HMS Eagle - Guide 166

HMS Eagle, a converted aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, is today's subject.

Next on the list:

-Ise class
-18 inch monitor
-De Zeven Provinciën
-USS Langley
-Kongo class
-St Louis class
-HMS Caroline
-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

[tonybott]

My dad survived the sinking of the Eagle . He was picked up within 90 mins of the sinking, swimming like mad to avoid being taken down with it as it went down in about 5 mins . Swimming in fuel and fire didn't do his lungs much good but he lived a brave life till passing away with cancer in 1996. He said he just heard and felt 4 big thuds and explosions and panic setting in . Proud to remember my dad Samuel Bott.

[Grasshopper-]

My dad was on on the Eagle when she was torpedoed. One of the Royal Marine contingent, he was one of the few Marine survivors. He was picked up by a Dutch tug following the convoy, the Daffodil. He finished the was on HMS Diamede.

[GaldirEonai]

Good old Admiral Beatty...it seems like in any naval decision, you can't really go wrong by thinking "What Would Beatty Do" and then _doing the opposite._

[thecatwithatophat]

Pirates: What are they going to do, send an aircraft carrier?

Royal Navy: That sounds like a great idea

[Big_E_Soul_Fragment]

I really would like to know more about her and Hermes'jolly good pirate hunting adventure

[Philistine]

In defense of Beatty (now *there's* a phrase that doesn't come up often)...

Nobody in the late 1910s-early 1920s really saw carriers as capital ships (which was *entirely reasonable* given the technical limitations of aircraft at that time), but rather as an addition to the screening and scouting forces. As elements of the screen, carriers were expected to be at risk of stumbling across enemy cruisers at point-blank range and thus needed a means to discourage pursuit while they extricated themselves. That's why the USN and IJN conversions - all of which commissioned years after the idea of "God's Own Torpedo Battery" was scrapped - carried heavy batteries of 8" guns all the way into the late 30s and early 40s.

Beatty was a little outside the mainstream on this, sure - but not impossibly so. By his standards, this was downright sane.

[maxkennedy]

I’m guessing Beatty’s input looked something like this...

“Ok bois lets improve our carrier design. What things does an aircraft carrier need in its fleet role?”

*Beatty, smelling of cordite after a hard days work stacking shells and propellant in the gun turrets of his battle cruisers*

“lemme get some of that...uuuuhhhh...fuckin’
T O R P E D O S A N D G U NS”

“Brilliant idea Beatty! This is why we pay you the big bucks! Any other flashes if genius my man?”

*Beatty, watching his various ships explode and burn is the distance*

“Yeah fuck radios we don’t need that shit I got one dude who is better than any radio, let me introduce to you
FLAG OFFICER SEYMOUR”

[wordsmithgmxch]

I taught school with the guy who launched the four "Aale" (eels) that sank Eagle. He'd been around: run away to sea a at 13, gone into U-Boote, become a POW after one was sunk under him, and wound up teaching maths in Hamburg. He wasn't a Nazi by any stretch, but definitely a great respecter of Authority. The war to him was a great lark. He didn't talk about it much, but he and I had a common "off" hour for a semester and I drew him out. He gleefully described the cunning that got them in range of Eagle, then spoke of the launch in matter-of-fact tones. The only time I saw him affected by it all was in telling about the aftermath. The Italian fliers had badly chewed up Pedestal after Eagle's loss deprived it of air cover, and "You couldn't put up the periscope for weeks, " he said. I asked why. His voice dropped to a croak: "Nur Aas!" How to translate "Aas"? Rotting meat? Corpses? Roadkill? Something like that.

[Kevin_Kennelly]

"perhaps asking landing-pilots to fly thru a steel-tunnel was a bad idea"


"The partially finished Eagle was patched into a vaguely working state."


"god's own torpedo battery"

[IJustKant]

The ridiculous amount of torpedo tubes mounted on her got a laugh out of me. That said, HMS Eagle was a fine ship with a fine career behind her, and I pray that the souls who went down with her know peace.

[johnmccabe]

My Uncle served on HMS Eagle but was moved to another ship not long before it was sunk. My old man was in the Tank Corp in Nth Africa when he heard that the Eagle was in Alexandria (Egypt) so he got his best uniform (including 38 Webley and harness) and hired a felucca to sail him out to Eagle. He marched up to the deck in his army boots and did a regular army stomp and salute (palm outwards) and said his name loudly then requested a meeting with William (same last name as his). The sailors got him so drunk he woke up in a garden in Alex with his hand frozen to his pistol (serious jail time for it's lose otherwise). The old man had many interesting tales of WW2.

[barryslemmings]

One of the many reasons why the twin control towers idea was discarded were wind tunnel tests conducted with smoke (possibly the earliest use of smoke in this wind tunnel role) which disclosed the unacceptable amount of turbulence that the twin towers would create. A veritable vortex.
Settling on just one tower, the Royal Navy pilots were then asked: "Which side of the ship do you prefer to go to when you abort your landings?"
At the time rotary-engined aircraft like the Sopwith Pup, the One and a Half Strutter and the Camel were in vogue. All had idiosyncratic turns due to the gyroscope-like torque effect of the rotating engine mass at the front. The Camel was the worst example and this led to numerous low altitude crashes. The Camel could be a killer in inexperienced hands.
Given that rotary engines thus pull the aircraft tight and low to the right but high and wide to the left, the pilots said they preferred to abort their landings to the left (or port side) of the ship. Thus the Sopwith Camel has come to dictate the design of every aircraft carrier built since then - except the two Japanese ships which were given port side towers to distinguish them from sister ships with starboard towers.

[kenworth]

I’m doing some research on HMS Eagle, my grandad was a gunner on hms Eagle when it was torpedoed during operation pedestal, of the many crew lost he survived.
He passed away in 1976, I’m trying to gather his history as a sailor during the war, I know my Nan lent his diary to the British war museum, for his experience in 1942.
This video will be added to my archive, thank you so much for putting it out there...

[hawkerhellfire]

Hunting down pirates.

I just imagined a Final countdown situation except it's Eagle hunting Blackbeards Queen Annes Revenge.

[hughgreentree]

I have a home movie that my father shot in Hong Kong around 1937. There is a brief glimpse of HMS Eagle. About 10 years ago I was going through the films and saw the ship. Since I knew it was not an American ship, I sent an image to the Royal Navy museum to see if they could identify it. They did. Awesome. I can only image what my dad thought when he saw it.

[Poisonturtle]

My absolute favourite ship of all time, I can't thank you enough for such a wonderful video and recap of her life. A great gift to send to my family so we can all more truly understand where my grandfather stood. As always, you've done an excellent job, and I eagerly await the next video!

[dancingwiththedarkness]

Hunting pirates! It's hard to be jolly when a aircraft carrier has vigorously rogered you.

[DanielWW]

I feel you are unfair to Beatty in this regard. I mean he clearly was trying to invent the space carrier with all those torpedoes and guns. The man clearly was a visionary, far ahead of his times.

[wilkybarkid]

One of my relatives served on the Eagle as a batsman. He was killed not by the landing gear that broke off and hit him in a crash landing, which also knocked him overboard - but by getting hit by a block and tackled used to try and secure him from

[brucemitch]

Great guide again, the photo at 6:00 is stunning.