page_title: HMS Eagle (1918)
section_title: Battle of Malta
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Eagle (1918) / Career / World War II / Battle of Malta
caption_attribution_description: English: HMS EAGLE and HMS MALAYA in the Mediterranean during Operation 'Spotter', which delivered 16 RAF Spitfire Mk Vs to Malta on 7th March 1942. HMS EAGLE and HMS MALAYA whilst serving with Force H in the Mediterranean. Supermarine Spitfires are ranged on the deck of HMS EAGLE (photograph taken from the aircraft carrier HMS ARGUS).
context_page_description: HMS Eagle was an early aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. Ordered by Chile during the South American dreadnought race as the Almirante Latorre-class battleship Almirante Cochrane, she was laid down before World War I. In early 1918 she was purchased by Britain for conversion to an aircraft carrier; this work was finished in 1924. Her completion was delayed by labour troubles and the possibility that she might be repurchased by Chile for reconversion into a battleship, as well as the need for comparative trials to determine the optimum layout for aircraft carriers. The ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and then later to the China Station, spending very little time in home waters other than for periodic refits.
  Eagle spent the first nine months of World War II in the Indian Ocean searching for German commerce raiders. During the early part of the war, the Fleet Air Arm was desperately short of fighters and Eagle was equipped solely with Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers until late 1940.
context_section_description: Upon Eagle's arrival in Gibraltar, 824 Squadron transferred to RAF North Front and the ship loaded 15 Supermarine Spitfire fighters brought to Gibraltar by the carrier Argus. These aircraft were partly assembled dockside and hoisted aboard for final assembly. They were too big to fit below deck and remained on the flight deck, where they impeded the operations of Eagle's aircraft, except for those few also carried on the flight deck, until the ferried aircraft were flown off. On 27 February 1942, she sailed to deliver the Spitfires to Malta, escorted by the battleship Malaya, Argus, the cruiser Hermione, and nine destroyers, but the operation had to be cancelled when the long-range fuel tanks of the Spitfires proved defective. The problems were not rectified until 7 March, when the 15 Spitfires were successfully flown off to Malta. Upon her return, the ship's engines required repairs that lasted until 13 March. Nine more Spitfires were delivered to Malta on 21 March and an additional seven on 29 March. After her return, her steering gear required extensive repairs that lasted until the end of April.
  As part of Operation Bowery, Eagle rendezvoused on the night of 7/8 May with the American carrier USS Wasp, carrying 47 Spitfires, while Eagle had landed her entire aircraft complement to make room for 17 Spitfires of her own. Sixty of them arrived safely at Malta. For the next operation on 17 May, the Swordfish and Sea Hurricanes of 813 Squadron flew back on board to join the 17 Spitfires and six Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers destined for Malta. The fighters flew off without incident, but engine problems forced all of the Albacores to return. After they had landed, the ship was attacked by a half-dozen SM.79 torpedo bombers which failed to score any hits. The radar-guided guns of the escorting light cruiser, HMS Charybdis, were instrumental in driving off the determined Italian aircraft.
  Eagle disembarked all of her aircraft, except for her four Sea Hurricanes, to make room for 31 Spitfires and flew them off on 3 June during Operation Style. Another 32 were flown off on 9 June during Operation Salient. Later in the month, the ship provided air cover for another convoy, Operation Harpoon, which departed for Malta at the same time as the Operation Vigorous convoy did, from the opposite direction. A dozen Sea Hurricanes of 801 Squadron and four Fulmars from 807 Squadron reinforced the four Sea Hurricanes of 813's Fighter Flight to deal with the heavy air attacks anticipated. The convoy was subject to heavy air attacks by both the German and Italian Air Forces; Eagle's Sea Hurricanes managed to disrupt many attacks, claiming nine aircraft destroyed and a further two probably destroyed for the loss of one Sea Hurricane from 813 Squadron and three Fulmars. The escorts reached Gibraltar on 17 June and did not make the next delivery of aircraft until 14 July when 32 Spitfires were flown off to Malta (Operation Pinpoint). During this time, the carrier's aircraft complement consisted solely of six Sea Hurricanes of 801 Squadron. Another 29 Spitfires as well as four Swordfish of 824 Squadron were loaded on 20 July and the Spitfires were flown off the following day.  Earlier in the day, the ship was unsuccessfully attacked by the Italian submarine Dandolo.
  Eagle covered Operation Pedestal together with the carriers Victorious and Indomitable. Eagle carried 16 Sea Hurricanes of 801 and 813 Squadrons as well as four reserve aircraft for the operation. On the early afternoon of 11 August, Eagle was hit by four torpedoes from the German submarine U-73, commanded by Helmut Rosenbaum, and sank within four minutes, 70 nautical miles (130 km; 81 mi) south of Cape Salinas at position 38°3′0″N 3°1′12″E. Losses in the sinking included 131 officers and ratings, mainly from the ship's propulsion machinery spaces. Four Sea Hurricanes from 801 were aloft when the ship was torpedoed, and they landed on other carriers; the remaining sixteen went down with the ship. The destroyers Laforey and Lookout and the tug Jaunty rescued 67 officers and 862 sailo
caption: HMS Eagle and HMS Malaya, from HMS Argus serving with Force H in the Mediterranean, 7 March 1942
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