page_title: HMS Victorious (R38)
section_title: Postwar
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Victorious (R38) / Service / Postwar
caption_attribution_description: Bow view of the British Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Victorious (R38) operating off Norfolk, Virginia (USA), between 15 and 20 July 1959. On deck are several planes of Victorious´ air group: a Douglas Skyraider AEW.1 of 849 Naval Air Squadron, five de Havilland Sea Venom fighters of 893 NAS, two Supermarine Scimtar fighters of 803 NAS, and a Westland Dragnonfly HR.5 of Ships Flight 1 (Search and Rescue). Also on deck are serveral U.S. Navy aircraft (starboard bow): A McDonnell F3H-2 Demon of Fighter Squadron 31 (VF-31) "Tomcatters", and a barely visible Vought F8U-1E Crusader (BuNo 145544) of VF-32 "Swordsmen", both from Carrier Air Group 3 (CVG-3, tail code "AC"), USS Saratoga (CVA-60); a Douglas F4D-1 Skyray fighter of VF-13 "Night Cappers", a Douglas A4D-2 Skyhawk (BuNo 144945) from Attack Squadron 106 (VA-106) Gladiators, and two Grumman TF-1 Trader transport planes (one aft), all assigned to Carrier Air Group 10 (CVG-10, tail code "AK") aboard the USS Essex (CVA-9).
context_page_description: HMS Victorious, ordered under the 1936 Naval Programme, was the third Illustrious-class aircraft carrier after Illustrious and Formidable. She was laid down at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1937 and launched two years later in 1939. Her commissioning was delayed until 1941 due to the greater need for escort vessels for service in the Battle of the Atlantic.
  Her service in 1941 and 1942 included famous actions against the battleship Bismarck, several Arctic convoys, and Operation Pedestal. She was loaned to the United States Navy in 1943 and served in the south west Pacific as part of the Third Fleet. Victorious contributed to several attacks on the Tirpitz. The elimination of the German naval threat allowed her redeployment first to the Eastern Fleet at Colombo and then to the Pacific for the final actions of the war against Japan.
  After the war, her service was broken by periods in reserve and, between 1950 and 1958, the most complete reconstruction of any Royal Navy carrier.
context_section_description: Victorious left Australia in September 1945, arrived back in Britain on 27 October and undertook three trips to collect servicemen and war brides of British servicemen from Australia and the Far East. In the winter of 1946–47, the first deck trials with the Hawker Sea Fury (Mark 10) took place aboard Victorious, leading to its approval for carrier operations in early 1947.
  Victorious was reduced to the reserve at Devonport on 15 January 1947, on completion of her trooping duties. From June that year she was modified at Portsmouth Dockyard with additional accommodation and classrooms and on 1 October 1947, joined the Home Fleet Training Squadron, replacing the battleship Nelson. In July 1948, Victorious was deployed to Portland Harbour in support of the sailing events at the 1948 London Olympic Games. In 1949 she was refitted at Rosyth and took part in several training cruises and Home Fleet exercises. 
  The ship was extensively reconstructed and modernised at Portsmouth Dockyard between 1950 and 1958.  This took over eight years because of frequent design changes to allow for new technologies. And in particular, the decision in 1953 that she would have to have her original steam turbines replaced, to be viable past 1964, which meant much work had to be redone, and a new flight deck installed twice over.  The cost of the reconstruction increased from 5 million pounds to 30 million pounds creating what was in many respects a new ship.  Her hull was widened, deepened, and lengthened; her machinery was replaced with Foster-Wheeler boilers; her hangar height was increased; new armament of 3 inch (76 mm) guns was installed; a fully angled flight deck (of 8 degrees) and steam catapults were added. Her radar equipment was extensively altered to include up to date equipment, and included the first type 984 3-D radar system to be installed on a ship. While it was hoped she could operate a full air group of 50 aircraft, the rapid increase in size of the jets coming into service limited her to operating no more than 28 aircraft (including helicopters).
  On 25 September 1958 Commander J. D. Russell drowned in his Supermarine Scimitar after a failed attempt to land on Victorious for the first time after her refit. Although the landing hook engaged the arrestor wire, the wire itself snapped due to improper rigging and the aircraft then rolled slowly over the side. It sank very slowly, but the plane-guard helicopter crew couldn't release the pilot, and it was seen that Cdr Russell had opened his canopy and then closed it again, possibly an effect of gravity on the heavy frame. The other seven Scimitars in the stream diverted away to Yeovilton.
  In 1960, after recommissioning into the Home Fleet on 14 January 1958, with work-ups and deployments in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, she portrayed both herself and HMS Ark Royal during the filming of the British film Sink the Bismarck!.  This was despite post-war modifications significantly altering her appearance – the addition of an angled deck and a Type 984 "searchlight" radar. The actor Kenneth More who had served aboard Victorious as a junior officer, played a fictitious Admiralty Director of Operations.  He is shown giving the order to detach Victorious from Convoy WS 8B, which was forming in the River Clyde in order to move almost 20,000 troops to the Middle East.
  Victorious took part in Operation Vantage in support of Kuwait in July 1961 Later in 1961 she would sail to join the Far East Fleet. In 1964, she provided support for the newly independent state of Malaysia against territorial expansion by its neighbour, Indonesia. In April 1966 departed again to serve with the Far East Fleet for a year, during which she proved capable of landing and then launching a USN Phantom F-4 from USS Ranger, returning to the UK for a refit period from June 1967, which was almost completed, when a minor fire provided a political excuse to delete her on 13 March 1968, in further defence cuts, as a third operational carrier was no longer required for the two further years, she was intended to serve, til
caption: HMS Victorious in 1959 with British and U.S. Navy aircraft parked on the flight deck.
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