HMS Indefatigable (R10)

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Career (UK)

Builder:	John Brown
Laid down:	3 November 1939
Launched:	8 December 1942
Commissioned:	3 May 1944
Decommissioned:	December 1946
Commissioned:	1950
Decommissioned:	September 1954
Fate:	Scrapped in November 1956
General characteristics
Class and type:	Implacable class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	23,825 tons standard 32,624 tons full load
Length:	766.5 ft (233.6 m)
Beam:	95.75 ft (29.18 m)
Draught:	29 ft (8.8 m)
Propulsion:	Steam Turbines (8 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 4 shafts, Parsons geared turbines), 148,000 shp.
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h)
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h)
Complement:	1,400 (including air group)
Armament:	8 × twin QF 4.5 inch naval guns 42 × QF 2 pounder naval guns 40 × Oerlikon 20 mm guns
Aircraft carried:	54

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Indefatigable.

HMS Indefatigable (R10) was an Implacable-class aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy.

Built at the famous John Brown Yard on the Clyde, at Clydebank, Scotland, Indefatigable was laid down on 3 November 1939 and launched on 8 December 1942. She commissioned into the Royal Navy on 3 May 1944, joining the Home Fleet. The ship's first commander was Captain Q. D. Graham.

The first mission (rather in the form of a 'working-up' exercise) was a set of raids on the German battleship Tirpitz in the fjords of Norway. It was not a spectacular success with all sorts of equipment problems showing up.

The ship's squadrons operated a number of aircraft types including the Supermarine Seafire and Fairey Firefly.

Indefatigable is launched.

After dockyard work on the problems the ship sailed on 19 November 1944 for the Far East to join the British Pacific Fleet as flagship of Rear-Admiral Philip Vian (former captain of Cossack) who commanded the carrier group of the BPF. He transferred his flag to Indomitable on arrival at Colombo on 10 December 1944.

On 1 April 1945, while operating in support of the Okinawa operation, the ship was hit at the base of the superstructure by a kamikaze suicide bomber. Fourteen men were killed. Thanks to her armoured deck however, Indefatigable was able to operate aircraft again after just 5 hours.

Indefatigable was present at the formal surrender of the Japanese on 2 September in Tokyo Bay. She later helped to repatriate Allied POWs held in Japan and was used as a spotting ship for later US nuclear tests in the Pacific ocean.

She decommissioned after the war but recommissioned in 1950 as a training ship. After being decommissioned for the last time, Indefatigable was scrapped in 1956.