HMS Glory 1945

The Colossus class was developed as a result of a requirement for an intermediate sized-carrier larger than the converted cruisers and C3 cargo ships (commonly known as ‘jeep’ carriers), and the larger fleet carriers. The Colossus class were designed to bridge this gap and were also designed to mercantile standards to allow them to be built in civilian yards. Considered a wartime expedient class with service lives of no more than three years, the Colossus (and later Majestic class, a slightly modified variant) proved to be more versatile for their size than expected. Several served with the Royal Navy after the war ended, but their greatest success was with smaller foreign navies, which purchased these ships after retirement by the RN and modified them for a variety of other purposes, including operating jet aircraft, for which they were modified with angled decks. The last unit of the Colossus class was not retired until 2001, and lasted long enough to be offered on eBay for scrap! The Colossus class is considered one of the most successful aircraft carrier classes ever, behind only the USN’s Nimitz and Essex classes.

GLORY was commissioned in April 1945 and spent the last few months of the war in the Pacific. She accepted the Japanese garrison’s surrender at Rabaul in September of 1945. After repatriating British and Commonwealth troops in the Pacific, GLORY returned to the UK in 1947 and was placed in reserve. She was reactivated in 1950, seeing three deployments in Korea and some service in the mid 1950s before being decommissioned in 1956. She was sold for scrap in 1961 and scrapped in Scotland.