To expedite her construction, HMS Hermes mimicked the form a cruiser warship so one of her early criticisms became her size which limited how many aircraft the vessel could embark. Herme's slow road to operational service was hindered by the end of World War 1 itself in November of 1918 - giving the new warship less priority than she would have had at the height of the war. This left IJN Hosho of the Imperial Japanese Navy to be commissioned into formal service sooner when brought online in 1922.

While Hermes marked the first true 'purpose-designed' aircraft carrier anywhere in the world she was not officially commissioned until February 18th, 1924. Too late for service in World War 1, HMS Hermes was nonetheless made ready for the threats of the next decade. With the success found through Argus, the British Royal Navy looked to perfect the carrier through a purpose-built type so a keel was laid on January 15th, 1918 for a new vessel - to be named HMS Hermes (95) - and the hull was launched on September 11th, 1919. The vessel proved vital in trialing various components of carrier operations including arrestor gear and fleet doctrine involving carrier ship types operating in conjunction with conventional warships such as destroyers and corvettes. This arrangement then set the standard for carrier designs heading into the 1920s. She was acquired (prior to the war as she underwent construction as a passenger ocean line) and suitably modified with a full-length flight deck. For the latter, experimentation into launching and accepting aircraft culminated with HMS Argus (I49) in 1918. The British laid the groundwork for several major components of modern warfare during World War 1 (1914-1918) - namely the 'tank' (then called a 'landship' )and the aircraft carrier.

World of warships operation hermes