Today In History:  17 September  [1939]   --  German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous

Courageous was the lead ship of her class of three battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy in WW1. Very lightly armoured and armed with only a few heavy guns she spent the war patrolling the North Sea and participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 Decommissioned after the war, the ship was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier in the mid-1920s, and could carry 48 aircraft, compared with 36 carried by her half-sister Furious.

As a deck landing training carrier, in early 1939 Courageous embarked the Blackburn Skua and Gloster Sea Gladiator fighters of 801 Squadron and the Swordfish torpedo bombers of 811 Squadron.

PHOTO: Blackburn Skua

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Photo Attribution:  Image from the Charles Daniels Photo Collection album "British Aircraft." SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive Public Domain via Wikimedia.