Her design differed from previous aircraft carriers. Ark Royal was the first ship on which the hangars and flight deck were an integral part of the hull, instead of an add-on or part of the superstructure. Designed to carry a large number of aircraft, she had two hangar deck levels. She was used during a period that first saw the extensive use of naval air power; several carrier tactics were developed and refined aboard Ark Royal.
Ark Royal operated in some of the most active naval theatres of the Second World War. She was involved in the first aerial U-boat kills of the war, operations off Norway, the search for the German battleship Bismarck, and the Malta Convoys. Ark Royal survived several near misses and gained a reputation as a ‘lucky ship’.
Lost 14 November 1941. At 1637 hours on 13 November 1941 the German submarine U-81 fired a spread of four torpedoes at the British battleship HMS Malaya in Force H and heard two detonations after 6 minutes 6 seconds and 7 minutes 43 seconds. In fact, one torpedo hit HMS Ark Royal (Capt. Loben Edward Harold Maund, CBE, RN) amidships, which sank under tow by the British tug HMS Thames with almost all of her aircraft just 25 nautical miles east of Gibraltar, in position 36°03’N, 04°45’W, at 0813 hours on 14 November 1941. The carrier was returning from Operation Perpetual. On 10 November, the carrier had left Gibraltar together with the British carrier HMS Argus to ferry 37 Hurricane fighters to Malta under escort by the Force H, formed by HMS Malaya, HMS Hermione and seven destroyers.
Battle Honours: NORWAY 1940 – SPARTIVENTO 1940 – MEDITERRANEAN 1940-41 – BISMARCK Action 1941 – MALTA CONVOYS 1941
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ark_Royal_(91)#Service_history
German servants working in other countries are asked to return home by May 1939.
Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, German Reichsbank president, who is in London in connection with Germany’s refugee and trade problems, conferred today with Oliver Stanley, president of the board of trade, and other officials at the treasury. Schacht, it was learned, put Chancellor Hitler’s terms for settlement of the Jewish emigration question before the inter-governmental refugee committee at a secret meeting last night. The German plan is understood to link emigration of Jews with increased German exports.
The German expert’s contacts with British officials and, particularly, with Stanley, were believed to have these aims:
- To impress upon Britain the fact that the Nazis are unable to provide emigrating Jews with funds because of a shortage of foreign exchange and that increased German exports would be the only solution.
- To sound out Stanley on the trade war Britain has threatened against Germany in retaliation for German methods in southeast Europe.
The Cross of Honour of the German Mother was established. Adolf Hitler institutes the state decoration and civil order of merit, Cross of Honour of the German Mother.
Nearly one-quarter of all the Jews in Austria have emigrated since the Nazis assumed power last March, Nazi officials said today. Of approximately 300,000 Jews who then lived in Austria, more than 70,000 have departed to date. Roughly 60,000 left the country by November 10, and the emigration machinery was speeded up since the last anti-Jewish drive began, enabling another 10,000 to leave. Nazis pointed out that at this rate Field Marshal Hermann Wilhelm Göring’s threat to rid Austria of Jews in four years will be fulfilled.
Insurgent Spanish warships shelled the coast road between Castillo de Ferro and La Rabita on the Motril front today. It was the first time the southern coast has been shelled since German warships bombarded Almeria in May, 1937.
If Premier Mussolini had any doubts that the French meant business when they warned that any Italian attempt to seize their possessions in Africa would mean war, the government did its best tonight to erase them. The chamber of deputies, which is rushing through the formality of approving a new budget, accepted without protest or debate the estimates raising naval expenditures for the coming year by 76 percent. The estimates include a fund to provide an ironclad defense of Tunisia and Corsica. These are the French holdings which Italy most covets, to judge by last week’s demonstration of Italian deputies and demands of the Italian press.
Notable among provisions of the naval ministry budget is one of 208,000,000 francs (about $5,500,000) for “coastal defense.” This is double last year’s appropriation for the same purpose. This coastal defense fund actually is designed to strengthen the position of the French fleet in Corsica — which officially is a part of continental France, and not a mere colony or possession — and Tunisia. Bizerta, military port of Tunisia, already is one of the largest and best equipped in the Mediterranean.
The Soviet Union and Poland, both of which have mutual assistance pacts with France, have informed the French government that they will fight in defense of the Ukrainian provinces within their borders, it was revealed tonight. King Carol II of Rumania likewise has informed Paris that his country would go to war rather than surrender Ukrainian Bessarabia. The development followed articles in the German press foreseeing a vast, independent Ukraine in eastern Europe with Nazis dominating a population of 45,000,000.
This Ukrainian state, according to the Nazi press accounts, would be carved from the territories of Soviet Russia, Poland, Rumania and the autonomous province of Carpatho-Ukraine (Ruthenia) in eastern Czechoslovakia. White Russian leaders met in Paris today, coincident with the arrival of Grand Duke Vladimir, pretender to the Czarist Imperial throne of Russia, and studied developments in the Ukrainian independence movement.
The white Russians studied the possibility of assembling nearly 1,000,000 Czarist exiles of the former white Russian armies — scattered throughout Europe — in an army to fight for independence.
Poland warns the Czech government that Ukrainian revolutionary groups are active in Czechoslovakia.
Arab taxis and buses begin operation for the first time this month in Palestine.
Anthony Eden, former British Foreign Secretary, sailed for home today with the cheers of several thousand New Yorkers ringing in his ears. “Keep it up, Tony,” some of the crowd shouted when his party arrived at the liner Queen Mary on which he was returning after a week’s visit. “People in your country are very kind,” Eden said. “My wife and I have enjoyed every moment of our visit, and we leave the United States with very deep regret.”
The latest United States note demanding exemption of American Jews from anti-Semitic measures was handed to the German government, it was disclosed today, just as Reichsführer Hitler returned to Berlin from a long absence. The Führer has arranged to receive Hans H. Dieckhoff, Nazi ambassador to Washington, for his report on the situation in the United States. Hitler reached Berlin last night and was expected to see Dieckhoff soon. Dieckhoff was recalled for a report after President Roosevelt summoned home Hugh R. Wilson, United States ambassador to Berlin, for the same purpose, following the Nazi anti-Jewish drive last month. The new American note, it was indicated, was prompted by the vagueness of German replies to previous communications.
F. Donald Coster, aka Philip Musica, commits suicide; the other company officers under arrest are his three brothers. Coster, an incredible dual personality of evil financial genius, who wiped out his earlier identity as Convict Philip Musica to become head of an $87,000,000 drug concern, killed himself today at his Fairfield (Connecticut) country estate. He fired a bullet into his head at the very moment a squad of Federal authorities was knocking on his ornate door to rearrest him in the investigation of a great financial scandal involving his company, McKesson & Robbins, Inc. While Coster was dying in the Connecticut mansion, authorities in New York identified George Vernard, Canadian agent of the corporation, and two of its other employees as Musicas — all brothers of the financier. They were “George Dietrich,” assistant treasurer of the company, and “Robert Dietrich,” purchasing agent for the concern in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy, ambassador to Great Britain, flew into the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. today. In a conference of almost an hour with President Roosevelt, the administration’s red headed troubleshooter is said to have endeavored to sell his handling of his post during the trying Czech crisis to his chief. He strove to induce the President to turn off the heat which has been put under him by Thomas Corcoran, Benjamin Cohen, and other left wing White House intimates. For the last few weeks, the White House advisers have turned their purge program from legislators to Kennedy. They are seeking his scalp because he believes in dealing with dictatorial states and the British appeasement program.
Germany today recalled 200 empty steel bottles — bottles the Nazis had hoped would come home filled with precious helium, the non-inflammable gas that might prevent another Hindenburg disaster. The bottles sailed from Texas for Germany aboard the Nazi freighter, Idarwald. Waterfront observers considered the incident a definite indication the United States has decided not to sell Germany helium for her commercial lighter-than-air zeppelin craft.
The State of California executes Ed Davis (38), leader of Folsom Prison escape attempt resulting in murder of warden and guard (San Quentin State Prison, Marin County).
The film “A Christmas Carol” starring Reginald Owen was released.
The Boston Bees trade catcher Ray Mueller to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Al Todd and Johnny Dickshot.
The Pan-American Conference adopts the liberal trade policies proposed by Secretary Hull, but not his policy on defense. Argentina, Chile, and Brazil — who benefit most by trade with Europe — lead the opposition to Hull’s mutual defense agreement.
General Pai Chung-hsi is vice-commander of all China’s armies.
The Yellow River floods, breaking through dikes in Honan and Kiangsu provinces.
Japan is surprised and indignant over the U.S. loan to China, seeing it as prolonging the undeclared war.
Plaek Phibunsongkhram became the third Prime Minister of Thailand.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 150.89 (-0.93).
Born:
Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress (“The Emigrants”, “Persona”), in Tokyo, Japan.
Jimmie Lee Jackson, American civil rights protester and church deacon, shot and killed by an Alabama State Trooper in 1965, in Marion, Alabama.
Frank Deford, sportswriter and novelist, in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 2017).
Naval Construction:
The U.S. Navy Navajo-class fleet tug USS Seminole (AT-65) is laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corp. (Staten Island, New York, U.S.A.).
The Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (91), sole ship of her class, is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Captain Arthur John Power, RN.
History Diaries 