| Navy | The Royal Navy |
| Type | Repair Ship |
| Class | [No specific class] |
| Pennant | |
| Built by | Harland & Wolff Ltd. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) |
| Ordered | |
| Laid down | 29 Jun 1916 |
| Launched | 17 Jan 1918 |
| Commissioned | 1940 |
| End service | |
| History | Designed as an Cavendish class heavy cruiser but redesigned as a aircraft carrier and renamed HMS Vindictive. Between 1923 and 1925 she was reconverted back to a cruiser. In 1939-1940 she was converted to a repair ship. She served as a base ship during the Norwegian Campaign and later with the South Atlantic fleet during 1940-1942, Mediterranean Fleet 1943-1944 and Home Fleet and reserve 1945. Scrapped at Blyth in February 1946. |
Commands listed for HMS Vindictive
Please note that we're still working on this section.
| Commander | From | To | ||
| 1 | Capt. Henry Cecil Bovell, RN | 17 Dec 1938 | 25 Sep 1939 | |
| 2 | Capt. Arthur Robert Halfhide, RN | 2 Jan 1940 | late 1940 | |
| 3 | Capt. Hubert Guy Dyke Acland, DSO, RN | 15 Mar 1941 | 15 Dec 1942 | |
| 4 | Capt. Herbert Wyndham Williams, RN | 15 Dec 1942 | 30 Jan 1943 | |
| 5 | G R S Watkins, RN | 30 Jan 1943 | ||
| 6 | A/Capt. (retired) Edmund Hugh Hopkinson, RN | 4 Dec 1943 | ||
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Notable events involving Vindictive include:
13 May 1940
French troops were landed at Bjervik, Norway today. This is just to the north of Narvik. The town was captured successfully.
Naval ships involved in landing the troops and to provide cover were; battleship HMS Resolution (Capt. O. Bevir, RN), light cruisers HMS Aurora (Capt. L.H.K. Hamilton, DSO, RN), HMS Effingham (Capt. J.M. Howson, RN) which both landed French troops, repair ship HMS Vindictive (Capt. A.R. Halfhide, RN), netlayer HMS Protector (Capt. W.Y la L. Beverley, RN) and the destroyers HMS Somali (Capt. R.S.G. Nicholson, DSO, DSC, RN), HMS Havelock (Capt. E.B.K. Stevens, DSC, RN), HMS Fame (Cdr. P.N. Walter, RN), HMS Basilisk (Cdr. M. Richmond, OBE, RN) and HMS Wren (Cdr. H.T. Armstrong, RN).
Air cover for this operation was provided, from a distance, by aircraft from HMS Ark Royal (Capt. A.J. Power, RN).
Later this day these ships also bombarded Narvik with the assistance of aircraft from the Ark Royal.