BRITISH AIRCRAFT CARRIERS 1939-45 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Angus Konstam,Tony Bryan | 48 pages | 20 Jul 2010 | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | 9781849080798 | English | Oxford, England, United Kingdom List of aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy - Wikipedia Other books in this series. Add to basket. Tanks in the Battle of the Bulge Steven J. British Battleships 2 : Vol. German E-boats Gordon Williamson. Technicals Leigh Neville. Japanese Tanks Steven Zaloga. Armored Trains Steven Zaloga. Review quote "This excellent survey of the craft's capabilities is a must for any in-depth military, aircraft or World War II collection! One that will be pulled from the shelves time after time and one I can highly recommend to you. About Angus Konstam Angus Konstam is an acclaimed military and naval historian, and one of Osprey's most experienced and respected authors, with over 35 titles in print. These Osprey titles include British Battlecruisers , British Motor Torpedo Boats , and the forthcoming two-volume study; British Battleships , all of which form part of the New Vanguard list. He has also written over two dozen larger books for other publishers. A former naval officer, underwater archaeologist and maritime museum curator, Angus has a long and passionate love affair with the sea, maritime history and warships. He makes regular television and radio appearances, and has held events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Angus is now a full-time writer and historian, as well as being a board member of the Society of Authors, and Publishing Scotland. He currently lives in Edinburgh. For more details visit the author's website at www. Rating details. Book ratings by Goodreads. Goodreads is the world's largest site for readers with over 50 million reviews. We're featuring millions of their reader ratings on our book pages to help you find your new favourite book. Close X. Search by author, title or keyword Toggle navigation. Product was successfully added to your shopping cart. With war against Germany looming, Britain pushed forward its carrier programme in the late s. This was quickly followed by others. Smaller and tougher than their US cousins Britsih cariers were designed to f. Add to Wishlist Add to Compare. Angus Konstam is an acclaimed military and naval historian, and one of Osprey's most experienced and respected authors, with over 35 titles in print. He has also written over two dozen larger books for other publishers. A former naval officer, underwater archaeologist and maritime museum curator, Angus has a long and passionate love affair with the sea, maritime history and warships. He makes regular television and radio appearances, and has held events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Angus is now a full-time writer and historian, as well as being a board member of the Society of Authors, and Publishing Scotland. He currently lives in Edinburgh. For more details visit the author's website at www. Carriers in Action 2, words Provides a brief description of three actions involving British aircraft carriers; Taranto , Matapan and the sinking of the Bismarck Bibiography words. You may also be interested in the following product s. More info. Military History. Subscribe to our newsletter. WW2 British Aircraft Carriers Already considered at best as an auxiliary ship in through the treaty of Washington, this type of ship was still in the popular imagination far from the idea of a capital ship. Aviation back then was too frail, and although it was proven as a viable weapon against ships, little payload and the lack of existing tactics, compounded by generalized skepticism ion the majority of staff tended to keep naval aviation framed into an advanced reconnaissance system. But more conservative navies dragging their feets, and if the Royal Navy was quick to catch up, as well as the German, neither the French, Italian, Soviet, or even Japanese Navy had swapped to this equipment and still trusted their onboard floatplanes for long range reconnaissance. But this attack was preceded by a raid of the Royal Navy on the naval base of Taranto in , which saw, with ten times less planes, the bulk of the Regia Marina sunk or disabled for month. This confidence on naval air warfare was cultivated since the end of WW1 and was perhaps more prevalent than in any other country during the interwar. An overview of British main types or aircraft carriers, including MAC-ships and leand-lease escort carriers. The Royal Navy used these ships to test many ideas, and this long maturation only ended with the program that led to the construction of the Ark Royal. She was laid down in and quite instrumental into showcasing all the latest developments and lessons gained since the introduction of the HMS Hermes. It was the first large fleet aircraft carrier of the RN and showed a very large aircraft capacity with a double hangar, enough to store and operate 60 aircraft. The USN will follow suite with the Essex class from This great chapter started early on, at the end of WW1. At that time it was called the Royal naval air service or RNAS and already was familiarized with aviation, training thousands of new recruits on iconic models such as the venerable Avro designed in , produced until to above 8, planes , the Beardmore WB. Fairey Swordfish over the Ark Royal. Along with the Blackburn Kangaroo, the Sopwith Cuckoo was the first carrier-borne British torpedo plane. The planes of Fairey, like the Fairey III floatplane succeeded by the Fairey Seal , only retired in and ancestor of the famous Fairey Swordfish , the emblematic British carrier-borne torpedo biplane. They were used until , carrying rockets, bombs, fitted with floats, land or carrier-based. Ripon flying off the deck of an unidentified carrier in After Fairey, Blackburn was the other specialist supplier of torpedo-bombers for the fleet air arm. Blackburn Baffin The Shark first flew 24 August , not long before the Swordfish, and was produced to about until , in service during WW2 and after in the Portuguese Navy. This plane carried usually two torpedo models, the inch mm Mark VIII torpedo or Mark X torpedo, loaded with enough torpex to cause maximum damage. Fairey Flycatcher : Already saw for the Furious. One of the first dedicated FAA fighter, were built, and they served until It started service with No. The typical air group of HMS Courageous comprised 16 of them, alongside the Ripon and it was adored by pilots, fast, agile and easy to fly. Hawker Nimrod : Legendary designer Sydney Camm made a carrier-based version of the excellent Hawker Hart which first flew in and was adopted in Only 92 were built, which served in 11 squadrons and units, replaced by the Sea Gladiator in It was also used by the Royal Danish Navy Aviation in Gloster Sea Gladiator : The last and perhaps one of all-time best biplane fighter ever designed, the legendary Gladiator was also in service with the FAA. Introduced from , used from land bases, but also a modified Mk II was developed as the Sea Gladiator for the Fleet Air Arm with an arrestor hook, catapult attachment points, strengthened airframe plus an underbelly dinghy lifeboat. Only 98 aircraft were built or converted and 54 were still in service during the war. They operated in the Mediterranean in Blackburn Skua : The Skua was one of the first modern FAA planes, ordered by specifications as a low-wing monoplane, all-metal, with retractable undercarriage and enclosed cockpit. The Skua was introduced from November and used by 27 squadrons. It was relatively slow and was used as a multirole fighter, but in it was no longer kept in front line service but relegated in secondary duties. Production was limited to planes. Blackburn Roc : Introduced in but developed from , the Roc was derived from the Skua designed by George Edward Petty, but characterized by the use of the Boulton-Paul quad-turret which proved useless in practice for a fighter although the Roc was used during Operation Dynamo and Operation Ariel and shot down a number of German bombers over Belgium during the Western campaign. It was produced to only planes but used by 27 squadrons until Fairey Fulmar : A navalized version of the P. The production version was equipped with the new supercharged RR Merlin VIII engine, tailored for it, and performances were way better than the Battle. They flew first with the HMS Illustrious and their feats included spotting the Bismarck, Malta convoys, raids over Petsamo, and they equipped in time twenty squadrons and eight carriers. Hawker sea Hurricane : Developed from the regular Hurricane which was introduced from , the FAA adopted the Sea Hurricane, which sported an array of modifications but they also served as catapult-launched convoy escorts CAMS ships. It was then operated until scoring an impressive kill-to-loss ratio, gained mostly during the defense of Malta convoys, and in the Atlantic Ocean against Condors and other German planes. To save space, some Royal Navy aircraft carriers carried their reserve Sea Hurricanes dismantled, slung up on the hangar bulkheads and deckhead for reassembly when needed. I and following. Initially, the Mark I were the former 81 model GA ordered by the French in to equip their new Joffre-class aircraft carriers then in construction. With the fall of France the order was diverted to UK instead as well as Belgian orders , after being modified for British use by Blackburn. Already before it was done, the Fleet Air Arm ordered a second version Mark II about delivered from August to the 3 Illustrious class carriers in priority to replace the old Skua, Roc and Gladiators. The Mark III were former Greek ordered models also diverted in April , but they only served from land-base no folding wings.