1942 Design Light Fleet Carrier

Experiences during the early part of the Second World War had demonstrated to the British that the Royal Navy needed access to defensive air cover for Allied fleets and convoys, which could only be provided by more aircraft carriers. In mid-1941, the Director of Naval Construction was instructed to investigate how best to achieve this without the lengthy construction times normally associated with carriers. Originally designated the 'Intermediate Aircraft Carrier', the ships were reclassified as 'Light Fleet Carriers'. Because naval design staff were overworked, the carrier was primarily designed by shipbuilders at Vickers-Armstrong. The propulsion machinery was of a similar design to that used in cruisers—some of the steam turbines were sourced from cancelled cruisers. The machinery was arranged in two compartments (each containing two Admiralty 3-drum boilers and a Parsons geared turbine), which were staggered en echelon, with the starboard compartment forward of the port. However, all exceeded this planned service life, with one ship operating from 1945 to 2001. Although it was originally planned that each Light Fleet would be ready for service in 21 months, modifications to the design saw the planned construction time increase to 27 months. Maintenance carriers The impracticality of shore-based repair establishments in the Far East and Pacific theatres of the Second World War saw a requirement for aircraft maintenance carriers. Instead of building new ships from scratch, two under-construction Colossuses, and , were marked for conversion as they would enter service quicker, and could be converted back into operational aircraft carriers if required, a need which never arose. The catapult, arrestor cables, and aircraft lifts had to be upgraded to handle faster and heavier aircraft, while the flight deck was reinforced. Following the war's end, work on the Majestic class was suspended, then restored to a low-priority status, The sixth, Leviathan, was not completed. Work was suspended in May 1946, and plans to convert her into a commando carrier or missile cruiser, or sell her to a foreign buyer, fell through. None of the completed Majestic-class vessels saw service in the Royal Navy. ==Weapons==

Aircraft In the original design, each ship was capable of carrying 41 aircraft. Early in their careers, and were fitted out for night flying operations: these carriers were to embark a 32-strong air group; mixed between Fireflies and Grumman F6F Hellcats supplied by the United States as part of the Lend Lease program. To launch and recover aircraft, the carriers were initially equipped with hydraulic catapults, arresting gear, and crash barriers. The Colossus design called for six quadruple barrelled 2 pounder gun mounts, and 16 twin Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. Two 4-inch (102 mm) guns were originally included, but an increase in the design's flight deck length in March 1942 saw them displaced. The ships were unarmoured, as increasing the size of the vessels was deemed more important than protection. Lessons learned during the early part of the Pacific War showed the superiority of the Bofors 40 mm gun to other anti-aircraft weapons. By the end of the war, all Colossus-class ships had swapped all their other weapons for Bofors in single and twin mountings, and the Majestic design had been modified to carry 30 of the guns: 18 single mountings, and 6 twin mountings. The number of Bofors carried by the Light Fleets was reduced after the war, with British ships carrying only eight. ==Royal Navy service==

Second World War and aftermath Although four Colossus-class ships were completed before the end of the war, they did not see front-line action: the war in Europe had proceeded to the point where aircraft carriers were of limited use, and by the time the carriers reached the Pacific, Japan had surrendered. As with the Colossus class, the maintenance carriers were completed but did not enter active service before the end of the war. On 3 December 1945, a de Havilland Sea Vampire became the first jet aircraft to land on a carrier—two months before, Oceans flight deck saw the last landing of a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber. The angled flight deck concept (which would later be installed on several of the Majestic-class carriers) was first trialled aboard Triumph: the straight-line deck markings were removed, and markings for an angled landing painted on. After a two-year loan to Canada, Warrior served as a testbed for rubberised flexible decks and skid-like landing gear during 1948 and 1949. During 1951 and 1952, Perseus was used as a trials ship for the under-development steam catapult. The first carrier attack began on 3 July 1950, with aircraft from Triumph and United States carrier performing air strikes on North Korean airfields. Between them, the Colossus-class carriers Triumph, , , and , along with the Majestic-class , maintained a constant Anglo-Australian aircraft carrier presence for the duration of the Korean War. The Light Fleets were cheaper to operate than the armoured fleet carriers while providing a similar sized air group, but during the war proved to be slower, less comfortable, and more prone to wear-and-tear than other RN carriers. Financial and manpower restrictions meant that only one Light Fleet could be deployed to Korea at a time. Following the end of the Korean War, Warrior and Sydney returned to Korean waters on separate deployments, to ensure that the armistice was enforced and hostilities did not re-ignite. Suez Crisis and were part of the British response to the 1956 Suez Crisis. The two ships were not used as aircraft carriers; instead they were equipped with helicopters and tasked with transporting ashore 45 Commando, a battalion of the Royal Marines, in order to secure harbours and other landing points for heavy equipment. This, the first ship-based helicopter assault, was successful, and prompted the development of the amphibious assault ship. Decommissioning and disposal The two maintenance carriers were decommissioned during the 1950s and scrapped: Pioneer was sold in 1954, and Perseus in 1958. With the exception of HMS Triumph, the Colossus-class carriers that remained in RN service were disposed of during the early 1960s. None was significantly modernised during its service life. Triumph left service in 1958, underwent a major conversion into a Heavy Repair Ship, and re-entered service in 1965. ==Foreign service==

As Britain was unable to maintain the size of her wartime fleet after the end of the Second World War, several Colossus-class ships were placed into reserve, while work on the Majestic class was initially halted at the end of the war, then restored to a low-priority status. Demands for fiscal cutbacks, combined with the rapid obsolescence of the carriers by the development of jet aircraft, saw four of the eight Colossuses and all five completed Majestics sold off to other nations. Argentina After a two-year loan to Canada, and a second period in Royal Navy commission, Warrior was sold to the Argentine Navy in 1958, and commissioned as on 11 November. Independencia was struck from service in 1971 and broken up for scrap. Problems with her propulsion machinery meant that Veinticinco de Mayo was effectively inoperable from June 1986, although it was not until the start of 1999 that she was marked for scrapping. The Admiralty deemed a Colossus-class Light Fleet to be the most appropriate aircraft carrier, and Venerable was initially proposed for transfer to the Royal Australian Navy as a gift or on loan. The plan was deferred on the Australian end until a review of manpower requirements across the entire war effort was completed. The ship manning proposal was revisited in mid-1945, but the surrender of Germany in May meant that British shortages were not as problematic; as a counteroffer, the purchase of the Colossus-class Ocean by Australia was suggested. The Australian government decided against the purchase of Ocean in June. Following the Second World War, a post-war review suggested that the Royal Australian Navy acquire three aircraft carriers as the core of a new fleet; funding restrictions saw the number of proposed carriers dropped to two. To this end, Australia acquired two Majestic-class ships: , which was commissioned in 1948 as ; and , which was upgraded for jet operations and commissioned in 1955 as . While waiting for Majestic/Melbourne to finish modernisation, the Colossus-class was loaned to Australia from 1952 until 1955, allowing it to operate a two-carrier fleet. The first aircraft carrier acquired by the Royal Australian Navy, Sydney was deployed to Korea in order to maintain a consistent Commonwealth carrier presence in the conflict. Operating between September 1951 and January 1952, Sydney was the first carrier owned by a Commonwealth Dominion to see combat. In her troopship role, Sydney travelled to Vietnam 25 times between 1965 and 1972. She was decommissioned in November 1973, and sold to a South Korean company for scrapping in 1975. Although deployed to the Far East Strategic Reserve on several occasions, and assigned to escort Sydney to and from Vietnam on three occasions, Melbourne was not directly involved in any conflict during her career. However, she collided with and sank two plane guard destroyers— in 1964, and in 1969—which, along with several minor collisions and incidents, led to the reputation that the carrier was jinxed. Melbourne was sold to China for scrapping in 1985; instead of being broken up, she was studied as part of the nation's top-secret carrier development program, and may not have been dismantled until 2002. There were plans to replace Melbourne with the British carrier , but Invincible was withdrawn from sale following her service in the Falklands War, and a 1983 election promise to not replace the carrier saw the end of Australian carrier-based fixed-wing aviation. The carrier was commissioned into the Marinha do Brasil (MB, Brazilian Navy) as Minas Gerais on 6 December 1960. In 1999, the MB acquired Douglas A-4KU Skyhawks—the first time Brazilian naval aviators were permitted to operate fixed-wing aircraft until the carrier's 2001 decommissioning. Minas Gerais was replaced by NAe São Paulo (the former French carrier ). The carrier was marked for sale in 2002, and was actively sought after by British naval associations for return to England and preservation as a museum ship, although they were unable to raise the required money. Sometime between February and July 2004, the carrier was towed to the ship breaking yards at Alang, India, for dismantling. Canada Following wartime experience showing the effectiveness of naval aviation, the Royal Canadian Navy decided to acquire an aircraft carrier. The Canadian government decided to purchase the Majestic-class carrier Powerful, and have her upgraded to modern standards. The Colossus-class was transferred on a two-year loan from 1946 to 1948, so the experience gained by providing ship's companies for two British escort carriers during the war could be maintained. France Lead ship was loaned to the French Navy in August 1946 and renamed . She was deployed to French Indochina, and operated during the First Indochina War from 1949 to 1954. After the war's end, the carrier was assigned to the Mediterranean. Arromanches was replaced in active service by the French-built Clemenceau class, and was converted into a training ship in 1960. The carrier remained in an unfinished condition until January 1957, when she was purchased by the Indian Navy. Fitted with an angled flight deck, Hercules was commissioned into the Indian Navy as in 1961. Vikrant was opened to the public by the Indian Navy for short periods, but the inability to find an operating partner, lack of funds, and the deterioration of the ship led to the closure of the museum in 2012, and the sale of the vessel for ship breaking in early 2014. Netherlands The Royal Netherlands Navy acquired the Colossus-class in 1948, and commissioned her as . Between the upgrade and 1964, Karel Doorman possessed a mixed air group of jet fighters, anti-submarine aircraft, and helicopters; the fixed-wing aircraft were removed in that year. During this overhaul her boiler system was replaced with that of the mothballed HMS Leviathan. The cost of replacing the boiler system were estimated at the time to be around 2 million Dutch guilders. ==Ships==