HMS Unicorn (I72)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	26 June 1939
Launched:	20 November 1941
Commissioned:	12 March 1943: recommissioned 1949
Decommissioned:	January 1946 and 17 November 1953
Fate:	Scrapped 1960 at Faslane.
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	full load: 20,300 tons standard 16,510 tons
Length:	640 feet (195.1 m)
Beam:	90.25 ft (27.5 m)
Draught:	23 feet (7 m) full load
Propulsion:	4 × Admirality 3-drum boilers; 4 × Parsons geared steam turbines @ 40000 hp, 4 shafts
Speed:	24 knots
Range:
Complement:	1,000
Armament:	8 × 4" anti-aircraft guns (AA) in twin mounts; 3 × 4 × 2 pdr pom-pom AA; 8 × 1 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA
Protection:	2 inches on flight deck and magazines
Aircraft:	36
Motto:

HMS Unicorn (I72) was a UK maintenance aircraft carrier and occasional light fleet carrier that saw war service in World War II from 1943 until the Japanese surrender and again during the Korean War. She was the only ship of her class, her design influenced by the Ark Royal class.

She was used in war service in the Atlantic and Mediterranean in 1943, East Indies in 1944-1945, Pacific in 1945, and Korea 1950 to 1953.

Her construction began in 1939, at Harland and Wolff in Belfast and she was first commissioned on March 12, 1943. She became operational in 1943, and was assigned to a supply and repair role with facilities to handle and repair any aircraft used by the Fleet Air Arm, including seaplanes. There were workshops and necessary stores, including 36,000 gallons of aviation fuel.

On 24 March 1943, 3 squadrons were embarked on Unicorn for deck landing training in the Clyde and anti-submarine operations in home waters. On 8 June 1943, Unicorn, attached to the Home Fleet, carried out a sweep to the north of Norway with Illustrious, returning safely in early July.

Despite her intended role as an aircraft depot ship, her next operational assignment, in August 1943, was as a light fleet carrier. She joined Force V, a flotilla of British aircraft carriers supporting Operation Avalanche, the Allied landings at Salerno. Force V was commanded by Admiral Philip Vian and also comprised the escort aircraft carriers Attacker, Battler, Hunter and Stalker. This duty was extended from two to five days, at the request of the army commander.

There were particular problems with the Seafire aircraft flying off the escort carriers. These carriers had a relatively slow speed which, with the windless conditions at the time, made landings risky: more aircraft were lost through mishaps than through enemy action. By the end of the assignment, the original one hundred and eighty Seafires had been reduced to just thirty.

After Operation Avalanche, Unicorn returned to supply and repair duties, for aircraft repair and transport, and fleet backup and support.

By early 1944, Unicorn was in the Far East, once again as an operational carrier due to the delayed arrival of Victorious.

Unicorn helped to set up Mobile Naval Air Bases (MONABs) in Australia. These were needed to enable the Royal Navy and other "Empire Navies" to operate independently in the Pacific. An advance party of MONAB II with sixteen crated aircraft was landed from Unicorn in December 1944, at RAAF Bankstown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. These were to be assembled by the advance party, with RAAF assistance.

After World War II, Unicorn was decommissioned, but she was reactivated for the Korean War. Between June 1950 and October 1953, she supported the Royal Navy and Commonwealth aircraft carriers in Korean waters. On several occasions, she joined in the action, flying her own aircraft and acting as a spare flight deck. Once, she engaged enemy positions in North Korea with her 4 inch battery, thereby becoming more closely engaged than any of the other carriers.

She was decommissioned and sold as scrap in 1959, stripped at Dalmuir, her hull broken up at Troon in March 1960.