Carrier Aviation ~ 100 years of USA/USN Traditions; 1922-2022

[Mushroom]

Yet technology to see and detect such did not exist in 1908 ...
Nor were the results of the blast significantly different from those of a nuke detonation

It does exist today. In case you did not realize, it is no longer 1908 (1909 if you watch Ghostbusters).

And FYI, I have watched the tracks of meteors on military RADAR. It looks nothing like a missile track. It does cause us to sit up and take notice because they are going really-really fast. And if your potential source and targets are east-west of each other they can indeed resemble an inbound missile. But they are still completely wrong, and within maybe 10-15 seconds we always knew what they really were. And that was not a missile.

Nothing else matters, you are not going to confuse a missile for a meteor.

So, why are you then going off about other silly things that have nothing to do with missiles? Or much of anything else?

 

[Stryder50]

OK, got it. You are an intolerant racist.

Thank you, enough said. Now I know exactly how seriously to take you.

Last I knew, religious belief was not a matter of racial or ethnic (genetic) origins, but more a matter of choice.

Hence not sure how I could qualify as "intolerant racist" here ... ???

But then again, if one is playing the neo-nazi card of race/ethnic=religion inclination, I could see where "You" might be coming from. Won't agree with it, but do get another insight ...

 

[Stryder50]

I know that quite well, and it was nothing like a nuclear missile and blast.

The entry was seen over thousands of square miles, Just like the Chelyabinsk meteor of a few years ago. It entered the atmosphere at a shallow angle, and gave off a visible trail as well as shockwaves that were over 100 miles long before the airburst.

That is very unlike any missile.

Also, no meteor impact had resulted in a nuclear detonation. Which is very different, including the bright flash of high energy emissions (which we see as light but also include x=rays, gamma-rays, and most other forms of rays). As well as the telltale radioactivity.

None of which are done by meteors.

Between your comments of this post and those in #34 is where I'm coming from.

Tunguska blast may not be "exactly" like a nuclear detonation in some measures, but in others like effects it is very close and shows how NEOs can become dangerous impact events!
Especially in terms of net results damage wise.

Some of my other posts here are expressions of how one could use masked modern tech to manipulate "space rocks" to achieve impact events that would mimic results similar to use of nuclear devices. There's a layer or two of "between the lines" aspects/implications was hoping you and/or others reading here might pick up on.

With advanced space based tech, and devices that could "go out there" and do orbit manipulations, "One" could steer outer space objects~"rocks" towards Earth impact with results very similar to use of "nukes" but not need to be "nukes".

Point being as we advance into the 21st century, we get tech abilities that allow for strategic options/applications beyond conventional Earth-based/origins methods.

PONDER ....

 

[AZrailwhale]

I don't know if the SM series can intercept a Mach 6+ missile on reentry. But with the AF firing a Mach 8+ missile with over 1000 mile range, I am sure that it will be nuke tipped and be able to strike whatever is being used for terminal guidance for the DFS21D. Keep in mind, that same missile has been tracked at Mach 20.

The kinetic energy from a missile traveling that speed would make a warhead redundant.

 

[Stryder50]

Returning to the timeline and focus earlier in this thread;

USS Ranger (CV-4)​

Commissioned in 1934, USS Ranger (CV-4) was the US Navy's first purpose-built aircraft carrier. Though relatively small, Ranger helped pioneer several design features that were incorporated in the later Yorktown-class carriers. At it was too slow to operate with its larger successors in the Pacific, Ranger saw extensive service in the Atlantic during World War II. This included supporting the Operation Torch landings in North Africa and conducting attacks on German shipping in Norway. Moved into a training role in 1944, Ranger was decommissioned and scrapped after the war.

...
In the 1920s, the US Navy commenced the construction of its first three aircraft carriers. These efforts, which produced USS Langley (CV-1), USS Lexington (CV-2), and USS Saratoga (CV-3), all involved the conversion of existing hulls into carriers. As work on these ships progressed, the US Navy began designing its first purpose-built carrier.

These efforts were constrained by the limits imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty which capped both the size of individual ships and the total tonnage. With the completion of Lexington and Saratoga, the US Navy had 69,000 tons remaining which could be assigned to aircraft carriers. As such, the US Navy intended for the new design to displace 13,800 tons per ship so that five carriers could be constructed. Despite these intentions, only one ship of the new class would actually be built.

Dubbed USS Ranger (CV-4), the new carrier's name hearkened back to the sloop of war commanded by Commodore John Paul Jones during the American Revolution. Laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company on September 26, 1931, the carrier's initial design called for an unobstructed flight deck with no island and six funnels, three to side, that were hinged to fold horizontally during air operations. Aircraft were housed below on a semi-open hangar deck and brought to the flight deck via three elevators. Though smaller than Lexington and Saratoga, Ranger's purpose-built design led to an aircraft capacity that was only marginally less than its predecessors. The carrier's reduced size did present certain challenges as its narrow hull required the use of geared turbines for propulsion.
...
Operating along the East Coast through the summer of 1939, Ranger was assigned to the Neutrality Patrol that fall following the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The initial responsibility of this force was to track warlike operations of combatant forces in the Western Hemisphere. Patrolling between Bermuda and Argentia, Newfoundland, Ranger's seakeeping ability was found lacking as it proved difficult to conduct operations in heavy weather.

This issue had been identified earlier and helped contribute to the design of the later Yorktown-class carriers. Continuing with the Neutrality Patrol through 1940, the carrier's air group was one of the first to receive the new Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter that December. In In late 1941, Ranger was returning to Norfolk from a patrol to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7.
...

Specifications​

• Displacement: 14,576 tons
• Length: 730 ft.
• Beam: 109 ft., 5 in.
• Draft: 22 ft., 4.875 in.
• Propulsion: 6 × boilers, 2 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines, 2 × shafts
• Speed: 29.3 knots
• Range: 12,000 nautical miles at 15 knots
• Complement: 2,461 men

Armament​

• 8 × 5 in./25 cal anti-aircraft guns
• 40 × .50 in. machine guns

Aircraft​

• 76-86 aircraft

...........

World War II: USS Ranger (CV-4)

USS Ranger (CV-4) was the US Navy's first purpose-built aircraft carrier and saw extensive service during World War II.

www.thoughtco.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ranger spent most of it's time in the Atlantic ~ ETO/MTO when on active missions. The last couple years of the war as a training ship.

CV-4/Ranger will help pave the way for future Aircraft Carrier Developments ~ by showing hints of what should be done and how to do such, while paving the way of future refinements.

By the late 1920~early 1930s certain basic factors have expressed on Aircraft Carrier designs and uses.
1) Expect aircraft to get heavier, larger, and include engines that are larger~heavier~more powerful.
2) Expect that useful turn-around of aircraft from hanger to flight deck will mean about 2-3(+) minimum of elevators on the flight deck for cycling aircraft complements of 60-100 per ship.
3) Realize that optimal operation use of Aircraft Carriers (CVs) could mean using 2-3 flight decks (CVs) as a "Group"~Task Force/Fleet to provide enough aircraft for a Combat Air Patrol/CAP for intercept of incoming threats ~ Task Force/Fleet Protection;, while allowing for a First and Second Strike of Bombers (Torpedo and Dive~Scout) with some Fighter Escort.

 

[Mushroom]

Tunguska blast may not be "exactly" like a nuclear detonation in some measures

It is almost nothing like a nuclear explosion. Specifically, the thing that sets them aside and that is radiation. Also the fireball is nothing like that of a nuke. Blast effects, only superficially.

That is like saying if something has 4 legs, whiskers, and hair it must be a dog.

 

[Stryder50]

Following the build of the U.S.S. Langley, the USN(USA) went for another set of modifications to prior designs in converting a pair of Batttle Crusiers (BCs) into Aircraft Carriers (CVs) in form of the Lexington (CV-2)

USS Lexington (CV-2)​

...
USS Lexington (CV-2), nicknamed "Lady Lex",[1] was the name ship of her class of two aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which essentially terminated all new battleship and battlecruiser construction. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. Lexington and her sister ship, Saratoga, were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II. On more than one occasion these included successfully staged surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship's turbo-electric propulsion system allowed her to supplement the electrical supply of Tacoma, Washington, during a drought in late 1929 to early 1930. She also delivered medical personnel and relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua, after an earthquake in 1931.
USS Lexington (CV-2) - Wikipedia
...

And Saratoga;
...

USS Saratoga (CV-3)​

...
USS Saratoga (CV-3) was a Lexington-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. Saratoga and her sister ship, Lexington, were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II. On more than one occasion these exercises included successful surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She was one of three prewar US fleet aircraft carriers, along with Enterprise and Ranger, to serve throughout World War II.
...

USS Saratoga (CV-3) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hence by the mid to late 1930s the USN(USA) has three main Aircraft Carriers/CVs in service.

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) leaving San Diego, California (USA), on 14 October 1941. Planes parked on her flight deck include Brewster F2A-1 fighters (parked forward), Douglas SBD scout-bombers (amidships) and Douglas TBD-1 torpedo planes (aft). Note the false bow wave painted on her hull, forward, and badly chalked condition of the hull's camouflage paint.

USS Lexington (CV-2) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

As we can see, at about two months before the Pearl Harbor attack, per the caption of the photo.

I count about 60-61 aircraft on the flight deck and as can see it is rather crowded. This likely is close to most of it's @80 complement. The aircraft would have to pack even more towards the stern(aft) to clear enough room for take-off from the bow.
The Brewster F2A-1 Buffalo fighters did not have folding wings. Neither do the Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive-bombers, so this would affect aircraft carrying capacity in the hanger. If my eyes are working correctly, the Douglas TBD Devastator Torpedo-bombers number about 10 and do have their wings folded. They are just behind the first batch of SBDs and it looks like more SBDs packed behind the TBDs filling the stern.

 

[Stryder50]

After Ranger came the start of the Yorktown class.

USS Yorktown (CV-5) was an aircraft carrier that served in the United States Navy during World War II. Named after the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, she was commissioned in 1937. Yorktown was the lead ship of the Yorktown class, which was designed on the basis of lessons learned from operations with the converted battlecruisers of the Lexington class and the smaller purpose-built USS Ranger.

Yorktown was at port in Norfolk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, having just completed a patrol of the Atlantic Ocean. She then sailed to San Diego in late December 1941 and was incorporated as the flagship of Task Force 17. Together with the carrier Lexington, she successfully attacked Japanese shipping off the east coast of New Guinea in early March 1942. Her aircraft sank or damaged several warships supporting the invasion of Tulagi in early May. Yorktown rendezvoused with Lexington in the Coral Sea and attempted to stop the invasion of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. They sank the light aircraft carrier Shōhō on 7 May during the Battle of the Coral Sea, but did not encounter the main Japanese force of the carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku until the next day. Aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown badly damaged Shōkaku, but the Japanese aircraft critically damaged Lexington (which was later scuttled), and damaged Yorktown.

Despite the damage suffered, Yorktown was able to return to Hawaii. Although estimates were that the damage would take two weeks to repair, Yorktown put to sea only 72 hours after entering drydock at Pearl Harbor, which meant that she was available for the next confrontation with the Japanese. Yorktown played an important part in the Battle of Midway in early June. Yorktown's aircraft played crucial roles in sinking two Japanese fleet carriers. Yorktown also absorbed both Japanese aerial counterattacks at Midway which otherwise would have been directed at the carriers USS Enterprise and Hornet.[2] On 4 June, during the Battle of Midway, Japanese aircraft crippled Yorktown. She lost all power and developed a 23-degree list to port. Salvage efforts on Yorktown were encouraging, and she was taken in tow by USS Vireo. In the late afternoon of 6 June, the Japanese submarine I-168 fired a salvo of torpedoes, two of which struck Yorktown, and a third sinking the destroyer USS Hammann, which had been providing auxiliary power to Yorktown. With further salvage efforts deemed hopeless, the remaining repair crews were evacuated from Yorktown, which sank just on the morning of 7 June.[3] The wreck of Yorktown was located in May 1998 by Robert Ballard.
....

Speed	32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range	12,500 nautical miles (23,200 km; 14,400 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)

Aircraft carried	90 aircraft
Aviation facilities	3 × aircraft elevators 2 × flight deck catapults 1 × hangar deck catapult

USS Yorktown (CV-5) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Stryder50]

USS Enterprise (CV-6) was a Yorktown-class carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1930s. She was the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name. Colloquially called "The Big E", she was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. Launched in 1936, she was one of only three American carriers commissioned before World War II to survive the war (the others being Saratoga and Ranger). She participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other United States ship. These actions included the attack on Pearl Harbor — 18 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of her Air Group arrived over the harbor during the attack; seven were shot down with eight airmen killed and two wounded, making her the only American aircraft carrier with men at Pearl Harbor during the attack and the first to sustain casualties during the Pacific War[3] — the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, various other air-sea engagements during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Enterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. ship of World War II. She was also the first American ship to sink a full-sized enemy warship after the Pacific War had been declared when her aircraft sank the Japanese submarine I-70 on 10 December 1941.[4] On three occasions during the war, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname "The Grey Ghost". By the end of the war, her planes and guns had downed 911 enemy planes, sunk 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more.[5]

Despite efforts made by the public after the war to turn Enterprise into a museum ship, Enterprise was ultimately scrapped from 1958 to 1960.
...

USS Enterprise (CV-6) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

VT-6 TBDs on USS Enterprise during the Battle of Midway

Enterprise on the right with the Fifth Fleet at Majuro, 1944.

 

[Stryder50]

There next came a break in the Yorktown Class line.

USS Wasp (CV-7) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier commissioned in 1940 and lost in action in 1942. She was the eighth ship named USS Wasp, and the sole ship of a class built to use up the remaining tonnage allowed to the U.S. for aircraft carriers under the treaties of the time. As a reduced-size version of the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier hull, Wasp was more vulnerable than other United States aircraft carriers available at the opening of hostilities. Wasp was initially employed in the Atlantic campaign, where Axis naval forces were perceived as less capable of inflicting decisive damage. After supporting the occupation of Iceland in 1941, Wasp joined the British Home Fleet in April 1942 and twice ferried British fighter aircraft to Malta.

Wasp was then transferred to the Pacific in June 1942 to replace losses at the battles of Coral Sea and Midway. After supporting the invasion of Guadalcanal, Wasp was hit by three torpedoes from Japanese submarine I-19 on 15 September 1942. The resulting damage set off several explosions, destroyed her water-mains and knocked out the ship's power. As a result, her damage-control teams were unable to contain the ensuing fires that blazed out of control. She was abandoned and scuttled by torpedoes fired from USS Lansdowne later that evening. Her wreck was found in early 2019.
...

Design​

Wasp was a product of the Washington Naval Treaty. After the construction of the carriers Yorktown and Enterprise, the U.S. was still permitted 15,000 long tons (15,000 t) to build a carrier.

Wasp was the first carrier fitted with a deck-edge elevator.

The Navy sought to squeeze a large air group onto a ship with nearly 25% less displacement than the Yorktown-class. To save weight and space, Wasp was constructed with low-power propulsion machinery (compare Wasp's 75,000 shp (56,000 kW) machinery with Yorktown's 120,000 shp (89,000 kW), the Essex-class's 150,000 shp (110,000 kW), and the Independence-class's 100,000 shp (75,000 kW)).

Additionally, Wasp was launched with almost no armor, modest speed, and more significantly, no protection from torpedoes. Absence of side protection of the boilers and internal aviation fuel stores "doomed her to a blazing demise". These were inherent design flaws that were recognized when constructed, but could not be remedied within the allowed tonnage.[4] These flaws, combined with a relative lack of damage control experience in the early days of the war, proved fatal.[5]

Wasp was the first carrier fitted with a deck-edge elevator for aircraft. The elevator consisted of a platform for the front wheels of the plane and an outrigger for the tail wheel. The two arms on the sides moved the platform in a half-circle up and down between the flight deck and the hangar deck.
...

USS Wasp (CV-7) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Speed	29.5 knots (54.6 km/h; 33.9 mph)
Range	12,000 nmi (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)

Aircraft carried	Up to 100
Aviation facilities	3 × elevators 4 × hydraulic catapults (2 flight deck, 2 hangar deck)

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) entering Hampton Roads, Virginia (USA), on 26 May 1942. The escorting destroyer USS Edison (DD-439) is visible in the background.

P-40Bs aboard Wasp in October 1940

Spitfires and Wildcats aboard Wasp on 19 April 1942.

HMS Eagle accompanies Wasp on her second voyage to Malta

Wasp's flight deck, 1942.

 

[Stryder50]

USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name, was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. During World War II in the Pacific Theater, she launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and participated in the Battle of Midway and the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai raid. In the Solomon Islands campaign, she was involved in the capture and defense of Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, where she was irreparably damaged by enemy torpedo and dive bombers. Faced with an approaching Japanese surface force, Hornet was abandoned and later torpedoed and sunk by approaching Japanese destroyers. Hornet was in service for a year and six days, and was the last US fleet carrier ever sunk by enemy fire. For these actions, she was awarded four service stars and a citation for the Doolittle Raid in 1942, and her Torpedo Squadron 8 received a presidential unit citation for extraordinary heroism for the Battle of Midway. Her wreck was located in late January 2019 near the Solomon Islands.[2]
...
Because of the cap on aggregate aircraft carrier tonnage included in the Washington Naval Treaty and subsequent London treaties, the United States had intended to build two of Yorktown class and use up the remaining allocated tonnage with a smaller, revised version of the same design, which eventually became Wasp. With war looming in Europe, though, and the repudiation of the naval limitation treaties by Japan and Italy, the Navy's General Board decided to lay down a third carrier to the Yorktown design immediately - followed by the first carrier of the follow-on CV-9 (Essex) class when that design was finalized; authorization from Congress came in the Naval Expansion Act of 1938.

Hornet had a length of 770 feet (235 m) at the waterline and 824 feet 9 inches (251.38 m) overall. She had a beam of 83 feet 3 inches (25.37 m) at the waterline, 114 feet (35 m) overall, with a draft of 24 feet 4 inches (7.42 m) as designed and 28 feet (8.5 m) at full load. She displaced 20,000 long tons (20,000 t) at standard load and 25,500 long tons (25,900 t) at full load. She was designed for a ship's crew consisting of 86 officers and 1280 men and an air complement consisting of 141 officers and 710 men.
...
Her flight deck was 814 by 86 feet (248 m × 26 m) and her hangar deck was 546 by 63 feet (166 m × 19 m) and 17 feet 3 inches (5.26 m) high. She had three aircraft elevators each 48 by 44 feet (15 by 13 m) with a lifting capacity of 17,000 pounds (7,700 kg). She had two flight-deck and one hangar-deck hydraulic catapults and equipped with Mark IV Mod 3A arresting gear with a capability of 16,000 pounds (7,300 kg) and 85 miles per hour (137 km/h).[7] She was designed to host a Carrier Air Group of 18 fighters, 18 bombers, 37 scout planes, 18 torpedo bombers, and six utility aircraft.[3][8]
...
During the period before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hornet trained out of Norfolk. A hint of a future mission occurred on 2 February 1942, when Hornet departed Norfolk with two Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell medium bombers on deck. Once at sea, the planes were launched to the surprise and amazement of Hornet's crew. Her men were unaware of the meaning of this experiment, as Hornet returned to Norfolk, prepared to leave for combat, and on 4 March sailed for the West Coast via the Panama Canal.[11][12]

Doolittle Raid, April 1942​

Hornet arrived at Naval Air Station Alameda, California, on 20 March 1942.[13] With her own planes on the hangar deck, by midafternoon on 1 April, she loaded 16 B-25s on the flight deck.[14] Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, 70 United States Army Air Corps officers and 64 enlisted men reported aboard. In company of her escort, Hornet departed Alameda on 2 April[14] under sealed orders. That afternoon, Captain Mitscher informed his men of their mission: a bombing raid on Japan.
...

USS Hornet (CV-8) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Hornet cruising off Hampton Roads in October 1941

A B-25 takes off from Hornet

 

[Mushroom]

I count about 60-61 aircraft on the flight deck and as can see it is rather crowded. This likely is close to most of it's @80 complement. The aircraft would have to pack even more towards the stern(aft) to clear enough room for take-off from the bow.

That is because in the months leading to the outbreak of war the Pacific Carriers were busy transporting aircraft to the bases we had in the region. Philippines, Midway, Guam, Hawaii, and more. They would return to the US, load up so many aircraft that they could barely take off, then take them to some base that was out of range for them to get to. That was actually one of the main jobs of a carrier when not engaged in combat operations.

Even aircraft for the Army Air Corps and Marine Corps that were not even intended for carrier based operations. They would be hoisted there by crane, and the pilots only had to worry about taking off, once.

 

[Stryder50]

That is because in the months leading to the outbreak of war the Pacific Carriers were busy transporting aircraft to the bases we had in the region. Philippines, Midway, Guam, Hawaii, and more. They would return to the US, load up so many aircraft that they could barely take off, then take them to some base that was out of range for them to get to. That was actually one of the main jobs of a carrier when not engaged in combat operations.

Even aircraft for the Army Air Corps and Marine Corps that were not even intended for carrier based operations. They would be hoisted there by crane, and the pilots only had to worry about taking off, once.

Some of those sorts of activities are covered in the text of the Wiki links ~ also can be found via the sources/references at the end of the Wiki links.

Image of the P-40Bs on Wasp deck are from a first attempt to see how well USAAF fighters could launch off the deck. Once USA was in the war, both the Wasp and Ranger did ferry missions to Malta carrying Spitfires, a couple of those images also in an above post.

I'm fairly certain the image you replied to was the assigned air group on the Lex, as this excerpt from the Wiki article would suggest.
...
Admiral Claude C. Bloch limited Lexington to support of the battleships during Fleet Problem XVIII in 1937 and consequently the carrier was crippled and nearly sunk by surface gunfire and torpedoes.[40] The following July, the ship participated in the unsuccessful search for Amelia Earhart.[41] The 1938 Fleet Problem again tested the defenses of Hawaii and, again, aircraft from Lexington and her sister successfully attacked Pearl Harbor at dawn on 29 March. Later in the exercise, the two carriers successfully attacked San Francisco without being spotted by the defending fleet. Fleet Problem XX held in the Caribbean in March–April 1939, was the only time before October 1943 that the Navy concentrated four carriers (Lexington, Ranger, Yorktown, and Enterprise) together for maneuvers. This exercise also saw the first attempts to refuel carriers and battleships at sea. During Fleet Problem XXI in 1940, Lexington caught Yorktown by surprise and crippled her, although Yorktown's aircraft managed to knock out Lexington's flight deck. The fleet was ordered to remain in Hawaii after the conclusion of the exercise in May.[42]

World War II​

Admiral Husband Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, ordered Task Force (TF) 12—Lexington, three heavy cruisers and five destroyers—to depart Pearl Harbor on 5 December 1941 to ferry 18 U.S. Marine Corps Vought SB2U Vindicator dive bombers of VMSB-231 to reinforce the base at Midway Island.[43] At this time she embarked 65 of her own aircraft, including 17 Brewster F2A Buffalo fighters. On the morning of 7 December, the Task Force was about 500 nautical miles (930 km; 580 mi) southeast of Midway when it received news of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. Several hours later, Rear Admiral John H. Newton, commander of the Task Force, received orders that cancelled the ferry mission and ordered him to search for the Japanese ships while rendezvousing with Vice Admiral Wilson Brown's ships 100 miles (160 km) west of Niihau Island. Captain Frederick Sherman needed to maintain a continuous Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and recover the fuel-starved fighters which were on patrol. With the Marine aircraft aboard, Lexington's flight deck was very congested and he decided to reverse the phase of the ship's electric propulsion motors and steam full speed astern in order to launch a new CAP and then swap back to resume forward motion to recover his current CAP. This unorthodox action allowed him to maintain a continuous CAP and recover his aircraft without the lengthy delay caused by moving the aircraft on the flight deck from the bow to the stern and back to make space available for launch and recovery operations. Lexington launched several scout planes to search for the Japanese that day and remained at sea between Johnston Island and Hawaii, reacting to several false alerts, until she returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 December.[44] Kimmel had wanted to keep the ships at sea for longer, but difficulties refueling at sea on 11 and 12 December meant that the task force was low on fuel and was forced to return to port.[45]

Re-designated as Task Force 11, and reinforced by four destroyers, Lexington and her consorts steamed from Pearl Harbor the next day to raid the Japanese base on Jaluit in the Marshall Islands to distract the Japanese from the Wake Island relief force led by Saratoga. For this operation, Lexington embarked 21 Buffalos, 32 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, and 15 Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers, although not all aircraft were operational. Vice Admiral William S. Pye, acting commander of the Pacific Fleet, canceled the attack on 20 December and ordered the Task Force northwest to cover the relief force. The Japanese, however, captured Wake on 23 December before Saratoga and her consorts could get there. Pye, reluctant to risk any carriers against a Japanese force of unknown strength, ordered both task forces to return to Pearl.[46]
...

USS Lexington (CV-2) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Mushroom]

Some of those sorts of activities are covered in the text of the Wiki links ~ also can be found via the sources/references at the end of the Wiki links.

Image of the P-40Bs on Wasp deck are from a first attempt to see how well USAAF fighters could launch off the deck. Once USA was in the war, both the Wasp and Ranger did ferry missions to Malta carrying Spitfires, a couple of those images also in an above post.

It is also in knowing simply what the carriers did. Prior to the outbreak of war all 3 Pacific carriers were in the process of moving aircraft to more outlaying islands. And why one of the common terms for escort carriers is "jeep carriers". They would leave port with mostly shore based aircraft and take them to various places. It was much faster and more efficient than the previous method of sending over aircraft in crates to be assembled at the destination.

And of course there was the Doolittle Raid, when 16 B-25 bombers were launched from carriers.

And this was still done until fairly recently. The Navy often carried O-1 BIrddogs and O-2 Skymasters (and other aircraft) to Vietnam on carriers as the aircraft lacked the range to make it on their own. In calm seas it is no great feat to take off from a carrier, unlike trying to land on one.

Here is a great late-war image of the USS Intrepid (CV-11) with a deck loaded from to back with aircraft. Among them are C-45 Expeditors, PV-1 Venturas, and P-61 Black Widows.

With a June 1944 departure date, that was right after she finished repairs for damage from Operation Hailstone (Truk Lagoon), and when returning to Hawaii to rejoin the fleet. With the decks that full they could only be unloaded at a major port.

 

[Stryder50]

Should make one more entry before taking a break here.

The next large/fleet aircraft carrier in the USN was completed after the attack at Pearl Harbor. There were a few smaller escort carriers, CVEs completed early on and the Light carriers, CVLs, which will present later in other posts.
.....
USS Essex (CV/CVA/CVS-9) was an aircraft carrier and the lead ship of the 24-ship Essex class built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name. Commissioned in December 1942, Essex participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning the Presidential Unit Citation and 13 battle stars. Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), eventually becoming an antisubmarine aircraft carrier (CVS). In her second career, she served mainly in the Atlantic, playing a role in the Cuban Missile Crisis. She also participated in the Korean War, earning four battle stars and the Navy Unit Commendation. She was the primary recovery carrier for the Apollo 7 space mission.

She was decommissioned for the last time in 1969, and sold by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrap on 1 June 1973.[2]
....

USS Essex (CV-9) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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The Essex class was a class of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy. The 20th century's most numerous class of capital ship, the class consisted of 24 vessels, which came in "short-hull" and "long-hull" versions. Thirty-two ships were ordered, but as World War II wound down, six were canceled before construction, and two were canceled after construction had begun. Fourteen ships of the class engaged in combat operations during World War II. No Essex-class ships were lost to enemy action even though several sustained crippling damage. The Essex-class carriers were the backbone of the U.S. Navy's combat strength during World War II from mid-1943 on, and, along with the three Midway-class carriers added just after the war, continued to be the heart of U.S. naval strength until the supercarriers came into the fleet in numbers during the 1960s and 1970s. They had considerable growth potential, with numerous members of the class rebuilt to handle the heavier and faster aircraft of the early jet age, and some of these would serve until well after the end of the Vietnam War.
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CV-10Yorktown at sea in 1943
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Essex-class aircraft carrier - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Stryder50]

Showing the versatility of the Essex Class;

 

[Mushroom]

Showing the versatility of the Essex Class;

The same thing was done to the Midway class as well.

The only classes of carriers that continued to see service as carriers after WWII with the US.

 

[Stryder50]

The same thing was done to the Midway class as well.

The only classes of carriers that continued to see service as carriers after WWII with the US.

Yup!

I plan to do the Midway class next, since they are the follow-on to the Essex class. However I may devote a couple posts to the CVLs and CVEs to keep within the timeline sort of.

BTW, IIRC, the angled flight deck was an idea from the UK's Royal Navy, adopted by the USN.

While on the topic of Essex class CVs, here's an interesting footnote from the film;

The Bridges at Toko-Ri is a 1954 American war film about the Korean War and stars William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March, Mickey Rooney, and Robert Strauss. The film, which was directed by Mark Robson, was produced by Paramount Pictures.[Note 1][5] Dennis Weaver and Earl Holliman make early screen appearances in the film.

The screenplay is based on the 1953 novel The Bridges at Toko-Ri by Pulitzer Prize winner James Michener. The story, which closely follows the novel, is about the U.S. Navy pilots assigned to bomb a group of heavily defended bridges in North Korea. It emphasizes the lives of the pilots and crew in the context of the Korean War; a conflict that seems remote to all except those who fight in Korea.
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Exteriors were shot aboard USS Oriskany and USS Kearsarge, 27,100-ton Essex-class aircraft carriers standing in for USS Savo Island.[5] The aircraft used in the film is the Grumman F9F-2 Panther, a Korean War workhorse still in service and equipping the air groups of both carriers at the time the film was made. In the novel, however, Brubaker's squadron flew McDonnell F2H Banshees. The squadron depicted is an actual unit, Fighter Squadron 192 (VF-192) "Golden Dragons," which was aboard Oriskany during the filming, and from its part in the movie, thereafter, billed itself as the "World Famous Golden Dragons." VF-192 had two war deployments to Korea, but aboard USS Princeton and flying Vought F4U-4 Corsairs. The squadron continues service today as Strike Fighter Squadron 192 (VFA-192), a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet unit.[Note 3]
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The Bridges at Toko-Ri - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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What I find unusual and slightly "odd" is that the battle of Savo Island was one of the largest surface ship battles resulting in significant, and embarrassing, defeat for the U.S. Navy. Not the sort of thing most CVs would be named after.

Was Michener really so lame, or was there a hidden message/context he was trying to present?

 

[Stryder50]

OKay ... seems there were more than one battles of "Savo Island" so using such as a name for a CV could be a bit ambiguous in context. Still, I'm inclined to think it wasn't the best choice on Michener's part . . .
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The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the First Battle of the Solomon Sea (第一次ソロモン海戦, Dai-ichi-ji Soromon Kaisen), and colloquially among Allied Guadalcanal veterans as the Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks,[4][5] was a naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval forces. The battle took place on August 8–9, 1942, and was the first major naval engagement of the Guadalcanal campaign, and the first of several naval battles in the straits later-named Ironbottom Sound, near the island of Guadalcanal.

The Imperial Japanese Navy, in response to Allied amphibious landings in the eastern Solomon Islands, mobilized a task force of seven cruisers and one destroyer under the command of Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa. The task forces sailed from Japanese bases in New Britain and New Ireland down New Georgia Sound (also known as "the Slot"), with the intention of interrupting the Allied landings by attacking the supporting amphibious fleet and its screening force. The Allied screen consisted of eight cruisers and fifteen destroyers under Rear Admiral Victor Crutchley, but only five cruisers and seven destroyers were involved in the battle. In a night action, Mikawa thoroughly surprised and routed the Allied force, sinking one Australian and three American cruisers, while suffering only light damage in return. The battle has often been cited as the worst defeat in the history of the United States Navy.[6] Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, considers this battle and the Battle of Tassafaronga to be two of the worst defeats in U.S. naval history, second only to Pearl Harbor.[7][8]

After the initial engagement, Mikawa, fearing Allied carrier strikes against his fleet in daylight, decided to withdraw under cover of night rather than attempt to locate and destroy the Allied invasion transports. The Japanese attacks prompted the remaining Allied warships and the amphibious force to withdraw earlier than planned (before unloading all supplies), temporarily ceding control of the seas around Guadalcanal to the Japanese. This early withdrawal of the fleet left the Allied ground forces (primarily United States Marines), which had landed on Guadalcanal and nearby islands only two days before, in a precarious situation, with limited supplies, equipment, and food to hold their beachhead.

Mikawa's decision to withdraw under cover of night rather than attempt to destroy the Allied invasion transports was primarily founded on concern over possible Allied carrier strikes against his fleet in daylight. In reality, the Allied carrier fleet, similarly fearing Japanese attack, had already withdrawn beyond operational range. This missed opportunity to cripple (rather than interrupt) the supply of Allied forces on Guadalcanal contributed to Japan's failure to recapture the island. At this critical early stage of the campaign, it allowed the Allied forces to entrench and fortify themselves sufficiently to defend the area around Henderson Field until additional Allied reinforcements arrived later in the year.[9]

The battle was the first of five costly, large-scale sea and air-sea actions fought in support of the ground battles on Guadalcanal itself, as the Japanese sought to counter the American offensive in the Pacific. These sea battles took place after increasing delays by each side to regroup and refit, until the November 30, 1942 Battle of Tassafaronga (sometimes referred to as the Fourth Battle of Savo Island or, in Japanese sources, as the Battle of Lunga Point (ルンガ沖夜戦)) – after which the Japanese, eschewing the costly losses, attempted resupplying by submarine and barges. The final naval battle, the Battle of Rennell Island (Japanese: レンネル島沖海戦), took place months later on January 29–30, 1943, by which time the Japanese were preparing to evacuate their remaining land forces and withdraw.
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Battle of Savo Island - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Stryder50]

Title of this "click bait" might not be accurate, since the USA's 10+ aircraft carriers would be the real "Top 10" in the world, but this does show the CVs in use by other nations as well. Of course it leads off with USN types as #1&2; the new Ford class which could eventually number 9-10, and the current Nimitz class which is ten (3 original design, 7 improved design). Interesting is both the variations in designs and which nation's are including a CV in their naval forces.

Top 10 Aircraft Carriers​

Top 10 Aircraft Carriers | Military-Today.com

List of best aircraft carriers in the world. Our Top 10 analysis is based on combined score of size, displacement, airwing and weapons.

www.military-today.com