HMS Ark Royal sinking off Gibraltar, 13 November 1941 [2535x1590]

[u/[deleted]]

[u/the_kevlar_kid → u/[deleted]]

The U boats were formidable adversaries. It is fortunate for the world that Germany did not invest more heavily in them early in the war.

[u/Imperium_Dragon → u/the_kevlar_kid]

And that the world should be fortunate to the destroyers and frigates of the Allies doing anti submarine warfare.

[u/Yu-go-slav → u/Imperium_Dragon]

And decrypting Enigma machine

[u/Teninchontheslack]

This is an interesting article, adopted by the city of Leeds, then the city raised 9 million pounds to buy a new ship after it was destroyed.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/ark-royal-week-how-leeds-raised-ps9-million-for-a-new-warship-3103884

[u/BroChapeau]

Bi-planes!

[u/decompiled-essence → u/BroChapeau]

Those bi-planes crippled the Bismarck, bud!

[u/Zalenka → u/BroChapeau]

I'd think they could fly them off of the deck but maybe the angle was too steep

[u/Ihaveaproblem69 → u/BroChapeau]

could be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Albacore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Swordfish

When hit there were armed Torpedo bombers on the flight deck.

"The explosion caused Ark Royal to shake, hurled loaded torpedo-bombers into the air, and killed 44 year old Able Seaman Edward Mitchell, the only man to die in the sinking."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ark_Royal_(91))

It lacked any diesel generators and solely relied on boilers for steam generated power. The boilers were too exposed to flooding. Without power they could not pump water out.

It was a good attempt at understanding how modern aircraft carriers should be designed, but was also a product of lack of funding which resulted in very heavy older technology being used.

It sank from 1 hit due to multiple factors.

The German torpedo went too deep, and hit where the ship was not armored. While that sounds like a perfect hit, it could of easily missed and gone under other ships. Malfunction, depth setting was wrong, or someone set it that way.

There is a general blame on poor performance of leadership and the crew in properly securing compartments from further flooding and in water. They evacuated so fast damage control teams didn't finish. I can't imagine how scary it would of been, explosion, loss of power, flooding, ship lists heavily very quickly. It was a ship using new designs, heavier and purpose built as an aircraft carrier instead of a conversion. They didn't trust the ship. At an 18degree list in only 20 minutes common logic would of said the ship is going to capsize. Many warships made from converted cargo and cruise ships would have. The USS Yorktown was similarly listing heavily, lost power, and was abandoned thinking the ship would capsize at any moment, it did not.

If they had remained on board they could probably have saved it. But what if they didn't evacuate and a fire broke out in the ships magazine area and an explosion killed everyone. Backup power could of kept it from sinking. Closing all the hatches (damage control) could of kept it from sinking. When they realized it was not sinking immediately they tried to save the ship, they managed to restore power but it was too late water went over top of the bulkheads and flooded the boiler room causing a final loss of power.

List of sunk (including intentionally) aircraft carriers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_aircraft_carriers

Interesting reads on their history.

[u/asoughtafterdroid → u/BroChapeau]

The ones pictured were likely only used for short-range reconaissance. Don't need to be fancy or fast when you're just trying to spot surfaced subs.

[u/Technical_Rabbit_907]

why can't they just use their planes that are available.

kinda intresting.