Fisherless Royal Navy

[Krakatoa]

For the Aircraft carriers I have tried to keep the same timeline, just use different ships to fulfil the events. The following blurb is to lead the Post for Aircraft carriers as its introduction. The only ship in the three (Eagle, Argus, and Hermes) that I have altered is the Eagle in a 1918 configuration in which it does the landing on trials.

"HMS Vindictive (ex-Cavendish - Hawkins class cruiser) was converted while building to the trials ship for the early take off and landing trials of aircraft landing aboard ships at sea. Some of the first trials took place while the ship was still incomplete. Trials were successful to a point. With only the front deck covered with a flying off area, the aircraft had to sideslip around the bridge for landing on. The Vindictive went back into builders hands in November 1917 and emerged in March 1918 with the aft part of the ship now sporting a 230x57 foot landing on area with an enclosed area underneath for aircraft storage (hangar). This area was reached by an elevator that emerged flush with the flying on deck. In this guise more tests and trials were carried out, proving the idea.

While these trials with HMS Vindictive were being carried out, two other ships were under conversion to what was to become the aircraft carrier. HMS Argus was an ex-liner, and HMS Eagle an ex-Chilean battleship (sistership of HMS Canada). Both were to be completed in 1919-1920. However the Eagle was made ready for sea, in an incomplete state, in June of 1918. The Eagle was to carry out through deck trials along with the Vindictive. The trials proved beyond a doubt that the through deck aircraft carrier was the way forward. The Eagle returned to the builders yards for completion in October 1918. Due to various reasons of delays, the ship was not finally completed till 1923."




The idea for using the Eagle as a trials ship while still incomplete came from the photo below. Eagle with steam up and on the move.

[Hood]

An interesting take on Eagle, looks a bit better to me than the real design.

[JSB]

Looks really nice

[Krakatoa]

Added port side transfer ramp as per the overhead JSB posted.

[apdsmith]

Hi Krakatoa,

Perhaps now would be a good time to move the port side light AA gun off the bridge, as well? I think the arc on it has just got a fair bit worse...

Regards,
Adam

[Krakatoa]

Updated the 1927 Vindictive drawing. Ship now complete and fully armed and converted to a light aircraft carrier.

[Krakatoa]

In 1934 the Vindictive had its afterdeck extended. This had been done after a lot of airlanding accidents from trainee pilots landing 'short' and wiping out the Captains Gig that was stored under the overhang aft. In 1936 the forepart of the ship was plated in to increase the hangar space. Aircraft capacity increased from 14 to 18-20 depending on size and type. In this state the ship joined the Training Fleet as the Landing Trials support ship. All of the pre-war pilots would have done there deck landing trials on the Vindictive. On the outbreak of war the Vindictive was joined by the Argus and both were based on Liverpool. The Vindictive had a small cadre of ten aircraft of its own, six Swordfish and four Griffon fighters. On several occasions the Vindictive was used to escort the large liners like the Queen Mary, Aquitania, Queen Elizabeth and others being used as troop ships. Having a speed of 30 knots allowed Vindictive to keep up with the troopers. Vindictive was also used on occasion to do the Malta fighter run, launching Spitfires and Hurricanes to fly to Malta. It was on one of these runs in early 1942 that Vindictive met its end. A U-Boat managing to hit Vindictive with two torpedoes, the Vindictive travelling at 25 knots heeled over and dove into the sea breaking its back and spilling a consignment of Spitfires into the sea, the ship then broke in half, exploded and sunk.

[Hood]

Nice work.
I think 'T' shaped lifts might make better use of the deckspace. Its obviously a cramped and less than ideal carrier, but it matches Argus in training ability.

[Krakatoa]

I thought about that Hood. The idea I had was as the trials carrier it would keep the large lifts so that when it was trialling a 'land' aircraft that had not yet been navalised, they could still be struck down to the hangar. And with 20/20 hindsight it would also allow the Hurricanes and Spitfires to use the lift without folding wings when Vindictive was acting as a ferry carrier on the Malta runs.

[Krakatoa]

The two Ark Royal class carriers marked a major step forward in Royal Navy thinking in the use of Aircraft Carriers. These were the first purpose built carriers designed and built since the Hermes of 1923. Ten years of trialling and using the carriers in service had given the RN a good insight into what they wanted next. When design work started in 1933 the major aim was to have an aircraft complement equivalent to the Goliath class (70+) but on a ship of much smaller displacement. A speed of 30+ knots. More than that was not really necessary as the battleships it would mainly be working with were capable of 27-28 knots. A heavy self defence battery of dual purpose and anti-aircraft weapons. The most modern aircraft possible equivalent to the land based units of the enemy.

The design the RN came up with I have done little to alter for this AU. Enlarged the elevators, changed the aircraft, otherwise the drawing is pretty much unchanged. Alterations made are not worth my name in the credit line.



The most important thing for me is that the Ark Royals are there so that I have them to do an "Improved Ark Royal Class"


With the large Fleet Carriers, my thought is to go from the real Ark Royal (x2) size to my improved Ark Royal (x3) which equates in size to the Audacious class, so I bypass those and go straight to the Malta class for the late war mid-40's carriers. In the real world there are 6 of the Illustrious type armoured carriers, so I do 3 of my Illustrious class and then 2 of the Malta sized ships which then uses up about the same amount of resources.