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Some carrier aircraft served in dual roles, such as fighter-bomber and bomber-reconnaissance aircraft. Carrier aircraft functions. Torpedo and dive bombers attacked enemy warships, transports, merchant ships, and land installations. Fighters accompanied bombers on attack missions, protecting them during interceptions by enemy fighters.
Accordingly, carriers were designed to carry more aircraft and aircraft components at the expense of more anti-aircraft guns and flight deck armor. To further increase the number of aircraft carried, large numbers of them were kept on the flight deck in addition to those kept below in hangars.
USS Bon Homme Richard (CV/CVA-31) was the 14th of the 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers completed during or shortly after World War II for the United States Navy.She was the second US Navy ship to bear the name, the first one being named for John Paul Jones's famous Revolutionary War frigate by the same name.
The location, combat activity, and operational status for each Japanese aircraft carrier at the end of each month over the entire war is available at the "Collection of Statistics on Japanese Aircraft Carriers" in the reference document section at the World War II Database. [82]
Aircraft carriers of World War II by country Aircraft carriers serve as a seagoing airbases, equipped with a flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying and recovering aircraft. [ 1 ] Typically, they are the capital ships of a fleet, as they project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for operational support.
The development of armoured flight deck carriers proceeded during World War II, and before the end of World War II both the USN, with USS Midway, and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), with TaihÅ and Shinano would also commission armoured flight deck carriers, while all USN fleet aircraft carriers built since 1945 feature armoured flight decks.
It became apparent early in the war that control of the air was prerequisite for successful surface action both on land and at sea. [b] [9] For much of the war, Britain and America fought mainly on the seas, [10] [clarification needed] where successful Allied naval operations permitted effective support and reinforcement of troops in North Africa, the Soviet Union, western Europe and the Pacific.
Birmingham attempts to fight fires aboard Princeton during Battle of Leyte Gulf. Completed in the course of 1943, and coming into service with the first eight of the Essex-class carriers, the nine Independence-class ships made up a vital component of the Fast Carrier Task Force, which carried the Navy's offensive through the central and western Pacific from November 1943 through August 1945.