SPIRIT LIVES ON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20863, 15 August 1942, Page 3

SPIRIT LIVES ON

MEN OF ARK ROYAL HISTORY PUBLISHED WORLD-WIDE SERVICE ißy Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (9 a.m.) RUGBY, Aug. 14. “The Germans sunk the Ark Royal, yet something remained which they could not sink. That gallant company has been close to death many times and reached the'peaks of life. Together they created that indestructible fellowship which became the spirit of the Ark Royal. That spirit was real, if imponderable, and more enduring than the ship itself. Those of .the Ark Royal will take it with them in other ships and other aircraft out to sea and into the sky.’’ This is the keynote of the full story of the aircrat' carrier Ark Royal which is now .told in a book issued by the Admiralty. The Ark Royal carrying 1575 men and 60 aircraft began her career in .this war cruising oft the Orkneys to prevent enemy ships leaving the North Sea. Her Swordfish flew in reconnaissance over Norway, located survivors of the ship Fanad Head, and bombed a U-boat which attacked and the Ark Royal just escaped a .torpedo. Covered i’roops In Norway In October, 1939, she sailed to Freetown and later Capetown to intercept the Graf Spee, crossed to Rio on her way to the River Plate, and turned back after hearing .that the Spee had been scuttled. After refitting in England she sailed for Alexandria in March, 1940, for night flying over the desert. In April she was recalled to Scapa and covered troops to Norway. She was attacked continuously for 12 hours by German aircraft. She covered the evacuation of Norway and attacked the Scharnhorst in Trondheim. She left for Gibraltar in June, spotted for the Oran action, attacked the battleships Strasbourg and Dunkerque, helped protect Mediterranean convoys, raided Caglaiari, and attacked the Italian fleet. Returning to Freetown in September, she took part at Dakar, returned to the Mediterranean, bombed Genoa in February, 1941, and continued convoy and offensive action until she was torpedoed off Gibraltar in November. Five Carriers Lost The Royal Navy has lost, five aircraft carriers since the war started. The first loss came a fortngiht after the commencement of hostilities, H.M.S. Courageous being torpedoed by an enemy submarine on September 17, 1939. This carrier was of .the same tonnage as H.M.S. Eagle, which was sunk in the Mediterranean this week. The second carrier to become a loss was H.M.S. Glorious, a sister-ship to Courageous, which was sunk in action off north Norway on June 8, 1940. The German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau took part in this battle. Seventeen moths elapsed before the third aircraft carrier was destroyed, H.M.S. Ark Royal, so many times sunk by Axis radio announcers, being torpedoed in .the Mediterranean last November. This carrier was 22,000 tons and carried 60 planes. When a Japanese fleet of three battleships and many other warships, including carriers, moved into the Indian Ocean in April, bombing planes sunk the carrier Hermes, of 10,850 tons, with accommodation for 15 planes.