HMS Triumph (R16)
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HMS Triumph at sea
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Laid down | 27 January 1943 |
Launched | 2 November 1944 |
Commissioned | 6 May 1946 |
Stricken | 1981 |
Fate | Scrapped in Spain 1981 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Colossus-class aircraft carrier |
Displacement | 13,350 tons standard |
Length | 695 ft (212 m) |
Beam | 80 ft (24 m) |
Draught | 23.5 ft (7.2 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 25 knots (46 km/h) |
Range | 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km) |
Complement | 1,300 (including air group) |
Aircraft carried | 48 |
HMS Triumph was a
Construction and design
The Colossus class was a class of relatively small aircraft carriers which were designed to be built quickly to meet the Royal Navy's requirements for more carriers to allow it to fight a global war. In order to allow speedy build, they were designed to mercantile rather than navy hull standards, while armour protection and long-range anti aircraft guns were not fitted.[1][2][3] Sixteen ships were ordered by the end of 1942, but the last six were completed to a modified design as the Majestic-class.[4]
Triumph was 695 feet 0 inches (211.84 m)
The
Triumph was
Service
On 26 July 1946, Triumph, accompanied by the destroyer
Korean War service
In 1950, Triumph was on a cruise to Japan as part of the
The following day, she and her escorts, headed for
The Seafires and Fireflies of Triumph, in conjunction with aircraft from the American carrier Valley Forge, hit airfields at Pyongyang and Haeju on 3 July, the first carrier strikes of the war, with Triumph launching twelve Fireflies and nine Seafires, all armed with rockets, against Heaju.[12] The Seafires, though agile and fast, had an appearance that was a liability when operating with allied forces. The aircraft had a remarkable similarity to the Yak-9, a Second World War Soviet fighter aircraft, in service with the North Korean forces. Such similarities would play to an almost tragic incident further into Triumph's deployment during the Korean War.
On 19 July 1950, Lieutenant P. Cane, flying a
On 28 July, an almost tragic event occurred, when a flight of Seafires were deployed to an area to investigate possible enemy air activity. They discovered that the activity was a flight of American
Further combat air patrol (CAP) and anti-submarine operations continued until she left Korean waters for Kure in Japan, where she spent her eight days there in refit. On 9 July, Triumph was back on the west coast of Korea, accompanied by the cruiser
On 23 August, Triumph, with just nine operational aircraft left, returned to
On 29 August, another incident occurred, when a Fairey Firefly landed without an arrestor hook and was stopped by the safety barrier. A large piece of propeller blade broke off, hurtled towards the surface of the flying control position, breaking the glass of the operations room and entering the compartment with tragic consequences, striking Lieutenant Commander I. M. McLachlan, the commanding officer of 800 Naval Air Squadron, who later died from the injuries sustained in this freak incident. He was buried at sea off the coast of South Korea with full naval honours.
On 30 August, after a four-day patrol, Triumph returned to Sasebo, where she received 14 aircraft from the support carrier Unicorn. On 3 September, Triumph departed Sasebo for the West Coast of Korea. When she got there, her aircraft performed the now routine CAP missions along with reconnaissance duties and bombardment spotting for the Fiji-class cruiser Jamaica and the destroyer Charity.
After 6 September, Triumph, accompanied by Athabaskan,
On the 9th, bad weather forced operations to limit themselves to just eight sorties, with four Fireflies attacking the airfield at Koryo, causing a large amount of damage. 800 NAS's aircraft was decreased yet again, now to just six aircraft, after four others had been written off. The following day, Triumph returned once again to Sasebo.
On 12 September, Triumph departed Sasebo, accompanied by Warramunga and the Royal Navy C-class destroyers - Charity, Cockade and Concord. Their objective, though unknown to the crews of the ships at that time, was to cover the landings at Incheon. The group, part of CTF 91, a Commonwealth Task Force, was joined by the cruiser Ceylon and RAN warship, Bataan, and was now known as the Northern Group. There was also a much smaller Southern Group which comprised the Canadian ships Athabaskan, Cayuga and Sioux.
Triumph's aircraft provided vital air cover for the attacking forces in the first few days before the landings. After the landings took place, Triumph and her accompanying escort, provided anti-submarine patrols, while her aircraft commenced interdiction and spotting operations. The latter operations proved very successful, with Fireflies spotting for the cruisers Jamaica and Kenya. Thanks to the spotting by the Fireflies, Jamaica launched a devastating bombardment on North Korean positions, destroying a hidden cache of weapons, which resulted in the top of a hill being obliterated, creating a large plume of smoke that reached 8,000 feet.
The end of the day's operations led to a message to the commander of the Commonwealth naval forces, Admiral Andrewes, from the United Nations' overall commander, General Douglas MacArthur, "My heartiest felicitations on the splendid conduct of the Fleet units under your command. They have added another glamorous page to the long and brilliant histories of the Navies of the British Commonwealth."
By the end of
On 21 September, Triumph entered Sasebo for the last time in her deployment during the Korean War. She spent two days there in dry dock for temporary repairs, before departing for Hong Kong on 25 September, her role in the conflict being replaced by Theseus.
Remainder of service
After her Korean service Triumph was selected as the replacement for HMS Devonshire as a cadet training ship. She carried two terms each of 100 RN and Commonwealth cadets on three cruises each year, in the Spring to the West Indies, in the summer to Scandinavia and around the UK, and in the autumn to the Mediterranean. She carried three Sea Balliol aircraft with which to inculcate air-mindedness in the cadets.
In 1952, Triumph was used for the first trials of an
In 1954 she was diverted to ferry survivors of the troopship
Triumph was then converted, between 1956 and 1965, into a heavy repair ship, emerging from the work with the pennant number "A108". Triumph was based in
Notes
- ^ Chesneau 1998, pp. 129, 131
- ^ Brown 2012, pp. 57–58
- ^ a b Brown 1977, pp. 50–51
- ^ Brown 2012, pp. 58–59
- ^ a b c d e Chesneau 1998, p. 129
- ^ a b c d Hobbs 1996, p. 183
- ^ Hobbs 2013, p. 185
- ^ a b c Hobbs 2013, p. 192
- ^ Gardiner & Chesneau 1980, p. 22
- ^ "News in Brief: British Warships' Visit to Kronstadt". The Times. No. 50514. 27 July 1946. p. 4.
- ^ "Relations With Russia: Royal Navy "Breaks The Ice"". The Times. No. 50526. 10 August 1946. p. 2.
- ^ Cull & Newton 2000, p. 259
- ^ Paul, James; Spirit, Martin (2008). "HMS Triumph: Tour: 25/6/50-29/9/50". britains-smallwars.com. Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
- ^ Cull & Newton 2000, p. 261
- ^ "Royal Navy in Russia". British Pathé. Leningrad. 1955. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
- ^ Chesneau 1998, p. 131
References
- Brown, David (1977). World War 2 Fact Files: Aircraft Carriers. London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 0-354-01008-5.
- Brown, David K. (2012). Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design and Development 1923–1945. Barnsley, UK: ISBN 978-1-84832-149-6.
- Chesneau, Roger (1998). Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. London: Brockhamton Press. ISBN 1-86019-875-9.
- ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
- Cull, Brian; Newton, Denis (2000). With the Yanks in Korea: Volume One. London: Grub Street. ISBN 1-902304-49-7.
- Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger (1980). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
- Hobbs, David (1996). Aircraft Carriers of the Royal and Commonwealth Navies. London: ISBN 1-85367-252-1.
- Hobbs, David (2013). British Aircraft Carriers: Design, Development and Service Histories. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-138-0.