Colossus / Majestic Class - Guide 141 

Pinned post for Q&A :)

"Standard Template Construct needed" "Praising the machine spirit" Yup, Praise the emperor indeed, Drach. Now I want a 40K ships special!!

Could you do a film on the USS Wolverine and the other baby-sized training carriers that operated in the Great Lakes? They were vital to US air supremacy in the Pacific and yet they seem overlooked.

I love the (historical) Royal Navy's sense of scale. "I say, we're running a bit short of mid-size carriers. We need to order some more. I think another 16 should do the trick."

Served on Melbourne 77 to 79. Despite her chequered reputation she was a fine ship, and a very happy ship. i enjoyed my time on board, and saw a lot of the world.

Interesting tid bit about the HMAS Melbourne: When the ship was taken out of Australian service, it was, somewhat controversially, sold for scrap the the Chinese in 1985. Rather than scrapping the ship, the Chinese made an extensive study of her over a number of years, effectively acquiring aircraft carrier technology from the Melbourne, subsequently utilised in the building of the first PRC fleet carrier. So in this way, the Class lives on.

"STC pattern for the Essex" Random Grimdark reference is random. Besides, even if they had been available, those AdMech loons would've stuck legs on it and called it a God Machine.

Just going to add a little bit about INS Vikrant, former HMS hercules as it plays a very important role in Indian naval history, INS Vikrant was laid down as HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II, but construction was put on hold when the war ended. India purchased the incomplete carrier in 1957, and construction was completed in 1961. Vikrant was commissioned as the first aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. She did not see any action despite India being involved in a few wars due to various reasons until 1971. In 1971 as the threat of war with Pakistan grew, she was moved from her dock in Mumbai on the Western coast of India to the Eastern coast at Vishakapatnam. At this time, she had developed fatigue cracks on her boilers leading to them being run at reduced pressure. This lead to Vikrant being limited to just 15 knots. This low speed led to aircraft landing at near stalling speeds. This was fixed by lighting the airframes of the Aziles and SeaKings that made up the air compliment of the carrier. After the outbreak of hostilities, Indian intelligence reported that a US made Pakistani Tench class submarine, the PNZ Ghazi was dispatched to interdict the carrier. Of it's three escorts, only 2 carried SONAR making a sub a major threat to the ship. Fortunately the Ghazi sunk off Vishakapatnam under mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile aircraft from the carrier struck Chittagong and Cox bazars harbours rendering these inoperable for the rest of the war. She was crucial in maintaining the blockade of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Vikrants actions gained its crew 2 Mahavir Chakras (2nd highest gallantry award in India) and 12 Vir Chakras (Distinguished Flying Cross equivalent). She left the operational area once her fuel levels dropped below 25%. After the war, Vikrant was extensively modernised, with new radar, boilers and AA systems. The steam catapult was replaced by a Ski-ramp to facilitate operations of the newly acquired Sea Harriers. She was laid up and decommissioned in 1997, serving as a museum ship in Mumbai (Where I had the chance to visit her albielt I was very young and hardly remember it). Unfortunately the state couldn't find a partner to run the museum on a permanent basis and she was closed to the public in 2012. Vikrant was scraped near Mumbai in 2014. A new 40,000 tonne conventional carrier, currently in its final phases of construction in India, will carry on it's legacy.

My Dad served on HMAS Melbourne "Majestic" and HMAS Sydney "Terrible", Sydney was a troop transport for the Vietnam war. I remember walking through them when I was a kid, great times. Cheers.

Like the Essex class the Colossus/Majestic class was used for pretty much every mission a carrier could do.

Thank you so much for this video. My dad served on the HMCS Magnificent. The “Maggie” as he called her. I’d often wondered where all 3 of the Canadian aircraft carriers came from. (The Magnificent, Warrior, and the Bonaventure.) It’s not like we had a ship builder that could have made them. The last to be scrapped was the “Bonnie”. On 28-Oct-1970 she was towed out of Halifax harbour by the tug Fuji Maru, just 4 years after a $17,000,000 refit. It became a popular sailors legend that the Vikrant, that was finally scrapped in 1997, was in fact the Bonnie, renamed. Such was not the case, of course. In reality, if you bought a Honda in the early 70’s, it was probably made from some of the metal that was in the Bonaventure. If you happen to have, or find a book titled “Sea Wings, a pictorial history of Canada’s waterborne defence aircraft”, on pages 124 & 125 there is a group photo of an Avenger squadron. My dad is in that picture.

HMAS Melbourne has 2 destroyer kills to her name. Sadly they were TKs so she spent a lot of time pink...

My Dad served on HMS Warrior when she went out to the far east at the fall of Dein Ben Phu. They took all her aircraft off & went to North Vietnam & evacuated refugees from Haiphong. He was one of the helicopter pilots on board, Lt. Jack Palmer MBE.

April 1st 2020 I NEED a 5 min guide to 40k ships. The old battlefleet gothic lore for ships is dope

Pretty versatile ships as well, operating everything from Fulmars to Tracklers to Skyhawks. Not bad for a design supposed to only last three years and built with scantlings made from old bully beef tins. :-)

My stepfather served on HMS Colossus in the war. He served as a mechanic servicing and repairing the aircraft F4U Corsair's, Seafires and Barracudas. I always remember looking at the photos of the crossing the line and the aircraft RIP Geoffrey Guy My mentor and hero

I am more of a battleship guy but I like how this one looks: very clean and sleek without it becoming bland like a lot of carriers...

The UK and Commonwealth have some of the best ship names ever. And some of the names are truly legacy names as well.

Oh how I wish Canada had kept our carriers. Frankly even just keeping 1 of them up would mean more power then our entire current navy combined lol. Also they were beautiful ships.

@draginifel I spotted you outside the Den Helder Maritime Museum today, I hope you had a great time there.

that 40k reference

They were not DESIGNED to last only three years in service, it was calculated they would likely be lost and need replacing after three years active wartime service. Similarly Lancaster Bombers were expected to be lost after just eight weeks, but many survived much longer. The expected lifespan was a wartime calculation to do with attrition rates and production schedules, so they would know when to build replacements in their planning of future orders.

Apparently Melbourne was used by the Chinese For experimentation and as a learning exercise in carrier design and operations after we sold her to them for Scrap.

Many thanks! My Dad served on the Warrior, Magnificent and the Bonaventure.

More Canadian content: HMCS GATINEAU (Restigouche class) can be seen at 4m48s...and maybe (can't be sure) HMCS PROVIDER (fleet replenishment) to starboard of the carrier. BONAVENTURE was a much admired vessel and I actually, as a white twist cadet, walked its flight deck. It's anchor forms part of a memorial in Point Pleasant park in Halifax, N.S., close to where annual Battle of the Atlantic ceremonies take place each first Sunday in May.

My father was on Hms Triumph from launch around 45 /46

The Royal Netherlands Navy acquired the Colossus-class Venerable in 1948, and commissioned her as HNLMS Karel Doorman. Karel Doorman was sold to Argentina and scrapped in India 1999

Vikrant saw combat service as late as 1971, in the Bay of Bengal. Three years indeed !

I never thought about a specific built repair carrier to follow the front line carriers and cycle out aircraft. Mind blown.

I believe there's a mistake; because the Dutch carrier (the Karel Doorman) was modernized in Holland and sold to Brazil, renamed as the A11 Minas Gerais, and not the Australian carrier... Wich means that the 25 de Mayo (Argentina) was not the Karel Doorman.

Drachisms of the day; 1:12 Without access to the standard template construct pattern for the Essex class... 4:47 After some changes to the parking arrangements... The air group of 48 aircraft was established Edit:. As said in the magnificent video. I'm hoping KK comes back to do these again!

Phenomenal 'bangs for the buck' ships. Yet another example of a 'stop gap' weapon system lasting far longer than originally anticipated. Thank you very much for this.

Ah ha. This explains why HMS Vengeance was such a neat stand in until both HMAS Sydney and Melbourne were delivered. :)

Oh, T8 premium carriers for -France -PAN-EU -PAN-America -PAN_Asia -Britain and -the Commonwealth incoming... and all are basically same. WG rubs its hands :D

Read somewhere that HMAS Melbourne was only the third carrier in the world to be equipped with an angled flight deck. Not sure why HMAS Sydney was not similarly modified. Sydney ended its days as a troop transport during the Vietnam War, and eared the nickname The Vung Tau Ferry.

Huzzah, the British carrier spam.

Fun fact: A11 Minas Gerais worked as a helicopter most of his carrer due to his Catpult being broke and having no spares to fix it. It went on large repairs/modernizations in 1994, including the V-2 25 De Mayo (by that time recently decomissioned by Argentina) Catpult, new sensors and other stuffs. After the refit it was supposed to last fully operational up until 2010, Brazil even Purchased A4-Ku from Kuwait to have a strike force (using the same plane Australia and Argentina used before and one of the few somehow modern jets those ships could operate). Things seemed OK for A-11 but in 2000 France put Foch and Clemenceau on sale at a simbolic price of just $12 millon dollars, and Brazil purchased Foch. Foch, now renamed A-12 Sao Paulo was able to run at 30knots (compared to realistic 22 from A-11) and could carry about 50% more aircraft than A-11... therefore A-11 while still capable of sailing and being recently modernized was sold for scrap... The irony is that A-12 worked kind of "OK" for the first 4 years but then their engine blowed up... it went for 4year repair and after that when it went back to the sea, broked up just a few weeks later... it never sailed again, wasting a lot of resources from Brazilean Navy. Looking back in time they would had been much better off by keeping A11 up to 2010 like planned, maybe 2012-2015 with luck

We shared the women we shared the wine but keep your mits off our standard construct pattern.

You might also mention HMAS Sydney’s role as a transport during the Vietnam war. Retired as an aircraft carrier and bound for the scrap heap, she was pressed back into service and carried a great deal of Australian Army equipment to and from Vietnam, including motor vehicles on the former flight deck. She was used because the communist-controlled wharf labourers (longshoreman’s) union (the WWFA) in Sydney and other Australian ports refused to load commercial ships supporting the Australian troops in Vietnam, and threatened to black ban any cargo ship that was loaded by army personnel. So the army themselves loaded all their big stuff onto HMAS Sydney and she carried it to Saigon, and back. I don’t think any other aircraft carrier has performed a similar army transport role, unless it was US CVs bringing stuff home in 1945.

Canada's Bonaventure was a bit of a scandal. It was retired without a replacement in the early 1970's by the Pierre Trudeau government, considered to be one of the more left-wing governments in Canadian history and quite anti-military. There were rumours that aerial surveillance had discovered her not scrapped in Taiwan as it should have been, but actively serving in the Taiwanese navy. Canada's naval aviation today consists of aging CP-140 Auroral/CP-140A Arcturus patrol planes (based on the Lockheed P-3 Orion) and Cyclone and Cormorant helicopters (the former off the decks of RCN warships, and the latter used in the search-and-rescue role from shore bases). All aircraft today are operated by the RCAF, which makes for interesting quarterdeck parades with 2, and possibly 3, services' dress uniforms on parade. Interestingly, the Cormorants have extremely high airframe hours, with Cormorant 901, currently stationed at Canadian Forces Base Comox with 442 Squadron, having the highest number of airframe hours on any of the AW101s anywhere in the world.

Thanks for that - always found these ships and their destinies fascinating. Loved the STC joke - could do with one of those for the Type 26's & 31's, as its the only way we are going to get respectable numbers these days. Enjoy your channel, some more collabs with the German / Austrian boys would be good, as whilst with land and air warfare they know their stuff. With Naval they are lost at sea......

Saw you at the Dutch Naval Museum Drach! hope you had fun on your tour!

That is usually how it goes. Some quick, cheap thing lasts years while that exspensive item that was built to last is in the rubbish heap almost before you know it.

Melburn or Melbun are preferred pronunciation: there might be a "o" in there but we dwellers of said city don't use it in speech.

Drach you raised my interests what would a British Built Version of the Essex Class be like? What would it be armed with? What would it's air groups and electronics be like? Would they modify them to have the Atlantic Bow of the later ones? Also how would they name them? That could be a special video, some year down the road.

Thanks for adding this class to your impressive library of work.

Speaking of Karel Doorman, she was present in Indonesian waters during the West Papua Crisis in the 50s. And when she went to Perth the local harbourmen refused to dock her in support of Indonesia, so they had to lash her planes together on deck and use the planes to move her to dock. Poor girl. Please do an episode about her.

Love your channel! Thanks for your effort and humor, it’s refreshing.

Always find this class interesting considering they were WW2 ships which served so many nations post-war with the last one (Vikrant being scraped in 2014!). Just a shame the Indians couldn't keep the Vikrant museum, but I'm hoping on someone preserving the HMS Hermes of Falklands fame. Also interesting that the Argentine carrier fought the British in 1982 after leaving the UK over 30 years earlier.

I did not know much about them. But they are beautiful ships

Essex STC? By the Omnissiah, that is the most glorious archiotech! I know a certain Fabricator Locum who would pay dearly for such a thing. I thought that template was lost on Undiene during The War of The Beast.

Thanks for another great video drach! Build design a ship for 3 years and it ends up operating it for 60 sounds almost like a Royal Navy Tradition in itself:-)!

Colossus was a nice looking boat.

Great video. Never knew this part in the evolution of the modern carrier, Thank you.

Omg a 40k refrance if I wasn’t already subbed I would sub for that

Have you done a series on the ebrus class of monitors? If so thank you. Keep up the great work.

Brilliant as always, sir. Thanks for taking the time to do these videos.

Nothing says you have the confidence of your boss like the statement "We fully expect you to be sunk scrapped or decommissioned within 3 years! Welcome aboard!"

Great info!! Please cover the Centaur class (Centaur, Bulwark, Albion, Hermes).

Pretty good video. I used to work with a guy who flew MIG's off the Vikrant

I love the subtle 40k references peppered into your videos

A guide on RN AA guns of WW-2 would be interesting. Pom-Poms, Oerlikons, Bofors etc in their varying mounts both in numbers of guns per mount and the reasons for the seemingly endless changes of them being switched out then back again on some ships.

I never realized that the Australian and Canadian navies operated aircraft carriers, my God the Canadian navy can barely operate 6 frigates today.

Quite the busy bee Drachs! Wonderful job tho as usual😎

What a Majestic Colossi they are.

Very informative as always packed in 10 minutes or so. For a future class to look at, how about the USCG HEC class of ships. Some of which are over 50 years old and still in front line service. Others are in the service of other countries. Thank you very much!

It's one of history's more amusing facts that temporary solutions are often the longest-lasting.

Wow what a nice STC reference...FOR THE EMPEROR!

Kinda funny that they had such epic names for smaller carriers: Colossus, Leviathan, Majestic, even the most venerable name, Warrior.

My Grandfather was EO of Venerable. He stood by her at Lairds and took her to Aus before a dash to Hong Kong for liberation. They were the slowest ship on the way north and had run the machinery up to achieve half a knot more than she had done on trials, at 25.5 knots, however venerable was making smoke? A signal came from the flag ship "stop making black smoke" Granddad told the captain, if they wanted the half knot then they would have to have smoke. Venerable's captain sent that message back to Flag. After a long pause the signal came back "25.5 knots". Under Argentine flag, that ship provided a serious threat to the British Falklands task force, being loosely shadowed by a nuclear submarine back into the Argentine cost, (just after the Belgrano was sunk with great loss of life). She had poor machinery and could not get the speed needed to fly off her fully loaded Skyhawks. It was very fortunate for the British carriers that the wind was light, so she had no head wind to help get the air speed over the deck.

Awsome as usual, your fast becoming the reason I have RU-vid installed

Drach, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE do a 40K ship review!

Good looking ship. I didn't know anything about them other than the basics.

Really good ships. Royal Navy always designed and built good carriers even if British carrier aircraft in WW2 were pretty terrible.

Good video. As an Australian, I would respectfully point out that "Melbourne" is pronounced by us as "MELL-bin"., not "mrell-BOOOORRRN" .

Will you do an individual ship review on HMS Colossus/FS Arromanches with a focus on its service record in the French Navy? Contents and materials are exceptionally scarce on the Arromanches.

My dad sailed in Bonaventure.

My grandad Peter balder was a Pettie officer on this ship he’s 97 soon looking at his photos the other day

I like how I am just minding my own business watching another "5 minute" video and DRACH throws a WarHammer 40k reference at me.

I remember HMS Triumph mothballed in Chatham dockyard until the early eighties when she went for scrap. Was she the last of her class in service with the Royal Navy?

I'd ask you to cover the Venticinco de Mayo, but the Falklands conflict might be a bit too controversial of a topic even if the average Brit thinks little of it.

Will you do anything about the tribal class destroyer’s.

great ships

I remember Leviathan, she rusted away in Portsmouth dockyard and was used as storage. I used to wander the ship on occasion but she was just a shell of what she could have been, money wasted as is so often the case.

very handsome ships - the RN liked armored flight decks - the kamikazes did not.

It’s very unfortunately that HMAS Melbourne wasn’t replace because Falkland War n it wasn’t until Timor conflict that RAN realised how vulnerable they were in handling transportation troops/supply. I still reckon 3rd Canberra class LHD should be built for air support with F35 on board.

Clerk .. may i help you? Yes I'd like some cheap carriers ... clerk ...double the life boats? Can you imagine the budget just for emergency gear on a super carrier .. the Ford.. Bush. Life boats like crazy.

Without access to the standard compact for the Essex Class? Why did England not have access to it?

I have some ideas for videos, the Midway-class, Lexington-class carrier, USS Langley, USS Sabel, USS Wolverinve, HMS Porcupine, the U-505, USS Barb, USS Sliversides and the Liberty Class Cargo ships.

Scraped in 2014 damn the took there sweet time.

Nice STC joke

Appreciate the 40k reference

So a ship that was supposed to have a very short carrier ended up lasting into the 21st century. But we all know that happens more often then you would think.

"...Majestic and Terrible served with Australian Navy as Melbourne and Sydney". The Aussies really love their irony, don't they?

I knew someone who served on her .

Thank you.😀

I remember the controversy surrounding the scrapping of the Sydney. Would you mind reviewing that ship?

Great videos, always learn something new :)

Have you done any reviews of submarines?

4.32 Melbourne ,Duchess, Vendetta.