The Colossus class was designed to meet the Royal Navy's wartime need for more carriers as cheaply as possible.

[4] The ship was laid down at Vickers-Armstrongs' High Walker shipyard on 1 June 1942 with the Yard number 55 and was launched on 30 September 1943.

[2] During her service with France before 1968 she carried the Breguet Br-1050 Alizé, the Vought F4U-7 Corsair, the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat, the Fouga CM-175 Zéphyr, the Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver, the Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless, the SNCASE Aquilon, the Supermarine Seafire Mk III and XV, and the Grumman TBM Avenger.

She carried 24 Vought Corsair IV fighters from 1846 Naval Air Squadron, and 18 Fairey Barracuda II torpedo bombers from 827 NAS.

In August she became the flagship of Rear Admiral Cecil Harcourt, commanding the 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron (Colossus, Venerable, Vengeance, and Glory).

Colossus also headed a task force to occupy Shanghai, together with the cruisers Bermuda and Argonaut and five destroyers.

[9] From 17 January to 26 March 1946, Colossus was refitted and repaired at Cape Town in the Selborne drydock at Simonstown.

[8] In August 1946 Colossus was loaned to France and renamed Arromanches, after the French commune of the same name, which was the site of the British D-Day landings.

[10] On 3 November, 18 F4U Corsairs from Arromanches and La Fayette bombed Egyptian airfields around Cairo.

[11] In 1957–58 Arromanches was reconstructed with a four-degree angled flight deck, a mirror landing sight and with other modifications for anti-submarine warfare, including operation of Breguet Alizé ASW aircraft.