Lexington and Enterprise Sunk

It slows down the war effort by up to 3-6 months early in the war, then it may speed up the war. The Enterprise spent much of the first few months of the war harassing Japanese island defenses. It was great training for the USA naval aviation, but it did not accomplish a great deal in he larger picture. We have probably butterflied away the Doolittle raid. Japanese may do a bit better in New Guinea. Without Doolittle raid, the Japanese navy will not have the reason to get a Midway type operation approved. And with few carriers, you might butterfly away Guadalcanal. But by 1943, the Americans are steam rolling the Japanese with ships commissioned after Pearl. And here is where it gets interesting. If we follow the Central Pacific Strategy, the war is won faster.

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Following this, we'd see the SE Pacific battles of 1942 in a different form. With fewer carriers lost by the Japanese & few air crew lost. Perhaps the Hiei & Krishima not sunk. So there could still be some big naval battles in late 43 & 44 as the Essex class carriers & new US BB are confronted by a less reduced IJN.
 
WASP will immediately transfer to the Pacific along with Y-TOWN. HORNET moves as soon as she can. Probably no Doolittle raid as everyone will be busy otherwise.

RANGER is use more aggressively in the Atlantic and takes on a lot of the roles WASP did in support of the Home Fleet and the Club Runs (OTL there was talk of using RANGER in OP PEDESTAL). RANGER is not used to ferry P-40 groups to West Africa where they then fly off for North Africa and India.
 
I would consider effective salvage unlikely. Carriers were a high priory target, and would receive a lot of attention. There's a very high chance, IMVHO, that they are too badly torn apart to be in action before the Essex class is coming off the ways. Battleships take MUCH longer to build, so a battleship can be worth salvaging when a flat-top in similar condition isn't. Carriers also aren't generally as heavily built as battleships. Lexington was built as a battlecruiser, and at least had armor, but still--fragile. If they're somewhere torpedo planes can get at them, it will be BAD.
 
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