HMS Indomitable (92)

Career (United Kingdom)
Class and type:	Illustrious-class aircraft carrier
Name:	HMS Indomitable
Ordered:	6 July 1937
Builder:	Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	10 November 1937
Launched:	26 March 1940
Commissioned:	10 October 1941
Fate:	Sold for scrap in 1955
Status:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Displacement:	23,000 tons standard, 29,730 tons loaded
Length:	230.0 metres (754.0 ft)
Beam:	29.2 metres (95.5 ft)
Draught:	8.8 metres (29.0 ft)
Propulsion:	Parson geared steam turbines six boilers three shafts 111,000 shp
Speed:	30.5 knots (56 km/h)
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h)
Complement:	1,392 2,100 (later)
Armament:	16 × 4.5 inch AA 48 × 2 pounder AA 10 × 20mm AA
Aircraft carried:	1942: 22 Sea Hurricane, 12 Martlet and 16 Albacore 1943: 55 Seafire and Albacore 1945: 45 Hellcat and Avenger
Notes:	Pennant number 92

HMS Indomitable (pennant number 92) was a modified Illustrious-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. The Illustrious class was developed in the 1937 Naval Programme. Originally planned to be the fourth of the class, she was redesigned to enable her to operate more aircraft, 48 instead of 36. A second hangar was added above the original, raising the flight deck by 14 feet, although the hangar side armour had to be reduced to compensate. Part of the lower hangar was converted into extra workshops and accommodation to support the added aircraft.^[1]

Construction and early history

An LSO aboard HMS Indomitable (92), 1942.

She was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, on 10 November 1937, as war loomed ever closer. She was launched on 26 March 1940 and commissioned the following year in October. She was christened by Clementine Churchill.

She sailed to the West Indies in November 1941 for her maiden voyage. While there, Indomitable ran aground on a coral reef near Jamaica, though she returned to service soon afterwards. It has been suggested that this short delay proved fatal for British plans for Singapore. There were provisional plans that Indomitable was to join HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in the port of Singapore as part of a deterrent force, Force Orange, against Japanese aggression in the Far East. However, given that the aircraft carrier was in the vicinity of Jamaica, on November 3rd. 1941, it seems unlikely that Indomitable could really have reached Singapore in sufficient time to provide air cover for the battle fleet. For that to have been achieved, it would have been necessary to order the ship to proceed to Singapore at an earlier date than November 3rd. In the event, the other two capital ships, designated Force Z, did not have adequate air cover, and were sunk by Japanese aircraft (see Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse) when the Japanese landed in Malaya in December 1941. The following month, in January 1942, Indomitable joined the Eastern Fleet based at Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. At the end of January, she ferried 48 Royal Air Force Hawker Hurricanes to airfields in Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, to reinforce the air defenses of Singapore, but a large proportion of the Hurricanes were destroyed on the ground by Japanese air raids. The British commanders in Singapore surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February.

After the fall of Britain's Far Eastern colonies (Hong Kong and Burma also fell) Indomitable was redeployed. A new Eastern Fleet was established under the command of Admiral Sir James Somerville. Indomitable, and her sister ship Formidable were the only modern aircraft carriers of the Fleet, and were a vital asset to the Allies in the Far East; the only other available carrier, Hermes, was effectively obsolete.

In April 1942 Somerville attempted to intercept the Japanese carrier strike force as they raided the Indian Ocean. Incomplete intelligence led him to abandon his ambush just hours before the Japanese force arrived. Over the next few days Indomitable was part of a force that attempted to intercept the Japanese fleet at night, where the slow, but radar equipped, British torpedo planes would have the best chance of a successful strike. Despite several days of searching no decisive action was achieved, and Somerville eventually withdrew his fast carriers to Bombay. Hermes, the Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire, the corvette HMS Hollyhock, and two heavy cruisers, the Cornwall and Dorsetshire, were sunk in action during this Japanese raid, as were a score of merchant ships.

In May 1942 the British launched Operation Ironclad, the invasion of French Madagascar. It was feared that the Japanese would themselves occupy Madagascar and use it as a submarine base to attack allied convoy routes in the Indian Ocean.^[2]

Indomitable was detached from the Eastern Fleet to take part in the invasion, rendezvousing with the covering force (which included sister ship Illustrious) and the invasion force which had been sent from Durban, South Africa.^[3][4] The assault began on 5 May at Courrier Bay, just west of the actual objective of Diego Suarez. Indomitable‍ '​s air wing attacked Arrachart airfield on the opening day of the invasion, destroying five Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 fighters and damaging two more as well as two Potez 63.11s.^[5] The following day a ground assault on the town's defences was launched, with Indomitable‍ '​s Albacores bombing the defences and her Fulmars and Sea Hurricanes flying ground attack sorties. French forces in Diego Suarez surrendered on 7 May.^[6] On 8 May, the French submarine Monge attempted to torpedo Indomitable, but failed, and was sunk by depth charges from the destroyers HMS Active and Panther.^[3][7]

The Mediterranean

In July, Indomitable returned to the United Kingdom. She was soon back in action, participating in Operation Pedestal, the largest convoy to supply the besieged island of Malta. This convoy comprised 14 cargo ships and an unprecedentedly large escort of warships: Cairo, Charybdis, Eagle', Indomitable, Victorious, Kenya, Manchester, Nelson, Nigeria, Phoebe, Rodney, Sirius, and 32 destroyers. One objective was for Furious to launch her Spitfires to land at Malta where they would remain; this was done successfully on 11 August, and Furious returned to Gibraltar.

12 August 1942: HMS Indomitable on fire after being bombed. HMS Charybdis is screening the carrier

During the operation Indomitable was hit by two 500 kg bombs and suffered three near misses; a 500 kg bomb penetrated the unarmoured portion of the flight deck, causing damage that required her to withdraw for repairs, although she was able to steam at 28.5 knots less than two hours after the hits.^[8] She sailed to the United States, where repairs were completed in February 1943, after which she immediately returned to the Mediterranean. She was torpedoed either by a Ju-88 bomber^[9] or by a SM.79^[10] on 16 July^[11][12] while supporting the build up for the Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky), and returned again to the USA where repairs were completed. She commenced sea trials 10 April 1944.^[13]

The Far East

Indomitable returned to the Eastern Fleet in early 1944. She and Victorious launched effective strikes against Sumatra in August and September. They later launched strikes on the Nicobar Islands, after which Indomitable joined up with Illustrious for air strikes against Medan and once more against Sumatra on 20 December.

The following year, Indomitable joined the British Pacific Fleet. On 4 January 1945 she, her sister ship Victorious and another fleet carrier Indefatigable attacked Medan. Subsequent actions were taken against Palembang and, yet again, Sumatra, later in January.

On 4 May 1945 she was hit by a Kamikaze, but her armoured flight deck saved her from serious damage. In August, with the war ending, Indomitable supported the liberation of Hong Kong, arriving after a landing party from HMCS Prince Robert had taken the Japanese surrender. Her aircraft flew the carrier's last combat missions of the war and of her career on 31 August and 1 September against Japanese suicide boats which were attacking British forces.

Post war

The Indomitable returned to the UK in November 1945. The following year she carried the Great Britain national rugby league team to Australia on their first post-war tour, earning the team the nickname, 'The Indomitables'. In 1947, she was placed in reserve, and then given a refit that took three years, from 1947 to 1950. Late in her refit her boilers were discovered to have only 10 years of life, and the engine spaces had to be torn apart and rebuilt to replace the boilers. Upon the completion of her refit she returned to operational duty with the Home Fleet in far cooler climates than her wartime operations. She was unique in carrying the day and night de Havilland Hornet fighter, and also included the Blackburn Firebrand torpedo strike aircraft in its airgroup. On 3 February 1953, she was badly damaged by an internal fire and explosion; the damage was later covered in concrete, and was never repaired. In the same year she sailed to take part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.^[14] She then did deck landings in the channel, with experimental landing lights replacing the batman.

Decommissioning and disposal

Indomitable returned to the reserve fleet and in October 1953 she was placed in unmaintained reserve. She was sold for scrap and arrived at Faslane for breaking up on 30 September 1955.

Battle honours

• Malta Convoys 1942
• Diego Suarez 1942
• Sicily 1943
• Palembang 1945
• Okinawa 1945

Notes

Bibliography

• Brown, David (1977). WWII Fact Files: Aircraft Carriers. New York: Arco Publishing. ISBN 0-668-04164-1. 
• Brown, J. D. (2009). Carrier Operations in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-108-2. 
• Campbell, John (1985). Naval Weapons of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-459-4. 
• Chesneau, Roger (1995). Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (New, Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-902-2. 
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7. 
• Friedman, Norman (1988). British Carrier Aviation: The Evolution of the Ships and Their Aircraft. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-054-8. 
• Garzke, William H. & Dulin, Robert O. (1985). Battleships: Axis and Neutral Battleships in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-101-0. 
• Hobbs, David (2013). British Aircraft Carriers: Design, Development and Service Histories. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-138-0. 
• Hobbs, David (2011). The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy's Most Powerful Strike Force. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-044-3. 
• McCart, Neil (2000). The Illustrious & Implacable Classes of Aircraft Carrier 1940–1969. Cheltenham, UK: Fan Publications. ISBN 1-901225-04-6. 
• Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (1992). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-117-7. 
• Shores, Christopher (1996). Dust Clouds in the Middle East: The Air War for East Africa, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Madagascar, 1940–42. London: Grub Street. ISBN 1-898697-37-X. 
• Sturtivant, Ray (1984). The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm. Tonbridge, Kent, UK: Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN 0-85130-120-7. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Indomitable (92).

• Armoured aircraft carrier action and damage reports, 1940-1945
• cutaway in Flight magazine 1951
• Maritimequest HMS Indomitable photo gallery
• Fleet Air Arm entry for Indomitable
• Leading Air Mechanic Maurice Whiteing and his photographic record of HMS Indomitable in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, 1944-45
• INDOMITABLE fleet aircraft carrier (1941)
• DAMAGE CONTROL FOR REAL!