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Courageous sinking after being torpedoed by U-29. Courageous served with the Home Fleet at the start of World War II with 811 and 822 Squadrons aboard, each squadron equipped with a dozen Fairey Swordfish. [38] In the early days of the war, hunter-killer groups were formed around the fleet's aircraft carriers to find and destroy U-boats. On 31 ...
Courageous sinking In the early days of the war, hunter-killer groups were formed around the fleet aircraft carriers to find and destroy U-boats. On 17 September 1939, U-boat U-29 struck the ship with two torpedoes, and Courageous became the first British warship sunk to enemy action in the Second World War.
The first true aircraft carrier was HMS Argus, [2] [4] launched in late 1917 with a complement of 20 aircraft and a flight deck 550 ft (170 m) long and 68 ft (21 m) wide. [4] The last aircraft carrier sunk in wartime was the Japanese aircraft carrier Amagi, in Kure Harbour in July 1945.
The largest loss of life in the sinking of a battlecruiser was the 1,415 killed in the sinking of HMS Hood during her confrontation with the German battleship Bismarck in 1941. Of the three surviving World War II battlecruisers, two were scrapped after the war and one, USS Saratoga , was sunk by nuclear weapon tests in 1946.
British carriers HMS Hermes, HMS Courageous, and HMS Ark Royal patrolled Britain's Western approaches. In September 1941, before America was officially in the war and shortly after a U-boat fired upon the destroyer USS Greer, the fleet carrier USS Wasp sailed to Iceland with orders to find and destroy German or Italian warships.
Of the first nine battlecruisers, only HMS Tiger survived the Washington Treaty and into the 1930s. The three Courageous-class ships were converted to aircraft carriers during the 1920s and only Repulse, Renown and Hood served in the Second World War as battlecruisers. All three went through substantial refits between the wars.
Otto Schuhart (4 September 1909 – 10 March 1990) was a German submarine commander during World War II, who commanded the U-boat U-29 and was credited with the sinking of the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous on 17 September 1939, the first British warship sunk in the war by enemy action.
The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinking after being torpedoed by a German submarine in November 1941, the assisting destroyer HMS Legion was sunk in 1942.. This is a list of Royal Navy ships and personnel lost during World War II, from 3 September 1939 to 1 October 1945.