HMS Formidable was a British aircraft carrier during the Second World
War. One of four Illustrious-class carriers, Formidable was an armored
carrier, able to withstand air attacks, guarding its precious aircraft
hangar with an armor-plated flight-deck. As well as its squadrons of
fighters and torpedo bombers, Formidable was armed with sixteen
4.5-inch dual-purpose guns, mounted in eight turrets. When action
stations sounded, in one of these turrets, sweating in the tropical heat
due to heavy asbestos anti-flash gear, lifting shells from the hoist to
the gunner, while frantically turning the air into a 'plum pudding' of
smoke and flame to smash the enemy kamikaze from the sky, was the
author's grandfather, Arthur Flint. Illustrated with almost 200
contemporary photographs throughout, Formidable is a memorial to the
voyages and service of Arthur Flint and his shipmates during the war,
from the Battle of Matapan, the landings in North Africa, Sicily and
Salerno, to the arctic hunt for Tirpitz, before Formidable steamed
east to Sydney in 1945 and joined the British Pacific Fleet, fighting
alongside the Americans at Okinawa and the final assault against Japan.
