![]() Her last major combat action was the invasion of North Africa in 1942, and it was during this that she was hit by a bomb and forced to return home for repairs. She was one of the British ships supplying and supporting the besieged garrisons on Malta during this time, for example. She supported Allied operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean for the first four years of the war, mainly as an aircraft ferry but with her own aircraft occasionally mixing it up with Axis units as the situation demanded. The outbreak of World War II found the aged Argus serving as the Royal Navy's main training carrier, but she was quickly pressed into active duty status following the unexpected loss of the main fleet carrier HMS Courageous by submarine torpedo only one month into the war. She received a number of refits during this time, as well as additional ballast and a "girdle" to deal with increasing top-heaviness, but by the time of the mid-1930s she was beginning to show her age and her rebuild at this time was geared toward future use as a naval auxiliary. Due to an interesting loophole in the Washington Naval Treaty she was classified as an experimental vessel (which was true enough for the time) and remained a fully operational warship through the interwar period. Among the many innovations that were first tested on HMS Argus were island superstructures (temporary in the case of Argus), aircraft arrestor gear, side-mounted nets and palisades to catch both men and aircraft in high winds and rough seas, and on-board refueling tanks for her own aircraft. As she was the first of her kind she became the subject of a lot of testing and experimentation during the first decade or so over her service life leastways until more carriers (both conversions and purpose-built) entered Royal Navy service throughout the 1920s. HMS Argus was converted from an uncompleted passenger liner and entered service with the Royal Navy in 1918, just in time for World War I and making her the only "true" aircraft carrier to participate in that conflict. The only "standard" feature of carriers we take for granted these days she didn't have was a permanent island or control tower, although it must be said in all fairness that this wasn't considered a standard feature at the time and would only be standardized later on ( Argus herself didn't get one until years after she entered service, but I digress). ![]() She wasn't the first aircraft carrier as such depending on how you define the term however, she was the first with a full length flight deck, a full hull-length hangar deck, and the capability to both launch and land aircraft simultaneously. HMS Argus of the British Royal Navy (BRN/RN or just "Royal Navy" for short) was the world's first aircraft carrier as we know the concept today, with design features that are unmistakable to anyone who has studied on the subject. ![]()
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