World War II Database

The Illustrious-class carriers were of a new school of thinking, providing battlecruiser class armor to purpose-built carriers. Illustrious-class carriers enjoyed a thick metal flight deck, which would later prove to be valuable against kamikaze attacks that would be thrown at them. Compared to the wooden flight decks of American carriers, the Illustrious-class ships were much more durable in war, however their size were on the smaller side as they were "treaty ships" that needed to be within 23,000 tons.

Commissioned in late 1940, the Formidable started her career escorting a convoy to Capetown, then was transferred to the Mediterranean in Feb 1941. She participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan in 27-29 Mar 1941, and supported Crete operations in May. She suffered serious damage by 1000kg bombs at the latter operation, which put her out of commission for six months for repairs in the United States. She joined the British Eastern Fleet earlier in 1942 under the command of Admiral Somerville, then returned to the Mediterranean in Oct 1942 where she would provide support for Allied landings in North Africa (Nov 1942), Sicily (Jul 1943), and Salerno (Sep 1943). She joined the Arctic Convoy in Oct 1943 before being placed out of commission for the first half of 1944 for refitting.

After her refitting, the Formidable launched a number of strikes on German battleship Tirpitz in Norway, on 17 Jul, 22 Aug, 24 Aug, and 29 Aug, as part of the Goodwood Operations. She bounced between service in the Mediterranean and the Far East throughout her career, finally settling down in the British Pacific Fleet in Apr 1945, where she would participate in air strikes against Sakishima Gunto in May 1945 and against the Japanese home islands in July-August 1945.

When Japan surrendered, HMS Formidable was stationed in Sydney. She went on several troop transport missions to England before being decommissioned in Mar 1947. She was sold in 1953 and scrapped in Nov 1956 at Inverkeithing.

Photographs

Share this article with your friends:

Delicious   Digg   Facebook

Reddit   StumbleUpon   Twitter

Stay updated with WW2DB:

Subscribe to RSS Feeds

Advertise on ww2db.com

Posting Your Comments on this Topic

Your Name
Your Email
	Your email will not be published
Your Comments
Security Code

Note: Please refrain from using strong language. HTML tags are not allowed. Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. WW2DB site administrators reserve the right to moderate, censor, and/or remove any comment.