HMS Unicorn (I72)

History of the HMS Unicorn (I72)

Aircraft carriers matured during World War II (1939-1945) and replaced battleships as the main capital ships of the world's navies. The ship type played a huge role in the Allied recapture of the Pacific Ocean from Imperial Japan and remained an important part of naval warfare in the ensuing Korean War (1950-1953) and Vietnam War (1955-1975).

The Royal Navy of World War II assembled an impressive line of airborne battleships, one of the more specialized ships was the HMS Unicorn (I72).

The HMS Unicorn is designed around the concept of a light aircraft carrier and is used as a maintenance carrier to support fleet ships. Light carriers are smaller in size than their larger siblings and can carry half or fewer aircraft.

They boast extraordinary speed, they are built for a fraction of the cost, and are capable of long voyages in deep water, while also serving as fleet defenders and convoy escorts.

When built, the HMS Unicorn displaces 16,770 tonnes under standard load and up to 20,600 tonnes under full load. She measures 640 feet in length with over 90 feet of beam and a draft of 23 feet.

Power comes from 4 Admiralty water tube boilers feeding 2 Parsons geared steam turbines driving 40,000 hp to 2 shafts under the stern. In wartime conditions, she had a crew of 1,200 men, with armor ranging from 2 inches on the flight deck to 1.5 inches on the bulkheads. The ship can transport about 33 aircraft of different makes and models.

Type 281B modifications formed their early warning radar system, and a pair of Type 285 systems were installed as launch radars.

Modified weapons, primarily for self-defense or to protect other ships from air attack, including 4x2 QF 4" Mk XVI Dual Purpose (DP) guns, 4x4 2-pounder Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns, 2x2 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns and 8x1 20mm Oerlikon Anti-aircraft guns.

The HMS Unicorn was ordered on 14 April 1939 as part of the Royal Navy's 1938 Naval Expansion Program and was intended to be used primarily as a supply/repair vessel. However, while still under construction, she has been modified to launch and recover aircraft, greatly extending her strategic value while retaining her fleet maintenance and support capabilities. She was launched on November 20, 1941, when Britain was fully involved in World War II. Completed in March 1943, the Unicorn began her career in Mediterranean waters and participated in the Allied amphibious landing in Salerno, Italy, in September.

From there, she took action in the Atlantic before being transferred to Indian waters as part of the Eastern Fleet.

The warship served with the fleet carriers and became part of the British Pacific Fleet after November 1944. In May 1945, it served in the Okinawa invasion, resupplying from the Philippines and the Admiralty Islands. The war ended with the surrender of Japan in August 1945.

This led to the Unicorn's first decommissioning in January 1946, after which she was placed in reserve in British waters.

To support the operations of the Far Eastern Fleet, HMS Unicorn was recommissioned in 1949 and stationed in Singapore when South Korea declared war in June 1950. Since then, the warship has been part of a key operation to overthrow the invaders by resupplying the Commonwealth Army (manpower, spare parts, aircraft). The British contingent included five light aircraft carriers and no less than thirteen naval air squadrons as they took part in the bloodshed. Her gun was also used in anger when she shelled North Koreans along the coast.

At the end of the war, she was returned to British home waters and placed in reserve again, where she was decommissioned a second time on 17 November 1953. Her dismantled hull was scrapped in 1959, marking her official death.

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