Book description
In June 1941 the Ark Royal won one of Britain's most famous
naval victories. The German destroyer, Bismarck, had been
ravaging the British fleet in the Atlantic. Sailing through a
ferocious storm the Ark Royal tracked the Bismarck. A
dozen swordfish bombers took off from her deck and pounded shell after
shell into the German battleship, sending her to the ocean floor. It
was a signal victory that resonated around the world. Hitler, furious
at the loss of the German fleet's flagship, demanded that the Ark
Royal be destroyed at whatever cost.
HMS Ark Royal is one of the Royal Navy's most iconic ships.
When she was launched in 1938 she was one of the most sophisticated
weapons at the disposal of British military command. The aircraft
carrier was the latest, and soon to be one of the most feared,
developments in naval warfare. In her first two years of operation the
Ark Royal survived countless attacks, and was considered one
of the luckiest ships in the Navy.
But her air of invincibility was to prove wishful thinking. Within
one month of sinking the Bismarck, the Ark Royal too was
destroyed while sailing off the coast of Gibraltar. And there she has
rested, one kilometre below the surface of the Mediterranean, until
her wreck was discovered by Mike Rossiter in 2004.
In gripping detail, and using the testimony of survivors of the
sinking and men who lived, flew and fought on the Ark Royal,
Mike Rossiter tells the remarkable story of the life and legend of
this most iconic of ships. Also, and for the first time, he reveals
the story of the quest to discover the wreck of this naval legend.
Mike Rossiter is an independent documentary film-maker, whose work
has been nominated for BAFTA and EMMY awards. He won the Golden Fleece
at the Dijon Film Festival for his documentary on the attempted recovery
of a B29 bomber from northern Greenland. In 2001 he filmed the search
and recovery of the body of Donald Campbell and his record-breaking jet
boat, Bluebird, from Coniston Water. In 2004 he filmed the discovery of
the wreck of the
Ark Royal
. He lives in North London.
