A new kind of war
In the Great War, the Royal Navy invented the aircraft carrier, the first ships to be modified to launch and recover combat aircraft. Although they did not accomplish much during the war, the promise was clearly there. Soon after the war the Japanese and American navies followed the British in building more of these ships, including by the 1930s carriers designed and built to field powerful air striking forces of torpedo and dive bombing squadrons, as well as fighters to defend the fleet.
HMS Furious (1918)
When the war began, the British discovered the strengths and weaknesses of these mobile airfields at sea, losing carriers to submarine and surface attack but also shattering the Italian battlefield in a single night with a few old torpedo bombers, as well as crippling a powerful battleship so that British battleships were able to run her down and destroy her.
But it was the battles of Pearl Harbor (December 7) and Midway (December 10) that showed just how powerful naval aviation, and by extension aircraft carriers had become. A strong Japanese carrier strike force launched two attacks that sank or damaged most of the battleships and cruisers of the US Pacific Fleet, and while Japanese aircraft losses were heavy and the Americans managed to damage a Japanese carrier with land based aircraft, the Japanese achieved their first major objective of the war in neutralizing the US Pacific Fleet for months.
Carrier Akagi (December 7, 1941)
The subsequent battle of Midway again showed the power of carrier aviation, as the Americans sank most of the Japanese invasion fleet as it approached Midway Island, stopping a powerful naval invasion, while carrier aircraft sank a carrier on each side. However the Hawaiian Islands also showed that the submarine remains a threat just as serious as aircraft, as an American carrier was knocked out the war a month after the battle, while a Japanese carrier became the third fleet carrier lost to a submarine since World War 2 began. It also showed another weakness, as both carrier fleets were forced to remain inactive for nearly 2 months to restore their badly battered air groups, and both the Americans and Japanese were forced to strip some carriers to provide sufficient aircraft and aircrew for the rest of their fleet.
USS Enterprise
In the Great War, the Royal Navy invented the aircraft carrier, the first ships to be modified to launch and recover combat aircraft. Although they did not accomplish much during the war, the promise was clearly there. Soon after the war the Japanese and American navies followed the British in building more of these ships, including by the 1930s carriers designed and built to field powerful air striking forces of torpedo and dive bombing squadrons, as well as fighters to defend the fleet.
HMS Furious (1918)
When the war began, the British discovered the strengths and weaknesses of these mobile airfields at sea, losing carriers to submarine and surface attack but also shattering the Italian battlefield in a single night with a few old torpedo bombers, as well as crippling a powerful battleship so that British battleships were able to run her down and destroy her.
But it was the battles of Pearl Harbor (December 7) and Midway (December 10) that showed just how powerful naval aviation, and by extension aircraft carriers had become. A strong Japanese carrier strike force launched two attacks that sank or damaged most of the battleships and cruisers of the US Pacific Fleet, and while Japanese aircraft losses were heavy and the Americans managed to damage a Japanese carrier with land based aircraft, the Japanese achieved their first major objective of the war in neutralizing the US Pacific Fleet for months.
Carrier Akagi (December 7, 1941)
The subsequent battle of Midway again showed the power of carrier aviation, as the Americans sank most of the Japanese invasion fleet as it approached Midway Island, stopping a powerful naval invasion, while carrier aircraft sank a carrier on each side. However the Hawaiian Islands also showed that the submarine remains a threat just as serious as aircraft, as an American carrier was knocked out the war a month after the battle, while a Japanese carrier became the third fleet carrier lost to a submarine since World War 2 began. It also showed another weakness, as both carrier fleets were forced to remain inactive for nearly 2 months to restore their badly battered air groups, and both the Americans and Japanese were forced to strip some carriers to provide sufficient aircraft and aircrew for the rest of their fleet.
USS Enterprise
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