The Colossus and Majestic classes were the first aircraft carriers of the many navies.
They were the last for some. The Colossus and Majestic classes were two different models
of the same class. These light fleet carriers played important roles in many important battles.
They have change the perspective. Now, we are investigating the legendary Colossus-class
and Majestic-class, the pride of many navies. Please don't forget to subscribe to our channel
before we start and give us a thumbs up if you like our video. To be notified of our
new video, please click the bell button. Also known as the 1942 Design Light Fleet
Carrier and the British Light Fleet Carrier, the Colossus and Majestic classes among the
most important vessels of modern naval history. Eight nations commissioned the ship. Some
of them waved the flags of three countries in their service time.
The Colossus and Majestic classes definitely left their mark on the First Cold War. However,
they were the child of the Second World War. At the beginning of the Second World War,
the Royal Navy realized that it had to increase the number of its aircraft carriers. The Admiralty
began a project on a new design in the mid-1941. Because building a large number of big fleet
carriers were economically and industrially impossible.
The escort carriers, which were designed only for convoy protection, could only perfom a
secondary offensive role. Also, their low cruise speeds were preventing them from accompanying
the high-speed cruisers and battleships. The converted merchant ships did not have
enough aircraft capability. The Royal Navy needed a new design.
The new ship, defined as the intermediate aircraft carrier at first and the light fleet
carrier later, would be simple and expendable. So, the commercial shipyard could build them
in a short time. To shorten the time of the design phase, it
would be a scaled-down version of the Illustrious-class. The propulsion systems would be the same as
those used in the Fiji-class cruisers. London approved the project in February 1942.
The first ship of the new aircraft carrier class, HMS Colossus, was laid down one month
later. She was launched in 1943 and commissioned in 1944. In one year, the UK laid down another
fourteen vessels. Initially, the Royal Navy had planned that each ship would be ready
for service in 21 months. But, while the construction work continued, the design was modified. Therefore,
the construction time increased to 27 months, and only four Colossus-class aircraft carriers
could participate in the war. As we mentioned before, the Royal Navy had
planned to own 16 Colossus-class ships. But, the UK built only six of them.
Additional two ships were completed as maintenance carriers.
During construction works continued, the Royal Navy decided to equip the last six ships with
the upgraded catapult, arrestor cables and lifts and reinforce the flight deck. With
these modifications, they could handle faster and heavier aircraft. Also, these aircraft
carriers would have more advanced weaponry and radars as well as the capability of replenishment
at sea. This modified variant redefined as the Majestic-class. Five of them were completed,
and one, whose name is HMS Leviathan, was not.
The first ship of the Majestic-class, HMS Majestic, was laid down in 1943. She was launched
in 1945. But, because the Second World War ended, the ship was not completed for a long
time. Actually, the Royal Navy never commissioned a Majestic-class aircraft carrier.
The Royal Australian Navy bought HMS Majestic. She was commissioned in 1955 as HMAS Melbourne.
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, the Netherlands, and the UK operated
these ships. During their service life, the Colossus and
Majestic-class aircraft carriers were constantly modified and upgraded. And, they had different
general characteristics. Also, the general characteristics of each ship had changed over
time. But, if we look at the general characteristics
as designed, the complement of the Colossus-class was 1,050 person. Its empty weight was 13,200
tons, while its fully-loaded displacement was 18,000 tons. The ship had a length of
212 metres, a beam of 24 metres, and a draught of 7.09 metres. Four 10,000 horsepower Admiralty
3-drum boilers provided a maximum speed of 25 knots. The Colossus-class could reach a
range of over 22,000 kilometres with an economical speed of 14 knots.
The Majestic-class had the same dimensions as the Colossus-class. But, it was 1,500 tons
heavier. So, it had a draught of 7,54 meters. The Colossus-class could carry 52 aircraft.
Yet, over time, the Colossus and Majestic-classes began to operate the heavier jet fighters
and anti-submarine warfare aircraft. So, carrying capacity decreased.
The Second World War-vintage aircraft carriers had a single flight deck. Sometimes, the aircraft
could not catch the arrestor cables, or the arrestor cables could fail to stop the aircraft.
So, for safety reasons, the flight deck had to be clear during landing. However, clearing
the flight deck was not always possible in war conditions. It caused many devastating
accidents. Clearing the flight deck did not always prevent
the accidents. In some cases, eventhough the flight deck was clear, some aircraft hit the
island. To solve this problem, Dennis Cambell, a Royal
Navy Captain, developed the angled flight deck design.
By the beginning of the jet era, this design became more important. The jet fighters had
higher landing speeds and needed a longer distance to stop. Thanks to the angled flight
deck, an aircraft carrier had two long flight deck.
The angled flight deck was first tested in 1952 on the Colossus-class aircraft carrier
HMS Triumph. These aircraft carriers had no armour. So,
during the last stage of the Pacific War, the Royal Navy operated its four Colossus-class
ships outside of the range of Japanese Kamikaze aircraft.
But, during the Korean War, the British Colossus-class aircraft carriers were baptized with fire.
HMS Triumph was one of the first ships deployed to Korea.
Her aircraft participated in the first carrier attack of the Korean War.
They also provided close air support at the Battle of Inchon.
The first landing of a jet on an aircraft carrier was performed on HMS Ocean.
But, during the Korean War, this ship operated the piston-engined Sea Furies.
HMS Ocean was deployed to Korea twice. Its aircraft conducted numerous important
ground attack and close-air-support missions. In 1952, the Sea Furies, which took off from
the HMS Ocean, shot down a MiG-15. HMS Glory was deployed to Korea three times.
But, the busiest Colossus-class ships of the Royal Navy was HMS Theseus. The aircraft carrier
was deployed to Korea 10 times. During her second patrol, the aircraft of
HMS Theseus conducted only combat air patrol missions. Because the ship's catapult was
broken, the aircraft could not take off with heavy ground attack weaponry.
Yet, until the end of January 1951, the Sea Furies of the HMS Theseus carried out more
than 1,000 sorties without any accident. During the Korean War, the Royal Australian
Navy deployed its Majestic-class aircraft carrier, HMAS Sydney. In August 1951, the
aircraft of the ship carried out 147 sorties in two days.
During the second patrol, one aircraft of HMAS Sydney was shot down behind the enemy
lines. Later, the pilot was rescued by a helicopter
from the ship. During the war, the aircraft of HMAS Sydney
carried out 2,366 sorties. Ten of them were shot down.
Later, during the Vietnam War, HMAS Sydney was used as a troop transport ship by the
Royal Australian Navy. But, before, the French Colossus-class aircraft
carrier had already baptized by fire. In 1946, HMS Colossus had been loaned by The French
Navy. She was re-named as FS Arromanches. Two years later, the ship was deployed to
Vietnam to support French ground troops in the First Indochina War.
In her first patrol, the Dauntlesses and Seafires of the FS Arromanches carried out 152 sorties.
Later, France deployed the ship in Vietnam three more times between 1951 and 1952.
During the 1956 Suez Crisis, three Colossus-class aircraft carrier fought against Egypt.
HMS Ocean and HMS Theseus conducted the first-ever large-scale helicopter-borne assault from
the ship. Their Whirlwind and Sycamore helicopters landed 425 British commandos and 23 tons of
supplies into Port Said in 90 minutes. During the war, the F4U Corsairs of FS Arromanches
bombed the airports around Cairo. Royal Canadian Navy commissioned three ships
of these classes. But none of them served together. One replaced the other.
They served as anti-submarine warfare carriers to protect the north Atlantic sea lines against
the Soviet submarines. The Royal Netherlands Navy bought HMS Venerable
in 1948 and re-named as HNLMS Karel Doorman. During the West New Guinea dispute, the ship
deployed to the region. To deal with HNLMS Karel Doorman, Indonesia
acquired Tu-16 bombers and AS-1 Kennel missiles from the USSR.
But, the Netherlands and Indonesia implemented a ceasefire. The aircraft left the area. Later,
HNLMS Karel Doorman served as an anti-submarine carrier, like her Canadian sisters.
In 1968, a fire occurred in the ship's boiler room. In the same years, the Netherlands was
planning to decommission HNLMS Karel Doorman due to budget cuts. So, the aircraft carrier
sold to Argentina after refit. She was renamed as ARA Veinticinco de Mayo
and replaced her sister, ARA Independencia. During the 1982 Falklands War, the aircraft
carrier provided air cover for the Argentine landings on the islands.
After the invasion, the Royal Navy sent HMS Splendid nuclear attack submarine to hunt
down ARA Veinticinco de Mayo. On April 23, 1982, HMS Splendid detected the
target near Puerto Belgrano. As the submarine was very far from the exclusion
zone, so it was not allowed to attack. ARA Veinticinco de Mayo was unaware of the
danger. On May 1, 1982, the ship attempted to launch
a wave of six A-4s against the British Task Force. But, the wind prevented taking off
the fully loaded Skyhawks. One day later, HMS Conqueror sunk ARA General
Belgrano cruiser. Now, Argentine Navy realized the danger.
For the rest of the war, ARA Veinticinco de Mayo waited at the port.
India purchased the Majestic-class incompleted HMS Hercules in 1957. She was commissioned
four years later and re-named as INS Vikrant. The ship participated in the Annexation of
Goa that same year but did not see any action. During the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War, INS Vikrant
was in the dry dock. But, six years later, she had a chance to
prove herself. During the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War, INS Vikrant fought on the Eastern front.
The Pakistan Navy had anticipated this move and sent PNS Ghazi submarine to hunt the Indian
aircraft carrier. Initially, this move prevented INS Vikrant
from acting comfortably in the region. But, PNS Ghazi sunk because of unknown reason
at the very beginning of the war. And, this was a big relief for INS Vikrant.
The Sea Hawks of the ship attacked the ports of Chittagong and Cox's Bazar, sunk or disabled
most of the ships present. Later, they bombed Khulna, the port of Mongla, Pakistani barracks
in Chittagong, and destroyed many anti-aircraft guns. INS Vikrant had a key role in the Pakistani
defeat. The last ship of the class, NAeL Minas Gerais
of the Brazilian Navy, was decommissioned in 2001.
In the beginning, the Royal Navy had projected the Colossus and Majestic-classes as a disposable
aircraft carrier. After the war, they would be scrapped. But, their fate was different.
The Colossus and Majestic-classes served in eight nations' navies. They fought in important
wars. They protected the sealines of the free world. These ships proved that an aircraft
carrier was not a luxury of the superpowers, and relatively small countries could have
this type of naval vessels. Their achievements have made the Colossus-class and the Majestic-class
a true legend. Thanks for watching our video. And please
don't forget to subscribe to our channel and give us a thumbs up if you like our video.
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