After her January 1943 refit in Norfolk, Virginia HMS Victorious sailed for Pearl Harbour to join the USS Saratoga for operations in the Pacific. At this time the two ships represented the entire allied carrier force in that theatre and operated as Task Force 14. During May-June 1943 TF14 was involved with supporting the invasion of Munda, New Georgia and Bougainville. The two ships air groups were combined with the Avengers of 832 NAS operating from the Saratoga alongside the strike aircraft of CV-3 at the same time Saratoga’s fighters were operating from Victorious alongside the Wildcats of 896 and 898 NAS.
For signals purposes Victorious was referred to as Robin (from the tale of Robin Hood) but was never renamed as such and flew the White Ensign throughout her time operating alongside the USN.
At the end of 1943 she returned to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow and in early 1944 took part in operations against the battleship Tirpitz, which saw the first use of the Corsair in the European Theatre.
In May of 1944 a further refit was undertaken in Liverpool which saw updates to the ship’s radars, close range weapons and flight deck. On completion of this she made her way to the Indian Ocean where in July alongside Illustrious she undertook strikes on the oil refineries at Palembang followed by strikes on the Andaman Islands alongside HMS Indomitable. more
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