HMS Collosus
From Our Contribution
 Image from when she was the French L'Arromanches in 1961 | |
 HMS Colossus off Shanghai, 1945. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | HMS Collosus |
| Owner | British Navy |
| Builder | Vickers-Armstrong |
| Launched | 30 Sep 1943 |
| Completed | December 1944 |
| In service | 16 Dec 1944 |
| Out of service | 1974 |
| Fate | Scrapped in Toulon in 1978 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Aircraft Carrier |
| Tonnage | 13,600 tons |
| Length | 695 ft 6 in (212m) |
| Beam | 80 ft 1 in (24.4m) |
| Depth | draught 23 ft 7 in (7.2m) |
| Propulsion | twn screw |
| Speed | 25 knots (46 km/h) |
| Capacity | 48 aircraft, 854 crew, plus 222 Fleet Air Arm personnel. |
Remarks
Designed to meet the Royal Navy's wartime need for more carriers as cheaply as possible. They were built to mercantile standards, with no armour, and no heavy AA guns. During her time in military service she had twenty-four Vickers Armstrongs 2-pounder guns, thirty-two Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, later replaced in 1945 by twenty-one Bofors 40 mm guns and four Ordnance QF 3-pounder Vickers guns. The carrier had a regular flight deck 211 m × 24.5 m (692 ft 3 in × 80 ft 5 in), catapult at the bow of the ship, two lifts (13.72 m x 10.36 m wide), and a hangar (104.24 × 15.85 m wide).
Colossus left Glasgow on 12 Mar 1945 for the Far East. She carried 24 Vought Corsair IV fighters from 1846 Naval Air Squadron, and 18 Fairey Barracuda II torpedo bombers. She arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, on 13 Jun 1945, sailing on to Sydney, Australia, where she arrived the following month. She was part of the force sent to re-occupy Hong Kong where she picked up many POWs. Colossus also headed a task force to occupy Shanghai, together with the cruisers Bermuda and Argonaut and five destroyers. In December 1945, Colossus transported released Dutch prisoners of war to Colombo. From 17 January to 26 March 1946, Colossus was refitted and repaired at Cape Town in the Selborne drydock at Simonstown before being lent to the French in August 1946. The French then purchased her in 1951 and she saw service in Indo China, and during the Suez crisis.