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HMS Illustrious - World Naval Ships Directory

HMS Illustrious
Name : HMS Illustrious
Laid Down : 27th April 1937
Launched : 5th April 1939
Completed : 25th May 1940
Type : Aircraft Carrier
Class : Illustrious
Builder : Vickers Armstrong
Country : UK
Pennants : 87, R2 BPF, R87
Fate : Scrapped 3rd November 1956.

HMS Illustrious Photos for Sale



HMS Illustrious


HMS Illustrious


HMS Illustrious


HMS Illustrious, c.1940.


HMS Illustrious, Malta, September 1943.


HMS Illustrious, 1944.


HMS Illustrious, 1944.


HMS Illustrious, October 1947.


HMS Illustrious, October 1947.


HMS Illustrious, June 1951.


HMS Illustrious, June 1951.


HMS Illustrious, Portsmouth, June 1951.


HMS Illustrious, October 1954.


HMS Illustirous, October 1954.

Timeline Entries :


27th April 1937 - Laid down by Vickers Armstrong.
5th April 1939 - Launched
10th January 1940 - Hit six times by thirty Ju87 and Ju88 bombers of the Luftwaffe's elite X Fliegerkorps
15th September 1940 - Sailed Alexandria
16th September 1940 - Arrived off Crete
10th November 1940 - Sailed Alexandria to cover Convoys to Crete and Malta
10th November 1940 - Headed for a position 170 miles to the SE of Taranto.
19th January 1941 - Slight damage is done in Malta
19th September 1941 - At Norfolk Virginia repairing
4th October 1941 - At Norfolk Navy Yard
23rd March 1942 - Joined military convoy WS17
26th March 1942 - In the Maldives
29th March 1942 - Sailed Maldives
2nd April 1942 - Arrived Maldives
3rd August 1943 - Bermuda
16th April 1944 - Task Force 70
16th April 1944 - Sailed Trincomalee
16th January 1945 - Formed Part of Force 63
11th April 1945 - 30 mile Off Formosa
21st July 1947 - Home Fleet Review on the Clyde
3rd December 1948 - Off West Coast of Africa
15th January 1951 - Temporarily relieved by HMS. Vengeance as a 'Trials and Training Carrier'
13th September 1952 - Commenced "Exercise Mainbrace"
24th September 1952 - Completed "Exercise Mainbrace"
15th June 1953 - Participated in 1953 Coronation Review
1956 - Broken up

HMS Illustrious Artwork Collection
Click the images below to view the fantastic artwork we have available to purchase!



HMS Illustrious and HMS Kenya at Devonport by Ivan Berryman.

HMS Illustrious by Robert Taylor.

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Database Currently Holds : 6226 ships and 6261 crew!

Last edited : 16:19, March 27, 2011
By : jbryce1437

 

 

AVIATION PRINTS

Click above to see all of our aviation art index - Eight random half price aviation items are displayed to the right.

Some Current Half Price Aviation Art Offers

Hawker Hurricanes of 249 squadron (RAF) departing off HMS Ark Royal in June 1941 as par tof Force H. The Hurricanes were to become part of the Defence of Malta against the onslought and non stop bombing by the Axis Bombers and HMS Ark Royal would be sunk only a few months later when on the 13th November 1941 HMS Ark Royal was hit by a single torpedo from the German U-boat U81. The torpedo hit on the starboard side near the starboard boiler room causing a 130ft by 30ft hole. Water poured in causing a 10% list immediately. The flooding spread quickly to the middle of the ship and then to the port boiler room, eectric power failed, and after 14 hours while in tow to Gibraltar she capsized and sunk the following day.

Malta Relief by Tim Fisher.
Half Price! - £20.00 		Sqn Ldr Billy Drake is shown in Curtiss Kittyhawk Mk1a ET790 claiming a Ju87 Stuka on the 31st of October 1942. Sqn Ldr Drake commanded 112 Squadron flying Kittyhawks at Gambut on 24th May 1942. He claimed a probable Bf109 on 6th June, another probable on 2nd July, destroyed a Bf109 on the 8th, damaged a Ju88 on the ground on the 19th, destroyed a Bf109 on the 24th, two Ju87s on the 1st September and another Bf109 on the 13th. Drake shared a Ju87 and probably destroyed another on 1st October 1942, got a probable Bf109 on the 22nd, destroyed another on the 26th, an Me202 on the 27th, a Ju87 on the 31st, a Bf109 destroyed and another damaged on 5th November, a Bf109 destroyed on the ground on the 11th, an He111 destroyed and a Bf109 damaged on the 15th, a Bf110 destroyed and another damaged on the 19th, an Me202 and a Bf109 destroyed on 11th December and he finally shared a Bf109 on the 13th. Drake was awarded a Bar to the DFC (28.7.42) and the DSO (4.12.42).

Tribute to Squadron Leader Billy Drake by Ivan Berryman. (P)
Half Price! - £700.00 		An Avro Anson comes under attack from an Me109.

Avro Anson by Ivan Berryman. (AP)
Half Price! - £52.50 		With their brightly coloured checkertail tails there was no mistaking the P.51 Mustangs of the 325th Fighter Group. Escorting B-24s over Austria in August 1944, tangled with a group of Fw190 fighters. The ensuing dogfight spiraled down below the mountain peaks as Herky Green led the Checkertails in a low-level chase. Herky nails one Fw190. Behind him his pilots will take out the two Fw190. When all is done this day the 325th will be credited with 15 enemy fighters destroyed.

Checkertail Clan by Nicolas Trudgian (Y)
Half Price! - £90.00

Ju 52s deploy German Paratroopers during the assault on Crete (operation Mercure) 1942. 

Falling Angels by Tim Fisher.
Half Price! - £35.00 		Two British Army AH1 Apache attack helicopters escort a Boeing Chinook en route to deploy British troops in southern Afghanistan.

Outbound by Ivan Berryman. (P)
Half Price! - £1750.00 		The Sopwith Dolphin was a radical departure from previous Sopwith design philosophies, embodying a reverse-stagger on the wings, a water-cooled Hispano-Suiza engine and an unusual, but highly popular positioning of the cockpit which gave the pilot unprecedented views. One exponent of this purposeful looking machine was Canadian Major A D Carter who claimed many of his 31 victories flying the Dolphin. He is shown here sending an Albatross to the ground on 8th May 1918 whilst flying C4017. Carter was himself shot down soon after became a prisoner of war. He was killed in 1919 whilst test flying a Fokker D.VII at Shoreham, Sussex. 

Major Albert Carter by Ivan Berryman. (P)
Half Price! - £1700.00 		A BAE Viscount on final approach to Birmingham Airport, c.1962.

Elmdon Evening by Mark Postlethwaite. (AP)
Half Price! - £55.00

 

NAVAL PRINTS

Click above to see all of our naval art index - Eight random half price naval items are displayed to the right.

Some Current Half Price Naval Art Offers

U-35 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, the all time most successful u-boat captain sinking 194 ships, many of which were sunk by the u-boats 88mm deck gun.

Kapitänleutnant Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, U-35 by Ivan Berryman. (P)
Half Price! - £550.00 		B105. HMS Fearless by Ivan Berryman.

HMS Fearless by Ivan Berryman.
Half Price! - £15.00 		The Flower Class corvette HMS Sunflower at sea in 1942. One of thirty ordered on 31st August 1939, K41 was built by Smiths Dockyard in just 9 months and 6 days, completed on 25th January 1941.

HMS Sunflower by Ivan Berryman.
Half Price! - £15.00 		The Battle ship HMS Barham in company with the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle between the two World Wars. Both fell victim to German U-Boats during World War Two.

HMS Barham with HMS Eagle in Valetta Harbour in Malta during the 1930s by Ivan Berryman. (Y)
Half Price! - £50.00

HMS Glowworm, burning severely after receiving hits from the mighty Admiral Hipper, is depicted turning to begin her heroic sacrifice off the Norwegian coast on 8th April 1940. Hugely out-gunned and already crippled, Glowworms captain, Lieutenant-Commander Roope rammed his destroyer into the side of the Admiral Hipper, inflicting a 40 metre rip in its armour belt before drifting away and exploding. 38 British sailors were rescued from the sea and Roope was awarded a posthumous VC for his bravery, the first earned by the Royal Navy in WWII.

The Attack on the Admiral Hipper by HMS Glowworm by Ivan Berryman (AP)
Half Price! - £25.00 		Type 21 frigate HMS Ambuscade (F172) is shown passing the swing bridge as she enters Taranto Harbour.

HMS Ambuscade by Ivan Berryman (AP)
Half Price! - £25.00 		The E-class light cruiser HMS Emerald is shown off the Newfoundland coast in company with a Flower class corvette. Between October 1939 and August 1940, HMS Emerald carried £58 million in gold from Britain to Canada.

HMS Emerald by Ivan Berryman (AP)
Half Price! - £25.00 		A splendid little war was how John Hay, ambassador to Britain, described the Spanish-American war of 1898. Though the war was small in scope it was large in consequences; it promoted the regeneration of the American Navy and the emergence of the United States as a major world power. Fought primarily at sea, the war created an American naval legend in its opening encounter between the pacific squadrons of Spain and the United States at Manila Bay on the 1st of May 1898. At sunrise Admiral Dewey, leading the American fleet in his flagship the USS Olympia, had caught the Spanish fleet, under Admiral Patricio Montojo, by surprise - still anchored off Sangley Point at Manila Bay in the Philippine Islands. Defeat for the Spanish was total and heralded the end of a once extensive Spanish empire in the Americas. Montojos flagship, Reina Cristina, is seen here under fire from the Olympia.

The Battle of Manila Bay by Anthony Saunders (Y)
Half Price! - £62.50

 

MILITARY PRINTS

Click above to see all of our military art index - Eight random half price military items are displayed to the right.

Some Current Half Price Military Art Offers

British MK1 Grant tanks of the Staffordshire Yeomanry 8th Armoured Brigade, 10th Armoured Division, breakout from El Alamein.

Operation Supercharge, 4th November 1941 by David Pentland. (P)
Half Price! - £1900.00 		The Battle at Rorke's Drift, also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was an action in the Anglo-Zulu War. The defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers, immediately followed the British Army's defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana on 22nd January 1879, and continued into the following day, 23rd January. 150 British and colonial troops successfully defended the garrison against an intense assault by approximately 2000 Zulu warriors. The intense and noisy Zulu attacks on Rorke's Drift came very close to defeating the tiny garrison, but were ultimately repelled by blasts of Martini-Henry rifle fire-and some smart bayonet work-with some guts behind the bayonet thrusts! Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders, along with a number of other decorations and honours. Of particular note in the painting is the dog 'Pip' - he survived Isandlwhana by retreating along the fugitive's trail to Rorke's Drift. During the Zulu attacks on Rorke's drift, Pip did his part in the defence - by jumping on the mealie bag parapets and barking at Zulus- who were hiding in the long grass and sneaking up to the defences, then biting any Zulu who came within range. Unfortunately Pip was not officially recognised for his part in the action. He was not awarded a VC, on the basis that he was a volunteer canine that accompanied an officer, rather than a War Office issued canine. Conversely, if Pip had been killed, then he would not have been officially listed as a casualty, as he accompanied the army in a strictly private capacity. British army horses were in a different category as they were War Office issue, therefore the loss of a horse in action, or to disease, carried a financial liability for the War Office.

The Defence of Rorke's Drift by Jason Askew. (P)
Half Price! - £3200.00

Napoleon in his Coronation Robes by Francois Gerard. (Y)
Half Price! - £25.00 		Depicting Napoleon overlooking the arrival of the Guard Horse Artillery.

Arrival of the Horse Artillery at Eylau by Benigni. (Y)
Half Price! - £25.00

On the night of 6th April 1812 Wellingtons Army, surrounding the walled Spanish town of Badajoz (garrisoned by Napoleons soldiers under general Baron Philippon) is ready to attack! The men of the 45th regiment from Pictons 3rd Division launch themselves in a desperate and bloody assault against the north castle wall. Carrying improvised ladders, the men have their top buttons undone, overalls rolled up and are stripped for action. The castles defenders (Germans, allied to Napoleon of the Graf und Erbprinz Regiment from Hesse-Darmstadt) partroling the walls in their greatcoats are intially surprised by the bold assault from this sector but they have been preparing the strong defenses for some time. Soon the night air is full of musketry, falling masonry, burning bundles of ropes and exploding grenades or mines. Despite the horrific casualties suffered the attackers press home. As the first scaling ladders are raised near a small bell tower the young Lt. James Macpherson reaches for the top of the wall. The ladders are too short! Undaunted he cries to his men below to lift the base of the ladder closer to the wall. This rapid, vertical movement suddenly propels him to a height several feet above the Germans heads. A shot rings out as one of the defenders fires point blank into the young mans chest. Fortunately the lead ball only strikes a glancing blow, cleaving in two a button of the officers waist coat and dislocating one of his ribs. Despite his fortunate escape, the force of the impact nearly sends him tumbling from the ladder. Somehow he maintains his grasp but the ladder itself gives way under the weight of the men following. Some unfortunates are impaled on the bayonets of their comrades below. Leaping from the rungs of another ladder, Corporal Kelly is the first man over the top and gradually the 45th gain a foothold on the ramparts. The rest of the regiment is ordered to unfix bayonets. Using the few remaining ladders, others also manage to scale the walls. Through the carnage they climb, club and shoot their way into the castle itself! Maepherson now regains consciousness at the foot of the wall and revived with a cup of coco from his friend A.A. General Hercules Packenham, who was directly behind him on the ladder when it broke. Though winded by the shot he rises to his feet. This sudden movement relocates his rib and he is able to climb the ladders once more. Once over the defense he sees the old towers of Apendez and Albar-rana to his left and the cathedral illuminated by gun fire in the distance. However his objective is directly ahead. Atop the abandoned tower of Santa Maria before him still flies the French tricolour. Macplierson seizes the opportunity, mounts the spiral stairway to the top turret and pulls down the enemy flag. For want of a substitute he flies his own red jacket from the pole, signifying that the castle has fallen. In the rest of the town the fighting continues and turns into a blood lust. Badajoz is one of the bloodiest and violent sieges of the Peninsula War. On the following day Maepherson presents his trophy to the Duke of Wellington himself but his bravery is not rewarded with a promotion.
Storming of Badajoz by the Sherwood Foresters painting by Mark Churms. (P)
Half Price! - £300.00 		German Stosstruppen of the 18th Army, having broken through the British lines near St Quentin, engage secondary trench lines occupied by men of the 9th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (36th Ulster Division) . Similar attacks occurred right across the BEFs front, where the new tactics of short bombardments, infiltration, close air support, and non persistent gas had ripped open the British lines.

The Kaisers Battle, Operation Michael, France, 21st March 1918 by David Pentland. (GL)
Half Price! - £300.00 		DHM471. Charles I on His Way to Execution by Ernest Crofts.
Charles I on His Way to Execution by Ernest Crofts.
Half Price! - £25.00 		Although outnumbered ten to one, General Arthur Wellesley defeated the well trained Mahratta army in one of the fiercest battles in India. It was the first of many victories by the future Duke of Wellington, and the bloodiest for the number, he recalled, that I ever saw.

The 74th Highlanders at the Battle of Assaye, 23rd September 1803 by David Rowlands (GL)
Half Price! - £300.00

 

SPORT PRINTS

Click above to see all of our sport art index - Eight random half price sport items are displayed to the right.

Some Current Half Price Sport Art Offers

Marcus Gronholm wins the 2002 Rally New Zealand in the Peugeot 206 and gains the World Rally Championship Title, October 2002.
Finnish First by Graham Bosworth. (Y)
Half Price! - £100.00 		Ally McCoist of Glasgow Rangers and Scotland. Produced to celebrate Scotlands most prolific goalscorer. Super Ally became nothing short of a legend during his tenure with Glasgow Rangers of the Premier League. It was not until Graeme Sounes took over as player manager of Rangers that McCoist really hit his stride and began to excel himself as the most prodigious goalscorer in the history of Scottish football. Allys unprecedented career includes over 300 league goals for Rangers helping the club to 9 titles in a row, a Scottish Cup Winners medal, 2 UEFA Golden Boot awards, Scottish player of the year 91/92 and 61 Caps for his country resulting in 19 international goals. Ally became one of Glasgow Rangers and Scotlands all time football heroes, and is now part of the Rangers coaching staff under Walter Smith.

Ally McCoist MBE by Scott Bridges.
Half Price! - £60.00 		Marcus Gronholm. Peugeot 206 WRC.
Reflections of a Champion by Michael Thompson.
Half Price! - £30.00 		B43. Damon Hill/ Williams Renault FW.18 by Ivan Berryman

Damon Hill/ Williams Renault FW.18 by Ivan Berryman
Half Price! - £40.00

SPC5008. Neil Lennon by Gary Brandham.

Neil Lennon by Gary Brandham.
Half Price! - £47.00 		Michael Schumacher celebrates another win for Ferrari.
Dream Team by Franklin.
Half Price! - £25.00 		SFA15. Bollocks by Chris Howells.

Bollocks by Chris Howells.
Half Price! - £50.00 		A great tribute to one of the all time greats in golf who will be sadly missed.

Seve Ballesteros by Peter Deighan. (Y)
Half Price! - £80.00

Everything we obtain for this site is shown on the site, we do not have any more photos, crew lists or further information on any of the ships.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE. ALL IMAGES DISPLAYED ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROTECTED BY  COPYRIGHT  LAW, AND ARE OWNED BY CRANSTON FINE ARTS OR THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.  NO REPRODUCTION OR COPYING ALLOWED ON OTHER WEBSITES, BOOKS OR ARTICLES WITHOUT PRIOR AGREEMENT.

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