elkarlo
Banned
To some extent. Given that they had to operate in range of land-based air, heavy protection was always desirable, but if numbers of aircraft had been larger, they would have designed them accordingly.
The types and options of carriers they looked at in the 30's is quite interesting, and often at odds with the popular mythos.
Very true, the balance was different. I think what a lot of people don't understand that is prolly takes a good 6 years to get a capital ship from drawing board to being a commissioned ship. In 1935 planes still weren't very good, and if they attacked ships, they would prolly do far worse than they did in 1941. So you really can't hindsight design these things. Which despite the Musashi and Yamato being massive wastes, they were made with sound planning.
Also the Japanese were on the opposite end of the spectrum. They were heavily attack orientated. Even their heavy cruisers didn't have much armor outside of the the engine areas, and the fronts of the major turrets. While the Brits tended to be a bit more cautious.