Career
Name:	HMS Ark Royal (91)
Ordered:	1934 build programme
Builder:	Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd.
Laid down:	16 September 1935
Launched:	13 April 1937
Commissioned:	16 December 1938
Fate:	Sunk 14 November 1941 after being torpedoed by U-81 on 13 November 1941
General characteristics
Displacement:	22,000 tons
Length:	800 feet (240 m) overall 721.5 ft (220 m) waterline
Beam:	94.8 ft (28.9 m)
Draught:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Propulsion:	6 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 3 Parsons geared turbines
Speed:	31 knots (57 km/h)
Range:	7,600 nautical miles (14,100 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	1,600 officers and men
Armament:	16 × 4.5 in (114 mm) guns (8 × 2) 48 × 2 pounder (1.5 in) Pom-poms (6 × 8) 32 × .50 calibre (12.7 mm) machine guns (8 × 4)
Armour:	4.5 inches (110 mm) belt 3.5 in (89 mm) deck over boiler rooms and magazines
Aircraft carried:	60 to 72 1939–40: 26 Fairey Swordfish, 24 Blackburn Skuas 1940–41: 30 Fairey Swordfish, 12 Blackburn Skuas, 12 Fairey Fulmars 1941: 36 Fairey Swordfish, 18 Fairey Fulmars
Motto:	Desire n'a pas Repos - "Zeal Does Not Rest"
Honours and awards:	Norway 1940 Spartivento 1940 Mediterranean 1940 to 1941 Bismarck 1941 Malta Convoys 1941

HMS Ark Royal (91) was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that served in the Second World War and was torpedoed on 13 November 1941 by the German submarine U-81, sinking the following day. She was designed in 1934 to meet the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty, and was built by Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd. at Birkenhead, England. Completed in November 1938, she served in some of the most active naval theatres of the early stages of the war. She was involved in a number of notable actions including the search for the Bismarck, operations off Norway and the Malta convoys. She survived several near misses in her short career, and had a reputation for being a 'lucky ship'. The Germans reported her as sunk on a number of occasions.

Her design as one of the first purpose-built carriers incorporated many new features, and differed in numerous ways from previous designs. This was the first time where the flight deck was an integral part of the ship as opposed to an add-on or superstructure deck as on earlier vessels. Designed to carry a maximum number of aircraft, she was fitted with two levels of hangar decks. She served during a period that first saw the extensive use of naval air power; carrier tactics were often developed and refined using Ark Royal. Due to her involvement in the vital Malta convoys and the sinking of the Bismarck, she became one of the most famous ships of the Royal Navy.

Her sinking was critically investigated, as it happened after a long period of attempting to save the ship and tow her to the nearby naval base at Gibraltar. Her final resting place was unknown until December 2002, when it was located further from Gibraltar than had been officially reported after the sinking.

Design

The concept of Ark Royal dated back to 1923, when the Admiralty prepared plans for a ten year building programme, which included an aircraft carrier and 300 aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm.^[1] Though a period of economic downturn caused the plans to be postponed, by 1930 they were again being worked upon by the Director of Naval Construction, Sir Arthur Johns. The aim was to increase the number of aircraft that could be carried.^[1] This involved testing methods of bringing aircraft to a halt on the flight deck more quickly using arrestor wire, and launching them in less space using catapults, to free up part of the deck for storing aircraft.^[1]

Ark Royal immediately after launching. The elevators on the flight deck and the anti-aircraft positions on the hull are visible.

An important consideration in the plans for Ark Royal was in the design of her engines. She was fitted with six boilers, turning three shafts and three bronze propellers 16 feet (4.9 metres) in diameter. This would give her a designed speed of 30 knots, important for several reasons.^[2] The development of faster and heavier aircraft meant that even equipped with catapult and arrestor gear, Ark Royal would have to turn into the wind to launch and recover her planes. This meant turning away from the main fleet, requiring a fast run to catch up with them once she had completed flight operations. She was also not heavily armed, relying on her aircraft for her main weaponry, so high speed was needed to outrun enemy warships.^[1]

Dependent on either having escorts to fight enemy ships, or being fast enough to escape them, the main enemy Ark Royal herself was expected to engage was enemy aircraft.^[3] She was initially designed with 4.5 inch anti-aircraft guns low on the side of her hull, but Johns later altered the designs to place them higher on the hull, just below the flight deck, to give them a clear arc of fire. They were placed in eight double turrets, four on each side of the ship. In addition, eight machine guns were fitted to the front and rear of the flight deck on small projecting decks, and four 2 pounder (1.5 in) pom-poms were placed on the flight deck itself, to the front and rear of the island.^[4]

The Washington and London Naval Treaties, which had placed restrictions on the tonnage of the warships of a number of the Great Powers, were due to expire at the end of 1936.^[a] With a potential naval arms race developing between Britain, Japan and Italy, the British government was keen to seek a new treaty with a limit of 22,000 tons on aircraft carriers.^[5] Ark Royal would therefore have to fit within this anticipated limit. This was achieved by reducing the amount of armour plating to just that covering the engine rooms and magazines, and the use of large scale welding instead of riveting. About 65% of Ark Royal was welded, saving around 500 tons.^[5]

Another major feature was the length and height of the flight deck, which at 800 feet (244 meters) was some 36 metres longer than the hull, and in order to fit two hangar decks, rose 20 metres above the waterline. The length of the hull was limited by the need to access the important Navy ports at Gibraltar and Malta, and the hull was eventually the maximum length permitted at that time for drydocking. The increased height afforded storage space for 72 aircraft, but meant that fitting protective armour to the deck would have resulted in a top heavy and unstable ship. In order to save weight and prolong fuel endurance, the flight deck was left un-armoured.^[5]

Construction

The length of Ark Royal's flight deck overhangs the stern. Her unusual height above the waterline is visible in comparison with the tugboat.

The deteriorating international situation by 1933, typified by Germany's rearmament and Japan and Italy's expansionist aims, convinced the British government to allocate funds to resume the long-delayed construction programme. The money was announced in the 1934 budget proposals and plans for the new carrier were completed by November 1934.^[6] The plans were tendered in February 1935 to Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd., who proceeded to calculate the costs, with the hull costing £1,496,250 and the main machinery coming to another half a million pounds.^[7] The overall cost was estimated at more than £3 million, making Ark Royal the most expensive ship by then ordered by the Navy.^[8] Construction began on Job No. 1012 when her keel was laid down on 16 September 1935.^[9]

Ark Royal spent two years in the builder's yard before being launched on 13 April 1937 by Lady Maud Hoare, wife of Sir Samuel Hoare, then First Lord of the Admiralty. The bottle of champagne she threw against Ark Royal’s bows did not smash until the fourth attempt.^[c] The carrier spent a year fitting out before being handed over to her first commander, Captain Arthur Power, on 16 November 1938. She was commissioned a month later on 16 December.^[9] After her crew joined her at the end of 1938, Ark Royal began an intensive period of trials and tests to prepare her for service with the Home Fleet.

Service history

With the hunter-killer groups

The outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939 had been presaged by Germany's U-boat fleet sailing from their bases to take up positions off the British coast, where they could intercept shipping travelling to and from British ports. They claimed their first kill, the passenger ship SS Athenia, within hours of the start of the war, and would go on to sink 65,000 tons of shipping in the first week.^[10][11] Ark Royal was deployed with the Home Fleet in the North Western Approaches as part of a "hunter-killer" group. These consisted of a flotilla of destroyers and other anti-submarine vessels grouped around an aircraft carrier, in this case HMS Courageous, HMS Hermes or Ark Royal. Being able to deploy a large number of aircraft over a wide area of ocean meant the U-boats had to remain submerged or risk attack, but also made the large, vulnerable aircraft carriers into tempting targets.^[11] Meanwhile Ark Royal’s aircraft reached the Fanad Head, by now in the hands of a German boarding party. They commenced several unsuccessful attacks on U-30, losing two of their number when they dropped their bombs at such a low altitude that they were caught in the blast and crashed into the sea. U-30 torpedoed the Fanad Head and fled the scene.^[d]

Ark Royal returned to her base in Loch Ewe, where she and her crew were inspected by Winston Churchill, and the successful sinking of U-39 was hailed as an important boost to morale.^[e] However HMS Courageous’s sinking on 17 September and Ark Royal’s near miss convinced the Admiralty that it was too dangerous to continue risking their few aircraft carriers. The practice of carrier centred hunter-killer groups was abandoned.^[11][12] Whilst escorting Spearfish back to port in company with HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney on 26 September, the ships were followed by a group of three Dornier seaplanes.^[13] A flight of three Blackburn Skua aircraft was sent to disperse them, and one of the Dorniers was shot down, for the first British aerial kill of the war.^[14]

With enemy air forces now aware of their position, the air commander aboard Ark Royal ordered the aircraft to be secured, relying on an anti-aircraft barrage rather than aerial interception.^[15] The ships soon came under attack by five Heinkel bombers. Intense anti-aircraft fire drove away four of them, but the fifth launched a 1,000 kg bomb at the Ark Royal. By executing a hard turn to starboard, the carrier heeled hard over and missed the bomb, which fell 30 metres off her starboard bow and sent a large spout of water over the ship. Ark Royal escaped major damage, but the German pilots had not seen whether or not she had been hit, and a later reconnaissance flight saw the two battleships but no aircraft carrier.^[14]

Hunting the Graf Spee

In October Ark Royal was redeployed to Freetown to operate off the African coast in the hunt for the German commerce raider Graf Spee. She was part of Force K for these duties, and sailed in company with the battlecruiser HMS Renown into the South Atlantic and off the Brazilian coast.^[13] Force K had better luck on 5 November, when Ark Royal intercepted and captured the German merchant SS Uhenfels. The Uhenfels had been attempting to reach Germany, and was later taken into British service and used as a cargo ship.^[16]

The Graf Spee had by now put into Montevideo harbour to repair damage sustained during the battle of the River Plate. She had been trailed by several British cruisers, which reported Graf Spee’s position to the rest of the fleet. Ark Royal and Renown were dispatched to join the forces patrolling off the harbour entrance, waiting for the Graf Spee to emerge. Whilst enroute, the British naval attaché came up with a plan to create the illusion that the British force outside of the harbour was more powerful than it actually was. Ark Royal and Renown were still 36 hours sail away to the north of Montevideo, but an order for fuel for Ark Royal was placed at Buenos Aires, to the south of Montevideo. This information was leaked to the press, and from there it reached the German embassy in Montevideo, followed by the captain of the Graf Spee, Hans Langsdorff.^[17] Believing that this meant that Ark Royal and Renown had already arrived contributed to Langsdorff's decision to scuttle his ship.^[17] She was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet to carry out a series of exercises, departing Scapa Flow for Alexandria on 31 March, with the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious.^[18] She arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean on 8 April and commenced exercises, but the day before on 7 April, the Germans launched Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway. By 9 April the exercises had been cancelled and the carriers sailed to Gibraltar in readiness for further deployments in the Mediterranean, or a return to home waters.^[19]

Meanwhile, the Germans had secured a large part of the Norwegian coast. Attempts by the British fleet to operate in support of their troops led to them being overwhelmed by heavy air attacks, which led to the sinking of HMS Gurkha and the near sinking of HMS Suffolk. Realising that British ships could not hope to operate off the Norwegian coast without air cover, but aware that land based aircraft in the United Kingdom did not have the range for extensive operations that far from their bases, the Admiralty finally recalled Ark Royal and Glorious from the Mediterranean on 16 April.^[19]

The Norwegian campaign

Ark Royal and Glorious arrived at Scapa Flow and were almost immediately deployed, sailing on 23 April in company with the cruisers HMS Curlew and HMS Berwick and screened by the destroyers HMS Hyperion, HMS Hereward, HMS Hasty, HMS Fearless, HMS Fury and HMS Juno. These ships were part of Operation DX , the first time the Royal Navy had developed a task force that included an aircraft carrier with the prime purpose of providing fighter protection for warships, and to carry out offensive strikes against shipping and shore targets, as well as anti-submarine patrols.^[13] She returned briefly to Scapa Flow on 27 April to refuel and embark more aircraft, before heading back to Norwegian waters, escorted by the battleship HMS Valiant.^[13]

A Blackburn Skua landing on Ark Royal. The Skuas were the mainstay of the Fleet Air Arm in the early stages of the War. Also visible are the arrestor wires strung across the flight deck.

By now it had been realised by the British high command that they could not hold the Germans in southern Norway. Consequently the evacuation of Allied troops from Molde and Åndalsnes was ordered, with Ark Royal providing air cover from 30 April. On 1 May, the Germans made a determined effort to sink the Ark Royal, and numerous air attacks occurred throughout the day. Several bombs fell close to her, but her fighters and a heavy anti-aircraft barrage succeeded in driving off the enemy.^[20] By 3 May, the evacuation was complete and with German air cover expanding ever further north, the carriers were recalled to Scapa Flow to refuel and rearm. Captain Arthur Power left the ship for a promotion at the Admiralty, and was replaced by Captain Cedric Holland.^[21] Ark Royal then returned to the Norwegian coast to provide air cover for operations around Narvik, including the landing of additional French troops on 13 May.^[22] She was joined on 18 May by the carriers HMS Glorious and HMS Furious.^[13] Operation Alphabet was instigated, to evacuate allied troops from Narvik and return them to Britain. Ark Royal and Glorious, screened by the destroyers HMS Highlander, HMS Diana, HMS Acasta, HMS Ardent and HMS Acheron, sailed from Scapa Flow on 1 June to cover the evacuation, which commenced the next day. Ark Royal carried out air patrols and bombing raids from 3 June to 6 June, before redeploying to Narvik on 7 June. Disaster struck the next day, when HMS Glorious, escorted by HMS Acasta and HMS Ardent, had been detached to return to the UK. The ships were spotted by the German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and were sunk after a short battle. A search by Ark Royal’s aircraft failed to discover the German ships, which by then had returned to Trondheim.^[23]

The last evacuation convoy left Narvik on 9 June, but a raid on Trondheim discovered the Scharnhorst. An attack on the ship was organised for Ark Royal’s Skuas and took place at midnight on 13 June.^[24] As Ark Royal turned into the wind to launch aircraft in foggy conditions, two of her escorting destroyers, HMS Antelope and HMS Electra, collided, and had to return to England for urgent repairs.^[25] The raid itself ended in disaster; eight Skuas were shot down, but the Scharnhorst escaped damage.^[26] Ark Royal returned to Scapa Flow the following day. With the Norwegian campaign over, the Admiralty's attention turned to the Mediterranean and it was decided to reassign Ark Royal there.^[27]

Mediterranean deployment

Ark Royal left Scapa Flow in company with HMS Hood and three escorting destroyers, arriving at Gibraltar on 23 June. Here she joined Force H, under Sir James Somerville. After the capitulation of France there was concern over whether the French fleet, anchored at Mers-el-Kébir, might fall into the hands of the Axis powers, and potentially fatally tip the balance against the Allies.^[28] Ark Royal’s captain, Cedric Holland, had previously been the British naval attaché in Paris and was sent to negotiate the surrender or scuttling of the French fleet.^[29] Force H deployed outside the harbour, with orders to open fire to sink the French ships if they refused either option. When the French admirals refused to agree to the British terms, and with French reinforcements on the way, the British opened fire. Ark Royal’s aircraft provided targeting information during the brief engagement that became known as the attack on Mers-el-Kébir.^[30] The French battleship Strasbourg escaped the harbour and, despite multiple attacks by Swordfish from Ark Royal, managed to make it clear.^[31] Two days later, Ark Royal again launched her aircraft, to ensure that the French battleship Dunkerque, which had been beached in the initial attack, was put out of action.^[32]

A Fairey Swordfish aircraft lands on Ark Royal’s flight deck, whilst a Blackburn Skua circles overhead. Photograph taken from HMS Kelvin after the attacks on the Italian Fleet off Sardinia.

Having successfully reduced the possibility of a French challenge in the Mediterranean, Force H prepared a series of attacks on Italian targets, and sailed from Gibraltar on 8 July.^[33] Within eight hours they came under attack from Italian bombers. Though the ships escaped damage, Somerville decided it was too risky to continue, cancelled the raids, and returned to Gibraltar.^[34] By now, the island of Malta had begun to come under air attack, and the Admiralty decided to use the old carrier HMS Argus to deliver Hawker Hurricanes to reinforce Malta's air defences.^[35] Force H left Gibraltar on 31 July to carry out the operation. As well as covering the fleet, Ark Royal launched a successful air attack on 2 August on the Italian air base at Cagliari. The ships returned to Gibraltar on 4 August after having successfully reinforced Malta.^[36]

Ark Royal and the fleet remained at Gibraltar until 30 September, when they escorted reinforcements for Admiral Andrew Cunningham's fleet at Alexandria.^[37] Again, diversionary attacks were planned on Italian air bases at Elmas and Cagliari, and these were carried out on 1 September and were largely successful. The fleet was able to reach Alexandria largely untroubled by the Italian airforce.^[38] Ark Royal was then briefly detached to travel to West Africa as part of an attempt to encourage the Vichy French colonies to switch their allegiance to the Free French, but this ended in failure when the battle of Dakar broke out.^[39] The carrier then returned to the UK escorted by HMS Fortune, HMS Forester and HMS Greyhound, arriving at Liverpool on 8 October where she entered dock for a refit.^[40] These included repairs to her machinery and the fitting of a new flight deck barrier. The work lasted until 3 November, when Ark Royal, accompanied by HMS Barham, HMS Berwick and HMS Glasgow, sailed for Gibraltar, arriving on 6 November.^[41]

Bombs falling astern of Ark Royal during an attack by Italian aircraft during the Battle of Cape Spartivento. (photograph taken from the cruiser HMS Sheffield)

On arrival, the ships were almost immediately deployed to escort convoys from Gibraltar across the Mediterranean. Force H escorted a number of convoys to Alexandria and Malta, before covering a convoy as part of Operation Collar on 25 November. The Italian fleet, including the battleships Giulio Cesare and Vittorio Veneto, were despatched to intercept the convoy.^[42] They were detected by a reconnaissance flight from Ark Royal. A strike force of Swordfish torpedo bombers was immediately flown off the carrier and the capital ships of Force H turned to meet the enemy ships, and the battle of Cape Spartivento developed.^[43] A brief engagement followed, after which one of the escorting Italian cruisers was damaged, either by a torpedo from one of Ark Royal’s aircraft or from gunfire from the British warships. Several other air attacks were made, but failed to hit any of the Italian ships, or to sink the damaged cruiser. In the meantime, the Italian airforce arrived to attack the British ships, and launched several bombing runs on Ark Royal. Despite several near misses, she survived unscathed.^[44]

On 14 December Ark Royal and Force H left Gibraltar and headed into the Atlantic to operate off the Azores in search of commerce raiders. She briefly returned to the Mediterranean on 20 December to escort HMS Malaya and several merchant ships from Malta, before returning to the Azores on 27 December to resume the searches.^[45] Force H then became involved in Operation Excess, a complicated plan to move convoys through the Mediterranean to support the Eighth Army. Following the entry of the Luftwaffe into the Mediterranean theatre and the near loss of HMS Illustrious, British control of the Mediterranean was seriously weakened.^[46] Needing to demonstrate British strength to the Spanish, and relieve the pressure on the Mediterranean Fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean, a plan was formulated by the Admiralty and Admiral Cunningham to carry out a series of bombing raids on Italian targets, supported by heavy fleet units. The first raid was targeted on the Tirso Dam in Sardinia, and was carried out on 2 January by Ark Royal’s Swordfish bombers. The attack ended with the dam unscathed.^[47] Better luck came on 6 January, when she bombed targets in Genoa, and covered HMS Renown and HMS Malaya whilst they shelled the port. On 9 January Ark Royal launched aircraft to bomb an oil refinery at La Spezia, and to lay mines in the harbour. Both operations were successful.^[48]

The search for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau

In early February, the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau headed into the Atlantic on the orders of Admiral Erich Raeder. They were to disrupt allied shipping, and force large numbers of capital ships to be assigned to hunt them, taking them away from other theatres of operations. Their tactics were effective, and on 8 March Force H and Ark Royal were ordered to the Canary Islands to begin to search for the Germans, and to provide cover for inbound convoys crossing the Atlantic.^[49] Her aircraft also searched for captured ships headed to Germany under the control of prize crews. They eventually located three such ships on 19 March. Two scuttled themselves, but one, SS Polykarp, was retaken.^[50]

Two days later on 21 March, a Fairey Fulmar from Ark Royal stumbled across the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau underway at sea, but due to a radio malfunction was forced to fly back to Ark Royal to report.^[51] By the time other aircraft were despatched to attack the German ships, they had slipped away under the cover of fog.^[52] Ark Royal then suffered damage when launching a Fairey Fulmar. A malfunction in the catapult launch system caused the aircraft to disintegrate on launch, flinging the fuselage into the sea ahead of the ship, which then ran over it. The depth charges the aircraft carried then detonated at their pre-set depth as Ark Royal passed overhead.^[53] Meanwhile, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau escaped detection long enough to reach safety in the port of Brest. Ark Royal returned to Gibraltar on 24 March to refuel and carry out temporary repairs.^[54]

Malta convoys and Operation Tiger

An intense anti-aircraft barrage is visible during an attack by Italian torpedo bombers on Force H. Ark Royal is on the left, with an Italian aircraft over her bows, and to the right is HMS Renown.

Ark Royal spent April alternating duties covering convoys and delivering aircraft to Malta with forays into the Atlantic to hunt commerce raiders. By May 1941, Rommel's Afrika Korps were driving through North Africa towards the Suez Canal, pushing the Eighth Army before them. With British forces close to collapse and vital strategic locations threatened, the British High Command decided to risk a convoy across the Mediterranean to Alexandria, to reinforce the troops. The convoy consisted of five large transport ships, escorted by Ark Royal, the battleships HMS Renown and HMS Queen Elizabeth, the cruisers HMS Sheffield, HMS Naiad, HMS Fiji and HMS Gloucester, and screened by destroyers of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla.^[55] Prior to its departure, Captain Holland left the ship to recuperate after an illness, and was replaced by Captain Loben Maund.^[56] The convoy left Gibraltar on 6 May and was soon detected by Italian reconnaissance aircraft. The presence of the large convoy, limited to 14 knots and escorted by so many capital ships, provided a tempting target for the Italian and German airforces, which quickly mobilised to attack.^[57]

The ships came under heavy air attacks on 8 May, at first by the Italian airforce, and then by the Germans. Ark Royal’s Fulmars, directed to their targets by HMS Sheffield’s radar, managed to disrupt the enemy formations and, in conjunction with heavy anti-aircraft fire from the convoy escorts, succeeded in driving them off.^[58] Despite several near misses, the convoy made it through.^[h] A maximum of 12 Fairey Fulmars had successfully defended the ships against around 50 enemy aircraft.^[59] She survived another aerial attack on 12 May whilst making the return journey, and later that month made another delivery of Hurricanes to Malta with HMS Furious.^[i][60]

Hunting the Bismarck

On 18 May, the German battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen had commenced Operation Rheinübung by breaking out into the Atlantic to raid allied shipping. After sinking HMS Hood and damaging HMS Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Bismarck shook off her pursuers and headed for the French Atlantic coast.^[61] Ark Royal, Renown and Sheffield, accompanied by the destroyers HMS Faulknor, HMS Foresight, HMS Forester, HMS Fortune, HMS Foxhound and HMS Fury, were dispatched into the Atlantic on 23 May to search for the elusive Bismarck.^[62] On 26 May, a Swordfish from Ark Royal made contact with the Bismarck and began to shadow her.^[63]

One of Ark Royal’s Fairey Swordfish returns at low level over the sea after making a torpedo attack on the Bismarck.

The pursuing ships of the Home Fleet were still 130 miles away, and it was clear that unless the Bismarck could be slowed, she would reach the safety of the French port of Saint-Nazaire before the British ships could engage her. A flight of Swordfish bombers were armed with torpedoes and sent to attack the Bismarck. Unbeknownst to the pilots, the cruiser HMS Sheffield was shadowing Bismarck, and at that time was between the Ark Royal and the German ship. The torpedo bombers launched an attack on the supposed enemy, but fortunately, their torpedoes had been fitted with the then new magnetic exploders. Eleven of the fourteen torpedoes were dropped, but most exploded on contact with the water, and the rest were evaded by Sheffield.^[64] One of the pilots signalled 'Sorry for the kipper' to Sheffield.

Torpedoes with the older contact exploders were then fitted to Ark Royal's Swordfishes and another attack was made just before sunset. In the second attack, her torpedo planes fired several torpedoes at the Bismarck, with three hitting the ship. Two struck forward of the engine rooms, whilst another hit the port steering room, damaging her rudder machinery, and jamming her rudders in a turn to port.^[65] This brought the Bismarck around in a circle, and she began to head back into the Atlantic and into the paths of the oncoming British warships. The British capital ships came within range of the Bismarck several hours later and succeeded in sinking her.

Six Blackburn Skuas of No 800 Squadron Fleet Air Arm line up on deck before taking off

Escorting the Malta convoys

Ark Royal and the ships of Force H returned to Gibraltar on 29 May. Despite the morale boost from sinking the Bismarck, the war in the Mediterranean was going badly for the Allies. Greece and Crete had fallen, and the Afrika Korps was preparing to launch a final push into Egypt. Malta remained an important stronghold in the Mediterranean, but was coming under increased pressure from Italian and German air attacks, and could no longer be supplied from the east since the fall of Crete.^[66] Ark Royal was pressed into service, making aircraft deliveries throughout June and on 21 July, and escorting the convoys of Operation Substance and later Operation Halberd. Despite heavy losses, the convoys succeeded in keeping Malta supplied and fighting.^[67] The continued Allied presence in Malta was a considerable problem for Rommel in Africa, who was losing as much as a third of his supplies from Italy to submarines and bombers based there.^[68] Adolf Hitler decided to send a flotilla of U-boats into the Mediterranean to attack allied shipping, against the advice of Admiral Raeder.^[68]

Final voyage and sinking

On 10 November Ark Royal ferried more aircraft to Malta, before making the return voyage to Malta. Admiral Somerville had been warned of U-boats operating off the Spanish coast and reminded the ships of Force H to be vigilant.^[69] Also at sea was Friedrich Guggenberger's U-81, which had received an intelligence report that the ships of Force H were expected to soon be returning to Gibraltar.^[70] At 15.40 hours, the sonar operator aboard the escorting destroyer HMS Legion detected an unidentified sound, but assumed it was the propellers of a nearby destroyer. One minute later, Ark Royal was struck by a single torpedo.^[71]

HMS Legion moves alongside the damaged and listing HMS Ark Royal in order to take off survivors

Captain Maund attempted to order the engines to full stop, but the telegraph system had been destroyed and a runner had to be sent to the engine room.^[72] By the time the Ark Royal came to a stop, she had taken on a considerable amount of water and begun to list. One man, Able Seaman Mitchell, was killed in the initial explosion, which had occurred between the fuel bunkers and the bomb store, directly under the bridge.^[73] This position, being dead amidships, meant that the list caused would be greatest, and its position relative to the transverse bulkheads was such that four main compartments, plus over 106 feet (32 m) of the ship's starboard bilge, were immediately subject to flooding.

The explosion opened a hole 130 feet (40 m) long by 30 feet (9.1 m) deep, the size being increased by the time taken to bring the ship to a halt, which resulted in additional hull plating being peeled off. The starboard boiler room, air spaces, and oil tanks were flooded, as were the main switchboard and the lower steering position. The starboard power train was also knocked out by the hit, but the port and centreline trains kept functioning. Flooding entered the electricity switch room and the telegraph exchange, causing the rear half of the ship to lose power. Progressive flooding choked the boiler uptakes; since she had no diesel backups, all power was lost, including power to the pumps.^[74]

Some of the torpedo blast vented upwards through a bomb trunk forward of the Island. The ship whipped violently with the explosion, which caused the fully-loaded torpedo-bombers on the flight deck to be hurled into the air; however she showed very little shock damage internally, and her masts remained standing. She immediately took on a 10 degree list that increased to 18 degrees within 20 minutes.^[75] Due to the flooding of the switchboard, communications within the ship were lost. With the ship leaning over alarmingly, and the rapid sinking of HMS Courageous and HMS Glorious in mind, Captain Maund gave the order to abandon ship. All personnel were withdrawn from the machinery spaces and assembled topside in order to determine who should leave the ship and who should remain on board. As a result of this action, flooding was uncontrolled until 49 minutes after the attack, when damage control measures were initiated. During this critical period, the centreline boiler room started to flood from below. This was exacerbated when several covers and armoured hatches were left open after the evacuation of the machinery spaces, allowing the flooding to spread.^[76]

Another photograph showing the degree of the list

HMS Legion came alongside and began to take off members of the crew. The evacuation proceeded calmly, and half an hour after the torpedo struck, the list seemed to have stabilised and the watertight bulkheads were holding. Somerville was determined to save the Ark Royal, and headed at full speed to Gibraltar aboard HMS Malaya to organise salvage efforts. Damage control parties were recalled from HMS Legion, but were hampered in their efforts by the loss of power. The destroyer HMS Laforey came alongside to provide power and additional pumps, whilst Swordfish from Gibraltar arrived to supplement anti-submarine patrols around the stricken carrier.^[77] At 20.00 hours the tug Thames arrived from Gibraltar and attached a tow line to Ark Royal. The damage control teams managed to relight a boiler and used it to power a generator. With some electrical power, they were able to get a few pumps working.

However, by this time, the list had increased to 18 degrees and the flooding was starting to spread across the ship's boiler room flat. This was an uninterrupted compartment running across the whole width of the ship, making the entire area of the machinery spaces vulnerable. The efforts made by the engine room crews to restore power were futile. The boiler room flat flooding forced the plant to be shut down again. Progressive flooding now caused the list to increase rapidly. The list reached 20 degrees 11 hours and 4 minutes after the hit and touched 27 degrees an hour and a quarter later. At this point, the abandon ship order was again given.^[78] All crew were off the ship at 04.30 hours, 12 hours 19 minutes after the hit, at which time the list had reached 35 degrees. HMS Ark Royal capsized and sank at 06.19 hours, after the list reached 45 degrees.^[79] The last eyewitnesses on the scene reported that she rolled on to her beam ends, paused for about three minutes, then rolled right over. She then appeared to break in two, with the aft section sinking within a couple of minutes, followed quickly by the bow.^[80] All of the crew, with the exception of Able Seaman Mitchell who had been killed in the initial explosion of the torpedo, survived the torpedoing and sinking, and 1,487 officers and crew were transported to Gibraltar aboard HMS Legion.^[81]

Investigation of the sinking

Immediately after the sinking, a Board of Inquiry was set up to investigate the loss of Ark Royal, and a standard court-martial was held of her Captain, Loben Maund. On the evidence gathered, he was charged with negligence and the court-martial began in February 1942. He was subsequently found guilty on two counts: one of negligence in failing to ensure that properly constituted damage control parties had remained on board after the general evacuation, and one of failing to ensure the ship was in a sufficient state of readiness to deal with possible damage. The board tempered their judgement with an acknowledgement that a very high standard was being expected of Maund, and that he had been primarily concerned with the welfare of his crew.^[82]

Meanwhile, the Bucknill Committee, which had been set up to investigate the loss of major warships also produced a report on the sinking. Their report highlighted the main failing in their eyes, the failure to provide alternative sources of power once the boilers and steam generators had been knocked out. The modern design of Ark Royal depended on electricity for much of its operation, and the loss of power made damage control measures particularly difficult. The committee also recommended improved designs to the bulkheads and the boiler uptakes of future carriers, to reduce the risk of rapid flooding entering the boiler rooms and machine spaces. Similarly the uninterrupted boiler room flat was criticised and was immediately rectified in the Illustrious and Implacable class carriers under construction.^[83][84]

The inquiry closed the report with the observation that Ark Royal had sunk 22 miles due east of Europa Point, the southernmost tip of Gibraltar. This location was widely accepted and remained the believed wreck site of the Ark Royal for the next sixty years.^[85]

Rediscovery

The exact location of the wreck remained unknown until mid-December 2002, when the BBC announced that a film crew, working aboard a number of boats including the luxury yacht Octopus, had located the wreck in 900 metres of water some 30 nautical miles (55 km) off Gibraltar.^[86] This was further away from Gibraltar than the inquiry had claimed, and the researchers initially thought that the submerged wreck had been caught in the currents that flow through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean.^[87] This would have caused the wreck to drift eastwards from the point of her sinking before settling on the seabed. However debris found alongside the wreck, including the remains of a Swordfish bomber that had been photographed on the flight deck before the sinking proved that the ship had come to rest close to where she had sunk, as the aircraft would have been lost when the ship rolled before sinking, and would have been in an entirely different location. She had also made little progress towards Gibraltar before sinking, despite having been under tow for several hours.^[88]

The wreck lies in two main sections, twenty metres of the bow section having separated from the main hull and come to rest upside down south of the main section. North of the bow section are the remains of the funnel and bridge superstructure, and north of that is the main hull. Analysis of the damage revealed that the port side of the ship had struck the seabed first. A large field of debris, made of parts of the ship that came loose as she broke up and including the remains of the fighters stored in the hangars, lies between the separated portions of the ship.^[89]

These findings seemed to absolve Ark Royal’s captain of blame for failing to save her. The strong currents flowing into the Mediterranean had negated the effect of the tugboat. Attempts to start the Ark Royal’s engines to bring her into port only increased the stress on the damaged hull and caused further leaking. The engines ran for 20 minutes before the boiler room was put out of action, and by then the battle to counter the flooding had been lost as the pumps stopped working. The sinking of the Ark Royal was shown to be only a matter of time once the damage had been done. Though the sinking had highlighted a number of design faults, her eventual sinking was not necessarily the fault of her captain.^[88]

Notes

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