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Aircraft carrier design involved trade-offs between offensive striking power and defensive survivability. The more carrier tonnage allocated to guns and armor for protection, the less was available for carrying and launching aircraft, the warship's principal weapon.
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.
This article is part of a series that covers World War II from the vantage point of aircraft carrier operations and is focused upon the types and names of the carriers themselves. It contains complete lists of aircraft carriers that operated at some point during the period from 1937 to 1945.
The Casablanca-class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944.
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.
Successful Allied initiatives at El Alamein, Stalingrad, French North Africa, and Guadalcanal in November 1942 marked strategic shifts for World War II. Aircraft carriers contributed to the success of these operations by protecting convoys of armaments and other supplies to Egypt and Russia, keeping Malta supplied and able to disrupt Axis ...
List of aircraft carriers of World War II Ship Operator Class Type Displacement (tons) First commissioned Fate Admiralty Islands United States Navy: Casablanca: escort carrier: 8,188 13 June 1944 scrapped 1947 Adula Royal Navy: Rapana: merchant aircraft carrier: 16,000 1 February 1944 returned to merchant service post-war Akagi Imperial ...
Details for CVE design is included in the article, Design and capability of aircraft carriers during World War II. The greatest initial need for escort carriers, as with FACs, CAMs, and MACs, was to protect merchant shipping in convoys. Transport aircraft to war zones became a critical function after America entered the war.