.jpg) Arromanches in the Mediterranean, 1961
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Colossus |
| Namesake | Colossus |
| Builder | Vickers-Armstrongs, High Walker |
| Launched | 30 September 1943 |
| Commissioned | 16 December 1944[1] |
| Motto | On The Ball |
| Fate | Loaned to French Navy in 1946 |
 France | |
| Name | Arromanches |
| Namesake | Arromanches-les-Bains |
| Acquired | 1946[1] |
| Decommissioned | 1974 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Scrapped in Toulon, France 1978 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Colossus-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement | 13 600 tonnes[1] |
| Length | 212 m (695 ft 6 in)[1] |
| Beam | 24.4 m (80 ft 1 in)[1] |
| Draught | 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) |
| Propulsion | Steam Turbines (4 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, Parsons geared turbines) |
| Speed | 25 kn (46 km/h)[1] |
| Range | 12,000 nmi (22,000 km)[2] |
| Complement | 1,300 |
| Aircraft carried | 48 |
| Notes | Only under flag of the French Navy, her Air control callsign was "Sapho"[clarification needed] [clarification needed] |
Arromanches (R95) was an aircraft carrier of the French Navy, which served from 1946 to 1974. She was previously HMS Colossus (15) of the Royal Navy. She was the name-ship of the Colossus class of light carriers. She was commissioned in 1944, but did not see any action in World War II. She served with the British Pacific Fleet in 1945–46, as an aircraft transport and repatriation ship.
In 1946, she was loaned to the French Navy, and renamed Arromanches; she was bought by the French in 1951.
Arromanches participated in the First Indochina War in three campaigns from 1948 to 1954, and the Suez Crisis of 1956. In 1968 she was converted to an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) carrier. She was decommissioned in 1974, and broken up in 1978.
- ^ a b c d e f Ireland, Bernard (2007). Aircraft Carriers of the World. Southwater. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-84476-363-4.
- ^ "French Navy – Arromanches". Damien Allard. Archived from the original on 8 July 2006. Retrieved 12 May 2008.