70007 HMS COLOSSUS AIRCRAFT CARRIER 1944-1946

HMS Colossus (later named Arromanches) was a British and later a French classic-propelled aircraft carrier. The ship was launched in September 1943 and entered service with the Royal Navy in December 1944. The total length of the ship was 212 meters, the overall width was 24.4 meters, and her full displacement was about 13,600 tons. The maximum speed did not exceed 25 knots. The deck armament at the time of launching included, among others, 40 and 25 mm anti-aircraft guns. The air group consisted of a maximum of 48 aircraft. HMS Colossus was the leading unit of the carrier class of the same name. The Colossus-class ships were designed and built as light aircraft carriers to provide air cover to their own ship groups. Units of this type clearly exceeded the combat capabilities of escort carriers, and their design was based on many solutions taken from Illustrious-class ships. One of the units of this type was HMS Colossus, which was built at the Vickers Armstrong shipyard. However, the unit under the British flag did not take part in World War II, and in the years 1945-1946 it served in the Far East. In 1946, the carrier was handed over to the French Marine Nationale, and later bought by France in 1951. Already under the name Arromanches, the aircraft carrier took an active part in the activities in Indochina in 1948-1954, and in 1956 participated in activities related to the Suez Crisis. In 1968, it was transformed into the ZOP (anti-submarine) aircraft carrier, and in 1974 it was decommissioned.