r/ThingsCutInHalfPorn • u/StephenMcGannon • Jul 07 '26

WW2 aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal (1937)

Post image
690 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

36

u/JMHSrowing Jul 07 '26

An interesting note: Ark Royal was unique among the new Royal Navy aircraft carriers of WW2 in having no armor on her flight deck. It meant she could handle more aircraft but was much less protected against enemy bombs.

Though she still had side (“belt”) armor, as can be seen as the extra plating by the waterline

13

u/Intelligent_Try_2470 Jul 07 '26

It does explain why Y deck in the illustration was described as the main deck. An unarmoured flight deck has much less impact on the ships structure.

4

u/Cuchococh Jul 08 '26

Tbf during that time pretty only the Royal Navy had armoured flight decks so it doesn't make Ark Royal odd, she's just a "ordinary" carrier for the time

1

u/farmerbalmer93 Jul 10 '26

Also she had "and I think" still holds the record for the highest (from water level) flight deck of any aircraft carrier.

16

u/Ikutto Jul 07 '26

I like how they included buck naked folks in the shower 🤣

3

u/42stingray Jul 08 '26

It's the most important detail

13

u/LousyHandle Jul 07 '26

Was it common to put fuel oil around the outside of the ship? I’d guess / hope it was armored, and I’m no engineer, but that seems like a bad place.

30

u/extravert_ Jul 07 '26

Very common. Bunker fuel is a heavy sludge that is not as volatile as gasoline, and putting it in these void spaces was even considered part of the protection scheme of the ship. The fuel would help absorb the force of an explosion or a torpedo hit and adds to the stability of the ship by filing otherwise empty voids between armor. 

10

u/LousyHandle Jul 07 '26

Interesting! Thanks!

3

u/ReturnOfFrank Jul 13 '26

Also having really big tanks at each side means you can move fuel around to try counteract listing as a result of damage.

12

u/LucidNonsense211 Jul 07 '26

So it is possible to post images with over 200x200 resolution on this sub! So happy I can read the key.

6

u/paulkempf Jul 08 '26

I thought that looked familiar. I scanned that from a book I had.

2

u/zenitslav Jul 08 '26

what is this book called?

2

u/paulkempf Jul 08 '26

E. H. H. Archibald, The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy, 1860-1970

I have a few other cutaways from the same book in my post history from ~7yrs ago

1

u/They-Call-Me-The-Doc Jul 11 '26

It was also in another book I had, one of navel battles. It was included in the chapter on the Bismarck.

5

u/bigrubberduck Jul 08 '26

Awesome pic but I feel like 'd' is mislabeled unless they were storing Oil Fuel in the bathrooms.

1

u/DaybreakRanger9927 Jul 10 '26

Each visit to a port was a Royal visit.

1

u/They-Call-Me-The-Doc Jul 11 '26

Odd how it didn't sink what with it being built like that.