British Aircraft Carrier Illustrious History and Specs.

British Aircraft Carrier Illustrious

The British Aircraft Carrier Illustrious was the namesake of her class and included the sister ships Victorious, Formidable and Indomitable. These ships were all laid down in the late 1930 and were completed in the early 1940s. The Illustrious class were the first aircraft carriers of any Navy to have fully armored hangars and the 3 inch flight deck armor proved valuable in preventing serious damage to the Illustrious on more than one occasion. However, the extra armor weight limited the amount of planes carried, with the normal complement being only 33, which included the bi-wing (Stringbag) Swordfish torpedo planes and the Martlet fighters. The Illustrious carried a crew of approximately 900 and had its largest gun be sixteen 4.5 turrets. The Illustrious was most famous as the ship that launched the two waves of Swordfish against the Italian Fleet anchored in Taranto. With the loss of only two men the British pilots caused damage to three Italian Battleships, which were the new Littorio and the Conte di Cavour and Duilio. Many say this successful attack laid the blueprint for the Pearl Harbor attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy.