any brit royal navy carriers hit by kamikazes, luftwaffe??

[tom d. friedman]

during ww2 were any british royal navy aircraft carriers hit by kamikazes in the pacific?? or bombed from the air by the luftwaffe in the european theater?? there doesn't seem to be much info on the topic. if so what japanese or german aircraft were involved??

[Firebird]

during ww2 were any british royal navy aircraft carriers hit by kamikazes in the pacific?? or bombed from the air by the luftwaffe in the european theater?? there doesn't seem to be much info on the topic.

From memory, yes, some of our carriers were hit by Japanese kamikaze attacks, I can't remember which carriers though, would need to go and look it up (just had a quick look and only one of our carriers wasn't damaged!)
Of course, because all our carriers had armoured steel decks, any damage was far less severe.

Quote from a USN liason officer:

The USN liaison officer on Indefatigable commented: "When a kamikaze hits a US carrier it means 6 months of repair at Pearl [Harbor]. When a kamikaze hits a Limey carrier it's just a case of 'Sweepers, man your brooms.'”


Here's HMS Formidable on fire after a kamikaze attack

[K225]

This article from the Vintage Wings of Canada site has a photo showing the aftermath of the Kamikaze strike on HMS Formidable.

http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/ ... lours.aspx

[RMAllnutt]

Almost all of the Royal Navy's fleet carriers were hit by the Luftwaffe, or Kamikaze strikes... several of them on multiple occasions. In all cases, except for HMS Hermes which the Japanese sank in an air attack in the Indian Ocean, all of the Royal Navy's carriers survived their aerial assaults and returned to service... sometimes within a few hours.

Cheers,
Richard

[Grikka]

Tom,

first carrier hit by a kamikaze was HMS Indefatigable. Only reason i remember that piece of trivia was one of the ships veterans lived a few doors away from me and led the remembrance parades locally for many years

more details on the tinterweb

cheers

Clive

[SaxMan]

Illustrious was hit hard by the Luftwaffe trying to relieve Malta. She was actually sent across the Atlantic to Norfolk, Virginia for repairs and a refit. After repairs, she temporarily joined the Pacific fleet with Saratoga as the only two fleet carriers in the Pacific while Enterprise was being repaired from the Santa Cruz battle as well as incorporating numerous improvements. I don't think they saw any major action except for the invasion of Munda.

Wasn't Ark Royal sunk by torpedo carrying Ju-88s?

The British carriers were built tougher because the designers took into consideration that these ships would be exposed to attack from land based aircraft operating in relatively narrow seas like the Mediterranean and off the coast of Europe. The additional toughness came at the expense of range and aircraft carrying capacity, but that wasn't a huge issue operating near England or in the Mediterranean. The Essex class was designed to be more self-sufficient ranging over the much longer distances of the Pacific with a larger air group. The downside, of course, was that their wooden flight decks proved to be very vulnerable.

[red two]

The British Carriers, had armored steel decks, while our carriers had wooden decks, for which reason I cant explain.

[Mark Allen M]

The British Carriers, had armored steel decks, while our carriers had wooden decks, for which reason I cant explain.

Interesting question. Found some good reading here.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/inde ... 622AAPnyt4

[tom d. friedman]

excellent link. it answers a lot of questions.