HMS Illustrious was a light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and the second of three Invincible-class ships constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Two years later, she made 29.2 knots from 111,450shp (83,110kW). [73], Illustrious departed Britain on 30 December and arrived in Trincomalee, Ceylon, on 28 January 1944. She exchanged them for Firebrands for the return voyage. With HMS Invincible laid down during July of 1973, HMS Illustrious followed when ordered during May of 1976. [94], Subsequent operations in the Mediterranean. The crew's behaviour drew a mixed response from . Occasionally, we would get a direct hit with our small practice bombs, and it must have been an earthshattering experience for the boat crew because it was an unwritten law that any pilot getting a direct hit on the boat would deliver a previous page page_29 next page > previous page page_30 next page > Page 30 case of cold beer to the crew. The MoD announced earlier this year it had been sold for 2m to a ship recycling . With over 50 aircraft airborne at one point, the British realised that a single deck accident might result in the loss of every aircraft in the air because there was no other carrier available to land aboard. She was the fifth warship and second aircraft carrier to bear the name Illustrious, and was affectionately known to her crew as "Lusty". This meant that the ship had to be capable of remaining in action after sustaining damage and that her fragile aircraft had to be protected entirely from damage. She was assigned to Force H for the operation which was tasked to protect the amphibious force from attack by the Italian Fleet and provide air cover for the carriers supporting the assault force. A Type 272 target-indicator radar was mounted above her bridge. For this operation she had aboard six Fulmars of 806 Squadron, 23 Martlets of 881 Squadron and 18 Swordfish of 810 and 829 Squadrons. British carrier HMS Illustrious and the escort carrier HMS Atheling, with covering forces, began a series of diversionary raids on Sabang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, with the goal of tying down Japanese forces during the American Operation Forager attack on the Mariana Islands. The hangar deck itself was 2.5 inches (64mm) thick and extended the full width of the ship to meet the top of the 4.5-inch waterline armour belt. ww2dbaseIllustrious was the lead ship in her class of aircraft carriers. The ship completed 1,051 deck landings and steamed 4,037 nautical miles (7,477km; 4,646mi) by April. Her catapult was upgraded to handle heavier aircraft, her flight deck was further improved, and her radar suite was modernized. [81] By this time the vibration problems with her centre propeller shaft, which had never been properly repaired after she was bombed at Malta, were so bad that the propeller was removed and the shaft locked in place, reducing her maximum speed to 24 knots. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1/72 BELL AH-1T SEA COBRA built kit at the best online prices at eBay! The next morning, Martlets from 881 Squadron intercepted three Potez 63.11 reconnaissance bombers, shooting down two and forcing the other to retreat, while Swordfish dropped dummy parachutists as a diversion. Vice Admiral Sir Bernard Rawlings, commander of Task Force 57, ordered the recently arrived Formidable to join the task force to replace Illustrious on 8 April. [23] Illustrious was then towed to Buccleuch Dock for fitting out and Captain Denis Boyd was appointed to command her on 29 January 1940. Captain C. T. Jellicoe relieved Carlill on 27 August and the ship ferried 10 Fireflies of 814 Squadron to Malta beginning on 1 October. Twin Oerlikon mounts replaced most of the single mounts. She was commissioned on 20th June 1982 (3 month early during work-up trials, due to the Falklands crisis). [41], One torpedo-carrying aircraft of the second wave was forced to return when its long-range external fuel tank fell off, but the others hit the Littorio once more and the Duilio was hit once when they attacked beginning at 23:55. Nominal List of Ship's Company of HMS Illustrious 1944-45 This list was published in the Beacon Annual 1944-45. In May 1942, her aircraft provided cover for the British troops landing at Diego Suarez, Madagascar against French and French colonial troops. He was almost immediately sent on a speaking tour to influence American public opinion, until he was recalled home in October and relieved by Captain A. G. Talbot on 1 October. She was sold for scrap on 3 Nov 1954 and was broken up in 1956 as Faslane. She was the fifth warship and second aircraft carrier to bear the name Illustrious, and was affectionately known to her crew as "Lusty". She arrived at Greenock on 21 December and permanent repairs were made from 30 December to late February 1942 at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead. She arrived on 16 April and the examination by divers revealed that some of her outer plating was split and that some transverse frames were cracked. All big-gun armament and turbine propulsion marked her out as one of the ships that led the dreadnought revolution. Sharon Howard SA Served from 1991 - 1998 Served in HMS Illustrious John Scott CHIEF PETTY OFFICER Served from 1975 - 2000 Served in HMS Illustrious Stephen Knott MEM Served from 1998 - 2002 Served in HMS Illustrious Glenn Ashley In early June, she loaded the personnel from 806, 815, and 819 Squadrons at Devonport Royal Dockyard; 806 Squadron was equipped with Blackburn Skua dive bombers and Fairey Fulmar fighters, and the latter two squadrons were equipped with Swordfish. Two months later the carrier was crippled by German dive bombers and was repaired in the United States. [49], On 7 January 1941, Illustrious set sail to provide air cover for convoys to Piraeus, Greece and Malta as part of Operation Excess. . DURING BRITISH PACIFIC FLEET OPERATIONS THE ILLUSTRIOUS EXPERIENCED A JAPANESE SUICIDE ATTACK. The statue of Our Lady remains standing amid the destruction at Senglea caused by repeated raids by German dive-bombers, which started on January 16 . The Illustrious-class carriers were of a new school of thinking, providing battlecruiser class armor to purpose-built carriers. During the return voyage to Alexandria, the Italian submarineCorallo made an unsuccessful attack on the British ships. [82], From 26 March to 9 April, the BPF attacked the airfields with each two-day period of flying operations followed by two or three days required to replenish fuel, ammunition and other supplies. 122123, 126, Brown 1971; Brown, J. D., p. 76; Shores, pp. Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, was determined not to simply modify the previous unarmoured Ark Royal design. Her light AA armament now consisted of six octuple "pom-pom" mountings, eighteen single Oerlikons, and seventeen single and two twin Bofors mounts. Her exact speeds were not recorded as she had her paravanes streamed, but it was estimated that she could have made about 31 knots (57km/h; 36mph) under full power. HMS Illustrious (Illustrious class aircraft carrier) 15.05.1943-(06. Second, it is to showcase She transferred to Greenock at the end of the month and sailed on 5 August to provide air cover for the ocean liner RMSQueen Mary as she conveyed Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Quebec Conference. When the 1,000-kilogram (2,200lb) bomb that it was carrying detonated in the water only 50 feet (15.2m) from the side of the ship, the resulting shock wave badly damaged two Corsairs parked on the deck and severely shook the ship. She reached Durban on 4 April and remained there for two weeks. 16th Jan 1941 HMS Illustrious 22nd January 1941 Italian airfields attacked If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. First, it is aiming to offer interesting [33] She sailed from Alexandria on 6 November, escorted by the battleships Warspite, Malaya, and Valiant, two light cruisers, and 13 destroyers, to provide air cover for another convoy to Malta. She was paid off in early 1955 and sold for scrap in late 1956. Illustrious had her work up cut short on 19 March to prepare to join the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean and participate in the attack. En route she served as the centrepiece of a convoy-defence exercise as the RAF successfully "attacked" the convoy. HMS Illustrious was the only one in her class, not to have a pair of arrester wires positioned forward of the island for emergency deck landings over the bow. [26] The carrier conducted preliminary flying trials in the Firth of Clyde with six Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers that had been craned aboard earlier. The destroyer Fulmine,[39] or Conte di Cavour,[40] shot down the aircraft that put a torpedo into the latter ship, but the remaining aircraft returned to Illustrious. 8384; McCart, p. 29, Brown 1971, p. 258; Brown, J. D., pp. War Hero. There was no aerial opposition and the fighters claimed to have destroyed 24 aircraft on the ground. Later in the day her Corsairs intercepted 10 Ki-43s and shot down two of them while driving off the remainder. [4], Illustrious was 740 feet (225.6m) in length overall and 710 feet (216.4m) at the waterline. HMS Illustrious (R 06): HMS Illustrious is a light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and the second of three Invincible-class ships constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 860 Squadrons, Royal Netherlands Naval Aviation Service (RNNAS) for training, as well as 824 Squadron. In the meantime, she continued to conduct operations with the rest of the fleet. Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. Corsairs of the HMS Illustrious ranged before taking off to strafe Japanese airfields in Sumatra. ww2dbaseIn 1944, Illustrious returned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean for strikes against Japanese garrisons in the Southwest Pacific region. Her beam was 95feet 9inches (29.2m) at the waterline and she had a draught of 28feet 10inches (8.8m) at deep load. The British role during the operation was to neutralise airfields on the Sakishima Islands, between Okinawa and Formosa, beginning on 26 March. It was one of 3 Inviciible -class light carriers. On the afternoon of 6 April, four kamikaze aircraft evaded detection and interception by the CAP, and one, a Yokosuka D4Y3 "Judy" dive bomber, attacked Illustrious in a steep dive. It was partially obscured by clouds and heavy squalls so the attacking aircraft had only moderate success, setting some structures on fire and destroying several aircraft on the ground. [37] Three additional Fulmars had been flown aboard from Ark Royal a few days earlier, when both carriers were near Malta; that brought its strength[36] up to 15 Fulmars, 24 Swordfish, and two to four Sea Gladiators. In reality, they heavily damaged three of the Italian aircraft. Since the beginning of the operation, her aircraft had flown 234 offensive and 209 defensive sorties, claiming at least two aircraft shot down. Hundreds watched in quiet reflection as the ship sailed out of Portsmouth on her final . These were 'U'-shaped beams that extended from the side of the flight deck into which aircraft tailwheels were placed. 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