HMS Formidable was an Illustrious-class aircraft carrier ordered for the Royal Navy before the Second World War. She was briefly assigned to the Home Fleet before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as a replacement for her crippled sister ship Illustrious. Formidable’s aircraft played a key role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early 1941. Assigned to the Eastern Fleet in early 1942, Formidable covered the invasion of Diego Suarez in Vichy Madagascar in mid-1942. She remained in the Mediterranean and covered the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943 before beginning a lengthy refit. In 1945 she played a supporting role during the battle of Okinawa and later attacked targets in the Japanese Home Islands.
About HMS Formidable (67) in brief
HMS Formidable was an Illustrious-class aircraft carrier ordered for the Royal Navy before the Second World War. After being completed in late 1940, she was briefly assigned to the Home Fleet before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as a replacement for her crippled sister ship Illustrious. Formidable’s aircraft played a key role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early 1941, and they provided cover for Allied ships and attacked Axis forces until their carrier was badly damaged by German dive bombers in May. Assigned to the Eastern Fleet in early 1942, Formidable covered the invasion of Diego Suarez in Vichy Madagascar in mid-1942. She remained in the Mediterranean and covered the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943 before beginning a lengthy refit. In 1945 she played a supporting role during the battle of Okinawa and later attacked targets in the Japanese Home Islands. The ship was used to repatriate liberated Allied prisoners of war and soldiers after the Japanese surrender and then ferried British personnel across the globe through 1946. She was placed in reserve the following year and sold for scrap in 1953. She displaced 23,000 long tons at standard load as completed in 1940. Her complement was approximately 1,299 men upon completion in 1940, and she had a draught of 28 feet 10 inches at deep load. She had three Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft, using steam supplied by six Admiralty 3-drum boilers.
The turbines were designed to produce a total of 111,000 shp, enough to give a maximum speed of 30. 5 knots. On sea trials, Form formidable reached 30. 6 knots with 112,018 shP. She carried a maximum of 4,850 long tons of fuel oil, which gave her a range of 10,700 nautical miles at 10 knots. The 753-foot armoured flight deck had a usable length of 670 feet, due to prominent round-downs at bow and stern to reduce air turbulence, and a maximum width of 95 feet. A single hydraulic aircraft catapult was fitted on the forward part of the flight deck. The ship could accommodate up to 54 aircraft rather than the intended 36. It was equipped with two unarmoured lifts on the centreline, each of which measured 45 by 22 feet. The hangar was 456 feet long and had a maximumwidth of 62 feet. It had a height of 16 feet, which allowed storage of Lend-Lease Vought F4U Corsair fighters once their wingtips were clipped. The roofs of the gun turrets protruded above the side of the hull to allow them to fire across the deck to fire at high elevations at 20 feet. She provided with 50 imperial gallons of aviation gasoline, and 16 quick-firing 5-inch dual-purpose guns in eight twin-purpose turrets that were mounted in sponsons on the sponsons in the hull of the ship. She had a range of 20,650 imperial gallons at 10 knots.
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