WI: HMS Ark Royal survives

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Of course not! The British couldn't win against the IJN IOTL, so they obviously can't do it in any ATL!:rolleyes:

I didn't suggest they could win, but perhaps they could actually engage, sink a ship or two and escape with similar losses as OTL. That would count as something, rather than OTLs nothing and every big IJN ship sunk in the first months of the war is one less to sink in 1944-5.
 
The US tanker SS Kentucky - one of the 6 Merchant ships of the Op Harpoon convoy - sunk by Italian Cruisers after having been crippled and abandoned after Air attacks on the 15th June 1942

Yup, a sister ship of Ohio and presumably carrying a similar cargo.

In Pedestal, Ohio and four other merchantmen got through, and they sustained the island for three months until Stone Age lifted the siege. With a successful Harpoon, we have Ohio's fuel load and five merchantmen getting through, so is it necessary to run another convoy in August when you have supplies until November?
 
Alternatively, she does take the hit, but damage control is started promptly - in OTL, Captain Maund decided to evacuate the ship to avoid severe loss of life should the Ark Royal sink rapidly. Effective DC early might have been enough to save the ship, but she's out of the war until repairs are complete.
If she can be stabilized, and towed to Gibraltar, the damage to Ark Royal shouldn't be too massive. It was a single torpedo hit that missed magazines, caused no fires or secondary explosions, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ark_Royal_(91)#Investigation

Ark Royal sank 30 nautical miles from Gibraltar. Keep the crew onboard to complete emergency repairs, and then there are seven destroyers and the Dido class CL Hermione that can tow the carrier to Gibraltar. At five to eight knots this would take about 6-7 hours.

I'd see emergency repairs in Gibraltar, then Ark runs for Norfolk, VA for extended repairs and modifications. For starters, scrap the double level lifts, flatten out the aft hull rundown, and install secondary power. You can see the aft rundown or round down below - flatten this out and widen it to full width, and you gain a lot of deck space.

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Good thing about Ark Royal is that its hangar height and three lifts can take nearly every folding wing FAA aircraft.

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_HMS_Ark_Royal.html
  • The Ark Royal had two hangers. Both were 60ft wide and 16ft high. The upper hanger was 568ft long and the lower 452ft.
  • They were connected by three rectangular lifts, two of 45ft by 22ft and one of 45ft by 25ft.
For example, Grumman Avenger (Tarpon) was 19ft wide folded, 41ft long. Corsair was 17ft wide folded, and folded was 15ft tall, meaning clipped wing version wasn't needed.

Even the biggest WW2-era single-engined aircraft like the A1D Skyraider and Fairey Spearfish would fit nicely into Ark's lifts and hangar.

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