In Italy, the distant Battle of Taranto proved the effectiveness of aircraft carriers
In November 1940, a British aircraft carrier launched an aerial attack against the forces of Fascist Italy. At the Italian port of Taranto, 21 Fairey Swordfish biplanes wreaked havoc on Mussolini’s fleet. These planes were “torpedo bombers,” meaning that they were designed to drop torpedoes at a point in the water near to an enemy ship. The torpedoes were then supposed to plunge towards their targets, and hit it beneath the waves. By inflicting a hole on the submerged part of the enemy ship, they would allow water to pour in, and (if all went well) send the target sinking to the bottom of the ocean. People were understandably skeptical about whether these torpedoes would work in the shallow waters of Taranto harbor. They were worried that the torpedoes would instead plunge into the muddy bottom of the harbor itself. But, at the cost of two British aircraft, the British had damaged one heavy cruiser, two destroyers, and two enemy fighters. Most importantly, they had actually disabled three Italian battleships, which were then supposed to be the most formidable ships afloat. At Taranto, Mussolini’s Italians had lost 59 killed and 600 wounded, while the British had lost only 2 killed and 2 captured. The Battle of Taranto was powerful evidence about the effectiveness of the latest aircraft carriers, and their ability to sink these supposedly “invincible” battleships.
Aftermath of the Battle of Taranto, showing a beached Italian battleship – Italy, 1940
An overview of the prior history of aircraft carriers, and the tactics surrounding them
But, surprisingly to many people, aircraft carriers had actually been introduced around the time of the First World War. Moreover, they had actually been used in that earlier conflict. Nonetheless, the carriers were not yet effective enough to make any difference in that conflict. On the surface of the ocean, the First World War really was the “age of the battleship” – although I should acknowledge that U-boats were also used to great effect in the First World War, as I describe here. It was also possible for First World War ships to fire at targets that were so distant … as to be invisible to the gunner’s naked eye. But, with binoculars and range-finding equipment, they could still shoot at these targets with deadly effectiveness. However, in the Second World War, aircraft carriers could launch attacks against targets that were invisible even to the range-finding equipment. That is, they could launch attacks against targets that were hundreds of miles away, once they knew towards what location to send their aircraft. A carrier is basically a floating airbase, which can be moved to nearly any location in the open ocean. Thus, unlike airbases on islands (or other land), an aircraft carrier was a moving target. It could sneak up on a targeted island, and launch aerial attacks before the enemy was even aware of their presence. It was the only ship capable of offensive actions against such distant targets. Thus, the other ships of the fleet were often used to defend the “mother ship” (the aircraft carrier) against enemy air attacks, hitting them with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire. Destroyers and cruisers proved particularly useful for this purpose. Destroyers and cruisers were also faster, and also proved helpful in detecting enemy submarines – which could then be bombarded with depth charges. In the Second World War, battleships were at their best when shelling coastal positions with heavy artillery. They did actually make a difference, but this was still the age of the aircraft carrier – and, as with the First World War, the submarine.
American battleship Arizona sinking at Pearl Harbor, 1941
The naval squadrons of both sides consisted of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, and fighters
Again, the torpedo bomber was an effective offensive weapon in the Pacific War. The Japanese used it to launch their deadliest attacks on the American fleets. However, it would be some time before the American technology would catch up with them regarding torpedo bombing. But there was also a comparable role for the dive bomber, which dropped bombs that often exploded on contact with an enemy ship – or shortly thereafter, after plunging through an enemy deck first. Among other things, these dive bombers were particularly useful when attacking targets on islands. Torpedoes could hardly be used for this purpose. But dive bombers were also effective (in a different way) for attacking enemy ships. When their bombs dropped onto the decks of their targets, they could now do some serious damage – particularly if they struck a delicate powder magazine, as some did. And dive bombers were also somewhat harder for enemy ships to shoot down, because they dove in at such steep angles towards their targets. The technology of that generation had difficulty even touching them. Aircraft carriers also used fighter planes for multiple purposes, including the defense of their own fleets against enemy air attacks. When they launched attacks against an opposing fleet, the fighters would deal with their adversary’s formidable air cover, while the torpedo bombers and dive bombers focused their attacks on the enemy fleet itself. This was the great arsenal offered by an aircraft carrier. Its fighters could be effectively used for the defense of a fleet, while every one of its planes could be used to strike at targets hundreds of miles away – an important offensive role. In Hawaii, the Japanese applied the lessons of distant Taranto, and sunk four American battleships in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor. The Americans retaliated with a raid on the Marshall Islands in 1942. But the Japanese soon managed to sink a British aircraft carrier (HMS Hermes) in the Indian Ocean – the only one lost by the British, as a part of the Pacific War. However, the British did lose six other aircraft carriers in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and a few other places. Mussolini’s Italians also lost two aircraft carriers of their own, at Italy’s “Genova Harbor.”
American carrier Lexington explodes at Coral Sea, 1942
Early carrier battles included Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomons
But aircraft carriers had at least one limitation, which was that they could only launch smaller aircraft. The Doolittle Raid stretched this to the limit, as American carriers launched medium B-25 bombers against the Japanese home islands. No heavy bombers were ever launched from anyone’s aircraft carriers during World War II. And, even in the Doolittle Raid, the planes landed in China – rather than back on the aircraft carriers. At the Battle of the Coral Sea, history’s first carrier-on-carrier battle was fought. The Americans and Japanese actually lost one aircraft carrier each at Coral Sea, although others were damaged. There would be other such battles in the Pacific War. The Japanese tried to attack the Americans at Midway Island, but the Americans had recently cracked the Japanese codes. Thus, the Americans (crucially) had reconnaissance planes flying around Midway, which yielded an early detection of the Japanese fleet. When the Japanese walked into the American trap, all four of the Japanese aircraft carriers were then destroyed. By contrast, the Americans would lose only one aircraft carrier at Midway. This proved the critical importance of both reconnaissance planes and code-breaking in this conflict. But it was also an attack from which the Japanese navy never recovered. The Japanese people were erroneously told that Midway was a great “victory” for them – a bald-faced lie on their government’s part. The extent of the disaster was kept secret even from many senior leaders in the Japanese government (and from the Japanese army), showing the power of totalitarian governments to censor any damaging information. In the Solomon Islands, a great land battle (technically two battles) would be waged at Guadalcanal. But there was also a naval battle of Guadalcanal, where shots were actually fired directly at the other ships. Contrary to popular perception, such surface engagements were not exactly “rare” in the Second World War, although the carrier-on-carrier battles were the most prominent type of engagement. In the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Japanese lost another aircraft carrier. However, later in 1942, a Japanese submarine succeeded in sinking a lone American aircraft carrier – the USS Wasp. This showed that, in the Pacific War, submarines could sometimes rival even the aircraft carriers in their strategic importance. The Americans would also learn this lesson, as their submarines were already being used to sink Japanese merchant shipping. Actually, more Japanese merchant ships were sunk by American submarines than by everything else combined – although the carrier planes seem to have sunk more warships.
Japanese carrier Hiryu, shortly before sinking at Midway (1942)
Later carrier battles included Santa Cruz, the Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf (with brief comments on the role of the Seabees)
At the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, the Japanese sank another American carrier late in 1942. There would not be another carrier-on-carrier battle until 1944. In the meantime, there was a naval battle in the Gilbert Islands. In 1944, American planes eventually assaulted Truk Lagoon, an island target. In the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Americans sunk three more Japanese aircraft carriers. This battle included the famous “Marianas Turkey Shoot,” where American planes inflicted some serious damage at relatively little cost to their own side. But, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Americans lost three aircraft carriers. However, the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers at this same Battle of Leyte Gulf. By some accounts, this was the greatest aircraft carrier battle in history – possibly even the greatest naval battle in history. In 1945, the Japanese sacrificed their pilots in desperate suicide missions, as kamikazes crashed into the Allied fleets at Okinawa. British ships were among those destroyed by the kamikaze pilots. I should acknowledge that I’m skipping over many important ground battles of the Pacific War. There are so many of these island battles that it would be impossible to do justice to all of them here, let alone to develop the context of the local indigenous peoples as characters in this story. But I might briefly mention the role of the “Construction Battalions,” employed by the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The Construction Battalions, or “CB’s” (often spelled “Seabees”), were often responsible for creating functioning airstrips on captured islands – or even islands that were still in the process of being captured. This would have been an accomplishment even in peacetime, but the Seabees often sustained heavy fire while building these airstrips. They suffered heavy casualties in creating these places on which Allied planes could make emergency landings, and from which they could launch more far-ranging attacks on the Japanese. This was one way that the island-hopping campaign had an effect on the naval war, and vice versa.
Japanese battleship Yamato hit by a bomb, in the Sibuyan Sea – near Leyte Gulf, 1944
Conclusion: Both aircraft carriers and submarines played a crucial role in the Pacific
Fortunately, this costly island-hopping campaign eventually yielded some results, as some land-based American bombers dropped bombs on Japan itself from bases in the Mariana Islands. After the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese finally agreed to the desired terms of “unconditional surrender.” For those who have argued that the subsequent Japanese surrender was “conditional,” I offer evidence that it was actually unconditional at this link. Suffice it to say here that all branches of the American military, along with Allied nations like Australia and New Zealand, had brought us the victory. This included the crucial role of the American aircraft carriers. Again, the American submarine campaign against Japan had proved quite vital – and I develop the American role in the “Battle of the Atlantic” in yet another post. But, in my opinion, the aircraft carrier was the most vital type of ship in all of World War II. It was the source of the most offensive power, and the losses of aircraft carriers were the most critical blows to either side’s fleets in the Pacific. It is well that the Americans used their own aircraft carriers with such deadly effectiveness in that conflict, and were able to sink all but two of the Japanese aircraft carriers, by the time that the war ended in 1945.
Footnote to this blog post:
The Americans also used carrier-based aircraft to strike at land targets in Korea, Vietnam, and the War on Terror (among other conflicts). Thus, they continue to be important today.
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