The Royal Navy suffered heavy losses in the first two years of the war, including the carriers HMS , and , the battleships and and the battlecruiser in the European Theatre, and the carrier , the battleship , the battlecruiser and the heavy cruisers , and in the Asian Theatre. Of the 1,418 men on the "Hood", only three survived its sinking. Over 3,000 people were lost when the converted troopship was sunk in June 1940, the greatest maritime disaster in Britain's history. There were however also successes against enemy surface ships, as in the battles of the River Plate in 1939, Narvik in 1940 and Cape Matapan in 1941, and the sinking of the German capital ships in 1941 and in 1943.