HMS Hermes The World’s First Aircraft Carrier Who’s first? HMS Hermes IJN Hosho Launched: 1919, DOC: 1924 Built: 1920-1922, DOC: 1922 Ship Dimensions Length: 600 $ Beam: 70 $ Draught: 23 $ Speed: 25 knots Range: 6400 miles @ 10 knots Armament: 6 × single 5.5 in (140 mm) guns 4 × single 4 in (102 mm) an<-aircra$ guns Aircra6 carried: 20 Complement: 566 Excluding air-crew How big is this wreck? ATLAS VANDENBURG ORISKANY HERMES 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 Series 3 Series 2 Series 1 Battle History WW2 • Anti-Submarine Patrols in the Atlantic • July 8, 1940: Attacked the French warship “Richeliu” with Torpedo bombers near French Senegal • Supported British operation in Basra • Was sent to support British invasion of Madagascar Indian Ocean Raid (Operation-C) • Series of air-attacks by Japanese carriers to destroy British Naval presence in the Indian Ocean • Easter Sunday Raid (April 5, 1942) tarGeted Colombo. • April 9, raid tarGeted Trincomalee harbor Getting out of the way … • Advanced warning of a Japanese air-raid prompted HMS Hermes and its destroyer escort Vampire to leave Trincomalee harbor and move southwards A"ack and sinking • A Japanese recon plane from battleship Haruna found Hermes and reported its location at 8:55 am • Japanese carriers launched 85 bombers with nine fighter escorts to sink Hermes • In first 10 minutes, Hermes took 40 bombs hits and started to sink • Total loss of lives was 307 including Captain Richard Onslow Hermes VS Hiryu Reasons for sinking • Out of date design • Lack of air-to-air capability on board • Lack of air-to-air support nearby • Caught un-prepared Politics surrounding the wreck • Civil war in Sri-Lanka prevented access to the wreck site • Areas near the wreck were held by Tamil Tigers (LTTE) until May 18, 2009 • Sri-Lankan army finally captured the areas held by LTTE in 2009 • Up to a 100,000 people lost their lives in 27 year old conflict Diving the wreck today • Lies &lted to her port side at 170 feet • Fairly intact with visible bomb damage • Penetra&on possible only for experienced penetra&on divers • Technical diving supported by nearby dive centers.