HMS Hermes - Guide 162
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- Today we look at the RN's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes.
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Next on the list:
-Iron Duke
-Kronprinz Erzerzorg Rudolph.
-HMS Eagle
-HMS Caroline
-Ise class
-18 inch monitor
-De Zeven Provinciën
-USS Langley
-Kongo class
-Grom class
-St Louis class
-All-big-gun designs
-USS Oregon
-Gascogne
-Alsace
-Lyon and Normandie classes
-Leander class
-HMS Ajax
-Project 1047
-Battle class
-Daring class
-USS Indianapolis
-Atago/Takao
-Midway class
-Graf Zeppelin
-Bathurst class
-RHS Queen Olga
-HMS Belfast
-Aurora
-Imperator Nikolai I
-USS Helena
-USS Tennesse
-HMNZS New Zealand
-HMS Queen Mary
-USS Marblehead
-New York class
-L-20e
-Abdiel class
-Panserskib (Armoured ship) Rolf Krake
-HMS Victoria
-HMS Charybdis
-Eidsvold class
-IJN “Special” DD's
-SMS Emden
-Ships of Battle of Campeche
-USS England (DE-635)
-Tashkent
-1934A Class
-HMS Plym (K271)
-Siegfried class
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Pinned post for Q&A :)
Im curious did hermes "armored" flight deck help her at all against the attacking dive bomber, and how may bombs did it take to sink hermes?
Anything on HMS CELENDINE, used on Arctic convoy company in WW2 as we lost our grandfather aboard her. Thanks again for your time and effort uploading these.
James B ,
Forty 250lb bombs.
Wikipedia do a great article on HMS Hermes, as does the following link.
www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-04CV-Hermes.htm
Drachinifel thanks for doing the Hermes! I’ve been wanting this one. The early carriers are some of my favorites just for what they proved could be done.
@@ChibiBritishDwarf did she have an armoured flight deck? If so I imagine the bombs of the 40s would be very different to those of the 20s?
My uncle John Quinn went down with Hermes. He was last seen by a friend who called to him, telling him to jump off the increasingly listing deck, but he turned to reveal that he'd lost his right arm at the shoulder to shrapnel. John had been mentioned in dispatches for his role in the Richelieu raid on Dakar harbour. He'd put the boat's stern flag into his pack and forgotten to remove it before visiting his fiancee in Capetown, where it was accidentally left. RN tradition is to carry a relic of the previous ship of the same name, but when the new Hermes was commissioned, there was nothing of the 1919 Hermes to give to the new one. My father and I rectified that in 1970 when we retrieved the flag from Capetown and presented it to the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. We were given a tour of HMS Victory, where I acted as a powder monkey to assist the Royal Marine tour guide, who broke off a piece of the original but rotten oak gun deck timber removed during renovation and told me to put it up my jumper. I still have it in a cigar box my father made into a show case.
Without doubt the definitive “Anti-Pirate Aircraft Carrier”
i would rethink watching a bootleg of "1917" with that think bearing down on me.
Yar
Funny to see a pirate nation making anti-pirate ships....
@@landerviguera9575 how is brittain pirate
@@memeboi6017 francis drake, henry morgan, hawkins....
The Hermes was in fact hit FORTY times by the Vals attacking her; she was the only British carrier sunk by air attack.
In 2002 I met an elderly British gentleman who cried as he recounted his experience of abandoning the HMS Hermes as she was sinking. Casualty reports as mere numbers are not the same as watching an elderly man in a fine suit and tie tell you his friends' names that died on that ship. He was bitter at some incompetent leadership also.
Admiralty incompetence in underestimating the Japanese cost the RN more than one ship.
My Grandfather was a radioman on the Hermes and was seconded to the RN to serve aboard her. He left the ship just before it sank, when it did he was the radioman at Signal Hill, when the casualty list came the ship's company list hadn't been updated and his name was on it. I think I've got a photo floating around with half of its flight deck torn off after its altercation with a dock crane...
Would you be able to tell me what he said? My great uncle, Roy Wilgress, died on that ship..
@@oliverreno4734 A crewman's Recollections of the sinking of HMS Hermes. This crew member in the Royal Navy had left England months before. They had word that the Japanese were nearby and his aircraft carrier was sent out into the Indian Ocean in response. Unfortunately they came under severe attack from the Japanese resulting in many explosions rocking his ship. It was not long before he found himself in the water hoping not to be killed while hundreds were dying around him. He was sure that the Admiralty had committed some grave errors that led to this terrible situation. Eventually he found himself back in England with another assignment in the Royal Navy.
It has been about 20 years since I had this conversation and my recall as to the names of some of his Shipmates has faded. The names sounded like fairly typical English names. He was an enlisted member of the Navy and I do not recall any particular skill set as to whether he worked with aircraft or the ship's engineering spaces perhaps. In my own combat experience I found it was like being in a sporting event where one is a participant as part of a large team. Your perceptions are very unique and it is very difficult to retain some sort of big picture. During the hopefully few moments when you are burrowing into the Earth while explosions are happening around you, it's really difficult to even consider the current mission objectives. It gave me a much better appreciation for why high level commanders spend most of their time out of artillery range, gathering and processing reports as to friend and foe alike. Wellington said something like, The whole art of war is in finding out what is over the next hill. He would have loved drones.
Meant to include that he was well dressed, was likely wearing a necktie that would tell someone in the know that he was former RN. I spotted an anchor or some bit of ribbon on his jacket lapel that said WW2 veteran to me and that's how our conversation began. Looking back, I think he wanted to honour his former shipmates by dressing well, having a well-trimmed moustache, and keeping himself as neat as the bridge of the HMS Hermes. He carried himself in a way that honoured your uncle's memory. But there was a lot of pain behind that stiff upper lip.
as is often said, don't all good stories include pirates.
Someone has been watching the History Guy! 😁
@@steveb6103 Of course. Interesting how you bump into like minded people on the better history channels
Love The History Guy. Nice to see a fellow viewer. XD
I forget which channel I found first, but if you view one you probably get recommendations to see the other. Mark Felton's channel is another one.
Indeed they do!
A pirate base?! Well... I want to know more.
Me too!
I'm with these guys. RN vs pirates needs it's own video.
(sings) I'm all about that base
Galvars Here is an interesting case of the Royal Navy fighting piracy in the 1920s when two submarines battled a steamer captured by Chinese pirates. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_incident
agreed, now I want to know more about that pirate base they attacked. Hmmm. any cool maps showing the layout of the base, any pics of it from the air, hmmmm.
After the talk of pirates I was wondering if you could do a history of piracy maybe from the golden age up to and during world war 2 if possible.
Agree. Why stop there? Piracy has been big in the news in recent years as well.
I would like to know if there are any stories about pirates still using sailing vessels, encountering the earlier armoured or protected cruisers; and if any of them managed to survive such engagements.
@@RCAvhstape because Drach doesn't like to go much further past ww2 due to classified documents etc.
Collin S. There are in S E Asia
Pirates as we know them in the west were considered beyond the law and were hunted down by organised navies until it was too dangerous to be a pirate anymore. However in the far east piracy was just a way of life for sailors, if opportunity arose most sailors in would turn pirate. When everyone is at it that makes it very hard to stamp out and why piracy to a certain extent still exists today in the far east.
“and It sank...” Most unceremonious ending to a video yet, very realistic!
Michael Kaylor spoiler alert!
She took 40 bombs. I thought he would’ve mentioned such a feat.
Would've liked to know the fate of crew, however.
My great uncle Roy Wilgress was a stoker on the HMS Hermes. He escaped the attack but DOW on a South African hospital ship in the pacific. His last letter is a family heirloom, that was received after my great grandmother had news of his death. It began "I am alive, but only just...". 2 years ago I visited his grave in Stellawood Cemetery, Durban. The first of my family who'd ever been able to visit him. God bless all those men.
My grandad lost his brother on this ship, he was a stoker too. Probably knew each other.
My father Horace ‘Jim’ Gardner was a leading stoker on the ship at the time. He was off watch when the attack started and he led a fire party as his off watch action station. He was wounded during the action and was luckily picked up by the hospital ship after spending five hours in the water. Being part of the fire party saved his life really s most, if not all, of his engine room shipmates who were on watch did not survive. He spent two years in hospital before getting back to sea. He was on a minesweeper that took part in sweeping of the approaches to the Normandy beach head. He was invalided out in 1948 due to wounds he suffered during the action. He died in 2011
A ship, a soothing accent, a bit of dry subtle humor. I love the sound of Drach in the morning, it sounds like...victory.
Greeting from her 1920's to 30's home port: Hong Kong.
Stay safe out there
Kan Jonathan stay strong
I dived the wreck a couple of years, ago: fantastic wreck.
How much was the dive license for it?
How deep was she?
@@iatsd Don't know only one dive centre dives it AFAIK and they organised it as a package including accomodation and transfers.
@@recklessroges 50+m it's listed as 53m but i can't remember if that is to the deck or the seafloor (and as I recall there is penetration possible below the seafloor as well)
@@StephenElves If they didn't give you a copy of the license then you were diving illegally. It's a war grave and a criminal offence to dive it without a license from the UK MoD.
Same rules apply to *every* war wreck in the world: you need express permission from the flag nation of the vessel.
As of today, I am subscribed to the Holy Trinity: Tank Jesus, Gun Jesus, and Ship Jesus.
This is the way.
Where is plane jesus?
@@juicemeister1984 Check out PILOT PHOTOG's channel. Jet Jesus in the making.
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters I don’t subscribe to very many TH-cam channels, but checked out Mr. Nash’s channel out of curiosity and am pleasantly surprised. You sir have a new subscriber. Give his channel a shot. I do very much like history, specifically military history. I never really had anything more than a passive interest when it came to naval subjects. Drach and his excellent content and narration has all but singlehandedly sparked my enthusiasm for information regarding specifically 20th century navy content resulting in about a dozen new books in my personal library. One of my favorites being The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer which came directly from Drach’s presentation about the battle of Samar. Thank you Sir Drach for the effort and depth of quality information you share.
I don't know why but I love the look of this ship
Yeah, I have the same. That structure, those lines. She was a beautifull lady.
@@misterangel8486 Indeed
The tall mast is a real standout feature, almost like the ones on the 'R' class battleships. The clean lines of the bow are also very appealing, although I can't help but wonder how she'd look with a beveled flightdeck edge like Furious had.
That is interesting, because to me she has *always* looked to have a visually overbearing island. Maybe I am more used to the sight of later carriers? But then I am just one of the crowd when it comes to the huge funnel on the US Saratoga and Lexington.
I think a lower island and the removal of that tripod mast would bring out her inner beauty but many ladies like an overbearing cover.
Honestly the royal navy have the best names for capital ships hands down!!!!! My goodness the names dropped in this, HMS Eagle and HMS Argus. Those names just role off the tongue lovely. Just say it HMS Hermes. Such a great name.
I keep being amazed at how well informed and high quality your videos are.. Keep up the great work
Then you are very easily amazed. How can you qualify this as well informed when he does not even include crew fatalities.
Thanks for this. My Grandad was a Royal Marine on her when it sank. Met my Nan a South African from Cape Town after the collision. None of our massive family would be here if it was for the collision with HMS Corfu.
I think of myself as a WW1/2 history buff and I did not know of HMS Hermes. Thank you for sharing. They were very forward thinking in those days with a rear entrance for the seaplanes. What an awesome share. Thanks again Mr. Drachinifel!
My grandad was an Aviation Mechanic on the Hermes and went ashore with them when they transferred! He never spoke much about the friends he lost.
Something about her design makes her one of my favorite aircraft carriers, don’t know why...
The bow is awesome
Hello thanks for the splendid videos you are posting. Big fan here. Just a suggestion. Instead of the video ending with the sunken ship, i would appreciate to know also infos over the casualties or survivors and over the possible wreckage identification. (Afterlife of the Ship after sinking?) .
My grandfather was in the Royal Navy for 30 years and he was a survivor from HMS Hermes. He would not talk much about that day of the sinking and all the friends he lost. He did say he was in the water for 5 hours before the American Hospital Ship pick them up. Grandmother had a Telegram from the Royal Navy. She, like so many others, when opening the front door to see a Telegram boy standing there knew what it meant. It did say that he was missing at sea. After a period of time of which I forget, it may have been two or three months and It was around Christmas time when my Grandmother received another Telegram. This time it was from Granddad to say that he was safe and well in a Rest home in America and would be home soon. He went back to sea again and signed off in 1945. He was born in Suffolk where his father was in the Coast Guard. When he joined the Navy he was posted to HMS Drake (Devonport Dock Yard) He met my Grandmother in Salcombe, South Devon and they were married there and lived in Salcombe. They are both buried in Bonfire Hill Cemetery from where you can see the Habour of Salcombe. God bless them. Martin. (Thailand)
It's time to D-d-d-d-- d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-DUEL!
EN gets Hermes Kai, Drac makes video the same week. Drac confirmed AL weeb 👌
Outstanding! You have to start somewhere!
I like the idea of a rotating catapult. Would be a good idea if the flight deck was out of ops.
The Royal Navy: fighting Chinese piracy before it was cool.
_>
And HMS Hermes believes in the heart of the cards.
After the Napoleonic Wars, two of the main occupations of the RN were suppression of the slave trade and of piracy. The latter lasted until the withdrawal from the Far East and represents one of the few periods of security for merchant shipping in history. The resurgence of the pest has seen RN units again deployed, but, like death and taxes, piracy is always with us. Understandable that Hermes would be part of a grand tradition.
@@alecblunden8615 Yes, I know these things. But it just seems odd that an aircraft carrier would be involved in more modern times. It's almost like something from a dieselpunk story.
@@Maddog3060 Yes, it sound strange given modern carrier deployments, but the interwar years were a time of experimentation. The RAF took the lead in policing the Middle East mandates from the air, and of course, aircraft had been used during the Great War to attack German bases and ships, including the Magdeburg. The use of air power to attack a base which probably had no anti-aircraft defences was probably seen as a natural extension of doctrine - even in the Balkans, RN carrier aircraft were used against ground target to influence the Civil War.
Have you ever thought of doing a video on all the ships of a particular name? Hermes has a couple CVs, Wasp was CV and USMC Assault ship, etc. Just an idea.
I was looking at videos of the wreck of HMS Hermes when I stumbled onto this footage taken by the Japanese of the actual air attack on the Hermes and HMS Vampire, which was also sunk. The video is only 40 seconds long but it's pretty dramatic. According to the wiki article the Hermes and her escort were attacked by 32 Aichi D3A (Val) dive bombers.
th-cam.com/video/uW8YCzETbr4/w-d-xo.html
Wow, that was something else. Thanks for the link!
Wow. That is a good find. Thank you for the link.
It was HMAS Vampire.
I'm now intrigued on Hermes' anti-piracy missions. Because, like everyone else has said (including The History Guy) all good stories involve pirates.
Last time I was this late, the Kamchatka was seeing torpedo boats.
And don't all good stories involve pirates?
wait, isn't that a different channel???
That thing looks incredibly top heavy.
It was...
you can hear the affection for this odd ugly duck of an Aircraft Carrier in Drach's voice.
Hey, great video Drach!
I've wanted to ask for the longest time.... The introductory motion picture is obviously the RN but could you tell us something about it, it's a cool video.
Congratulations on 100,000 Subscribers
What a gallant ship.
love this stuff
Also unusual in that her flight deck was built to meld seamlessly with the hull instead of hanging over like every other design.
Interesting foreward to the British carrier mindset.
6:33 Hermes got sent to the shadow realm
Makes sense, in Greek mythology Hermes could traverse both the mortal and divine world.
heyoo my friend
This guy right here! Also nice Exeter pic.
Impossible, this deck contains no pathetic -planes- cards!
Still waiting for the motorcycle.
@@scorpixel1866 kek
Excellent
Thanks for this 👍
looks somehow beautiful
fast progress from there in 1924 to 1940 air craft carriers
100K subscribers. Makes me smile. Awesome!
Great video again Drach, congrates on 100K
A VIDEO THAT IS ACTUALLY 5 MINUTES (more or less)! IMPOSSIBLE!
Have to wonder about the rounded leading edge of the flight deck of early carriers, and what effect it had on the speed with which one could launch aircraft. And all the weight that the tripod mast represented. Was that mainly for fire control against surface attack? Nice video.
It would be great if you could do a story on one of Australia's Navy ships called HMAS shropshire heavy cruiser it would make a great story I can guarantee you that.
In September and October of 1931 the Hermes provided support for Charles and Anne Lindbergh and their aircraft, a Lockheed Sirius floatplane following their flight from New York to the Orient via northern Canada, Alaska and Japan. They flew aerial survey missions to gather information about the flooding of the Yangtze River. The aircraft was damaged during one of the hoistings aboard the Hermes and was eventually disassembled and shipped back to the US on a freighter.
Anne wrote in one of her letters home that she was the first ever female passenger aboard the Hermes, having been granted premission to stay onboard by Admiral Colin MacLean. See Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead, Diaries and Letters 1929-1932. This is also documented in another book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, North to the Orient.
My favourite Carrier no matter the iteration .
Excellent video, made even excellenter by your referring to the ship properly, as "she". You did refer to a French battleship as "it", but since he, she, or it was French, that's understandable. 😏
The Japanese attacks on Sri Lanka (Ceylon) which resulted in the loss of HMS Hermes also saw the end of HMS Dorsetshire which had delivered the torpedo coup-de-grace to Bismarck the year before. I read an account of the sinking of Hermes in 'Carrier Combat' by David Wragg. The Japanese torpedo planes came in so low that the crew manning the 0.303 machine guns on the carrier's island were actually shooting down at the attacking planes. Also when it became clear that the ship was going to sink the witness describes a young South African from the crew who abandoned ship with a perfectly executed cliff dive and managed to swim the several miles to a beach on Ceylon.
My father in law was on the 70s hermes
I was Christiand on that one in 77
@@chrisangus7078 that was around when he was on board. And his brother I think
Dad was know as gus he was a stoker Ross angus
Stand Master: HMS Hermes
Stand Name: Goo Goo Guns
Is this an MFing JoJo reference?
I thought it was Destiny Draw. Apparently not.
HMS Belfast it’s time to D-d-d-d-duel!!!
Thanks for a nice video.
The talk of the reduced surface battery made me wonder, what happened to the 8" guns that were taken off Lexington and Saratoga? Were they used anywhere else?
They were emplaced as coastal defence guns on Oahu
Nice job, as always. 😊
The Hermès had a modern look to it, much like the later 20 th century era RN light carriers.
Congratulation for reaching 100k on yt
Seeing as we are so early the Second Pacific squadron has yet to spot torpedo boats, question for the Dock: How was the loss of weight from ships or undesirable shifts in weight handled?
With ammunition and fuel mostly low weight and the growing tendency to stick more stuff on top, would this cause stability issues after an extended action or it is a case of even 10% change in displacement not that big of an issue for well designed ships just due to the total mass. Any cases where it was?
In the USS Franklin video there was mention of shoving everything overboard that wasn’t bolted down, then
unbolting stuff to throw that overboard, so clearly there was some effects to be had.
Stability is maintained with ballast tanks. As fuel tanks are emptied, water ballast is added to keep the balance.
For anyone interested, her wreck has been located and in a war grave. There has been some diving on her but under strict conditions. For a start, she's too deep for many recreational divers.
This video shows a little of what she is like now:
th-cam.com/video/IIc-Gg_0pT8/w-d-xo.html
Admiral Somerville wasn't too complimentary about the Hermes, saying she could only launch her Swordfish if sailing into a good breeze. Of her squadron of Swordfish two never made it ashore as they were undergoing repair in the hanger when she set sail on her final voyage. Somerville was perplexed as to why Hermes had been ordered to sail south from Trincomalee, as it was obvious that that would take her towards Nagumo's fleet. Of course, sailing north might have led her into Ozawa's force that was attacking shipping and ports in the Bay of Bengal.
Weird, saw this in the seconds after it wnet up.
Please review the USS liberty, attempt number 3!
I'll add it to the list :)
@Ron Lewenberg I'm talking about the one that suffered from friendly fire by one of our allies. My dad was in that conflict (not on that ship) and I want to learn more about it.
Hi Drac if of interest my neighbor was on X turret of HMAs Vampire that sank with the Hermès, and on station with the prince of Wales . At 97, he still has his marbles and I could ask if he was up for an interview from you on Skype?
Absolutely :)
Drachinifel how best to communicate ? In Brisbane Australia. Email: directorofdisruption@gmail.com if that works
No pinned comment but I want to ask you this anyway.
Your video about what to do when the ship sinks made me think and remember a few documentaries and articles I viewed/read about several naval battles.
First: Did they paid any attention to a functioning evacuation of the ship or was it more of a "deal with the access routes we build" or was it too expensive (space and weight)
Second: Was the well-being of the crew in battle ever considered in the ship building/planning?
I remember in particular a few interviews from Bismarck survivors who told that the ship's canteen (which got used as a dressing station) and the rooms where the Flak crew was hosted got completely smashed and most inside killed in the most gruesome ways.
How did the planners and commanders of these ships believed how such a naval battle would be fought? Was there any afterthought about the crew of these ships or where they just expandable? Was this known and therefore one of the reasons why Bismarck and other ships tried to avoid a direct engagement? Are such tragedies the consequence of bad planning or was this a price the leaders were willing to pay? So, after they slug it out - wash and remove body parts, entrails, blood from the ship then throw a new crew inside and off it goes to another butchering.
It's a bit of an ethical questions, but I hope you are in the mood to answer it
if you ever want to answer this question, feel free to say it in your own words because my English is not my first language.
Great question. Your great answer? In most designs, priority is to machinery over people comfort. The best example of this is a submarine. Take a tour here. th-cam.com/video/rTVzPUJPq-4/w-d-xo.html
The Allies were scattered about in small numbers that were individually over whelmed by the Japanese at the beginning of WWII in the Pacific. The Indian Ocean, Indonesia, The Philippines, New Guinea and a lot of small islands in the Central and South Pacific were scooped up. The American's first aircraft carrier was also lost during this time, trying to deliver fighter planes to Java.
.
I'm afraid the pointed bow of the flight deck always bothered me about Hermes. The classic carrier launch scene always shows aircraft dipping down after running off the ship and all I can imagine is the landing gear clearing on either side and the tail bumping into the bow. I assume this never actually occurred since they never retrofitted her with a flat bow deck piece, but nonetheless it springs to mind every time I see her. Also her anchors seem to be mounted ridiculously low, I assume that's another matter of carrier technology being so new and they didn't set aside cable space higher up or something. Nice lines though.
What were the casualties (i.e., how many dead and how many wounded) when she was sunk?
Wikipedia lists 307 men including the captain
@@Exospray Wikipedia is not a reliable source.
I've read 293 elsewhere. It's not unusual for sources to disagree on these sorts of things. I've seen just above 300 as well. The highest I've seen anywhere is 307 so odds are someone posted the highest number to wiki and that was that. Sort of demonstrates why it's absolutely useless as a source :(. There was a hospital ship at the scene. Which rescued a lot of survivers. That much I can say for certain.
@@AdamMGTF Wikipedia may be not be reliable but there are references ;). The reference here being "HMS Hermes 1923 & 1959" by McCart on Page 50
@@burnstick1380 that's handy. I'll have a nose on amazon for the book :)
@@AdamMGTF Yeah, that's the secret trick of Wikipedia. They're absolutely obsessed with sourcing over there, so you don't cite Wikipedia itself, but you trawl their pages' references for sources to examine further.
This saved my hide more than once in college!
How did you not go into more detail about the pirate base.
Drach, why do british warships of the WW2 period usually have two anchor openings (and sometimes anchors) on the starboard side and only one port? Also why is the forward anchor ran around the capstain while the rearward one is just fixed down?
This was common of many navies, a standard practice that allowed the use of a third anchor if the ship was supposed to go to a type of harbor that needed a different anchor (as there are different types of anchors for different sea beds) or for using the auxiliary anchor most ships carried in case one was lost. As for positioning on the starboard side only, I do not know. Possibly just a reoccurance for ship designers because it worked. That's what I understand of their existance.
8 more videos to go for the ship I love so much in world of warships and history about it the Kongou
In 1939 it would have still been unclear as to priorities for ship upgrades. With hindsight, the Hermes should have been bumped to the front of the line. Yes, I'll include Hood upgrade as a favor to Drach...
The most difficult obstacle was the cramped hangar/elevator space (I read that when they tested the new fwd elevator, a folded Swordfish barely fit it).
Still, upgrading it would have made it more useful for convoy escort in the Indian Ocean, and if she had survived 1942, Martlets/Wildcats would have been very useful. As is it could only carry 12 aircraft - perhaps using the US system of outriggers to carry additional aircraft on deck would have helped.
A refit for Ark Royal that added some emergency diesel generators would have been more useful. Hermes was just too small and slow to be effective.
Seems the defending Fulmars turned in a decent performance....I'm guessing there was no fighter escort with the attacking dive bombers..
A modest number of zeros, nine IIRC.
She was a beautifull ship. I like her shape a lot, nice lines. What a tragic end for her. 😢
Was the crew rescued in time?
All but 307 men
@@damedusa5107 thanks for the info😊
@@damedusa5107 what's your source? I've read 293 men.
There was a hospital ship at the scene. The Vito or vita I think. It was responsible for rescuing survivors from hermes and other ships.
Adam Bainbridge simply was on wiki. They could be wrong . Edit Actually just had another look round and there are other ww2 sites stating 307.
@@AdamMGTF mayby some sources made a difference between men who went down with the ship and those who died from wounds later. I also found different numbers. Thx for your info.
Quite interesting
Royal Naval Icon.
Okay, so you’ve used the picture that pops up at 4:44 before and I’m just wondering what the heck the thing in the background is? It appears to be a ship, it appears to be armed, but it absolutely dwarfs the ships which I’ve taken to be dreadnoughts/super dreadnoughts/ battleships in the foreground. Anyone have any idea? Thanks for your awesome videos
It's the main maintainence dock, the outer wall is a similar reflectivity to the ships and there is a ship inside, the upper parts and guns of which appear over the top in this perspective, which in turn gives the impression of a 1,000ft+ battleship :)
Drachinifel Thanks for the reply! Yeah that makes way more sense!
The ship definitely looked top--heavy and perhaps that was why she sank so easily.
She didn't exactly sink easily. Took something in the area of 40 bomb hits before going down.
Good God, the foretop is MASSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Swordfish is many things.
One of those is God of War.
A very attractive young (possibly not even 18) lady arrived at her work in an office one morning and said "I think I've got hermes." An equally teenage young lad looked puzzled and asked "Don't you mean herpes?" to which she replied "No. I'm a carrier." (any sailors who don't understand that joke can ask Drach to explain it at next Q&A.)
I know that for warships it is definitely a case of function over form but that tripod mast easily, to my mind at least, gives Hermes the prize for most ugly superstructure.
Must have been a fun ride when the ship was rolling
I liked the review. But for sunk ships you might mention the Captain"s name and the size of the complement lost. That would punctuate the jarring silence that follows.
HMS Hermes was used against pirates; USS Bennington (CV-20) was actually captured by pirates, temporarily of course.
Australians...is there anything they can't do?
@@mbryson2899 Only people crazy enough to actually try it.
HMS Hermes: Britain's first carrier boi
1st purpose built carrier.
Altiora Peto!
I find it incredible that the authorities in Ceylon sent that ship out of port with a pitiful escort of only one destroyer and no aircraft on board and with such a terrible loss of life. She was completely at the mercy of the enemy. At least if she'd been kept in port there would likely have been far fewer casualties even if she'd been sunk there. Ordering her to sortie was a disastrous mistake in my opinion.
Im in the royal Australian Navy and i just got assigned to HMAS Canberra. It would be awesome fi you could do a video on either HMAS Canberra or HMAS AUSTRALIA as those ships were the same class in WW2 .
Thats a Navy is it? What, 2 destroyers and 2 frigates, how very Rocknroll.
Any idea why the gunnery director was so massive given that Hermes carried so few guns?
Naval architecture of the time at work.
I really disagree that she was the first aircraft carrier designed from the keel up. She was as much as a conversion as any other ship of era. The first purpose built from the keel aircraft carrier for the RN was undoubtedly the Ark Royal, which commissioned in December 1938. The Japanese did not get a keel up design until December 1937 when Soryu commissioned. The USN beat them both by over 3 years with Ranger commissioning in June 1934. Until that time every carrier was started as something else before commissioning in its aircraft carrier form.
i waited for this
How are the North Korean carriers coming, Kimmy?
.... a pirate base you cant leave it there surely
Ps. When are you doing a video with jingles 👍👍👍
Jingles and Drach talking about the same ship in the same week...coincidence??
Yes Pirates!
Dealing with pirates isn't _that_ odd of a thing for the area. I know that within the last 30 years, China actually had a major execution against various people in one of it's port towns (including party officials!) because they were not only engaging in piracy, but in fact had killed all of the crew on their latest seizure. There's also a standing problem in a straight in Indonesia or the like, where it's swamp land on both sides, largely undeveloped, and a major shipping route. It's almost always done by people in speed boats.
Quite the unusual looking ship. Is it just me or does her flight deck look pretty low towards the water compared to other early carriers, IE Langley, Shoho,
Here's a newspaper article from the _Newcastle Sun_ (trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163396638) about the Hermes and the attack against the Bias Bay pirate base. She was part of an impressive force that included Hermes, the cruisers Delhi and Frobisher, a minesweeper, and a sloop. Just why such a large force was needed isn't detailed in the article, and it seemed to be rather a holiday for the Chinese pirates, coming down after hiding in trees and then lining the nearby hills watching the smoke rise from huts, junks, and sampans being set afire by the landing force of 300. Luckily, there were no casualties on either side, and instructions not to harm building of a "religious character" was scrupulously followed.