French Aircraft Carrier Arromanches R95
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 August 1946 Colossus was loaned to France and renamed Arromanches, after the French commune of the same name, which was the site of the British D-Day landings. In 1948, Arromanches participated in the First Indochina War for three months. She returned to France in 1949. In 1951, France purchased the ship. She was again deployed to Indochina in 1951–52, in 1952-53 and 1953–54.
In 1956, Arromanches was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea during the Suez Crisis. On 3 November, 18 F4U Corsairs from Arromanches and La Fayette bombed Egyptian airfields around Cairo.
In 1957–58 Arromanches was reconstructed with a four-degree angled flight deck, a mirror landing sight and with other modifications for anti-submarine warfare, including operation of Breguet Alizé ASW aircraft. She was also equipped for training operations. In 1959 she returned once again to the Indian Ocean.
In 1968 Arromanches was converted to a helicopter carrier for the French Marines, with up to 24 helicopters on board.
Arromanches was decommissioned on 22 January 1974, and in 1978 broken up at Toulon.
