Article of the day for August 17, 2016
The Article of the day for August 17, 2016 is HMS Formidable (67).
HMS Formidable was an Illustrious-class aircraft carrier ordered for the Royal Navy before World War II. Transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as a replacement for the crippled sister ship Illustrious, Formidable's aircraft played a key role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early 1941, then provided cover for Allied ships and attacked Axis forces until the carrier was badly damaged by German dive bombers in May. Assigned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean in early 1942, the carrier covered the invasion of Diego Suarez in Vichy Madagascar in mid-1942 against the possibility of a sortie by the Japanese into the Indian Ocean. The ship participated in Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, in November, and covered the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943. Formidable made several attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway with the Home Fleet in mid-1944, and in 1945 attacked targets in the Japanese Home Islands. After repatriating liberated Allied prisoners of war and soldiers and ferrying British personnel across the globe, the ship was placed in reserve, and finally sold for scrap in 1953.
HMS Formidable was an Illustrious-class aircraft carrier ordered for the Royal Navy before World War II. Transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as a replacement for the crippled sister ship Illustrious, Formidable's aircraft played a key role in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early 1941, then provided cover for Allied ships and attacked Axis forces until the carrier was badly damaged by German dive bombers in May. Assigned to the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean in early 1942, the carrier covered the invasion of Diego Suarez in Vichy Madagascar in mid-1942 against the possibility of a sortie by the Japanese into the Indian Ocean. The ship participated in Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, in November, and covered the invasions of Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943. Formidable made several attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway with the Home Fleet in mid-1944, and in 1945 attacked targets in the Japanese Home Islands. After repatriating liberated Allied prisoners of war and soldiers and ferrying British personnel across the globe, the ship was placed in reserve, and finally sold for scrap in 1953.
