HMS Formidable, post kamikaze attack.
The fleet returned to waters off Okinawa on 4 May and renewed its attacks on the airfields on the Sakishima Islands.
Vice-Admiral Bernard Rawlings, second in command of the BPF, and his staff had determined that bombardment of Japanese gun positions by the heavy guns of battleships and cruisers might be a more effective method of destroying them than aerial attack. They detached
King George V and
Howe, as well as five cruisers, that morning to bombard Nobara and Hiara airfields while fighters flew a protective CAP over them and spotted the fall of their shells. The loss of the most effective anti-aircraft ships was more important than anticipated and the Japanese were able to take advantage of the opportunity. The carrier had just launched two Corsairs for bombardment-spotting duties and the deck park of eleven Avengers was being moved forward to allow aircraft to land when an undetected
Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter attacked at 11:31. The Zero first strafed the flight deck before any of
Formidable's guns could open fire and then turned sharply to dive into the forward flight deck despite the ship's hard turn to starboard. The fighter released a bomb shortly before it would have impacted the deck and was destroyed by the bomb's blast, although the remnants of the Zero struck
Formidable.
The detonation of the bomb blew a 2-by-2-foot (0.6 by 0.6 m) hole in the flight deck. It killed 2 officers and 6 ratings, wounding 55 other crewmen. A fragment from the flight deck armour penetrated the hangar deck armour and passed through the centre boiler uptakes, the centre boiler room itself, and an oil tank before it came to rest in the
inner bottom. The fragment severed the steam pipes in the centre
boiler room and forced its evacuation, cutting the ship's speed to 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). The blast on the flight deck blew the Avenger closest to it over the side and set another one on fire. Shrapnel from the blast peppered the island, causing the bulk of the casualties, and severed many electrical cables, including those for most of the ship's radars. The fires on the flight deck and in the hangar were extinguished by 11:55, and seven Avengers and a Corsair which were damaged beyond repair were dumped over the side. The bomb struck at the intersection of three armour plates and dented the plates over an area 20 by 24 feet (6.1 by 7.3 m). The dent was filled by wood and concrete and covered by thin steel plates tack-
welded to the deck so that she was able to operate aircraft by 17:00 and steam at a speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph). Thirteen of her Corsairs had been airborne at the time of the attack and they operated from the other carriers for a time. The damage to the boiler room and its steam pipes was repaired so that the centre boilers could be reconnected to the engines at 02:00 the next day.
In March 1945, while supporting the
invasion of Okinawa, the BPF had sole responsibility for operations in the
Sakishima Islands. Its role was to suppress Japanese air activity, using gunfire and air attack, at potential
kamikaze staging airfields that would otherwise be a threat to US Navy vessels operating at Okinawa. The British fleet carriers with their
armoured flight decks were subject to heavy and repeated
kamikaze attacks, but they proved highly resistant, and returned to action relatively quickly. The USN liaison officer on
Indefatigable commented: "When a
kamikaze hits a US carrier it means 6 months of repair at Pearl [Harbor]. When a
kamikaze hits a Limey carrier it's just a case of 'Sweepers, man your brooms'."
