Written by
James Davies

Lieutenant Commander T P Coode, of 818 Squadron Fleet Air Arm, takes off shortly after 19:10 on 26 May 1941 to lead an attack the Bismarck.  The 15 Fairey Swordfish, from both 818 and 810 Squadron Fleet Air Arm, would score two hits, jamming the Bismarck’s rudders and allowing her to be caught by the pursuing British ships.  All the aircraft successfully returned to the Ark Royal, with two aircrew wounded by anti-aircraft fire.

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Overview

HMS Ark Royal was Britain’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier, and as with most warships of the era she was built under the influence of the inter-war naval treaties.  These limited Britain to a total standard displacement of aircraft carriers not exceeding 135,000 long tons, with a maximum standard displacement per vessel of 27,000 long tons.  With six other aircraft carriers in service Britain had 19,545 long tons remaining of her treaty allocation, however as it was intended to remove HMS Argus from service when HMS Ark Royal was commissioned Britain was free to build up to the 27,000-ton limit for an individual ship.

Britain was actively lobbying for a new upper limit on the size of aircraft carriers of 22,000 long tons, and in accordance with this national policy it was decided that the Ark Royal should match this displacement.  Unlike carriers of other nations, the ship structure in Britain’s aircraft carriers encompassed the whole ship, including the flight deck.  Contemporary American and Japanese designs had the hangars and flight deck built as a relatively weak structure, perched on top of the ship’s hull.  This had the advantage of making the British ships tremendously strong, however the penalty was paid in increased weight from the extra structural steelwork.

The original design requirements called for the ship to carry 60 aircraft, and had increased to 72 by the time of the final sketch design, all to be stored below-deck in two hangars, along with a specification for a speed of 30 kt and a 900-ft flight deck, all within the 22,000-ton displacement.  It was soon realised that this combination was impossible to achieve, and the flight deck was reduced to 800 ft, with considerable overhang forward and aft.  A feature of British carriers of the time was a rounding down of the aft end of the flight deck.  This made landing-on easier by reducing eddies, and the first pilots to land-on reported that the final few moments before touchdown were “very smooth”.

The Ark Royal was the first British aircraft carrier to be fitted with a crash barrier, positioned at the mid-point of the flight deck.  A crash barrier improves an aircraft carrier in several important ways, allowing aircraft to be landed-on more quickly as each arrival can simply be rolled forward of the barrier rather than having to be stowed below decks before the next landing, and also allowing aircraft to be stowed on deck in a permanent deck-park, increasing the number of aircraft that can be carried.  The designers cited both these reasons when the crash barrier was proposed for the Ark Royal, and although the Admiralty firmly intended to use a deck park in wartime for the Ark Royal it was only used when transporting RAF aircraft to Malta.

Armour was provided for the magazines, shell rooms and machinery spaces, and was primarily designed to be proof against the American 1000-lb armour-piercing bomb dropped by a dive-bomber, as well as to prevent penetration from six-inch guns.  The flight deck was minimally protected over the hangar areas, and was intended to prevent penetration by 20-lb bombs.  Late in the construction process there was considerable debate as to whether to redesign the ship with an armoured flight deck, providing even more protection against dive-bombers.  This was expected to half the number of aircraft that could be carried as well as drastically delay the completion, and it was the overriding need for more ships to be completed quickly that prevented this drastic change from being made.  Underwater protection was designed against a 750-lb explosion, and tests concluded that the intended structure “seemed to have plenty in hand and would probably have withstood a larger charge.”

Guns were provided for protection against air attack, and unlike previous British aircraft carriers were placed high up on the side of the ship, giving much-improved arcs of fire.  Eight dual purpose (high-angle / low-angle) twin 4.5-in guns were chosen, backed up by six well-proven Mk VIII pom-poms for close-in defence (although only four were fitted initially).  Eight sets of quadruple 0.5-in machineguns were also fitted, although British wartime experience with these guns was poor and, had the Ark Royal survived, they would almost certainly have been replaced by 20-mm machineguns later in the war (as they were in other ships).  Other guns were fitted wherever there was space, including both Lewis and Vickers machineguns and 2-lb low-angle guns.

The Ark Royal was one of Britain’s most important warships.  She was continually in action, providing vital support at the Western end of the Mediterranean in the dark days of 1940 and 1941.  Although she and her aircraft achieved many ‘firsts’ (including the first British air-to-air victory of the war, and the first sinking of a major warship by aircraft), her contribution can more clearly be seen by the fact that no ship reached Malta from the Western end of the Mediterranean for more than six months after she was lost.

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Units

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Specifications

Note 1: The original intention was to fit six, with a proportionally larger shell allocation, however two were temporarily removed in 1938 whilst waiting for the crash barrier to be fitted as they may have interfered with an aircraft that missed the final wire.  The fittings were left in place, however the pom-poms were diverted to other ships, and once the crash barrier was installed it was discovered that no more were available until 1942.  The Ark Royal was sunk before they could be fitted.

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