Dutch aircraft carrier launched 1948

In May 1948, the Colossus class aircraft carrier HNLMS Karel Doorman was launched and would go on to serve the Dutch Navy for twenty years. Formerly HMS Venerable, her keel was laid in the UK in 1942, she was launched in 1943 and commissioned in January 1945. In 1948 the vessel was sold to The Netherlands as a light escort carrier, and between 1955 and 1958 was rebuilt with an angled flight deck, and in 1960 the carrier was deployed in response to the Western New Guinea Crisis.

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