Holedigger wrote:
Some nice vintage pics there. Second one is USS Midway, it appears 4-6 are HMS Glorious.
First and second in sequence (l to R, T to B) are very early shots of Midway, possibly on her sea trials. Note lack of aircraft and flight-deck vehicles (tilly cranes, mules, etc) and her originally "short" island (somewhere around 1-2 years in service she had the front 1/4 of her island cut off and a new extended front end put on. The 5" gun director that is seen on her flightdeck forward of the island was moved to above the bridge).
Third is Ark Royal. Number four is HMS Glorious, numbers 5 and 6 are either Glorious or Courageous. #5 is a great bow-on shot showing the Fisher's Follies* light battlecruiser lines.
Seven is Furious, half-sister to Glorious and Courageous. Eight is either Glorious or Courageous. Nine is probably Furious, #10 definitely is. Can't tell with #11 (just deck machinery), 12 is Courageous, 13-15 are Furious. 16 looks to be an Illustrious-class carrier right after launching, possibly Illustrious herself (given the pre-war light-gray paints scheme on the unfinished hull).
17 is HMS Argus (aka "Covered Wagon", a nickname she shared with USS Langley, for obvious reasons). #18 is the same carrier in #8.
(*"Fisher's Follies" is the name given to Adm. Jackie Fisher's light battlecruisers, which consisted of HMS Glorious and Courageous, an their half-sister Furious. They were designed with shallow drafts for Baltic operations, and limited to two main turrets each. Glorious and Courageous mounted twin 15" rifles, Furious mounted single 18" ones. In operation they were not quite slightly better than useless, demonstrating that Fisher was a guy with too much disposable income - Thanks Your Majesty! - and a serious deficiency of common sense. They were nicknamed Curious, Spurious and Outrageous. All were converted to aircraft carriers, Glorious and Courageous being sunk early in the war.
Under the principle of "never throw anything away", when Glorious and Courageous were converted to aircraft carriers the Admiralty had their turrets (four between the two of them) preserved and stashed away for future use. They were later remounted in HMS Vanguard, the RN's last - and imho most striking - battleship).
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