HMS Victorious (R38)

HMS Victorious, ordered under the 1936 Naval Programme, was the third Illustrious-class aircraft carrier after Illustrious and Formidable. She was laid down at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 1937 and launched two years later in 1939. However, her commissioning was delayed until 1941 due to the greater need for escort vessels for service in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Her service in 1941 and 1942 included famous actions against the battleship Bismarck, several Arctic convoys and the Pedestal convoy to Malta. She was loaned to the United States Navy for a brief period in 1943 and served in the south west Pacific as USS Robin. Victorious contributed to several attacks on the Tirpitz. The elimination of the German naval threat allowed her redeployment first to the Eastern Fleet at Colombo and then to the Pacific for the final actions of the war against Japan.

After the war, her service was broken by periods in reserve and an extensive rebuild in the 1950s. The reduction of Britain's naval commitment in the late 1960s prompted her final withdrawal from service and she was scrapped in 1969.

Bismarck Episode
Just two weeks after commissioning in 1941, Victorious took part in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic. Originally intended to be part of the escort for Convoy WS 8B to the Middle East, she was hardly ready to be involved in the hunt for Bismarck with only a quarter of her aircraft complement embarked. Sailing with the battleship HMS King George V (41), the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, and 4 light cruisers - Force H from Gibraltar - Victorious was hastily deployed to assist in the pursuit.



On 24 May 1941, Victorious launched nine of her biplane Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber aircraft and two Fulmar fighters. The Swordfish, affectionately known by their crews as "stringbags", under the command of Eugene Esmonde flew through foul weather and attacked Bismarck in the face of tremendous fire from anti-aircraft guns. The result was only a single, ineffectual hit to the armoured belt. No aircraft were shot down during the attack, but the Fulmars ran out of fuel on the return journey and had to ditch in the sea as the ship's homing beacon had failed. Victorious took no further part in the chase; aircraft from Ark Royal disabled Bismarck's steering gear, thus contributing to her sinking three days later. Esmonde received a DSO for his part in the action.

Convoy and other Arctic duties
In early June 1941, while part of the escort for troop convoy WS 8X, a Swordfish of 825 Squadron from Victorious located the German supply ship Gonzenheim north of the Azores. The Gonzenheim had been intended to support the Bismarck but was subsequently scuttled when approached by British warships. On 5 June, she was detached to Gibraltar and, with Ark Royal and a naval escort, "flew-off" Hawker Hurricane aircraft to reinforce the besieged British Mediterranean base of Malta (Operation Tracer). Victorious returned to the naval base at Scapa Flow with captured crewmen from the Gonzenheim.

In late July 1941, she escorted HMS Adventure via the Arctic, to Murmansk with a load of mines On the 31st she took part in the raid on Kirkenes and Petsamo during which thirteen of her aircraft were lost.

At the end of August, Victorious escorted the first of the allied convoys to Archangel (Operation Dervish) in company with a force of cruisers and destroyers and then covered the return passage of HMS Argus (I49) which had delivered Hurricane fighters to Murmansk (Operation Strength). During early September, she launched more air attacks, this time against Tromsø (twice), Vestfjorden and against shipping off Bodø. On 13 September, aircraft from Victorious sank the Norwegian Hurtigruten coastal steamer Barøy.

In October 1941, decrypted German Enigma signals indicated a break-out into the Atlantic by the German warships Scheer and Tirpitz. Victorious was deployed with the Home Fleet for their interception, this included a patrol in the Denmark Strait with battleships HMS King George V (41), USS Idaho and USS Mississippi and cruisers USS Wichita and USS Tuscaloosa. Note that this joint Anglo-American operation pre-dated the formal state of war between the United States and Germany. These operations continued until mid November, when Hitler cancelled the German operation. Victorious then continued with the Home Fleet until March 1942.

Victorious returned to the Arctic Convoys in March and April 1942 helping to provide cover for convoys PQ 12, QP 8, PQ 13, QP 9, PQ 14 and QP 10. During these operations, she also made an unsuccessful air strike on the Tirpitz, losing two aircraft. From the end of April, until June, Anglo-American forces (including the US ships Washington, Tuscaloosa and Wichita) covered convoys PQ 16, QP 12, PQ 17 and QP 13, after which Victorious returned to Scapa Flow.

The Arctic convoys had been suspended temporarily after the heavy losses suffered by Convoy PQ 17 when twenty-three out of thirty-six ships were sunk. This was after the convoy had been scattered in the belief that an attack was imminent by the German warships Admiral Hipper, Lützow, Admiral Scheer, and Tirpitz.

Pedestal
The suspension of the Arctic convoys released Victorious to take part in a "last chance" attempt to resupply Malta - Operation Pedestal. Malta-bound Convoy WS 21S departed Britain on 3 August 1942 escorted by Victorious with HMS Nelson (28) and cruisers HMS Nigeria (60), Kenya and Manchester. Exercises (Operation Berserk) were performed with aircraft carriers HMS Indomitable (R92), Furious, Eagle and Argus to improve operational techniques.

Pedestal began on 10 August 1942 and involved a great array of ships in several coordinated groups; two battleships, four aircraft carriers, seven cruisers and thirty-two destroyers. Some of the carriers were transporting aircraft for Malta's defence and fourteen merchant ships carried supplies. On 12 August 1942 Victorious was slightly damaged by an attack from Italian bombers. Eagle was less fortunate, being torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat on her return journey to Gibraltar. Ultimately Pedestal was a success: supplies, including oil and reinforcing Spitfires allowed Malta to hold out, albeit at the cost of the loss of nine merchant ships, one aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and a destroyer.

In September, 1942, Victorious was taken in hand for a refit that included the installation of an aircraft direction room. After trials, she was ready to participate in the North African landings.

Operation Torch
In November 1942, Victorious took part in the North African landings. Operation Torch, which involved 196 ships of the Royal Navy and 105 of the United States Navy, landed about 107,000 Allied soldiers. Ultimately successful, Operation Torch was the precursor to the later invasions of Sicily, Italy and France. Victorious provided air cover during the landings and made air attacks at Algiers and Fort Duree. Four of her Martlet (Wildcat) fighters landed at Blida airfield to accept surrender.

She left for Scapa Flow on 18 November and, while en route, Fairey Albacores of 817 Squadron depth charged U-517 off Cape Finisterre. The submarine's structure was badly damaged and she was scuttled; surviving crew were rescued by HMS Opportune.

USS Robin
USS Hornet (CV-8) was sunk and USS Enterprise (CV-6) was badly damaged at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. This left the United States Navy with only one fleet carrier, the USS Saratoga (CV-3), operational in the Pacific. In late December 1942, Victorious was loaned to the US Navy after an American plea for carrier reinforcement. During this time, she was code named (but not renamed) as USS Robin for signals purposes (derived from the character "Robin Hood".) After a refit in the United States at the Norfolk Navy Yard in January 1943, Victorious passed through the Panama Canal to operate with the United States forces in the Pacific.



Victorious arrived at Pearl Harbor in March 1943 and was taken in hand for conversion for the operation of USN Wildcat and Avenger aircraft and the addition of more close range weaponry. She was ready for service by May and sailed with USS Saratoga for the south-west Pacific. Her role with Task Group 36.3 was to support US landing operations and provide defence against attacks by Japanese warships. The two aircraft carriers had Anglo-American aircrews, with air-cover provided by Victorious and strike aircraft by Saratoga. In August, 1943, Victorious and Saratoga provided air support for Allied forces during the invasion of New Georgia (Operation Cartwheel). In September 1943, Victorious returned to the naval base at Scapa Flow, arriving in mid-October.



Attack on Tirpitz
From December 1943 until March 1944, Victorious was under refit at Liverpool, when new radar was fitted. At the end of March, Victorious with Anson and Duke of York formed Force 1, covering the passage of Convoy JW 58. On 2 April 1944, Force 1 joined with Force 2, composed of the aging carrier HMS Furious (47) and the escort carriers HMS Emperor (D98), Fencer, Pursuer, and Searcher as well as numerous cruisers and destroyers. The combined force launched an attack (Operation Tungsten) on the Tirpitz in Altafjord, Norway. This involved Barracudas in two waves, hitting the battleship fourteen times and strafing the ship's defences. Although near-misses caused flooding and there was serious damage to the superstructure, the ship's armour was not penetrated. Nonetheless, the attack put Tirpitz out of action for some months. The Task Force returned to Scapa Flow three days later.

Victorious was to participate in three further attacks on Tirpitz, in April and May (Operations Planet, Brawn and Tiger Claw), but these were cancelled due to bad weather and anti-shipping strikes were substituted. On 30 May, an acoustic torpedo attack by U-957 against Victorious failed and subsequently she made more shipping attacks off Norway (Operation Lombard).

Eastern Fleet
In June 1944, Victorious in company with HMS Indomitable, left British waters to join the Eastern Fleet at Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where she arrived on the 5th July. The Eastern Fleet, after a quiet period of trade protection and relative vulnerability, was now being reinforced with ships released from the Atlantic and Mediterranean, in preparation for offensive action against the Japanese.

After a short preparatory period, Victorious took part in a sequence of air attacks against Japanese installations. The first was Operation Crimson on 25 July, a joint attack with HMS Illustrious on airfields near Sabang in Sumatra. In late August, she provided air cover for Eastern Fleet ships that were providing air-sea rescue facilities for US Army aircraft during air attacks on Sumatra (Operations Boomerang). On 29 August, in company with HMS Illustrious and Indomitable and escorted by HMS Howe, Victorious made air strikes on Padang, Indaroeng and Emmahaven (Operation Banquet). After a short pause, on 18 September, Victorious and Indomitable attacked railway yards at Sigli in Sumatra followed by photo-reconnaissance of the Nicobar Islands (Operation Light). During Light, there was a "friendly fire" attack on HMS Spirit, fortunately without causing any casualties.

At the end of September, Victorious had a short interval at Bombay for repairs to its steering gear to remedy problems that had arisen during Operation Light. She rejoined the Eastern Fleet on 6 October. The next operation, Millet, was her last with the Eastern Fleet. On 17 October, she launched attacks on the Nicobar Islands and Nancowry harbour, with HMS Indomitable and escorted by HMS Renown. Enemy air attacks destroyed four aircraft and damaged five more. During early November, Victorious returned to Bombay for more work on her steering as more problems had arisen during Millet.

Sumatra
The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was formed at Trincomalee on November 22, 1944 from elements of the Eastern Fleet and Victorious was transferred to the new fleet. From November 1944 until January 1945 the BPF stayed in the Indian Ocean, training and gaining experience that they would need when working with the United States Navy. Victorious, however, remained under repair at Bombay until January, 1945 and missed raids on oil refineries at Pangkalan Brandan (Operation Robson).

In early January, 1945, she was available for Operation Lentil, a repeat raid on the oil refineries at Pangkalan Brandan with HM Ships Indomitable and Implacable. Further raids on Japanese oil and port installations in Sumatra were made on 16 January. By late January, the BPF had finally quit Ceylon and was en route to its new home base in Sydney. The voyage was interrupted on 24 January for another series of raids, this time on Pladjoe and Manna in south west Sumatra (Operation Meridian 1) during which there was little opposition from Japanese aircraft. This was followed on 29 January by unsuccessful attacks on oil installations at Soengi-Gerong (Operation Meridian 2). This time, the Japanese attempted air attacks on the British fleet but these were beaten off. Total aircraft losses by all carriers were 16 aircraft in action and another 25 lost by ditching or on landing. Nine Fleet Air Arm pilots captured by the Japanese were executed in April 1945.

Okinawa
In early February, Victorious joined Task Force 113 (TF113) at Sydney to prepare for service with the US 5th Fleet. At the end of the month, TF113 left Sydney for their forward base at Manus Island, north of New Guinea, and then continued, joining the 5th US Fleet at Ulithi on March 25 as Task Force 57 (TF57), supporting the American assault on Okinawa. The task allocated to the British force was to neutralise airfields in the Sakishima Gunto. From late March until 25 May, the British carriers Victorious, Illustrious (later replaced by Formidable), Indefatigable and Indomitable formed the 1st Aircraft Carrier Squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Philip Vian and they were in action against airfields on the Sakishima Islands (Operations Iceberg I and Iceberg II) and Formosa (Operation Iceberg Oolong).

The British carriers were attacked by kamikaze suicide aircraft and Victorious was hit on 4 and 9 May and near-missed on 1 April, but her armoured flight deck resisted the worst of the impacts. She remained on station and was back in operation within hours on each occasion, despite damage to an aircraft lift and steam piping in her superstructure. Three men were killed and 19 of the ship's company were injured.

Japan
After May, 1945 the British Pacific Fleet withdrew to Sydney and Manus for refits and, in the cases of Victorious, Formidable and Indefatigable, for repairs to battle damage. The British fleet rendezvoused with the US 3rd Fleet on 16 July and became effectively absorbed into the American structure as a part of TF38 for the "softening up" of Japanese resistance within their home islands.

During the second half of July, aircraft from Victorious took part in a series of attacks on Japanese shipping, transport and airbases on Honshu and around the Inland Sea. In one notable attack in July, aircraft of 849 Squadron fromVictorious located the Japanese escort carrier Kaiyo at Beppu Bay in Kyūshū and attacked her, inflicting serious damage that kept the ship out of the remainder of the war. In the main, however, British aircraft were excluded from the actions against the major Japanese naval bases; the Americans, for political reasons, preferred to reserve these targets for themselves.

War's end
The two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August, respectively, and Japan surrendered on 15 August. By the time of the surrender, the outcome of the war was clear and Victorious left for Manus with Task Force 37(TF37) on 12 August and then proceeded to Sydney. This apparently premature departure was in fact a delay to a withdrawal planned for 10 August, to prepare for the anticipated invasion of Japan (Operation Olympic). The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) commander had agreed to stay for one more day's operations, but the British arrangements could not stretch to a further delay and fuel shortages were insurmountable. In addition, the steering faults that had hampered Victorious in the Indian Ocean in late 1944 are believed to have continued.

On 31 August, Victorious's ship's company took part in the Victory Parade in Sydney.

Postwar
Victorious left Australia in September 1945, arrived back in Britain on 27 October and undertook three trips to collect servicemen and war brides of British servicemen from Australia and the Far East. In the winter of 1946-47, the first deck trials with the Hawker Sea Fury (Mark 10) took place aboard Victorious, leading to its approval for carrier operations in early 1947.

She was reduced to the reserve in October 1947 and subsequently joined the Home Fleet Training Squadron in 1948. The ship was extensively reconstructed and modernised at Portsmouth Dockyard between 1950 and 1957. This took over eight years because of frequent design changes to allow for new technologies. Her hull was widened, deepened, and lengthened; her machinery was replaced with Foster-Wheeler boilers; her hangar height was increased; new armament of 3 inch (76 mm) guns was installed; and an angled flight deck was added. Her radar equipment was extensively altered to include up to date equipment. While it was hoped she could operate a full air group of 50 aircraft, the rapid increase in size of the jets coming into service limited her to operating no more than 28 aircraft (including helicopters).

In 1960, after recommissioning into the Home Fleet on 14 January 1958, with work-ups and deployments in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, she portrayed both herself and HMS Ark Royal during the filming of the British film Sink the Bismarck!. This was despite post-war modifications significantly altering her appearance - the addition of an angled deck and a Type 984 "searchlight" radar. The actor Kenneth More who had served aboard Victorious as a junior officer, played a fictitious Admiralty Director of Operations. He is shown giving the order to detach Victorious from Convoy WS 8B, which was forming in the River Clyde in order to move almost 20,000 troops to the Middle East.

Victorious took part in Operation Vantage in support of Kuwait in July 1961 Later in 1961 she would sail to join the Far East Fleet. In 1964, she provided support for the newly independent state of Malaysia against territorial expansion by its neighbour, Indonesia. In early 1966 departed the Far East Fleet for return to the UK for a refit period from mid-1966 to late 1967, though she only remained in Fleet service until 1968.

General characteristics after reconstruction
General characteristics of Victorious after reconstruction.

The end
On 11 November 1967, shortly before re-commissioning after her refit, there was a relatively minor fire, which was rapidly extinguished, in the Chief Petty Officers' mess (resulting in one death and two hospitalisations ). Although damage was relatively minor, the fire coincided with a reduction of the defence budget and a manpower shortage for the Royal Navy. Together with the 1966 decision to phase out British fixed-wing naval aviation, it was decided at very short notice not to recommission Victorious. Her captain was told of this just one day before the scheduled recommissioning ceremony. The ceremony was held by the ship's crew anyway as a "wake" for the ship. She was paid off in 1968 and subsequently placed on the Disposal List in 1969. She was sold later that year to British Shipbreakers and towed to Faslane Naval Base on 13 July 1969, where she was broken up.

During her service, HMS Victorious had been deployed in most parts of the world and had given outstanding service in peace and war.

Final Air Group:
 * 801 NAS - Buccaneer S.2
 * 893 NAS - Sea Vixen FAW.2
 * 814 NAS - Wessex HAS.1
 * A Flight 849 NAS - Gannet AEW.3