The Ships of Battlegroup: Great Britain Hermes (CV)

Displacement	10,850 tons	Belt Armor	3 inches
Overall Length	600 feet	Deck Armor	1 inch
Beam	70 feet	Aircraft Complement	20
Speed	25 knots	Main Guns	6 × 5.5″

Laid down on January 15, 1918, launched on September 11, 1919 and commissioned in July 1923, H. M. S. Hermes was Great Britain’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier; all earlier ones had been conversions. "Hermes" was the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and, through the years, the name for many, mostly smaller, ships in the British Royal Navy.

Although designed as an aircraft carrier, the design was not based on actual experience and she was found to be too small. An interesting feature was a hump in the flight deck designed to slow landing aircraft but this feature was not a success and eliminated in a later overhaul. The guns were set in single mounts along both sides of the hull and useful only for anti-surface work. The antiaircraft suite was totally inadequate.

By the outbreak of World War II, she was carrying only a single squadron of Swordfish torpedo planes as her air complement. On July 8, 1940, during the British attack on the French squadron at Dakar, a Hermes Swordfish aircraft hit the French battleship Richelieu. Following that mission, due to inadequate speed and aircraft capacity, she served mainly in subsidiary roles such as searching for surface raiders, reconnaissance, convoy escort and shore support missions on the East Indies station.  She was escorting a convoy when the Bismarck sailed, and participated in the chase, but did not get to the theater in time to be of any help.  Hermes was lost to Japanese carrier aircraft in the Indian Ocean on April 9, 1942, off Ceylon.

For a roughly contemporary French aircraft carrier see: Bearn .

Where did we get all these fascinating historical tidbits and factoids? See the Bibliography for the culprits. So, how did Hermes make it into the game? We needed a really puny Allied flattop to average out all those big, bad Essex class ships.