Remembering the Ark

As the Type 45 (Daring-class) air-defense destroyer HMS Dragon (D35)— recently made a Bond film veteran– passed through the Mediterranean this week, she marked a somber 80th anniversary, that of the loss of the legendary WWII carrier HMS Ark Royal (91), with a service over her wreck.

“The destroyer paused her patrol to remember all who served in the mighty Ark – a constant thorn in Hitler’s side until a U-boat finally sank her 30 miles east of Gibraltar in late 1941. A wreath was cast into the waters in memory of the sole man lost in the sinking, AB Edward Mitchell,” noted the Royal Navy.

Sunk by a lucky torpedo from U-81(Oblt.z.S. Friedrich Guggenberger), 14 November 1941, the 27,000-ton flattop was less than three years old but was a steady veteran of the Norway campaign (where the British lost the carrier HMS Glorious with heavy…