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187-589: 1941 1942 1943 1944 1942 1943 1944 1945 Operation Sportpalast (German: Sports Palace), also known as Operation Nordmeer (German: Northern Sea), was a German naval raid between 6 and 13 March 1942 against two of the Allied Arctic convoys of World War II as they passed through the Norwegian Sea . It was conducted by the battleship Tirpitz , three destroyers and eight submarines . The German ships were unable to locate either of

374-717: A Short Improved S.27 biplane "S.38" of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) from the deck of the Royal Navy's pre-dreadnought battleship HMS  Hibernia , thus providing the first practical demonstration of the aircraft carrier for naval operations at sea. Seaplane tender support ships came next, with the French Foudre of 1911. Early in World War I , the Imperial Japanese Navy ship Wakamiya conducted

561-509: A Short Type 184 seaplane, launched from the seaplane carrier HMS  Ben-my-Chree . The first carrier-launched airstrike was the Tondern raid in July 1918. Seven Sopwith Camels were launched from the battlecruiser HMS  Furious which had been completed as a carrier by replacing her planned forward turret with a flight deck and hangar prior to commissioning. The Camels attacked and damaged

748-405: A carrier due to flight deck limitations. The aircraft carrier, along with its onboard aircraft and defensive ancillary weapons , is the largest weapon system ever created. By their tactical prowess, mobility, autonomy and the variety of operational means, aircraft carriers are often the centerpiece of modern naval warfare , and have significant diplomatic influence in deterrence , command of

935-904: A common Anglo-American vision of the postwar world, as formalized by the Atlantic Charter . At the Second Inter-Allied Meeting in London in September 1941, the eight European governments in exile, together with the Soviet Union and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter. In December, Japan attacked American and British territories in Asia and

1122-545: A demonstrative retaliatory strike on the mainland, including the capital, Tokyo. However, the vulnerability of carriers compared to traditional capital ships was illustrated by the sinking of HMS  Glorious by German battleships during the Norwegian campaign in 1940 . This new-found importance of naval aviation forced nations to create a number of carriers, in efforts to provide air superiority cover for every major fleet to ward off enemy aircraft. This extensive usage led to

1309-412: A difficult and dangerous manoeuver and Dunning was later killed when his airplane was thrown overboard while attempting another landing on Furious . HMS Furious was modified again when her rear turret was removed and another flight deck added over a second hangar for landing aircraft over the stern. Her funnel and superstructure remained intact however and turbulence from the funnel and superstructure

1496-477: A distance from the battleship. Tovey did not attempt a second torpedo bomber attack on Tirpitz as Victorious ' s aircraft were unable to operate in the defended airspace around Narvik with any prospect of success. The failure of the torpedo bomber attack meant that the Home Fleet was unable to bring Tirpitz to battle before she reached safety. The German battleship anchored near Narvik at 8 pm on 9 March. In

1683-608: A domination of the world completely different from any known in world history. The domination at which the Nazis aim is not limited to the displacement of the balance of power and the imposition of the supremacy of one nation. It seeks the systematic and total destruction of those conquered by Hitler and it does not treaty with the nations which it has subdued. He destroys them. He takes from them their whole political and economic existence and seeks even to deprive them of their history and culture. He wishes only to consider them as vital space and

1870-422: A flat-top flight deck , which launches and recovers aircraft. Aircraft launch forward, into the wind, and are recovered from astern. The flight deck is where the most notable differences between a carrier and a land runway are found. Creating such a surface at sea poses constraints on the carrier. For example, the size of the vessel is a fundamental limitation on runway length. This affects take-off procedure, as

2057-560: A formalized group upon the Declaration by United Nations on 1 January 1942, which was signed by 26 nations around the world; these ranged from governments in exile from the Axis occupation to small nations far removed from the war. The Declaration officially recognized the Big Three and China as the "Four Powers", acknowledging their central role in prosecuting the war; they were also referred to as

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2244-860: A full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering shipborne aircraft . Typically it is the capital ship of a fleet (known as a carrier battle group ), as it allows a naval force to project seaborne air power far from homeland without depending on local airfields for staging aircraft operations . Since their inception in the early 20th century, aircraft carriers have evolved from wooden vessels used to deploy individual tethered reconnaissance balloons , to nuclear-powered supercarriers that carry dozens of fighters , strike aircraft , military helicopters , AEW&Cs and other types of aircraft such as UCAVs . While heavier fixed-wing aircraft such as airlifters , gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft have not landed on

2431-535: A key role in achieving victory. A series of conferences between Allied leaders, diplomats, and military officials gradually shaped the makeup of the alliance, the direction of the war, and ultimately the postwar international order. Relations between the United Kingdom and the United States were especially close , with their bilateral Atlantic Charter forming the groundwork of their alliance. The Allies became

2618-404: A landing area angled off axis to allow aircraft who missed the arresting wires to "bolt" and safely return to flight for another landing attempt rather than crashing into aircraft on the forward deck. If the aircraft are VTOL-capable or helicopters, they do not need to decelerate and hence there is no such need. The arrested-recovery system has used an angled deck since the 1950s because, in case

2805-458: A larger, more "militarized" version of the escort carrier. Although with similar complement to escort carriers, they had the advantage of speed from their converted cruiser hulls. The UK 1942 Design Light Fleet Carrier was designed for building quickly by civilian shipyards and with an expected service life of about 3 years. They served the Royal Navy during the war, and the hull design was chosen for nearly all aircraft carrier equipped navies after

2992-640: A massive air attack on Germany, but Stalin kept wanting more. Although the U.S. had a strained relationship with the USSR in the 1920s, relations were normalized in 1933. The original terms of the Lend-Lease loan were amended towards the Soviets, to be put in line with British terms. The United States would now expect interest with the repayment from the Soviets, following the initiation of the Operation Barbarossa , at

3179-401: A merchant ship on 13 March. This was the only attack on the convoy during its voyage. Two of the four German submarines that were operating off Murmansk spotted ships from PQ 12 as they approached the port, but neither was able to attack. The British were disappointed by their failure to sink or damage Tirpitz . Following the operation Tovey was critical of the instructions he had received from

3366-401: A number of other ships to provide protection for the relatively unwieldy carrier, to carry supplies, re-supply (Many carriers are self-sufficient and will supply their escorts) and perform other support services, and to provide additional offensive capabilities. The resulting group of ships is often termed a carrier strike group , battle group, carrier group, or carrier battle group . There is

3553-566: A photo reconnaissance aircraft on 18 March. Both convoys reached their destinations without further loss. QP 8 arrived at Reykjavík in Iceland on 11 March. Most vessels of PQ 12 reached Murmansk on 12 March, but several that had become separated from the convoy arrived in Russian ports on other dates. One of the Norwegian whalers assigned to PQ 12 shot down a German aircraft while it was attempting to bomb

3740-421: A place in modern asymmetric warfare , like the gunboat diplomacy of the past. Carriers also facilitate quick and precise projections of overwhelming military power into such local and regional conflicts. Lacking the firepower of other warships, carriers by themselves are considered vulnerable to attack by other ships, aircraft, submarines, or missiles. Therefore, an aircraft carrier is generally accompanied by

3927-474: A relatively small area called an island , a feature pioneered on HMS  Hermes in 1923. While the island is usually built on the starboard side of the flight deck, the Japanese aircraft carriers Akagi and Hiryū had their islands built on the port side. Very few carriers have been designed or built without an island. The flush deck configuration proved to have significant drawbacks, primary of which

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4114-496: A result, Raeder and Hitler decided to only dispatch the battleship against convoys again if victory was considered certain. Hitler also directed that she could only be used to attack convoys if it was first confirmed that no aircraft carriers were present. Tirpitz was thereafter mainly held in reserve to attack Allied forces that attempted to make a landing in Norway. The other warships, as well as submarines and aircraft, were used against

4301-640: A separate colony. British Malaya covers the areas of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore , while British Borneo covers the area of Brunei , including Sabah and Sarawak of Malaysia. British Hong Kong consisted of Hong Kong Island , the Kowloon Peninsula , and the New Territories . Territories controlled by the Colonial Office , namely the Crown Colonies , were controlled politically by

4488-421: A shorter runway length of the deck requires that aircraft accelerate more quickly to gain lift. This either requires a thrust boost, a vertical component to its velocity, or a reduced take-off load (to lower mass). The differing types of deck configuration, as above, influence the structure of the flight deck. The form of launch assistance a carrier provides is strongly related to the types of aircraft embarked and

4675-482: A significant factor in warfare, driven by the superior range, flexibility and effectiveness of carrier-launched aircraft. Following the war, carrier operations continued to increase in size and importance, and along with, carrier designs also increased in size and ability. Some of these larger carriers, dubbed by the media as "supercarriers", displacing 75,000 tons or greater, have become the pinnacle of carrier development. Some are powered by nuclear reactors and form

4862-488: A single torpedo and were slow and unmanoeuvrable. The crews of the two Albacore squadrons were experienced, but had received little training in attacking enemy warships. The other element of the carrier's air wing was the Fairey Fulmar fighter-equipped 809 Naval Air Squadron . The Fulmars were inferior to German fighters due to their lack of speed and manoeuvrability, but were capable of intercepting bombers. Tovey regarded

5049-534: A single Allied merchant ship and the destroyer HMS  Matabele being sunk by German submarines prior to March 1942. Harsh weather conditions, including extreme cold, heavy seas and gales, made air and naval operations in the area difficult for all of the combatants. In December 1941 the German military began transferring substantial naval and air forces to northern Norway, which they had occupied since early 1940. The forces sent to Norway were tasked with attacking

5236-501: A single medium-sized carrier. The US also has nine similarly sized Amphibious Warfare Ships. There are five small light carriers in use capable of operating both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters; Japan and Italy each operate two, and Spain one. Additionally there are eighteen small carriers which only operate helicopters serving the navies of Australia (2), Brazil (1), China (2), Egypt (2), France (3), Japan (4), South Korea (2), Thailand (1) and Turkey (1). Kalaat Béni Abbès (L-474)

5423-412: A ski-jump ramp for launching lightly loaded conventional fighter aircraft but recover using traditional carrier arresting cables and a tailhook on their aircraft. The disadvantage of the ski-jump is the penalty it exacts on aircraft size, payload, and fuel load (and thus range); heavily laden aircraft cannot launch using a ski-jump because their high loaded weight requires either a longer takeoff roll than

5610-484: A south-easterly course for much of the day, and resulted in serious damage to the destroyer HMS  Oribi . QP 8 was also behind schedule, as it had been scattered by gales on 4 and 6 March. The Soviet cargo ship Izhora and the American vessel Larranga fell behind the convoy on 4 March and were unable to rejoin it. Tovey received Raikes's report shortly after midnight on the night of 6/7 March, and judged that Tirpitz

5797-471: A strong easterly wind and the German ships' fast speed, the Albacores' closing speed was only 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph). British torpedo bomber doctrine called for strike forces to overtake their targets, and then have half the aircraft attack from the port and the others from the starboard with the torpedoes being released simultaneously between 800 yards (730 m) and 1,000 yards (910 m) from

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5984-599: A vacant territory over which he has every right. The human beings who constitute these nations are for him only cattle. He orders their massacre or migration. He compels them to make room for their conquerors. He does not even take the trouble to impose any war tribute on them. He just takes all their wealth and, to prevent any revolt, he scientifically seeks the physical and moral degradation of those whose independence he has taken away. France experienced several major phases of action during World War II: In Africa these included: French West Africa , French Equatorial Africa ,

6171-516: A view among some military pundits that modern anti-ship weapons systems, such as torpedoes and missiles, or even ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads have made aircraft carriers and carrier groups too vulnerable for modern combat. Carriers can also be vulnerable to diesel-electric submarines like the German U24 of the conventional 206 class which in 2001 "fired" at the Enterprise during

6358-428: A weak escort of 2 corvettes and 2 minesweepers . Tovey had requested that the convoys sail simultaneously to make it easier for the Home Fleet to protect them while they passed through the waters between Jan Mayen and Bear Islands where they would be at greatest risk of attack by German surface ships. On 3 March a force under the Home Fleet's deputy commander Vice-Admiral Alban Curteis departed Iceland to protect

6545-467: Is mirrored. Non-VTOL or conventional aircraft cannot decelerate on their own, and almost all carriers using them must have arrested-recovery systems (-BAR, e.g. CATOBAR or STOBAR) to recover their aircraft. Aircraft that are landing extend a tailhook that catches on arrestor wires stretched across the deck to bring themselves to a stop in a short distance. Post-World War II Royal Navy research on safer CATOBAR recovery eventually led to universal adoption of

6732-416: Is most commonly used on US Navy fleet carriers as it allows the deployment of heavy jets with full load-outs, especially on ground-attack missions. STOVL is used by other navies because it is cheaper to operate and still provides good deployment capability for fighter aircraft . Due to the busy nature of the flight deck, only 20 or so aircraft may be on it at any one time. A hangar storage several decks below

6919-496: Is not included as this would eliminate one or more helicopter landing areas; this flat deck limits the loading of Harriers but is somewhat mitigated by the longer rolling start provided by a long flight deck compared to many STOVL carriers. The US Navy has the largest fleet of carriers in the world, with eleven supercarriers currently in service. China and India each have two STOBAR carriers in service. The UK has two STOVL carriers in service. The navies of France and Russia each operate

7106-484: Is possible on a carrier deck, or assistance from a catapult or JATO rocket. For example, the Russian Sukhoi Su-33 is only able to launch from the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov with a minimal armament and fuel load. Another disadvantage is on mixed flight deck operations where helicopters are also present, such as on a US landing helicopter dock or landing helicopter assault amphibious assault ship. A ski jump

7293-450: Is sometimes combined with the aiming of jet thrust partly downward. This allows heavily loaded and fueled aircraft a few more precious seconds to attain sufficient air velocity and lift to sustain normal flight. Without a ski-jump, launching fully-loaded and fueled aircraft such as the Harrier would not be possible on a smaller flat deck ship before either stalling out or crashing directly into

7480-535: The British West Indies , British Honduras , British Guiana and the Falkland Islands . The Dominion of Newfoundland was directly ruled as a royal colony from 1933 to 1949, run by a governor appointed by London who made the decisions regarding Newfoundland. British India included the areas and peoples covered by later India , Bangladesh , Pakistan and (until 1937) Burma/Myanmar , which later became

7667-596: The Turkish Straits between the Soviet Black Sea bases and the Mediterranean Sea . These ships, while sized in the range of large fleet carriers, were designed to deploy alone or with escorts. In addition to supporting fighter aircraft and helicopters, they provide both strong defensive weaponry and heavy offensive missiles equivalent to a guided-missile cruiser. Aircraft carriers today are usually divided into

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7854-867: The United Kingdom and India each currently operate two STOBAR / STOVL aircraft carriers with ski-jump flight decks, with China in the process to commission a third carrier with catapult capabilities, and France and Russia each operate a single aircraft carrier with a capacity of 30 to 60 fighters. Italy operates two light V/STOL carriers and Spain operates one V/STOL aircraft-carrying assault ship. Helicopter carriers are also operated by Japan (4, two of which are being converted to operate V/STOL fighters), France (3), Australia (2, previously also owned 3 light carriers ), Egypt (2), South Korea (2), China (3), Thailand (1) and Brazil (1). Future aircraft carriers are under construction or in planning by China, France, India, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and

8041-518: The pennant numbers used by the Royal Navy, Commonwealth countries, and Europe, along with the hull classification symbols used by the US and Canada . The 1903 advent of the heavier-than-air fixed-wing airplane with the Wright brothers ' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina , was closely followed on 14 November 1910, by Eugene Burton Ely 's first experimental take-off of a Curtiss Pusher airplane from

8228-559: The " trusteeship of the powerful", and later as the " Four Policemen " of the United Nations. Many more countries joined through to the final days of the war, including colonies and former Axis nations. After the war ended, the Allies, and the Declaration that bound them, would become the basis of the modern United Nations ; one enduring legacy of the alliance is the permanent membership of

8415-496: The 1920s, culminating in the invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The League of Nations strongly condemned the attack as an act of aggression against China; Japan responded by leaving the League in 1933. The second Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japan's full-scale invasion of China. The League of Nations condemned Japan's actions and initiated sanctions; the United States, which had attempted to peacefully negotiate for peace in Asia,

8602-482: The Admiralty. He believed that the order to prioritise the defence of the convoys over attacking the battleship had hindered his operations and that the fleet should not have been sent into waters where large numbers of submarines were operating as it lacked enough destroyers to protect its capital ships. He was also frustrated by the Admiralty's attempts to closely manage his command during the battle. The Admiralty conceded

8789-544: The Allies varied during the course of the war. When the conflict broke out on 1 September 1939, the Allied coalition consisted of the United Kingdom, France , and Poland , as well as their respective dependencies , such as British India . They were joined by the independent dominions of the British Commonwealth : Canada , Australia , New Zealand and South Africa . Consequently, the initial alliance resembled that of

8976-652: The American Harry Hopkins . It is also often called the "Strange Alliance", because it united the leaders of the world's greatest capitalist state (the United States), the greatest socialist state (the Soviet Union) and the greatest colonial power (the United Kingdom). Relations between them resulted in the major decisions that shaped the war effort and planned for the postwar world. Cooperation between

9163-559: The Arctic convoys as well as defending the area from an invasion. At this time the German dictator Adolf Hitler wrongly believed the Allies intended to invade Norway. On 12 January 1942 Hitler ordered Tirpitz to be transferred from Germany to Trondheim in Norway. The battleship and two escorting destroyers departed Wilhelmshaven in Germany on 14 January and arrived in Trondheim on 16 January. She

9350-458: The Big Three leaders, although they were not enough to break the alliance during wartime. In 1942 Roosevelt proposed becoming, with China, the Four Policemen of world peace. Although the 'Four Powers' were reflected in the wording of the Declaration by United Nations , Roosevelt's proposal was not initially supported by Churchill or Stalin. Division emerged over the length of time taken by

9537-617: The British Home Fleet attempted to locate and destroy the German force. This intelligence was also used to re-route the convoys to evade Tirpitz . The British located the German battleship on the morning of 9 March, by which time she was returning to Norway. An attack against Tirpitz by torpedo bombers flying from the aircraft carrier HMS  Victorious failed and two British aircraft were shot down. The German ships returned to their base on 13 March. The British were disappointed with their failure to damage or sink Tirpitz . This

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9724-662: The British Government during the Second World War and made part of the British Army structure. It was mostly Greek Cypriot volunteers and Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Cyprus but also included other Commonwealth nationalities. On a brief visit to Cyprus in 1943, Winston Churchill praised the "soldiers of the Cyprus Regiment who have served honourably on many fields from Libya to Dunkirk". About 30,000 Cypriots served in

9911-515: The British aircraft. Ciliax awarded Topp the Iron Cross on the spot for his skill in evading the British torpedoes. The surviving British airmen were berated by Victorious ' s senior officers when they were debriefed. In his report, Bovell criticised Lucas for beginning the attack before his aircraft were in the proper position and judged that the other pilots had released their torpedoes at too great

10098-637: The Cyprus Regiment. The regiment was involved in action from the very start and served at Dunkirk , in the Greek Campaign (about 600 soldiers were captured in Kalamata in 1941), North Africa ( Operation Compass ), France, the Middle East and Italy. Many soldiers were taken prisoner especially at the beginning of the war and were interned in various PoW camps ( Stalag ) including Lamsdorf ( Stalag VIII-B ), Stalag IVC at Wistritz bei Teplitz and Stalag 4b near Most in

10285-529: The Czech Republic. The soldiers captured in Kalamata were transported by train to prisoner of war camps. After Germany invaded Poland, France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. In January 1940, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier made a major speech denouncing the actions of Germany: At the end of five months of war, one thing has become more and more clear. It is that Germany seeks to establish

10472-406: The Declaration was signed by Iraq, Iran, Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia. A Tripartite Treaty of Alliance with Britain and the USSR formalised Iran's assistance to the Allies. In Rio de Janeiro , Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas was considered near to fascist ideas, but realistically joined the United Nations after their evident successes. In 1944, Liberia and France signed. The French situation

10659-762: The First World War . As Axis forces began invading northern Europe and the Balkans , the Allies added the Netherlands , Belgium , Norway , Greece , and Yugoslavia . The Soviet Union, which initially had a nonaggression pact with Germany and participated in its invasion of Poland , joined the Allies after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The United States, while providing some materiel support to European Allies since September 1940, remained formally neutral until

10846-597: The Fleet Sir Dudley Pound , to provide "a report on the air attack on TIRPITZ, explaining how it was that 12 of our machines managed to get no hits as compared to the extraordinary efficiency of the Japanese attack on PRINCE OF WALES and REPULSE ". The reason was that Japanese had enough highly effective aircraft with well trained crews while the Fleet Air Arm did not. Pound attempted to explain this to Churchill, but

11033-512: The German airbase at Tondern, Germany (modern day Tønder , Denmark), and destroyed two zeppelin airships . The first landing of an airplane on a moving ship was by Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning , when he landed his Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious in Scapa Flow , Orkney on 2 August 1917. Landing on the forward flight deck required the pilot to approach round the ship's superstructure,

11220-569: The German forces in the Channel Dash between 11 and 13 February, during which Gneisenau , Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen returned to Germany from Brest, France , via the English Channel . Both battleships were damaged by mines during this operation, and were unable to be dispatched to Norway as intended. While the failure to prevent the battleships from passing through the English Channel

11407-601: The German war machine. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland ; two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Roughly two weeks after Germany's attack, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. Britain and France established the Anglo-French Supreme War Council to coordinate military decisions. A Polish government-in-exile was set up in London, joined by hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers, which would remain an Allied nation until

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11594-510: The Germans would be cautious with how Tirpitz was used as a result of their experiences during Operation Sportpalast. He expected that they would not assign her to attack convoys while they were passing through the Barents Sea . The Germans were chastised by Operation Sportpalast. Both Ciliax and Raeder believed that good luck was the only reason that Tirpitz had escaped damage or destruction. As

11781-433: The Home Fleet at around 7 pm. Tovey considered raiding German positions in Norway, but decided against this and instead set course for Scapa Flow. The Home Fleet, which had been reinforced with a further eight destroyers, arrived at Scapa Flow at night on 10 March. On 9 March HMS  Shera , one of two armed Norwegian whalers that had been dispatched from Iceland to strengthen PQ 12's escort, capsized while searching for

11968-479: The Home Fleet to destroy her. At 3:16 am Tovey requested that the aircraft carrier's commanding officer, Captain Henry Bovell, provide him with proposals for such an attack. Bovell responded with a plan to fly off six Albacores at 6:30 am to search for the Germans, followed by a strike force of twelve torpedo-armed Albacores an hour later. The six search aircraft were launched at 6:40 am; three were drawn from each of

12155-438: The Home Fleet would cover them all in the future. This prevented ships being transferred from the fleet to other theatres of the war. Pound was so concerned about the risk of Tirpitz attacking an Arctic convoy that he sought Churchill's agreement to not dispatch any of them during the period of summer in which there would be almost continuous daylight in the Arctic. The Prime Minister did not agree. In contrast, Tovey believed that

12342-403: The Home Fleet, and warned Ciliax that a British force that included an aircraft carrier was in the area. By this time it was too late for the Home Fleet's battleships and battlecruiser to intercept the German force before it reached the Norwegian coast. There was a possibility though that Victorious ' s torpedo bombers could damage Tirpitz and slow the battleship down sufficiently to allow

12529-538: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, after which it declared war and officially joined the Allies. China had already been at war with Japan since 1937 , and formally joined the Allies in December 1941. The Allies were led by the so-called "Big Three"—the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States—which were the principal contributors of manpower, resources, and strategy, each playing

12716-402: The League of Nations mandates of French Cameroun and French Togoland , French Madagascar , French Somaliland , and the protectorates of French Tunisia and French Morocco . French Algeria was then not a colony or dependency but a fully-fledged part of metropolitan France . Aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase , equipped with

12903-494: The Lofoten islands at 2:42 am at a speed of 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph). At this time the British ships were about 200 miles (320 km) west of the German battleship. Tovey received further Ultra intelligence during the early hours of the morning that confirmed the Germans were returning to Trondheim and provided Tirpitz ' s expected position at 1 pm that day. A detachment of B-Dienst signals intelligence personnel on board Tirpitz intercepted radio signals from

13090-434: The Norwegian Sea, where they were operating near Jan Mayen. Another pair of cruisers and three of destroyers that had conducted the search on the morning of 8 March subsequently sailed from Iceland to patrol the same area. Groups of destroyers were also readied at bases in Iceland and Scotland to join the Home Fleet. Tovey was hopeful that the Germans would intercept his radio signal and recall Tirpitz as this would guarantee

13277-410: The Pacific, resulting in the U.S. formally entering the war as an Allied power. Still reeling from Japanese aggression, China declared war on all the Axis powers shortly thereafter. By the end of 1941, the main lines of World War II had formed. Churchill referred to the "Grand Alliance" of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, which together played the largest role in prosecuting

13464-517: The Prime Minister was not fully convinced and it contributed to him becoming sceptical about the value of the Fleet Air Arm. Nevertheless, the failure of the attack on 9 March led to a decision to accelerate improvements to the Royal Navy's aviation force. Operation Sportpalast also demonstrated the threat which the German warships in Norway posed to the Arctic convoys, and it was also decided that

13651-510: The Royal Navy's HMS  Ark Royal , that had a length of 800 feet (244 m), a displacement of 22,000 tons and was designed to carry 72 aircraft. Since then, aircraft carriers have consistently grown in size, both in length and displacement, as well as improved capabilities; in defense, sensors, electronic warfare, propulsion, range, launch and recovery systems, number and types of aircraft carried and number of sorties flown per day. China ( type 004 aircraft carrier ), France ( PANG ) and

13838-448: The Soviet Union, were accepted as members of the United Nations as a way to provide greater influence to Stalin, who had only Yugoslavia as a communist partner in the alliance. British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain delivered his Ultimatum Speech on 3 September 1939 which declared war on Germany , a few hours before France. As the Statute of Westminster 1931 was not yet ratified by

14025-624: The Treaty of Versailles and made claims over German-populated Austria and the German-populated territories of Czechoslovakia. The likelihood of war was high, but none of the major powers had the appetite for another conflict; many governments sought to ease tensions through nonmilitary strategies such as appeasement . Japan, which was a principal allied power in the First World War, had since become increasingly militaristic and imperialistic; parallel to Germany, nationalist sentiment increased throughout

14212-485: The Trondheim area and Norwegian Sea to monitor German naval movements. Two Arctic convoys sailed simultaneously on 1 March 1942. PQ 12 left Iceland bound for the Soviet Union, and QP 8 departed Murmansk in northern Russia to return ships to the Atlantic. PQ 12 was made up of 17 merchant ships and was escorted by a heavy cruiser, 2 destroyers and several armed Norwegian whalers . QP 8 comprised 15 merchant vessels and had

14399-492: The Trondheim area to monitor her. Due to the threat Tirpitz posed to Allied convoys in the Atlantic Ocean and Norwegian Sea, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill directed on 25 January that "the destruction or even crippling of this ship is the greatest event at sea at the present time. No other target is comparable to it". The Royal Air Force (RAF) dispatched 16 heavy bombers to attack Tirpitz at its anchorage at on

14586-606: The U.N. Security Council , which is made up exclusively of the principal Allied powers that won the war. The victorious Allies of World War I —which included what would become the Allied powers of the Second World War—had imposed harsh terms on the opposing Central Powers in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920 . Germany resented signing the Treaty of Versailles , which required that it take full responsibility for

14773-574: The UK and therefore also entered hostilities with Britain's declaration of war. At the outbreak of World War II, the British Indian Army numbered 205,000 men. Later during World War II, the British Indian Army became the largest all-volunteer force in history, rising to over 2.5 million men in size. Indian soldiers earned 30 Victoria Crosses during the Second World War. It suffered 87,000 military casualties (more than any Crown colony but fewer than

14960-642: The United Kingdom all have carriers in service or under construction with displacements ranging from 65,000 to 85,000 tons and lengths from 280 to 320 meters (920 to 1,050 ft) which have been described as "supercarriers". The largest "supercarriers" in service as of 2022, however, are with the US Navy, with displacements exceeding 100,000 tons, lengths of over 337 meters (1,106 ft), and capabilities that match or exceed those of any other class. Several systems of identification symbol for aircraft carriers and related types of ship have been used. These include

15147-597: The United Kingdom and the United States had cooperated in a number of ways, notably through the destroyers-for-bases deal in September 1940 and the American Lend-Lease program, which provided Britain and the Soviet Union with war materiel beginning in October 1941. The British Commonwealth and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union reciprocated with a smaller Reverse Lend-Lease program. The First Inter-Allied Meeting took place in London in early June 1941 between

15334-453: The United Kingdom and the United States was especially close and included forming a Combined Chiefs of Staff . There were numerous high-level conferences ; in total Churchill attended 14 meetings, Roosevelt 12, and Stalin 5. Most visible were the three summit conferences that brought together the three top leaders. The Allied policy toward Germany and Japan evolved and developed at these three conferences. There were many tensions among

15521-515: The United Kingdom). The UK suffered 382,000 military casualties. Kuwait was a protectorate of the United Kingdom formally established in 1899. The Trucial States were British protectorates in the Persian Gulf. Palestine was a mandate dependency created in the peace agreements after World War I from the former territory of the Ottoman Empire , Iraq . The Cyprus Regiment was formed by

15708-474: The United Kingdom, the four co-belligerent British Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), the eight governments in exile ( Belgium , Czechoslovakia , Greece , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Yugoslavia ) and Free France . The meeting culminated with the Declaration of St James's Palace , which set out a first vision for the postwar world. In June 1941, Hitler broke

15895-481: The United States. Some of the types listed here are not strictly defined as aircraft carriers by some sources. A fleet carrier is intended to operate with the main fleet and usually provides an offensive capability. These are the largest carriers capable of fast speeds. By comparison, escort carriers were developed to provide defense for convoys of ships. They were smaller and slower with lower numbers of aircraft carried. Most were built from mercantile hulls or, in

16082-802: The Western Allies to establish a second front in Europe. Stalin and the Soviets used the potential employment of the second front as an 'acid test' for their relations with the Anglo-American powers. The Soviets were forced to use as much manpower as possible in the fight against the Germans, whereas the United States had the luxury of flexing industrial power, but with the "minimum possible expenditure of American lives". Roosevelt and Churchill opened ground fronts in North Africa in 1942 and in Italy in 1943, and launched

16269-463: The additional air patrols over the Norwegian Sea that were meant to be conducted in this eventuality were not flown due to a shortage of aircraft. Contact was first made by the submarine HMS  Seawolf at 6:01 pm on 6 March, with its crew spotting a single large warship while patrolling north of the exit to Trondheim Fjord. Seawolf ' s commanding officer Lieutenant Dick Raikes assumed this

16456-459: The afternoon. Z25 came within 10 miles (16 km) of QP 8 but did not sight it. During the afternoon of 7 March the Admiralty warned PQ 12 that German ships might be operating in its vicinity. In response, the convoy temporarily altered its course to the north before turning east again to avoid an area of sea ice. At around 4:30 pm Friedrich Ihn spotted the Izhora . Tirpitz changed course to join

16643-462: The aircraft does not catch the arresting wire, the short deck allows easier take off by reducing the number of objects between the aircraft and the end of the runway. It also has the advantage of separating the recovery operation area from the launch area. Helicopters and aircraft capable of vertical or short take-off and landing ( V/STOL ) usually recover by coming abreast of the carrier on the port side and then using their hover capability to move over

16830-411: The aircraft were killed. No hits were achieved, though a torpedo came within 10 yards (9.1 m) of the battleship. Following this attack the British aircraft returned to Victorious , and landed at around 11:00 am. The German sailors were relieved to have escaped the British attack without any damage being inflicted on Tirpitz . Their only casualties were three men who had been wounded by gunfire from

17017-519: The amount of air support available to his fleet as inadequate. The crew of a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor maritime patrol aircraft sighted ships of PQ 12 near Jan Mayen at around noon on 5 March. The commander of the German Naval Group North, General Admiral Rolf Carls , requested permission to attack the convoy using Ciliax's force. This was granted by Raeder after he consulted with Hitler. Raeder's orders for Ciliax specified that he

17204-579: The battleship was only 50 miles (80 km) from the Norwegian coast. Tirpitz ' s anti-aircraft guns fired on the search aircraft without success, but the float plane damaged one of them and wounded a crewman. The other search aircraft were not deterred, and continued to track the German ships. Ciliax requested that the Luftwaffe (German air force) units in Norway provide fighter aircraft to protect his force, but it took several hours for any to be dispatched from nearby airfields. The British strike force

17391-552: The battleship. Tirpitz turned sharply to port, and evaded these torpedoes. A sub-flight from 817 Squadron then made a similar attack from the port side of the battleship, with their torpedoes also missing. Tirpitz ' s manoeuvring forced the other two sub-flights to attack from astern rather than from starboard as their commanders had intended. This required their crews to fly into heavy gunfire. They released their torpedoes at extreme range, and two Albacores were shot down by Tirpitz's anti-aircraft gunners; all six airmen aboard

17578-523: The beginning of the effective and highly mobile aircraft strikes. This operation in the shallow water harbor incapacitated three of the six anchored battleships at a cost of two torpedo bombers. World War II in the Pacific Ocean involved clashes between aircraft carrier fleets. The Japanese surprise attack on the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor naval and air bases on Sunday, 7 December 1941,

17765-506: The carrier has varied over history and among navies , to cater to the various roles that global climates have demanded from naval aviation . Regardless of size, the ship itself must house their complement of aircraft, with space for launching, storing, and maintaining them. Space is also required for the large crew, supplies (food, munitions, fuel, engineering parts), and propulsion. US aircraft carriers are notable for having nuclear reactors powering their systems and propulsion. The top of

17952-513: The carrier is the flight deck, where aircraft are launched and recovered. On the starboard side of this is the island, where the funnel , air-traffic control and the bridge are located. The constraints of constructing a flight deck affect the role of a given carrier strongly, as they influence the weight, type, and configuration of the aircraft that may be launched. For example, assisted launch mechanisms are used primarily for heavy aircraft, especially those loaded with air-to-ground weapons. CATOBAR

18139-516: The case of merchant aircraft carriers , were bulk cargo ships with a flight deck added on top. Light aircraft carriers were fast enough to operate with the main fleet but of smaller size with reduced aircraft capacity. The Soviet aircraft carrier Admiral Kusnetsov was termed a "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser". This was primarily a legal construct to avoid the limitations of the Montreux Convention preventing 'aircraft carriers' transiting

18326-609: The command of Captain Alan Scott-Moncrieff attempted to intercept the German force between Trondheim and Bodø that night. They did not make contact, and were forced to turn away from the coast at 3:30 am to avoid being attacked by German aircraft once dawn broke. Four British submarines stationed along the route between Narvik and Trondheim were also unable to attack the German ships. Tirpitz anchored near Trondheim at 9 pm on 13 March. The British received reports of her arrival there from Norwegian agents and these were confirmed by

18513-450: The conduct of the war than the safety of any convoy". The forces under Tovey's command were considerably more powerful than those available to Ciliax. Victorious ' s air wing included two squadrons equipped with Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers, 817 and 832 Naval Air Squadrons . The number of Albacores assigned to the squadrons differed; 817 Squadron had nine and 832 Squadron twelve. These obsolescent biplanes could be armed with

18700-457: The consequences if the German battleship entered the Atlantic. Tovey sailed shortly afterwards with King George V , Victorious , Berwick and six destroyers. The two main elements of the Home Fleet met up to the east of Jan Mayen on 6 June. Tovey was under orders to give precedence to protecting the convoys over destroying Tirpitz . He was unhappy with this, and regarded the sinking of the battleship as being of "incomparably greater importance to

18887-530: The construction of new heavy surface combat ships, most early aircraft carriers were conversions of ships that were laid down (or had served) as different ship types: cargo ships, cruisers, battlecruisers, or battleships. These conversions gave rise to the USS ; Langley in 1922, the US Lexington -class aircraft carriers (1927), Japanese Akagi and Kaga , and British Courageous class (of which Furious

19074-522: The convoy and her crew were called to action stations ahead of the expected battle. Ciliax was mistaken, as PQ 12 had changed its course at dawn after being warned of the attempted interception by intelligence sourced from Ultra. It passed to the north of Tirpitz . The battleship and a patrolling Condor did not spot any of the Allied ships. Naval Group North sent Ciliax a signal at 6:20 pm that suggested that PQ 12 might have abandoned its voyage after being spotted on 5 March and gave him permission to break off

19261-568: The convoy but was recalled by Raeder that night after it was learned that Victorious was at sea. Allies of World War II The Allies , formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during World War II (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers . Its principal members by the end of 1941 were the " Big Four " – the United Kingdom , United States , Soviet Union , and China . Membership in

19448-435: The convoy. Only three members of her crew were rescued by the other whaler, which then proceeded directly to Murmansk. Tirpitz ' s crew completed repairs to the battleship's engines 48 hours after her arrival at Narvik. She departed the port with an escort of five destroyers just before midnight on 12 March. Guided by Ultra intelligence and reports from resistance agents in Norway, a force of eight British destroyers under

19635-452: The convoys but sank a merchant vessel that was sailing independently. The Allies attempted to intercept the German force, also without success. The operation was the first major German attack on the convoys that were travelling to and from the Soviet Union and used warships that had been transferred to occupied Norway in early 1942. Tirpitz and her escorts sailed on 6 March. The Allies learned of this from decoded German radio signals, and

19822-507: The convoys. As a result, the Allies had no opportunities to attack Tirpitz at sea after Operation Sportpalast. RAF heavy bombers made further attacks against the battleship at Trondheim on 31 March and 28 and 29 April 1942, but did not inflict any damage. In June 1942 Raeder decided to dispatch Tirpitz and three heavy cruisers against the next Arctic convoy in Operation Rösselsprung . This force sailed on 2 July after Convoy PQ 17

20009-422: The convoys. It comprised the battleship HMS  Duke of York , battlecruiser HMS  Renown and six destroyers. Tovey was on board King George V at the fleet's main base at Scapa Flow . He preferred to remain there with the battleship and Victorious to remain in contact by telephone with his sources of intelligence and intercept Tirpitz if she attempted to break out into the Atlantic. Retaining part of

20196-449: The core of a fleet designed to operate far from home. Amphibious assault ships, such as the Wasp and Mistral classes, serve the purpose of carrying and landing Marines, and operate a large contingent of helicopters for that purpose. Also known as "commando carriers" or "helicopter carriers", many have the capability to operate VSTOL aircraft. The threatening role of aircraft carriers has

20383-530: The deck of a United States Navy ship, the cruiser USS  Birmingham anchored off Norfolk Navy Base in Virginia . Two months later, on 18 January 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss Pusher airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS  Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay . On 9 May 1912, the first take off of an airplane from a ship while underway was made by Commander Charles Samson flying

20570-608: The declaration; the Big Four were listed first: The United Nations began growing immediately after its formation. In 1942, Mexico, the Philippines and Ethiopia adhered to the declaration. Ethiopia had been restored to independence by British forces after the Italian defeat in 1941. The Philippines, still owned by Washington but granted international diplomatic recognition, was allowed to join on 10 June despite its occupation by Japan. In 1943,

20757-462: The design of the carrier itself. There are two main philosophies to keep the deck short: add thrust to the aircraft, such as using a Catapult Assisted Take-Off (CATO-); and changing the direction of the airplanes' thrust, as in Vertical and/or Short Take-Off (V/STO-). Each method has advantages and disadvantages of its own: On the recovery side of the flight deck, the adaptation to the aircraft load-out

20944-563: The destroyer. Friedrich Ihn attacked and hit Izhora with a torpedo, but the cargo ship's radio operator managed to send a sighting report before it sank. This was received by the Home Fleet, giving Tovey an approximate location for the German force. The British also intercepted a radio transmission from a German submarine at 4:40 pm which was wrongly identified as having been sent by Tirpitz . Radio direction finding indicated that this transmission had been sent from near PQ 12, and Tovey issued orders for six of his destroyers to detach and search

21131-417: The development and construction of 'light' carriers. Escort aircraft carriers , such as USS  Bogue , were sometimes purpose-built but most were converted from merchant ships as a stop-gap measure to provide anti-submarine air support for convoys and amphibious invasions. Following this concept, light aircraft carriers built by the US, such as USS  Independence (commissioned in 1943), represented

21318-434: The difference between the relative speeds of the aircraft and ship. Since the early 1950s on conventional carriers it has been the practice to recover aircraft at an angle to port of the axial line of the ship. The primary function of this angled deck is to allow aircraft that miss the arresting wires, referred to as a bolter , to become airborne again without the risk of hitting aircraft parked forward. The angled deck allows

21505-739: The end of the war—the United States were not looking to support any "postwar Soviet reconstruction efforts", which eventually manifested into the Molotov Plan . At the Tehran conference , Stalin judged Roosevelt to be a "lightweight compared to the more formidable Churchill". During the meetings from 1943 to 1945, there were disputes over the growing list of demands from the USSR. Tensions increased further when Roosevelt died and his successor Harry Truman rejected demands put forth by Stalin. Roosevelt wanted to play down these ideological tensions. Roosevelt felt he "understood Stalin's psychology", stating "Stalin

21692-594: The end. After a quiet winter, Germany began its invasion of Western Europe in April 1940, quickly defeating Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. All the occupied nations subsequently established a government-in-exile in London, with each contributing a contingent of escaped troops. Nevertheless, by roughly one year since Germany's violation of the Munich Agreement, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini. Before they were formally allied,

21879-434: The enemy ships. Such an attack would be difficult for large warships to evade. Due to the slow closing speed, Lucas instead ordered each sub-flight to attack independently. The first attack was made by the sub-flight under Lucas's personal control. The aircraft approached Tirpitz from her port side and released their torpedoes at 9:18 am from a very low altitude and a distance that was probably greater than 1,000 yards from

22066-580: The exercise JTFEX 01-2 in the Caribbean Sea by firing flares and taking a photograph through its periscope or the Swedish Gotland which managed the same feat in 2006 during JTFEX 06-2 by penetrating the defensive measures of Carrier Strike Group 7 which was protecting USS  Ronald Reagan . Carriers are large and long ships, although there is a high degree of variation depending on their intended role and aircraft complement . The size of

22253-483: The first two of Tovey's criticisms, agreeing that sinking Tirpitz would be the Home Fleet's main priority when it covered convoys in the future and that the fleet should not proceed beyond 14 degrees east if it lacked destroyers. His other criticism was thought to be unfair as the Admiralty had better access to Ultra intelligence than Tovey did while at sea. On 13 March Churchill asked the First Sea Lord , Admiral of

22440-530: The fleet at Scapa Flow would also help to keep ships and their crews combat ready over what was anticipated to be a lengthy campaign, with Tovey believing that Gneisenau and Scharnhorst would join Tirpitz over the summer after they were repaired. The Admiralty disagreed with this strategy and ordered Tovey to put to sea on 3 March so that the full force of the Home Fleet could be brought to bear against Tirpitz if she sailed. In doing so it accepted responsibility for

22627-401: The fleet to sail to the north to reach a position from which Victorious could launch search aircraft at 10 am. Icy conditions at that time made flying impossible, however. This was a missed opportunity for the British, as the planned search was highly likely to have located Tirpitz at a time when the Home Fleet was less than 100 miles (160 km) from her. The Germans lacked information on

22814-421: The flight deck and land vertically without the need for arresting gear. Carriers steam at speed, up to 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) into the wind during flight deck operations to increase wind speed over the deck to a safe minimum. This increase in effective wind speed provides a higher launch airspeed for aircraft at the end of the catapult stroke or ski-jump, as well as making recovery safer by reducing

23001-457: The flight deck is where most aircraft are kept, and aircraft are taken from the lower storage decks to the flight deck through the use of an elevator. The hangar is usually quite large and can take up several decks of vertical space. Munitions are commonly stored on the lower decks because they are highly explosive. Usually this is below the waterline so that the area can be flooded in case of emergency. As "runways at sea", aircraft carriers have

23188-404: The flight deck of a US aircraft carrier, the sailors wear colored shirts that designate their responsibilities. There are at least seven different colors worn by flight deck personnel for modern United States Navy carrier air operations . Carrier operations of other nations use similar color schemes. The superstructure of a carrier (such as the bridge , flight control tower ) are concentrated in

23375-424: The flight deck. This was first developed to help launch short take off vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft take off at far higher weights than is possible with a vertical or rolling takeoff on flat decks. Originally developed by the Royal Navy, it since has been adopted by many navies for smaller carriers. A ski-jump ramp works by converting some of the forward rolling movement of the aircraft into vertical velocity and

23562-454: The following four categories based on the way that aircraft take off and land: The appellation "supercarrier" is not an official designation with any national navy, but a term used predominantly by the media and typically when reporting on larger and more advanced carrier types. It is also used when comparing carriers of various sizes and capabilities, both current and past. It was first used by The New York Times in 1938, in an article about

23749-497: The forces at sea to rapidly respond to this intelligence. After changing course, Tovey broke radio silence to report to the Admiralty that he was heading north with the main body of the fleet and lacked protection against submarines. He also requested that the Admiralty assume direct control of the Home Fleet's separate forces of cruisers and destroyers given that it had a better understanding of their locations and could more easily communicate with them. Two cruisers had been sent into

23936-412: The handler, and the air boss. Shooters are naval aviators or naval flight officers and are responsible for launching aircraft. The handler works just inside the island from the flight deck and is responsible for the movement of aircraft before launching and after recovery. The "air boss" (usually a commander ) occupies the top bridge (Primary Flight Control, also called primary or the tower ) and has

24123-589: The heavy cruiser HMS  Berwick and four destroyers, was detached to attack these ships and four submarines took up positions near Trondheim. The carrier's aircraft were unable to locate or attack the German force due to bad weather, but the submarine HMS  Trident torpedoed and badly damaged Prinz Eugen near the entrance to Trondheim Fjord on 23 February. Admiral Scheer was undamaged, and anchored near Tirpitz . The Admiral Commanding Battleships, Vice-Admiral Otto Ciliax , assumed command of this battle group and used Tirpitz as his flagship . Ciliax had led

24310-438: The installation of one or two "waist" catapults in addition to the two bow cats. An angled deck also improves launch and recovery cycle flexibility with the option of simultaneous launching and recovery of aircraft. Conventional ("tailhook") aircraft rely upon a landing signal officer (LSO, radio call sign 'paddles') to monitor the aircraft's approach, visually gauge glideslope, attitude, and airspeed, and transmit that data to

24497-412: The intercepted radio signals were addressed to Ciliax. Had Tovey been informed of this, it is likely that he would have concluded that Tirpitz was not headed to Norway and turned the Home Fleet around. During the morning of 8 March, Tirpitz headed north towards Bear Island in an attempt to get ahead of PQ 12. The battleship then turned to the south-west on a course which Ciliax believed would intercept

24684-629: The late 1930s and early 1940s were designed to be capable of making long range anti-shipping raids into the Atlantic Ocean. Tirpitz was the second of the two Bismarck -class vessels and was launched in April 1939 and commissioned on 25 February 1941. The Kriegsmarine made two battleship raids against Allied convoys in the Atlantic Ocean during early 1941. The battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst conducted Operation Berlin between January and March 1941. During this raid they sailed from Germany, attacked Allied shipping and returned to occupied France . A second raid, Operation Rheinübung ,

24871-411: The late afternoon of 9 March the Home Fleet turned to the west to evade possible German air attacks. German reconnaissance aircraft began shadowing the fleet, but none of Victorious ' s Fulmar fighters were flown off as it was thought that they would be unable to intercept them. At 3:45 pm three German Junkers Ju 88 aircraft unsuccessfully attacked the Home Fleet with bombs . Four destroyers joined

25058-482: The location of PQ 12, as their aircraft and submarines had failed to spot the convoy again. Ciliax was still unaware that the Home Fleet was operating near his ships. Tirpitz flew off two Arado Ar 196 float planes on the morning of 7 March, but they did not find PQ 12. Ciliax also detached the three destroyers to undertake independent searches. Weather conditions remained bad throughout the day, with frequent squalls and blizzards . The two convoys passed one another in

25245-535: The main advocates of appeasement, decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert an imminent German attack on Poland; the French likewise had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921 . The Soviet Union , which had been diplomatically and economically isolated by much of

25432-448: The most experienced crews were positioned in locations where it was hoped they could attack the Home Fleet if it intervened. The other four submarines operated near Murmansk to attack any ships from PQ 12 that escaped the battleship. The German ships were not spotted by Norwegian resistance agents as they departed. The scheduled British photo reconnaissance flight over Trondheim was unable to be conducted on 6 March due to bad weather, and

25619-485: The most valuable results". The search aircraft maintained contact with Tirpitz . After they were spotted, Ciliax judged that a torpedo bomber attack was imminent. He ordered the battleship to full speed, directed that the crew take up their action stations and had her floatplanes launched. Only one of the float planes could be launched, and once it was in the air Ciliax changed the battleship's course to proceed to Vestfjorden so that she should shelter at Narvik. At this time

25806-498: The need for land use authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit logistics of aircraft and therefore significantly increases the time of availability on the combat zone. There is no single definition of an "aircraft carrier", and modern navies use several variants of the type. These variants are sometimes categorized as sub-types of aircraft carriers, and sometimes as distinct types of aviation-capable ships. Aircraft carriers may be classified according to

25993-507: The night of 29/30 January, but no damage was inflicted. No. 217 Squadron RAF was also ordered in February to prepare for a one-way mission against the battleship. This would have involved its Bristol Beaufort aircraft making an attack and the crews then parachuting over neutral Sweden or ditching into the sea. The raid was not attempted, and No. 217 Squadron returned to normal duties in mid-March 1942. Allied intelligence learned that Tirpitz

26180-590: The non-aggression agreement with Stalin and Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union , which consequently declared war on Germany and its allies. Britain agreed to an alliance with the Soviet Union in July, with both nations committing to assisting one another by any means, and to never negotiate a separate peace. The following August saw the Atlantic Conference between American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , which defined

26367-498: The operation if he wished. Ciliax decided to do so, and at 8:25 pm turned south bound for Norway. Tovey received further Ultra intelligence during afternoon of 8 March that confirmed that Ciliax was operating in the Bear Island area. In response, he reversed the Home Fleet's course at 6:20 pm to head for Bear Island. It was taking only two or three hours at this time for intercepted German naval radio signals to be decoded, which allowed

26554-538: The operation was to intercept one or both of the convoys in the area between Jan Mayen and Bear Island. Once a convoy was encountered, Tirpitz was to destroy its escorts and then she and the destroyers would attack the cargo ships. Due to fuel shortages, Ciliax was unable to sail with his entire force. He departed Trondheim at noon on 6 March with Tirpitz and the destroyers Friedrich Ihn , Hermann Schoemann and Z25 . Eight German submarines based in Norway were assigned to support Tirpitz . The four submarines with

26741-527: The overall responsibility for controlling launch, recovery and "those aircraft in the air near the ship, and the movement of planes on the flight deck, which itself resembles a well-choreographed ballet". The captain of the ship spends most of his time one level below primary on the Navigation Bridge. Below this is the Flag Bridge, designated for the embarked admiral and his staff. To facilitate working on

26928-432: The parliaments of Australia and New Zealand, the British declaration of war on Germany also applied to those dominions . The other dominions and members of the British Commonwealth declared war from 3 September 1939, all within one week of each other; they were Canada , British India and South Africa . During the war, Churchill attended seventeen Allied conferences at which key decisions and agreements were made. He

27115-408: The pilot. Before the angled deck emerged in the 1950s, LSOs used colored paddles to signal corrections to the pilot (hence the nickname). From the late 1950s onward, visual landing aids such as the optical landing system have provided information on proper glide slope , but LSOs still transmit voice calls to approaching pilots by radio. Key personnel involved in the flight deck include the shooters,

27302-421: The previous night. Tovey judged that the German battleship had evaded his destroyers, and turned to the south-west to meet up with other destroyers that were needed to protect the capital ships from submarines. He received further Ultra intelligence about German aircraft operations and appreciations of British radio activity during the morning and shortly after noon, but in a blunder this advice failed to note that

27489-467: The route that the German ships might be using to return to Norway from Izhora ' s position while the main battle fleet proceeded to the north-east to protect the convoy. Tovey received Ultra intelligence that afternoon which confirmed that the Germans were hunting the convoys rather than seeking to prevent an Allied landing. Another radio signal from a German submarine that was intercepted at 7:40 pm led Tovey and his staff to wrongly believe that Tirpitz

27676-461: The safety of PQ 12 and possibly bring the battleship within range of Victorious ' s aircraft. At 1:37 am on 9 March the Admiralty directed Tovey to "steer 120 degrees maximum speed". This was in response to an intercepted German radio message which revealed that Ciliax was headed to the Lofoten islands to meet up with destroyers there at 7 am that day. The Home Fleet adjusted its course to head for

27863-595: The sea and air supremacy . Since the Second World War , the aircraft carrier has replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet, and largely transformed naval battles from gun barrages to beyond-visual-range air strikes . In addition to tactical aptitudes, it has great strategic advantages in that, by sailing in international waters , it does not need to interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus does not risk diplomatic complications or conflict escalation due to trespassing, and obviates

28050-494: The sea. Although STOVL aircraft are capable of taking off vertically from a spot on the deck, using the ramp and a running start is far more fuel efficient and permits a heavier launch weight. As catapults are unnecessary, carriers with this arrangement reduce weight, complexity, and space needed for complex steam or electromagnetic launching equipment. Vertical landing aircraft also remove the need for arresting cables and related hardware. Russian, Chinese, and Indian carriers include

28237-427: The severity of the economic crisis on the Treaty of Versailles. The far-right Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler , which had formed shortly after the peace treaty, exploited growing popular resentment and desperation to become the dominant political movement in Germany. By 1933, they gained power and rapidly established a totalitarian regime known as Nazi Germany . The Nazi regime demanded the immediate cancellation of

28424-523: The size of capital ships including carriers. Since World War II, aircraft carrier designs have increased in size to accommodate a steady increase in aircraft size. The large, modern Nimitz class of US Navy carriers has a displacement nearly four times that of the World War II–era USS ; Enterprise , yet its complement of aircraft is roughly the same—a consequence of the steadily increasing size and weight of individual military aircraft over

28611-439: The south-east, before turning north at 2 am on 8 March. They failed to spot any of the German ships. At this time Tirpitz was searching for the convoys independently and was approximately 250 miles (400 km) north-east of the Home Fleet. The British destroyers were low on fuel after their search, and headed for Iceland to refuel. This left the Home Fleet with only a single destroyer, as two had been detached to refuel in Iceland

28798-453: The two Albacore squadrons. At this time the Home Fleet was 115 miles (185 km) to the north-west of Tirpitz , which had rendezvoused with Friedrich Ihn . Weather conditions were good. The German force was spotted by the pilot of an Albacore at 8:03 am. As soon as the sighting report was received, the twelve strike aircraft were ordered to take off. Tovey sent a message to their crews stating that they had "a wonderful chance which may achieve

28985-508: The type of aircraft they carry and their operational assignments. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope , RN, former First Sea Lord (head) of the Royal Navy , has said, "To put it simply, countries that aspire to strategic international influence have aircraft carriers." Henry Kissinger , while United States Secretary of State , also said: "An aircraft carrier is 100,000 tons of diplomacy." As of November 2024, there are 47 active aircraft carriers in

29172-477: The unchallenged Japanese expansion in the East, particularly considering their defeat in previous wars with Japan; the Soviets also recognized, as the U.S. and Britain had suggested, the advantages of a two-front war . Franklin D. Roosevelt , Winston Churchill , and Joseph Stalin were The Big Three leaders. They were in frequent contact through ambassadors, top generals, foreign ministers and special emissaries such as

29359-557: The war, Britain could remain the sole great power in Europe facing the Communist threat, as it was in 1940 and 1941 against Nazism. During the early part of 1945, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, Uruguay, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria (these latter two French colonies had been declared independent states by British occupation troops, despite protests by Pétain and later De Gaulle) and Ecuador became signatories. Ukraine and Belarus , which were not independent states but parts of

29546-488: The war, lose a significant portion of territory, and pay costly reparations, among other penalties. The Weimar Republic , which formed at the end of the war and subsequently negotiated the treaty, saw its legitimacy shaken, particularly as it struggled to govern a greatly weakened economy and humiliated populace. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , and the ensuing Great Depression , led to political unrest across Europe, especially in Germany, where revanchist nationalists blamed

29733-402: The war, until the 1980s. Emergencies also spurred the creation or conversion of highly unconventional aircraft carriers. CAM ships were cargo-carrying merchant ships that could launch (but not retrieve) a single fighter aircraft from a catapult to defend the convoy from long range land-based German aircraft. Before World War II, international naval treaties of 1922 , 1930 , and 1936 limited

29920-428: The war. The alliance was largely one of convenience for each member: the U.K. realized that the Axis powers threatened not only its colonies in North Africa and Asia but also the homeland . The United States felt that the Japanese and German expansion should be contained, but ruled out force until Japan's attack. The Soviet Union, having been betrayed by the Axis attack in 1941, greatly despised German belligerence and

30107-578: The world operated by fourteen navies. The United States has 11 large nuclear-powered CATOBAR fleet carriers — each carrying around 80 fighters — the largest in the world, with the total combined deck space over twice that of all other nations combined. In addition, the US Navy has nine amphibious assault ships used primarily as helicopter carriers , although these also each carry up to 20 vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) jetfighters and are similar in size to medium-sized fleet carriers. China ,

30294-643: The world's first successful ship-launched air raid: on 6 September 1914, a Farman aircraft launched by Wakamiya attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS  Kaiserin Elisabeth and the Imperial German gunboat Jaguar in Jiaozhou Bay off Qingdao ; neither was hit. The first attack using an air-launched torpedo occurred on 2 August, when a torpedo was fired by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds from

30481-513: The world, had sought an alliance with the western powers, but Hitler preempted a potential war with Stalin by signing the Nazi–Soviet non-aggression pact in August 1939. In addition to preventing a two-front war that had battered its forces in the last world war, the agreement secretly divided the independent states of Central and Eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for

30668-455: The years. Today's aircraft carriers are so expensive that some nations which operate them risk significant economic and military impact if a carrier is lost. Some changes were made after 1945 in carriers: Modern navies that operate such aircraft carriers treat them as capital ships of fleets, a role previously held by the galleons, ships-of-the-line and battleships . This change took place during World War II in response to air power becoming

30855-475: Was Tirpitz . He attempted to attack the German force, but was outpaced and broke off. Seawolf ' s crew then sent a radio report of this contact, which indicated that the ship was either a cruiser or a battleship. The German battle group sailed north-east along the coast of Norway at 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) for the remainder of 6 March and turned north at midnight. During 6 March PQ 12 passed through areas of loose pack ice . This forced it to take

31042-543: Was "the most important of the Allied leaders during the first half of World War II". British West Africa and the British colonies in East and Southern Africa participated, mainly in the North African, East African and Middle-Eastern theatres. Two West African and one East African division served in the Burma Campaign . Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing colony, having received responsible government in 1923. It

31229-439: Was a clear illustration of the power projection capability afforded by a large force of modern carriers. Concentrating six carriers in a single unit turned naval history about, as no other nation had fielded anything comparable. In the " Doolittle Raid ", on 18 April 1942, the US Navy carrier USS  Hornet sailed to within 650 nautical miles (1,200 km) of Japan and launched 16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from her deck in

31416-485: Was at sea. He believed that the battleship was probably being used to protect northern Norway from a landing, but was unable to discount the possibility that she would attack the convoys. Tovey wanted to use Curteis's force to protect the convoys while the ships under his direct command intercepted Tirpitz . The Admiralty refused to permit this and directed the Home Fleet to remain concentrated so that Victorious ' s fighters could protect it from air attack. Tovey ordered

31603-525: Was attempted in May and involved the battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen . While the German ships destroyed the British battlecruiser HMS Hood on 24 May, Bismarck was crippled by Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier HMS  Ark Royal and sank on 27 May after being bombarded by several British battleships from the Home Fleet . Admiral Sir John Tovey

31790-420: Was attributed to shortcomings with the aircraft and tactics used. They believed that the battleship posed a significant threat to the convoys, leading to strong escorts being assigned to them. The German Navy was chastened by how close Tirpitz came to disaster and decided to be more cautious. The battleship was only dispatched against one other convoy, PQ 17 in June 1942 and was recalled before attacking it. She

31977-551: Was becoming a significant factor in warfare. The advent of aircraft as focal weapons was driven by the superior range, flexibility, and effectiveness of carrier-launched aircraft. They had greater range and precision than naval guns, making them highly effective. The versatility of the carrier was demonstrated in November 1940, when HMS  Illustrious launched a long-range strike on the Italian fleet at their base in Taranto , signalling

32164-436: Was detected bound for the Soviet Union, and put in at Altafjord in the far north of Norway on 4 July to await Hitler's permission to attack. After learning that Tirpitz had sailed, Pound ordered the convoy to scatter and its escort to withdraw on the evening of 4 July. Tovey strongly disagreed with this decision. Many losses from German submarines and aircraft were incurred. The battleship departed Altafjord on 5 July to attack

32351-516: Was especially angered by the invasion and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia , just six months after signing the Munich Agreement , which sought to appease Hitler by ceding the mainly ethnic German Czechoslovak borderlands; while most of Europe had celebrated the agreement as a major victory for peace, the open flaunting of its terms demonstrated the failure of appeasement. Britain and France, which had been

32538-415: Was intensely embarrassing to the British, the German redeployment ended the threat which the warships at Brest had posed to Allied shipping in the Atlantic. Due to the presence of the battle group at Trondheim, the Home Fleet was directed to provide a powerful distant covering force for the next Arctic convoys; this was the first time that this had been done. The British also stepped up their air patrols of

32725-415: Was management of the exhaust from the power plant. Fumes coming across the deck were a major issue in USS  Langley . In addition, lack of an island meant difficulties managing the flight deck, performing air traffic control, a lack of radar housing placements and problems with navigating and controlling the ship itself. Another deck structure that can be seen is a ski-jump ramp at the forward end of

32912-457: Was not a sovereign dominion. It governed itself internally and controlled its own armed forces, but had no diplomatic autonomy, and, therefore, was officially at war as soon as Britain was at war. The Southern Rhodesian colonial government issued a symbolic declaration of war nevertheless on 3 September 1939, which made no difference diplomatically but preceded the declarations of war made by all other British dominions and colonies. These included:

33099-650: Was one). Specialist carrier evolution was well underway, with several navies ordering and building warships that were purposefully designed to function as aircraft carriers by the mid-1920s. This resulted in the commissioning of ships such as the Japanese Hōshō (1922), HMS  Hermes (1924, although laid down in 1918 before Hōshō ), and Béarn (1927). During World War II , these ships would become known as fleet carriers . The aircraft carrier dramatically changed naval warfare in World War II, because air power

33286-414: Was organised into four sub- flights , each with three Albacores, and was led by Lieutenant Commander Bill Lucas from 832 Squadron. Lucas had only recently joined the squadron and had no training in attacking enemy warships. He spotted the German ships at 8:40 am, and ordered his command to approach them at an altitude of 3,500 feet (1,100 m) where scattered cloud might hide the aircraft from sight. Due to

33473-599: Was rapidly sailing south. Ciliax continued to search for the convoys during the afternoon of 7 March. His destroyers ran low on fuel, and Friedrich Ihn was detached to refuel in Narvik and then rejoin the battle group. Two attempts to refuel the other destroyers from Tirpitz failed due to bad weather, and they were sent to Tromsø instead. The battleship suffered mechanical problems on 7 March that could not be repaired at sea. This limited her speed to 29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph). The six British destroyers proceeded to

33660-468: Was severe enough that only three landing attempts were successful before further attempts were forbidden. This experience prompted the development of vessels with a flush deck and produced the first large fleet ships. In 1918, HMS  Argus became the world's first carrier capable of launching and recovering naval aircraft. As a result of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which limited

33847-573: Was subjected to many attacks at her anchorages in Norway and finally sunk in November 1944. Before the outbreak of World War II the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) developed plans to attack Allied merchant shipping in the event of war. The navy's commander, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder , believed that battleships and cruisers were a key part of this strategy. As a result, the Scharnhorst and Bismarck -class battleships that were constructed in

34034-551: Was the commander in chief of this fleet, and led it from the battleship HMS  King George V during the battle. The loss of Bismarck left Tirpitz as Germany's only remaining full-sized battleship. At the time her crew were still being trained. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 the Allies began sending convoys loaded with supplies through the Norwegian Sea and Arctic Ocean to ports in northern Russia. The Arctic convoys that were dispatched during 1941 and early 1942 were lightly opposed, with only

34221-462: Was to avoid Allied naval forces to the extent possible, and only attack convoys if they were protected by an equal or lesser force than his own. The raid is usually called Operation Sportpalast by historians, but was designated Operation Nordmeer by Ciliax and his staff. Ciliax was aware that two Allied convoys were at sea. While he believed that they would be protected by the Home Fleet, he did not know its strength or whether it had sailed. His plan for

34408-454: Was to form the main element of a powerful battle group once other German warships arrived in the area. Kapitän zur See Karl Topp commanded Tirpitz at this time. The Allies learned of Tirpitz ' s arrival at Trondheim on 17 January from Ultra intelligence obtained by decrypting intercepted German radio signals. British photo reconnaissance aircraft located the battleship there on 23 January, and regular sorties were flown over

34595-416: Was too anxious to prove a point ... he suffered from an inferiority complex." During December 1941, Roosevelt devised the name "United Nations" for the Allies and Churchill agreed. He referred to the Big Three and China as the " Four Policemen " repeatedly from 1942. The alliance was formalised in the Declaration by United Nations signed on 1 January 1942. There were the 26 original signatories of

34782-613: Was undertaking training in Trondheim Fjord on 19 February. In response, Tovey sailed that day with most of the Home Fleet to either raid the Norwegian port of Tromsø or attack Tirpitz if she put to sea. He cancelled the raid on Tromsø after the Admiralty passed on intelligence that another group of German ships was being transferred to Trondheim; these were the heavy cruisers Admiral Scheer and Prinz Eugen with three destroyers. The aircraft carrier HMS  Victorious , escorted by

34969-405: Was very confused. Free French forces were recognized only by Britain, while the United States considered Vichy France to be the legal government of the country until Operation Overlord , while also preparing U.S. occupation francs . Winston Churchill urged Roosevelt to restore France to its status of a major power after the liberation of Paris in August 1944; the Prime Minister feared that after

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