Escort Carrier, 1941-1945


Book Description

Indhold: Fighters for the Convoys; Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier; A Little Audacity; Shakedown Cruise; The Avenger Convoy; Trials of a BAVG; The North American Run; The New Wave; In the Bay; Sorties in the Sun; New Brooms in the Atlantic; The Twilight of the Wolf Packs; "The utmost resolution"; A Season Ticket to Kola; Atlantic Finale; Hotbed in the Arctic




British Escort Carriers 1941–45


Book Description

This is the fully-illustrated story of the Royal Navy's escort carriers which battled against deadly U-Boats during the Battle of the Atlantic, giving vital air cover to the convoys that kept Britain alive in World War II. In 1941, as the Battle of the Atlantic raged and ship losses mounted, the British Admiralty desperately tried to find ways to defeat the U-Boat threat to Britain's maritime lifeline. Facing a shortage of traditional aircraft carriers and shore-based aircraft, the Royal Navy, as a stopgap measure, converted merchant ships into small “escort carriers.” These were later joined by a growing number of American-built escort carriers, sent as part of the Lend-Lease agreement. The typical Escort Carrier was small, slow and vulnerable, but it could carry about 18 aircraft, which gave the convoys a real chance to detect and sink dangerous U-Boats. Collectively, their contribution to an Allied victory was immense, particularly in the long and grueling campaigns fought in the Atlantic and Arctic. Illustrated throughout with detailed full-color artwork and contemporary photographs, this fascinating study explores in detail how these adaptable ships had such an enormous impact on the outcome of World War II's European Theater.




British Escort Carriers 1941–45


Book Description

In 1941, as the Battle of the Atlantic raged and ship losses mounted, the British Admiralty desperately tried to find ways to defeat the U-Boat threat to Britain's maritime lifeline. Facing a shortage of traditional aircraft carriers and shore-based aircraft, the Royal Navy, as a stopgap measure, converted merchant ships into small 'escort carriers'. These were later joined by a growing number of American-built escort carriers, sent as part of the Lend-Lease agreement. The typical Escort Carrier was small, slow and vulnerable, but it could carry about 18 aircraft, which gave the convoys a real chance to detect and sink dangerous U-Boats. Collectively, their contribution to an Allied victory was immense, particularly in the long and gruelling campaigns fought in the Atlantic and Arctic. Illustrated throughout with detailed full-colour artwork and contemporary photographs, this fascinating study explores in detail how these adaptable ships had such an enormous impact on the outcome of World War II's European Theatre.




The Sea Hunters


Book Description




Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921–45


Book Description

The Imperial Japanese Navy was a pioneer in naval aviation, having commissioned the world's first built-from-the-keel-up carrier, the Hosho. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, it experimented with its carriers, perfecting their design and construction. As a result, by the time Japan entered World War II and attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941, it possessed a fantastically effective naval aviation force. This book covers the design, development and operation of IJN aircraft carriers built prior to and during World War II. Pearl Harbor, Midway and the first carrier vs carrier battle, the battle of the Coral Sea, are all discussed.




Escort Carriers in the Pacific


Book Description

A working account of the various duties and achievements of the Escort Carriers during WW II. The hard working but little publicized, thin skinned, baby carriers, who also did battle at extremely close range with enemy battleships, cruisers and destroyers.




Carrier Operations in World War II


Book Description

Between 1939 and 1945 the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm grew from a small force into a powerful strategic weapon. British carrier-based aircraft fought throughout the world and David Brown here describes their activities in the Home, Mediterranean, Eastern and British Pacific Fleets, together with Forces created for specific operations, listing aircraft and units embarked during the various phases. He goes on to describe carrier operations in the Pacific between 1941 and 1945, the greatest maritime war in history. Both the United States and Imperial Japanese Navies watched the Royal Navy's early carrier operations in the European Theatre and benefited from the lessons. American aircrews and sailors learnt quickly in action until, by March 1945, the United States Fifth Fleet with its associated Marine Corps formations was probably the most efficient and effective instrument of war deployed in the pre-nuclear age. This new work contains material from two volumes, first published in 1968 and 1974, merged with notes for a third which David Brown prepared but never published before his death. They appear for the first time together, providing the most detailed single-volume account currently available of the operation of British, American and Japanese aircraft carriers in World War II.







Rise of the Aircraft Carrier


Book Description

On 7th December 1941, naval aircraft from six Japanese aircraft carriers destroyed the US battlefleet at Pearl Harbor, forcing the US Navy to rely on its own aircraft carriers to counter Japanese advances across the Pacific. Very fortunately, no US carriers were in port during the attack and the USN rapidly evolved a revised naval war strategy based on air strikes from aircraft carriers, the fleet’s new capital ship, placed at the centre of self-sufficient task groups. Unmatched US industrial capacity enabled the design and construction of large numbers of highly capable carriers, their escorts and new naval aircraft. Despite early losses, the USN swiftly outstripped the IJN in numbers and capability, leaving the Japanese to rely on converting aircraft carriers from all manner of other vessels. Two Battle Summaries are thoughtfully combined in this volume, these are supported by a foreword written by a current NATO Maritime Command chief political advisor, and two modern introductory papers, with a large photographic section that vividly brings to life the ships, aircraft and battles of the Pacific naval war 1941-1945. Three elements stand in sharp contrast to the naval world we experience today and add to the fascination that these Summaries provide to historians and strategists. First, the indispensable role of untapped American industrial power in securing ultimate victory in the Pacific, in particular after victory at Midway. Beyond the tactics and fighting skills of the US Navy in the Pacific, even beyond their remarkable adaptability, the industrial factor was essential. Operational mistakes at Guadalcanal and Leyte Gulf could have proved setbacks but could not have averted eventual victory such was the scale of war production of the United States. It is doubtful that this raw capacity exists anywhere in the world today, except perhaps in China and I am doubtful even of that. We have also lost the art of rapid production, where the US fleet – or any fleet – could expand from three carriers to fifty Britannia Naval Histories of World War II ‒ an important source in understanding the critical naval actions of the period.




Twenty-Three Minutes to Eternity


Book Description

A long-overdue history of America's "forgotten flattop." On November 24, 1943, a Japanese torpedo plunged into the starboard side of the American escort carrier USS Liscome Bay. The torpedo struck the thin-skinned carrier in the worst possible place the bomb storage area. The resulting explosion could be seen 16 miles away, literally ripping the Liscome Bay in half and killing 644 of her crew. In terms of lives lost, it was the costliest carrier sinking in United States naval history. Liscome Bay's loss came on her first combat operation: the American invasion of the Gilbert Islands. Despite her short career, she touched a number of remarkable and famous lives. Doris Miller, the first black American sailor to win the Navy Cross, lost his life, as did Rear Admiral Henry Mullinax, one of the Navy's first "air admirals." John Crommelin was the senior officer to survive the sinking. Later in his career, Crommelin, a decorated naval aviator himself, sparked the famous Revolt of the Admirals, which helped save the role of naval aviation in America's Cold War military. James Noles's account of the Liscome Bay and those who served aboard her is based on interviews with the ship's survivors and an unpublished memoir that the ship's pay officer made available to the author. This readable, compelling book pays homage to the crew by telling their story of experience and sacrifice. To follow Jim Noles on Twitter, access his stream here: http://www.twitter.com/mightyby