RN Aircraft Carriers: Courageous Class 1928

[Pelican]

HMS Furious after her 1922 to 1925 refit which gave her a flush deck.

Here a Fairey Flycatcher can be seen on the lower flight deck. As planes became heavier this form of launching became obsolete and more AA guns were positioned there in the 1930s.

[Pelican]

Courageous Class Aircraft Carrier HMS Glorious pictured in 1935..After the start of the Second World War in 1939, Glorious spent the rest of the year unsuccessfully hunting for the commerce-raiding German Cruiser Admiral Graf Spee in the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean. She was recalled home in April 1940 to support operations in Norway. While evacuating British aircraft from Norway on June 8th 1940 she was sunk by the German Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the North Sea with the loss of over 1,200 lives..The circumstances of the sinking were the subject of a debate in the House of Commons on January 28th 1999. After the existence of the Bletchley Park decoding of German transmissions was made public in the 1970s, Bletchley Park personnel revealed that they had told the RN of the German breakout. However, the RN refused to believe the codebreakers partly because they were for the most part civilians, and despite begging from the codebreakers, never notified the Glorious squadron of the German advance.

Same photo but different info.

HMS Glorious anchored in Plymouth Sound in July 1935. She had just completed a 1-year refit at HM Dockyard Devonport, which extended her flight deck aft.

In addition, two catapults were fitted to the forward flight deck (seen in the picture) and 4 x Mark III arrestor wires aft. These additions greatly improved the capability of air operations.

Recommissioned on July 23, 1935, Glorious would return to the Mediterranean Fleet where she spent most of her career.

Note also the "Flying Bridge" to port of the island. Normally stowed against the funnel, this could be swung out to give a bridge extension and a view to port for the navigator while in pilotage waters.

[Pelican]

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Glorious in heavy Mediterranean seas in April 1937.

The seawater washing over the lower flying off deck and smashing against the upper hangar doors proved to be one of the drawbacks of the design.

[Pelican]

HMS Courageous (50) at the completion of her conversion to an aircraft carrier in Devonport in February 1928. She's heading out to start her trials.

The conversion cost £2m (£82m in 2023), began at Devonport on June 29, 1924, and completed on 21 February 1928.
The design was an improvement on the previous HMS Furious conversion mainly because of the inclusion of an island structure.
This crucial difference enabled Courageous to operate 48 aircraft instead of 36 on Furious.

[Pelican]

WW2 photograph showing captured German Luftwaffe aircraft onboard the HMS Reaper being shipped back to England for examination and testing.

Also see https://planehistoria.com/me-262-schwalbe/

[Brian James]

HMS Courageous pictured c1938.

[Brian James]

A set of original Admiralty and Harland & Wolff blueprints for Courageous Class Battlecruiser HMS Glorious dated 1917. She was rebuilt as a Carrier in the late 1920's. She could carry 30 per cent more aircraft than her half-sister Furious which had a similar tonnage. After re-commissioning in 1930, she spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean Sea. After the start of the Second World War in 1939, Glorious spent the rest of the year unsuccessfully hunting for the commerce-raiding German Cruiser Admiral Graf Spee in the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean. She was recalled home in April 1940 to support operations in Norway. While evacuating British aircraft from Norway in June, she was sunk by the German Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the North Sea with the loss of over 1,200 lives.