Saturday, December 13, 2014

One of Britain's floating aerodromes, 1930

C.L. Paddock.  Golden Stories for Boys and Girls.  Canadian Watchman Press, 1930.
An enclosed hangar, no less!

Mister G suggests that this might be the H.M.S. Glorious, and sent me the following You Tube link:  From Cruiser to Aircraft Carrier.

Although initially constructed as a World War I battlecruiser, she was converted to carrier use and was still in operation during World War II, when she evacuated troops following the ill-fated Norwegian campaign in 1940.  She also received a flight of Hurricanes that had been ordered to be destroyed in Norway, except that the pilots couldn't bring themselves to carry out this order and decided to risk a never before attempted landing on the carrier by such high-performance fighters without tailhooks.  The solution was to put 15-pound bags of sand in their tails!  The aircraft landings were successful, but unfortunately H.M.S. Glorious had the great subsequent misfortune to encounter the Scharnhorst and was destroyed in the ensuing battle, with the loss of almost everyone on board.

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