HMS Victorious

• The ship
• Particulars
• Service record 1941 to 1945
• Battle honours
• Aircraft
• Commanding Officers

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The ship

The aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, the fourth of five Royal Navy vessels to have that name, was the second of six Illustrious class carriers designed and ordered during the late 1930s and the third completed.

The other Illustrious carriers were HMS Illustrious, HMS Formidable, HMS Indomitable, HMS Implacable and HMS Indefatigable. After serving in the Second World War, five of the Illustrious carriers were scrapped during the 1950s. Victorious continued in service until 1969.

The order to build Victorious was placed on 13 January 1937 with Vickers Armstrong, which had bid £2,464,000 for the job. Victorious’ keel was laid on 4 May 1937 at Walker-upon-Tyne. The ship was launched on 14 September 1939, commissioned on 29 March 1941, and completed on 15 May 1941.

Following action in a number of theatres during the war, Victorious was used for training and to transport troops, civilian passengers and equipment to and from Australia, the Far East and the UK.

From 1950 Victorious was removed from service for a £15,000,000 modernisation, including a new flight deck. Whereas when entering service in 1941 Victorious was capable of carrying 36 propeller aircraft, after refit it would be able to carry up to 55 aircraft including heavier jets and helicopters. Victorious was paid off on 30 June 1950, with modernisation work beginning in October of that year. The ship was recommissioned on 14 January 1958.

For the next nine years before being withdrawn permanently from service in 1967, Victorious spent time in the Mediterranean, Middle East, Far East, Australia and off the coast of West Africa. In June 1969 HMS Victorious was sent to Faslane on the Clyde and scrapped.

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Particulars of HMS Victorious

	From 1941	From 1958
Length: overall	748 feet 6 inches	781 feet
Length: waterline	710 feet	740 feet
Beam: overall	112 feet	145 feet 9 inches
Beam: waterline	95 feet 9 inches	103 feet 4 inches
Displacement	23,000 tons
Displacement: full load	28,619 tons	35,500 tons
Flight deck: length	742 feet	775 feet
Flight deck: width	95 feet	147 feet
Full speed	30.5 knots	31 knots
Oil fuel	4,640 tons	4,850 tons
Petrol	50,000 gallons	339,000 gallons
Compliment	1,750 (wartime) 1,286 (peacetime)	2,400

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Service record: 1941 to 1945

Home Fleet: 1941 to 1942

• From 20 to 27 May 1941, took part in the chase in the Atlantic and sinking of the German battleship, Bismarck. Victorious sent out Swordfish torpedo bombers, one of which hit the Bismarck amidships.
• In November 1942, provided cover during Operation Torch, the North Africa landings.

South Pacific: March to August 1943

• Temporarily renamed USS Robin
• During May and June 1943, supported action in the Soloman Islands, New Caledonia, Munda, New Georgia and Bougainville.

Home Fleet: March 1944

• On 3 April 1944 took part in Operation Tungsten; an attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in Alten Fjiord, Norway. Barracuda attack scored 14 hits on the Tirpitz causing sever damage.

British Eastern Fleet: from May 1944

• July 1944, Operation Crimson. Led strikes on Sabang harbour (Sumatra), the first time British naval forces brought guns to bear (as opposed to air strikes) on Japanese shore installations. Admiral Lord Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, South-East Asia, signalled, “The results will hearten all forces in south-east Asia”.
• August 1944: Operation Banquet. Strikes on Padang (Sumatra)
• September 1944: Operation Light. Strikes on Sigli (Sumatra)
• October 1944:  Operation Mullet. Strikes on the Nicobar Islands (190 kilometers North West of Sumatra in the Bay of Bengal)

British Pacific Fleet: from December 1944

• January 1945: Operation Lentil. Strikes on Pangkalan Brandan (Sumatra)
• January 1945: Operation Meridian. Strikes on Palembang (Sumatra)

British Pacific Fleet in cooperation with US Fifth Fleet: March to May 1945

• Operations in support of landings at Okinawa (islands south of the Japanese archipelago)
• April 1945: Operation Iceberg. Strikes against airfields and other targets in the Sakishima Island group at the southern end of the Ryuktu Islands.
• 9 May 1945: hit by two Kamikazes (little operational damage)
• July 1945: Aircraft from Victorious dropped the first bomb to hit the Japanese escort carrier Kaiyo (Beppo Bay, Kyushu, Japan)

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Battle Honours

Bismarck	1941
Norway	1941 - 44
Arctic	1941 - 42
Malta Convoys	1942
North Africa	1942
Biscay	1942
Sabang	1944
Palembang	1945
Okinawa	1945
Japan	1945

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Aircraft

Fairey Swordfish

Three-seat torpedo-bomber reconnaissance biplane
Squadrons: 825 (May to June 1941) : 820 (June 1941)

Fairey Fulmar

Two-seat fighter
Squadrons: 800 (May to June 1941) : 809 (January to November 1942)

Hawker Sea Hurricane

Single-seat fighter converted from Hawker Hurricane
Squadron: 885 (June to August 1942)

Fairey Albacore

Three-seat torpedo-bomber biplane
Squadrons: 827 (July to August 1941) : 828 (July to August 1941) : 820 (July 1941 to January 1942) : 817 (August 1941 to November 1942) : 832 (August 1941 to December 1942)

Supermarine Seafire

Single-seat fighter converted from the Spitfire
Squadron: 884 (July to November 1942)

Fairey Barracuda

Three-seat torpedo- and dive-bomber
Squadrons: 827 (March to April 1944) : 829 (March to July 1944) : 831 (March to August 1944) : 822 (September 1944)

Grumman Martlet (Wildcat)

Single-seat fighter
Squadrons: 896 (September 1942 to September 1943) : 882 (October 1942 to September 1943) : 898 (October 1942 to October 1943)

Chance-Vought Corsair

Single-seat fighter-bomber
Squadrons: 1834 (February 1944 to October 1945) : 1836 (March 1944 to October 1945) : 1838 (July 1944) : 1837 (July to September 1944) : 1841 (September 1945) : 1842 (September 1945)

Grumman Tarpon (Avenger)

Three-seat torpedo-bomber
Squadrons: 832 (January to September 1943) : 849 (December 1944 to October 1945)

de Havilland Sea Venom

Two-seat all-weather strike aircraft
Squadrons: 894 (February 1959 and June to August 1959) : 805 (April to May 1961)

Supermarine Scimitar

Single-seat fighter bomber
Squadrons: 803 (September 1958 to February 1960) : 807 (January 1960)

de Havilland Sea Vixen

Two-seat all-weather interception and strike aircraft
Squadrons: 893 (September 1958 to September 1960 and August 1963 to June 1967) : 892 (October 1959 and October 1960 to February 1962) : 899 (August 1963)

Blackburn Buccaneer

Two-seat low-level strike aircraft
Squadrons: 809 (July to August 1963 and May to June 1966) : 801 (August 1963 to June 1967)

Fairey Gannet

Three-seat airborne early-warning aircraft
Squadrons: 849B (October 1960 to February 1962) : 849A (August 1963 to June 1967)

Westland Whirlwind

Three-crew anti-submarine warfare helicopter
Squadrons: 701 (February 1958) : 824 (August 1958 to January 1959) : 825 (October 1960 to November 1961)

Westland Wessex

Three-crew anti-submarine warfare helicopter
Squadrons: 815 (December 1961) : 814 (August 1963 to July 1965, April to September 1966 and January to March 1967)

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Commanding Officers

	Appointed
Captain HC Bovell CBE RN	15 October 1940
Captain LD Mackintosh DSO DSC RN	23 November 1942
Commander RCV Ross DSO RN	1 November 1943
Captain MM Denney CB CBE RN	8 December 1943
Captain JC Annesley DSO RN	15 August 1945
Captain EBK Stevens DSO DSC RN	30 September 1947
Captain NV Dickenson DSO DSC RN	25 May 1948
Captain JA Grindle CBE RN	16 July 1949
Captain CP Coke DSO RN	16 December 1957
Captain HRB Janvrin DSC RN	11 August 1959
Captain JMD Gray OBE RN	21 December 1960
Captain PM Compston RN	19 November 1962
Captain DL Davenport OBE RN	6 October 1964
Captain IL McIntosh DSO DSC MBE	12 September 1966

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Further reading

Apps, Michael (1971) Send Her Victorious; Purnell Book Services, London. (Lending collection)

Chesneau, Roger (1984) Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia; Arms and Armour Press, London. (Naval Studies collection)

Hobbs, David (1996) Aircraft Carriers of the Royal and Commonwealth Navies: the Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia from World War I to the Present; Greenhill Books, London. (Naval Studies collection)

McCort, Neil (1998) HMS Victorious 1937 to 1969; Fan, Cheltenham. (Naval Studies collection)

Sturtivant, Ray and Balance, Theo (1994) The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm; Air-Britain, Tonbridge (Naval Studies collection)

Watton, Ross (1991) The Aircraft Carrier Victorious: Anatomy of the Ship; Conway Maritime Press, London. (Naval Studies collection)

Winklareth, Robert (1998) The Bismarck Chase: New Light on a Famous Engagement; Chatham Publishing, London. (Naval Studies collection)

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