French aircraft carrier Arromanches

Arromanches

Arromanches in the Mediterranean, 1961
History
United Kingdom
Name	Colossus
Namesake	Colossus
Builder	Vickers-Armstrongs, High Walker
Launched	30 September 1943
Commissioned	16 December 1944[1]
Motto	On The Ball
Fate	Loaned to French Navy in 1946
France
Name	Arromanches
Namesake	Arromanches-les-Bains
Acquired	1946[1]
Decommissioned	1974
Identification	Pennant number: R95 International signal: FBED Air control callsign: "Sapho"
Fate	Scrapped in Toulon, France 1978
General characteristics
Class and type	Colossus-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	13 600 tonnes[1]
Length	212 m (695 ft 6 in)[1]
Beam	24.4 m (80 ft 1 in)[1]
Draught	7.2 m (23 ft 7 in)
Propulsion	Steam Turbines (4 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, Parsons geared turbines)
Speed	25 kn (46 km/h)[1]
Range	12,000 nmi (22,000 km)[2]
Complement	1,300
Aircraft carried	48
Notes	Only under flag of the French Navy, her Air control callsign was "Sapho"[clarification needed] [clarification needed]

Arromanches (R95) was an aircraft carrier of the French Navy, which served from 1946 to 1974. She was previously HMS Colossus (15) of the Royal Navy. She was the name-ship of the Colossus class of light carriers. She was commissioned in 1944, but did not see any action in World War II. She served with the British Pacific Fleet in 1945–46, as an aircraft transport and repatriation ship.

In 1946, she was loaned to the French Navy, and renamed Arromanches; she was bought by the French in 1951.

Arromanches participated in the First Indochina War in three campaigns from 1948 to 1954, and the Suez Crisis of 1956. In 1968 she was converted to an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) carrier. She was decommissioned in 1974, and broken up in 1978.