Like all of the navies of the world, the Greenlandian Navy had no idea what an aircraft carrier should be like. The Royal Navy had taken the lead in converting ships to aircraft carriers. The Argus was the first full conversion while the trials with the Furious and Cavendish were underway. All of the trials showed that a through deck from end to end of the ship was best for take off and landing. Placing the bridge superstructure to the side of the ship with the funnel uptakes exhausting over the side of the ship. That was the broad strokes used by all of the navies that would convert and build aircraft carriers.
The Hadad and Manuzi were the first Greenlandian ships earmarked for conversion to aircraft carriers. The ships were originally members three and four of the Gisco class battlecruisers. The reason for the ships, as battlecruisers, evaporated and the ships were to be repurposed as aircraft carriers. The Royal Navy had been good in sharing the information on its aircraft carrier trials with its closest allies. This certainly helped Greenland decide on what to include in its first conversions.
Armament was a contentious issue. Argus had 4", Eagle had 6", Hermes and Furious had 5.5". These two Greenlandian ex-battlecruisers were going to be armed with 5.5" for their secondary armament and these guns would become the main armament for the carrier conversions. Ten guns would be fitted at the quarterdeck level in casemates. Four 4" AA guns would be mounted fore and aft of the bridge and in sponsons on the port side of the flight deck. Four 2pd AA guns were the rest of the armament fitted when the ships were finally accepted for service in 1925. Gun directors for the 5.5" would be mounted on the tripod fighting top, while the 4" director would be on the bridge.
The bridge superstructure used parts that had been assembled for the battlecruisers and was mounted on the starboard side of the flight deck, projecting over the edge of the ship. This required stabilisers to be fitted from the bottom of the bridge to the side of the ship. The original try was to use large girders welded into place. This did not look too safe as stormy seas could wash away the girders and have the bridge washed overboard. The answer the builders came up with was to use plate steel welded into place over the area the girders covered so that the seas would be deflected outboard without damage.
The hangar was 480x64 feet at its widest with a height of 19 feet. 30 odd aircraft could be fitted in the hangar, depending on size and type. The completion of the Hermes and Lexington, with enclosed bows, that increased the aircraft carrying capacity showed the way forward for the Hadad and Manuzi. After just five years in service both ships would go through a major reconstruction to right the wrongs of the initial construction process. The five years of service had shown that the 5.5" guns were excess to requirements and took up valuable space for negligible value. The bow would be enclosed to match the overseas ships and Greenland's own Shacar class. The hangar would also be taken further aft as the removal of the 5.5" made this possible. The carrying capacity would increase from 30 odd to 40 odd.
The refit completely altered the ship. The hull was plated in up to the flight deck which provided a lot more space for storage and accommodation. The extra length of hangar allowed for a larger aircraft complement. The removal of the 5.5" gave more space for a better layout of the ships boats and 4" AA gun armament. More and more quad 40mm were added and 20mm cannons. Then space had to be found for predictors for the 40mm. The 4" AA guns received three dual purpose directors. Radar kept being increased with search, targeting and tracking units being fitted during 1940-41.
These two ships were generally paired with one of the Gisco class battlecruisers to run the patrol routes between Greenland, South America and Africa. These patrol duties paid many dividends, catching German merchant raiders, U-boats and the odd warship trying to break through the patrol line. It was on these duties that the Manuzi was sunk by a U-boat. Its destroyer escort having its revenge by sinking the U-boat.
1939 and the Allies have raider hunting groups all over the Atlantic trying to track down and cure the problems posed by the half dozen battleraiders the Germanic States had at sea at wars start. Slowly but surely the Allies got on top of the problem. The Battles around the Falklands Islands and the final resolution of the two GS battleraiders at Tristan da Cunha cured a third of the problem. Then the battlecruiser Australis caught and sunk the Friedrich der Grosse in the Indian Ocean.
The Lotan (BC), Hadad (CVL), and three cruisers were patrolling the strait between Greenland and South America. The area was giving off a constant stream of RRR wireless calls as a GS raider was catching and sinking ships in that area. The Admiral Von Roon was having a field day. The convoy system had not been implemented yet and all these ships were just cruising along the trade routes waiting to be sunk. The Von Roon was happy to oblige. Then suddenly the happy time ended. A lookout called out 'Aircraft to the North East'. It wasn't that it was an aircraft. It was an aircraft without floats, or a seaplane. Neither was it one of the big two and four engined patrol aircraft. No. It was the Kapitan's worst nightmare, an observation aircraft from an aircraft carrier. His thoughts went like lightning through his options. How many hours to darkness? Where was the carrier most likely to be? Could he turn away from where the carrier might be and crack on full speed so that the carriers aircraft would be chasing him and would have to be getting further and further away from the carrier, maybe even to the Bingo point where they might be low on fuel before they catch up and attack him. Dreams are free. An hour later and the observer aircraft was still buzzing around and the call came from the lookouts, many aircraft coming from the north-east. In fact the Hadad had launched a full strike of twenty four aircraft, ten torpedo bombers, eight dive bombers and six fighters. The fighters went in on flak suppression runs while the dive bombers and torpedo bombers did a co-ordinated strike to catch the von Roon from all directions. Two torpedo hits and two bomb hits does not sound like much of a return for the effort involved, but the damage to the von Roon was going to be terminal. The cruisers and Hadad watched as the Lotan went in to finish the von Roon. The von Roon only had its forward two turrets in action, the rear two had jumped off their barbettes when the torpedo hit the ship aft between the turrets. The other torpedo hit and bomb hits had caused further damage that reduced the effectiveness of the von Roon. The Lotan came in range and made sure its first aiming point was the forward turrets. Aiding its gun directors was the observation aircraft that was spotting the Lotan's fall of shot. Twenty minutes later the von Roon had no armament left to fight with. The Admiral aboard the Lotan called in one of the cruisers to torpedo the hulk and sink it. A very satisfactory result for Force 'F' hunting group.
