Falklands' veteran ex HMS Hermes to decommissioned by Indian Navy

Thursday, January 28th 2016 - 05:40 UTC

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Aircraft carrier from Portsmouth that fought in the Falklands War is making her final journey before being decommissioned after almost 60 years of active service. HMS Hermes served with distinction in the conflict against Argentina in 1982 before being sold to the Indian Navy and renamed INS Viraat. Read full article

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zathras
Didn't Argentina claim to have sunk her, about 5 times?
Jan 28th, 2016 - 08:00 am - Link - Report abuse +1
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MK8 Torpedo
I think at one point the Junta claimed a Pucara attacked her,the pilot was killed and his aircraft destroyed in the first attack on Goose Green!
Jan 28th, 2016 - 08:43 am - Link - Report abuse +1
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Captainsilver
The Times says she is going to be melted down and turned into motor bikes? But they say the name was originally HMS Hercules? Is this another one?

They also say that they are building a new one. I hope they are getting foreign contractors in to do the wiring, having been to Delhi and seen what the Duke referred to. :-)
Jan 28th, 2016 - 10:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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zathras
3 Captainsilver (#)

The ship was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness during World War II as HMS Elephant. Construction was suspended in 1945 but work was resumed in 1952 to clear the slipway and the hull was launched on 16 February 1953. The vessel remained unfinished until 1957, when she entered service on 18 November 1959 as HMS Hermes after extensive modifications which included installation of a massive Type 984 'searchlight' 3D radar, a fully angled deck with a deck-edge elevator, and steam catapults. With these changes she more resembled the reconstructed aircraft carrier Victorious than the other three ships in the class.

From the wiki, so yes she changed name from HMS Elephant to Hermes to INS Viraat.
Certainly had an interesting history.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 11:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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JustinKuntz
HMS Hercules was a Majestic class fleet carrier, a later modified version of the Colussus Class. She was sold to India in 1957 and served as INS Vikrant - ie she was Hermes predecessor in the Indian Navy and the first to operate Sea Harrier in that service.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 12:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Pete Bog
Rubbish! Its at the bottom of the South Atlantic.

The Argentine Ministry of Truth said so in 1982, they managed to sink it 5 times.

This equates to the 'truth' according to the Argentine Ministry of Truth alluding to the Malvinas Myth.

Someone should tell the Indians they were sold a different aircraft carrier, because we were too embarrassed to admit that the Argentines had sunk it and even more too embarrassed to admit we salvaged it 4 times to get it back into action, *red face*
Jan 28th, 2016 - 12:26 pm - Link - Report abuse +1
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zathras
...and we all know what happened to HMS Venerable (R63).

If only HMS Splendid (S106) had tracked her down in May 1982 the war could have been over much more quickly.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 01:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Pete Bog
@7
Yep-ended up in India too!

A nuke sub had contact with HMS Venerable in April but was refused permission to attack.

Maybe if it had been attacked that would have caused Argentina to obey 502 and withdraw before we got down there, but having to win and boot them off meant no messing with UN flags.

I can't believe the Argies were too stupid to withdraw, with what was on offer.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 02:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Don Alberto
It was HMS Invincible which was repeatedly sunk but, as John Cleese said in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, after having claimed that he had been transformed into a newt: “it got better”. She was finally decommissioned on 3 August 2005.

HMS Hermes was set on fire 6 May in a gallant, single-handed Pucará attack, by Lieutenant Antonio Jukic who had been killed on the ground at Goose Green in a British air strike a few days before this gallant attack, namely on 1 May.
Jan 28th, 2016 - 08:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Briton
Goodbye old girl,
you lasted and served us well,
Jan 28th, 2016 - 09:20 pm - Link - Report abuse +1
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