Aircraft Carriers: The Illustrated History of the World’s Most Important Warships

243 Pages·2016·75.392 MB·English

by  Michael E. Haskew

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AIRCRAFT
CARRIERS
The Illustrated History
of the World’s
Most Important Warships
Michael E. Haskew
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CONTENTS
Prologue .........................................................................6
1. Indispensable Vessels, 1903–1918 .........................8
2. Reshaping Naval Warfare, 1918–1939 ................. 32
3. Flattops at War, 1939–1942................................. 62
4. Carrier Warfare Refined, 1942–1945 ................ 110
5. The Carrier in War and Peace, 1945–1982 ........ 150
6. In Retribution and Relief, 1990–Present .......... 194
Epilogue: Into the Future ........................................234
Acknowledgments ......................................................236
Index ...........................................................................237
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PROLOGUE
At 7:55 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the quiet of a Sunday never have taken place. The powerful Japanese task force that
morning was shattered as aircraft of the Imperial Japanese delivered the sledgehammer blow left Hitokappu Bay in the
Navy devastated the US Pacific Fleet moored in Pearl Harbor Kurile Islands on November 26, 1941, under the command of
and other military installations on the Hawaiian island of Admiral Chūichi Nagumo.
Oahu. The attacking planes were launched from the decks of On that fateful Sunday morning, six Japanese carriers—
six aircraft carriers that had furtively sailed to within 230 miles Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku—hurled 353
of Hawaii to initiate the surprise air assault. dive-bombers, level bombers, torpedo bombers, and fighter
When it was over, no doubt remained: The aircraft carrier planes against the Americans in two waves. Despite several
was ascendant in naval warfare, eclipsing the dreadnought warnings that might have alerted US forces, the Japanese
battleship as the primary offensive weapon on the world’s achieved complete surprise. Within minutes, the attackers had
oceans. World War II in the Pacific, prosecuted across strafed and bombed American installations at Hickam Field,
thousands of miles of open sea, was won and lost with the Bellows Field, Schofield Barracks, Kaneohe Naval Air Station,
deployment of carrier air power. and Ewa Marine Corps Air Station.
Pearl Harbor was the brainchild of Adm. Isoroku At Pearl Harbor, the Japanese planes ravaged Battleship
Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of Japan’s Combined Fleet. A Row adjacent to Ford Island. When the last bomber turned
naval veteran, Yamamoto had experienced combat, losing two back toward the carriers, four American battleships were sunk
fingers on his left hand during the epic Battle of Tsushima, and four more heavily damaged. Hit by five torpedoes, the
when the Imperial Navy defeated the Russian Baltic Fleet in Oklahoma capsized, trapping hundreds of sailors below decks.
1905 during the Russo-Japanese War. He studied at Harvard The West Virginia was struck by seven torpedoes and two bombs
University and served as a naval attaché in Washington, D.C. and settled upright into the muck of the harbor’s shallow
A staunch advocate of carrier air power, he earned his pilot’s bottom. Two torpedoes and a bomb tore through the California.
wings at the age of forty. The Arizona was demolished by a modified fourteen-inch naval
Yamamoto was aware that carrier-based aircraft of the British shell fashioned for delivery as an aerial bomb, which penetrated
Royal Navy in the Mediterranean Sea had inflicted serious the battleship’s forward magazine and ignited a tremendous
damage on the Regia Marina, fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s explosion, killing 1,177 sailors and marines.
fleet, on November 11, 1940, while the big Italian battleships The battleships Tennessee, Maryland, Nevada, and
rode at anchor in the presumed safety of Taranto Harbor. Pennsylvania were heavily damaged, as were the cruisers
Yamamoto knew that American industrial capacity could Honolulu, Raleigh, and Helena; the destroyers Cassin, Downes,
eventually doom Japan to defeat. A prolonged war was out and Shaw; the seaplane tender Curtiss; and the repair ship Vestal.
of the question. He conceived the attack on Pearl Harbor as The elderly minelayer Oglala and target ship Utah were also
the best option to gain a swift victory, cripple the US Navy in sunk. In addition, 165 American aircraft were destroyed and
the Pacific, and win a negotiated peace with the Americans. another 128 damaged, most of them on the ground. A total of
He warned, “Give me six months, and I will run wild in the 2,403 Americans died. Japanese losses were minimal: 29 aircraft,
Pacific. After that, I make no guarantees.” a fleet submarine, five midget submarines, and 185 killed.
Without the aircraft carrier, Yamamoto’s bold strike at Although the blow was staggering and the US armed forces
Pearl Harbor, tactically expanded and led by two brilliant staff required months to regain full strength, the Japanese triumph
officers, Lt. Cmdrs. Minoru Genda and Mitsuo Fuchida, could was far from total. Fearful of an American counterstrike,
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Aircraft fly in diamond formation over the newest Nimitz-class aircraft carrier,
the USS Ronald Reagan, at the conclusion of the ship’s commissioning
ceremony. The attack on Pearl Harbor underscored the carrier’s preeminence.
In the decades since, the aircraft carrier has served as a primary means of
projecting military might around the world. US Navy photo/Photographer’s Mate
2nd Class Charles A. Edwards Jr.
Admiral Nagumo declined to mount a third air attack against
Pearl Harbor and ordered his ships to retire. The Japanese
raiders had failed also to demolish the oil storage tanks at Pearl
and had left machine shops and other repair facilities relatively
untouched, allowing the Pacific Fleet to operate on a limited
basis early in the war and to recover more rapidly.
For the Japanese, the most critical misstep simply involved
bad timing. The Pacific Fleet’s aircraft carriers were not
present at Pearl Harbor during the attack, surviving unscathed.
Fuchida remembered that on December 6 a message was
received at sea. It noted, “No balloons, no torpedo defense nets
deployed around battleships in Pearl Harbor. All battleships are
in. No indications from enemy radio activity that ocean patrol
flights being made in Hawaiian area. Lexington left harbor
yesterday. Enterprise also thought to be operating at sea.”
Although the Lexington was lost during the Battle of
the Coral Sea in May 1942, her planes participated in the
sinking of the Japanese carrier Shōhō and damaged the Shōkaku
during the fight. A month later, aircraft from the deck of the
Enterprise took part in the Battle of Midway, in which four of
the Japanese carriers that had wrecked Pearl Harbor—Akagi,
Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū—were sent to the bottom of the Pacific.
By the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, the aircraft
carrier had existed as a weapon of war for less than a quarter
of a century. During World War II, the carrier became the
preeminent warship afloat. Naval strength was largely defined,
and still is today, by the number of operational carriers a nation
had put to sea along with their complements of lethal aircraft.
For decades, the aircraft carrier has served as a nation’s
primary means of projecting military might around the
world. In the modern era, these massive ships, largely self-
sufficient, and their escorts are capable of delivering decisive
strikes against enemies across the globe. The story of the
aircraft carrier is the story of innovative, visionary thinking
among naval leaders and the introduction of one of the few
conventional weapons systems that is capable of influencing
the outcome of a conflict with its very presence.
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