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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Photo # 19-SB-2J-1:  British aircraft carrier Ark Royal, photographed soon after completion

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- SHIPS of the BRITISH NAVY --

HMS Ark Royal (Aircraft Carrier, 1938-1941)

HMS Ark Royal, a 22,000-ton aircraft carrier built at Birkenhead, England, was completed in November 1938. After working-up during the months prior to the September 1939 outbreak of hostilities, she played an important role in the first two years of the Second World War. In December 1939 she was sent to the South Atlantic to help in the search for the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. The spring of 1940 saw her participating in the Norwegian campaign, and in July she was one of the ships that attacked the French Navy's base at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria. The following September, Ark Royal took part in a second assault on the French Navy, this time at Dakar. While covering a Mediterranean convoy in late November, her planes attacked Italian battleships, though without making any hits. In return, she was bombed, and missed, by enemy aircraft.

During March 1941, Ark Royal pursued the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the last phase of their Atlantic sortie. On 26 May of that year, her torpedo planes hit the Bismarck, making the enemy battleship virtually unmaneuverable and allowing other British warships to close and sink her.

Ark Royal was also very active in the Mediterranean during 1941. She struck the port of Genoa in early February, during a bold British Naval raid deep into Italian-controlled waters. On several occasions, she ferried planes to the beleaguered base at Malta and covered Malta-bound convoys. While returning to Gibraltar from one such mission, Ark Royal was torpedoed by the German submarine U-81. After a difficult struggle against progressive flooding, the carrier capsized and sank on 14 November 1941.

This page features all our views of the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal (1938-1941).

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: 19-SB-2J-1

HMS Ark Royal
(British Aircraft Carrier, 1938-1941)

Photographed soon after completion, circa late 1938 or early 1939

Photograph from the Collections of the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 84KB; 740 x 480 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 79167

HMS Ark Royal
(British Aircraft Carrier, 1938-1941)

Photographed circa 1939, with a Fairey "Swordfish" aircraft taking off as another approaches from astern.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 505 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 85716

HMS Ark Royal
(British Aircraft Carrier, 1938-1941)

Photographed in 1939, with a flight of No.820 Squadron Fairey "Swordfish I" aircraft passing overhead.
The plane nearest to the camera, marked "650", is # L9781.

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1977.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 445 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 86396-KN (Color)

HMS Ark Royal (British Aircraft Carrier, 1938-1941)

Watercolor by Edward Tufnell, RN (Retired), depicting the ship under attack by German bombers, in 1941.

Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC. Donation of Melvin Conant, 1969.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 86393-KN (Color)

"Force 'H' off Gibraltar"

Watercolor by Edward Tufnell, RN (Retired), depicting British battlecruiser Renown, battleship Malaya and aircraft carrier Ark Royal operating together in 1941.

Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC. Donation of Melvin Conant, 1969.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 42KB; 740 x 520 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97585

HMS Ark Royal
(British Aircraft Carrier, 1938-1941)

Probably photographed immediately after launching, which took place on 13 April 1937.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 15 April 2001