was unique in carrying the day-and-night de Havilland Hornet fighter, and the navalised Sea Hornet NF.12 radar-equipped night fighter[13] also carried by HMS Eagle in 1951–53,[14] which was faster, longer-ranged, and carried a larger payload compared to the carrier's Blackburn Firebrand torpedo strike aircraft.[citation needed] In 1951, Indomitable replaced the Royal Navy's last battleship,

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.[16] She then did deck landings in the Channel the same month. with the prototype mirror landing light setup to make the landing of faster jet aircraft more efficient and safer[17]
replacing the batsman. Indomitable was not modernized for several reasons, chief of which was that to make her capable of handling jet aircraft, her hangar height would have to be increased from 14 feet (4.3 m) to 17.5 feet (5.3 m). This would require tearing the ship down to the hangar deck itself. Given the escalating costs of the modernization of her half-sister Victorious, the Admiralty decided against a complete modernization for a ship of her age.

Decommissioning and disposal

Indomitable returned to the reserve fleet, and in October 1953 she was placed in unmaintained reserve. She was sold for scrap and arrived at Faslane for breaking up on 30 September 1955.

Notes

  1. ^ Hobbs, p. 100
  2. ^ Shores 1996, pp. 276–277.
  3. ^ a b Rohwer and Hümmelchen 1992, p. 136.
  4. ^ Shores 1996, p. 278.
  5. ^ Shores 1996, p. 279
  6. ^ Shores 1996, pp. 280–283.
  7. ^ Mason, Geoffry B (2003). "HMS INDOMITABLE - Illustrious-class Fleet Aircraft Carrier including Convoy Escort Movements". Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2. naval-history.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  8. ^ Friedman, p. 151
  9. ^ Section X. Effect on Fighting Efficiency. 16 October 2014
  10. ^ Shores 2018, pp. 209–210
  11. ^ H.M.S Indomitable-Torpedoed-16.7.43
  12. ^ McCart, p. 126
  13. ^ P. Beaver. (1987) The British Aircraft Carrier. Patrick Stephens. London p145.
  14. ^ Beaver (1987) p 145
  15. ^ a b D. Van Der Vat. The Standard of Power. The Royal Navy in the Twentieth Century (2001) p 339
  16. ^ Souvenir Programme, Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953, HMSO, Gale and Polden
  17. ^ D. Hobbs. The British Carrier Strike Fleet after 1945 (2021) p102

Bibliography

External links

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