HMS Ark Royal, Royal Naval aircraft
carriers, naval art prints of the three HMS Ark Royal From the World war
two carrier showing in pursuit of the Bismarck and
HMS Ark Royal in 1970 with Buccaneer jet aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm.
to the modern HMS Ark Royal, involved in Operation free Iraq. Naval art prints by leading naval artists Brian Wood, Robert Taylor and
Ivan Berryman.
HMS Ark Royal was built by Cammell Laird and launched
on the 13th of April 1937. Displacement of 22,000 tons, had a top speed
of 30.75 knots and carried 72 aircraft. HMS Ark Royal's complement was
1,575 men. She served in the home fleet and south Atlantic in 1939, Home
fleet and Mediterranean 1940 and Force H 1941. on the 13th November 1941
she was torpedoed by U-81 in the western Mediterranean, and while under
tow was lost the following day.
The Royal Navys week long chase of the formidable German battleship Bismarck culminated in the foul evening weather of 26th May 1941. Despite the deck of HMS Ark Royal pitching through 55 feet, S/Lt John Moffat was one of fifteen Swordfish pilots who took off to attack Bismarck. After 90 minutes of arduous and turbulent flying the Swordfish found their quarry and dived through the intense anti-aircraft fire to drop their torpedoes. One of these hit and jammed Bismarcks rudder and condemned the battleship to sail in slow circles. The Royal Navys own capital ships then closed in and pounded Bismarck into a burning wreck.
Item Code : DHM2320
Flight Against the Bismarck by Philip West. - Editions Available
Hawker Hurricanes of 249 squadron (RAF) departing off HMS Ark Royal in June 1941 as par tof Force H. The Hurricanes were to become part of the Defence of Malta against the onslought and non stop bombing by the Axis Bombers and HMS Ark Royal would be sunk only a few months later when on the 13th November 1941 HMS Ark Royal was hit by a single torpedo from the German U-boat U81. The torpedo hit on the starboard side near the starboard boiler room causing a 130ft by 30ft hole. Water poured in causing a 10% list immediately. The flooding spread quickly to the middle of the ship and then to the port boiler room, eectric power failed, and after 14 hours while in tow to Gibraltar she capsized and sunk the following day.
Fought on the afternoon and night of 22 / 23 January 1879 and immortalised in the film epic Zulu, Rorkes Drift represented one of the most glorious, if subsequently controversial episodes in British military history. For twelve desperate hours, outnumbered by over 25 to 1, barely 140 British soldiers, based at the remote mission station of Rorkes Drift, South Africa, were locked in a ferocious life or death struggle with over 4,000 seasoned warriors of the hitherto victorious Zulu army - the most powerful indigenous African army of the time. Only hours earlier, in the shadow of the ominous Sphinx-like Isandlwana Crag, other elements of this same Zulu force had virtually annihilated a 1700 strong British colonial force - one of the greatest defeats of Queen Victorias reign. In the wake of this massacre, the survival of the British Empire in South Africa rested with the tiny garrison at Rorkes Drift.
Item Code : BK502
Zulu! The Battle for Rorkes Drift 1879. - Editions Available
HMS Ark Royal and HMS Sheffield off the Mole, Gibraltar by Ivan Berryman.
Having played a vital part in the battle for the Mediterranean for over two years, HMS Ark Royal finally succumbed to a U-Boats torpedo in November 1941. She is shown here with a pair of Swordfish Mk1s of 821 Sqn ranged on the deck, passing the cruiser HMS Sheffield off the Mole, Gibraltar, earlier that same year.
Item Code : DHM1120
HMS Ark Royal and HMS Sheffield off the Mole, Gibraltar by Ivan Berryman. - Editions Available
It is 7.15pm on 25th May 1941. The place, North Atlantic. The mission to find and sink the massive German warship Bismarck. The weather was very bad and worsening noticeably with storm force winds, rain squalls and increasingly heavy seas. With seemingly impossible flying conditions, Ark Royal launched its second strike of the day of fifteen swordfish, four each from 810 and 818 squadrons and seven from 820 squadron. Coming under intense fire the pilots came in very low and close and dropped their torpedo on the target. Eventually the Bismarck's fate was sealed by the guns of the Home Fleet.
Item Code : GC0277
To Sink the Bismarck by Gerald Coulson. - Editions Available
Skuas flew from HMS Ark Royal through much of the 1940 campaign off Norway, and one is seen getting airborne in typically grey North Sea weather. The Blackburn Skua had many remarkable firsts to its credit; the first all-metal monoplane built for the Fleet Air Arm (FAA); the first dive bomber in British air services; the first enemy aircraft shot down in WW2 fell to a Skua; the first fighter ace in the FAA (Lt. Bill Lucy DSO) flew Skuas and the first warship (Konigsberg) destroyed by dive bombing was sunk by Skuas.
Item Code : DHM2620
Supreme Courage by Philip West. - Editions Available
HMS Ark Royal part of Force H along with the Battleship HMS Renown and Cruiser HMS Sheffield departs Gibraltar to take part in the search for the Bismarck in the Atlantic. During the hunt HMS Ark Royal, Swordfish mistakenly attack the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Sheffiled. Fortunately, the torpedoes were not primed properly and crusier recieived no major damage. Spotter planes from HMS Ark Royal eventually found the Bismarck. and a attack commenced, crippling the Bismarcks rudder. The damage sustained lead to the rest of the Royal Navy surface fleet catching up with the Bismarck and sinking her. HMS ark Royal returns to the mediteranean. later on 13 November 1941: While on her return to Gibraltar in company with the HMS Malaya, HMS Argus, and HMS Hermione supported by Seven destroyers, HMSArk Royal is attacked by the U-81 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Guggenberger in the Mediterranean., and at 1541, a torpedo strikes the starboard side and the ship immediately takes a 10º list.........
