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Laid down in 1917, the Formidable was the second of the Reprisal class battleships. The ships construction was slowed down through 1918-19 as the war comes to an end. Panagaea is told that it would get to keep the Reprisal but the Formidable could not be completed as a battleship. Panagaea was kept appraised of the Royal Navies conversion of ships to the new aircraft carrier designation. The decision was made to follow the RN's lead and convert the Formidable to an aircraft carrier.
The conversion started late in 1919 as the plans for the conversion were conceived and started to be executed. The aft part of the hangar was a twenty foot of headroom. From the hull forecastle break forward the hangar was at a seventeen foot level. The two parts being termed the bomber section aft and fighter section forward. Construction kept going in fits and starts as information on other conversions came in and the plan would be altered. Finally given the completion date in 1924, it would be another twelve months of trials before the ship would be incorporated into the mainstream of Fleet units. The main armament of 8x6" differed from the US and Japanese 8" guns as the Panganaean Navy were building light cruisers armed with twin 6" and kept with those weapons. They did not have a twin 8" turret that could have been used as the new heavy cruiser classes had a triple 8" turret.
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The small refits went on through to 1938 when the ship went through its first major refit. This was to remove the twin 6" and their associated equipment. It was felt that these large aircraft carriers would never go anywhere without major escort forces being with them. No need of medium sized guns. The space provided would be replaced with octuple 2 pounder mountings. The original 2 pounder mounting abaft the funnel was removed and lowered to where the X 6" turret had been. Where the 2 pounder mounting had been is placed a dual purpose gun director with radar assistance to control the new twin 4" that replaced the singles. Twin 20mm Oerlikons replaced the quad 0.5" machine guns. A considerable improvement on the AA potential of the ship. Aerial search radar went to the top of the masts.
The biggest improvement for the ship was in its air complement during the 1938-40 period. Gone were the Gladiators and Swordfish. Their replacements were streets ahead. Gloster Griffon fighters, Blackburn Skua dive bombers, and Fairey Sea Battle torpedo bombers. With those aircraft aboard the ship had aircraft as good as any others of the time. Two to three years later those same aircraft were not looking so good. The Griffons were on a par with the Zeros, but it was the Germans with the FW-190's on their carriers that creamed their Allied opponents. It was sheer weight of numbers in the North Atlantic that stopped the Germanic States forces from forcing through to decimate the convoys. (see Denmark Strait 08/1941)
1939-40 The Formidable and the four Repulse class battleships helped to clear out the Germanic States ships that were in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. This culminated in the sinking of the Grosser Kurfurst (see Repulse class for details). That force was then ordered to Alexandria to join Admiral Cunningham's Mediterranean Fleet. With the Mediterranean Fleet the Formidable participated in the major battles in that sea. Taranto, Cape Matapan, right up till a torpedo hit nearly sunk the ship. The Formidable's weakest point had always been the lack of underwater protection. Concrete was poured into the hole and patches fitted at Alexandria to get the ship mobile, and it was to return to Panagaea for another full refit which was to include fitting bulges to help with anti-torpedo protection. This is 01/12/1941 - the Formidable leaves Alexandria bound for Port Resolution and the dockyards. 7th December and the Formidable is in the middle of the Indian Ocean with nowhere to go. Anywhere north of its track is going to have problems with the Japanese coming south like a train. A deal is done, and the Formidable heads for Sydney and the Cockatoo dockyards. All of the Commonwealth is in the war and will now help each other with out stinting each other. Four months at Cockatoo is required to do the jobs required to get the Formidable back to sea.
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May 1942 and the Formidable joins the Indomitable with both ships escorts ordered to join Admiral Fletcher in defence of Port Moresby and New Guinea. The Japanese escort force included three aircraft carriers, various light forces and four troop transports containing two infantry divisions. The orders for the US carriers were easy - sink the Shokaku, Zuikaku and Shoho. The orders to the Commonwealth carriers was also easy - get the troop transports. That way there would be a division between the targets and hopefully the US pilots would not get to gung-ho and shoot at everything in sight rather than just the Japanese. History tells us the US lost the Lexington sunk, and the Enterprise injured. The Japanese had the Shoho sunk and both Zuikaku and Shokaku damaged. The Formidable and Indomitable had their successes with the sinking of two transports and a cruiser and destroyers damaged. The Commonwealth took damage to a cruiser and two destroyers but the loss of the Formidable was a significant loss at that time of the war. The Japanese had a combat line of submarines in advance of the invasion fleet and one of these submarines was able to launch a full set of torpedoes against the two Commonwealth carriers, the Indomitable was lucky, the Formidable was not. Despite just having been fitted with bulges, the three torpedo hits virtually blew the bulges off the hull and opened the hull to the sea. Slowly the Formidable came to a stop and started heeling to port. Aircraft sliding off the deck and into the sea, the life rafts being cut loose to float on the sea ready for any survivors to use. Thirty minutes after being torpedoed the Formidable capsized and sank.
