Weather limitations in carrier aviation in the interwar and WWII eras

[Admiral Beez]

The problem I have remembering the names of RN ships is it that they all seem to have these stupendous adjectives for names.

I do admire the British (I am an UK-born, indigenous English after all, no matter what the Guardian says) tendency to avoid naming their important ships after politicians. Yes, there's HMS Churchill, but most are named after battles, admirals (though HMS Iron Duke was an army general, and pm), places, or my favourite, as you say stupendous adjectives: Implacable, Indefatigable, Formidable, Indomitable, Audacious, Illustrious, Resolution, Defiance, Invincible, and of course Dreadnought to name a few. Then there's the constellations like Canopus and Orion, and the mythological heros like Achilles and Argonaut, and all the Didos.

 

[herman1rg]

County-class ships of the Royal Navy

Ship	Pennant	Subclass	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Completed	Fate
Berwick	65	Kent	Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Govan	15 Sep 1924	30 Mar 1926	15 Feb 1928	Broken up at Blyth, 1948
Cumberland	57	Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow in Furness	18 Oct 1924	16 Mar 1926	21 Jan 1928	Broken up at Newport, 1959
Suffolk	55	HM Dockyard Portsmouth	30 Sep 1924	16 Feb 1926	31 May 1928	Broken up at Newport, 1948
Kent	54	HM Dockyard Chatham	15 Nov 1924	16 Mar 1926	22 Jun 1928	Broken up at Troon, 1948
Cornwall	56	HM Dockyard Devonport	9 Oct 1924	11 Mar 1926	10 May 1928	Sunk by Japanese aircraft in "Easter Sunday Raid" south of Ceylon, 5 Apr 1942
London	69	London	HM Dockyard, Portsmouth	23 Feb 1926	14 Sep 1927	31 Jan 1929	Broken up at Barrow-in-Furness, 1950
Devonshire	39	HM Dockyard, Devonport	16 Mar 1926	22 Oct 1927	18 Mar 1929	Broken up at Newport, 1954
Sussex	96	Hawthorn Leslie & Company, Hebburn	1 Feb 1927	22 Feb 1928	19 Mar 1929	Broken up at Dalmuir, 1950
Shropshire	73	William Beardmore & Company, Dalmuir	24 Feb 1927	5 Jul 1928	12 Sep 1929	To RAN 1943 Broken up at Troon, 1954
Norfolk	78	Norfolk	Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Govan	8 Jul 1927	12 Dec 1928	1 May 1930	Broken up at Newport, 1950
Dorsetshire	40	HM Dockya

 

[Barrett]

I was fortunate to know Eric and Lynn Brown; we exchanged visits Over There and Over Here. He said that in Nor Lant ops, 60-foot "excursions" were known in flight deck pitch, and the batsmen (LSOs) had to judge the parameters within VERY thin margins. IIRC sometimes there was no option but to plant the airplane on the deck regardless of consequences, because in those conditions the pilot/crew would be lost in a ditching.