Illustrious Class Aircraft Carrier - Fate of The Class

Fate of The Class

All four early ships were hard worked during WWII, with Illustrious and Formidable suffering and surviving heavy damage. Like their contemporary USS Enterprise they fought a long and consuming war and despite significant overhauls and repair of battle damage, were worn out by 1946 and were scrapped in the mid-1950s. Due to a variety of factors including Britain's dire post war finances, and the consequent reductions in the size of the Royal Navy post war modernization was limited to just the last of the class; Victorious, which after an eight year long and very expensive reconstruction (to enable her to operate Cold War-era jet aircraft), was retired in 1968 after a minor fire. Indomitable was given an extensive refit, including new boilers, from 1948 to 1950, then served as flagship of the Homefleet and also saw service in the Mediterranean. She suffered a hangar deck petrol explosion and fire in early 1953. She was placed in reserve after Queen Elizabeth II's October 1953 Coronation Review and was then scrapped in 1955.