Ingo Bauernfeind, U.S. Aircraft Carriers 1939-45 (Casemate, 2021)
The aircraft carrier was the most important conventional weapon of World War II. What was potential before the war became an essential component of America’s war effort as Carriers replaced the previously mighty battleships as the spearhead. And to understand modern naval warfare is to recognize the role Carriers have played in it. To that end, Ingo Bauernfeind has written a tidy survey of the ships and warplanes that made up the United States’ Carrier force.
The book begins with a tribute to the USS Hornet, now a maritime museum. Then we are into the book, starting with the development of the big fleet carriers. This rattles along because Bauernfeind wants to get to WWII, which became a carrier war in the Pacific from the beginning when the Japanese used carriers to open proceedings at Pearl Harbor. As Bauernfeind narrates the war and the pivotal battles, other important battles are dropped into the text via box outs along with other useful information, such as anti-aircraft capabilities. He then works his way through the different classes of Carrier, including their vital statistics. Bauernfeind notes that Carriers were vulnerable on their own, a lesson they learned the hard way, so they were combined into Task Groups for maximum safety. When hit, most notably by kamikazes and torpedoes, they could take a lot of damage. Of course, that must be offset against the amount of damage the American Carriers inflicted on the Japanese.
The Navy also introduced Escort Carriers, which were much smaller than the Fleet Carriers. These were converted warships that provided transportation and local air cover for convoys. They were relatively small, though, and lightly armoured. They also had to keep their aircraft on the deck through lack of storage capacity. Many different classes of Escort Carrier served with the US Navy, and Bauernfeind surveys many of them with accompanying photographs. He then moves on to the Light Carriers. These were converted warships brought in to fill the gap until the main Carriers were built. Unlike the Escort Carriers, the Light Carriers could keep up with the Fleet Carriers and were a useful supplement in battle but were not great aircraft platforms.
Of course, aircraft carriers needed aircraft, and that is where Bauernfeind turns next. He starts with the Devastator, the workhorse torpedo bomber in the early stages of the war, but they were very vulnerable without fighter protection. The Vindicator follows, which was more useful for reconnaissance than bombing, but then Bauernfeind brings out the Dauntless, nicknamed ‘Slow But Deadly’, that sunk six Japanese carriers. The Helldiver was brought in to replace the Dauntless, and after a few tweaks, became a useful dive bomber. A third bomber was the durable Avenger that also proved very successful. For the fighters, Bauernfeind introduces the chunky, little Buffalo, which was unfortunately outclassed by the Japanese Zero. Then came the Wildcat, which proved very valuable in the air war, and the legendary Corsair that downed 2,140 Japanese aircraft for the loss of just 189! The Hellcat was also a later war addition and equally successful against the declining Japanese airpower, taking down 4,947 Japanese aircraft. Bauernfeind concludes with a chapter following the end of the USS Saratoga, which was sunk as part of America’s nuclear weapon experiments, then studied by divers, beginning in 1990; a guided tour of the museum ship USS Hornet, showing technical aspects up close and how men lived; and finally, a brief survey of the post-war careers of some of the Carriers.
Bauernfeind’s survey of US Carriers is an engaging read with many excellent accompanying photographs and colour artwork. He could have dropped the final chapters to include more photos, but that’s a quibble rather than a criticism. The book’s format also somewhat restricts the complete coverage some would like of these fascinating and powerful ships, but as an introduction it serves its purpose very well. If you like Carriers, you will undoubtedly enjoy this book.
