Since World War II, the carriers have been the workhorses of the United States Navy in deterring international violence. In over 80% of the times when the world was face with international violence, the United States has responded by launching one or more carrier taskforces. Invested in a single carrier taskforce is over seventeen billion dollars and enough fire power to make it the fifth strongest military power in the world. Naval doctrine, however, did not always focus upon the usage of carriers as a formidable offensive weapon.In the early 1900’s, the world’s Navy’s were taking heed from the doctrines preached by Alfred T. Mahan in his revolutionary book, The Influence of Seapower upon History. Mahan, a firm advocate of naval power, stated that the presence of a strong navy was paramount to the preservation of national security. The U. S. Navy responded by building fleets that centered upon the battleship. Battleships were sleek and capable of delivering a devastating blow of firepower. Naval strategies were centered on the battleship at the turn of the century. With the invention of the airplane, however, this doctrine was about to change.
In September of 1909 following the Rheims Aviation Meet, U.S. Naval commander F.L. Chapin was intrigued by the unlimited possibilities of naval aviation. “The airplane would have present usefulness in naval warfare, and the limits of the field will be extended in the near future.” Chapin then went on to suggest the usage of a catapult or floor to launch and recover airplanes. On October 13, 1910 George von L. Meyer, the Secretary of the Navy, charged Captain W.I. Chambers to investigate aviation and gain a technical knowledge of airplanes. A month later civilian pilot Eugene Ely landed and took off from a wood platform aboard the USS Birmingham while anchored in Hampton Roads, Virginia. During these experimental years aviation design and navigation were beginning to wean from infancy into childhood.
Four years latter, the upper echelons of the navy were beginning to realize the awesome potential aviation offered in a bold statement issued by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. “The science of aerial navigation has reached the point where aircraft must form a large part of our naval force for offensive and defensive operation.” The first major usage of the airplane as a naval offensive and defensive weapon was in the implementation of the USS Langley (CV-1). Converted from the collier known as the USS Jupiter, the Langley was commissioned on March 20, 1920 in Norfolk, Virginia.
In 1925, the former Admiral of Naval Forces Europe, William S. Sims, addressed a congressional inquisition regarding carriers. “A small, high-speed carrier alone can destroy or disable a battleship alone. A fleet whose carriers give it command of the air over the enemy fleet can defeat the latter.” The fast carrier with one hundred planes steaming at over thirty-five knows was to be the capital ship of the future. According to Sims, “in reality a capital ship [a carrier is] of much greater offensive power than any battleship.” The birth of the fast carriers would have to wait until the Naval Expansion Act (17 May 1937), which appropriated and increase in naval aviation and ship tonnage.
With congressional approval the department of the navy went forward with the plans to create the fast carriers, which were classified as the Essex Class Carriers. Patterned after the Hornet, (CV-8) the Essex Class Carriers were to receive some significant structural changes. The Essex would be designed to carry two squadrons of airplanes versus the normal load of one squadron. This increase in planes would necessitate an enlargement of both the flight deck and hull. More stowage space for fuel and armaments called for a thicker hull to protect these vital materials. An elevator was positioned on the side of the carrier allowing uninhibited usage during flight operations. The superstructure of “island” would comprise the command center along with the captain’s bridge. This increase in size would also allow for improved visibility. Consequently, this structural change would increase the ships displacement requiring an expansion in ship power. Eight Babcock and Wilcox boilers were attached to four shafts to produce 150,000 horsepower at 32.7 knots. Known as the fast carriers, the Essex Class had a whopping range of 15,000 nautical miles at an economical speed of 15 knots per hour.
The Essex Class made use of advanced technological and communications equipment. The Mark 4 sweeping radar was installed but could not track incoming low-level intruders. The Mark 12 radar replaced the defective Mark 4. The Position Plan Indicator radar (PPI) was used to keep track of ships and enabled a multi-carrier force to maintain a high-speed formation at night or in foul weather. The new navigational tool known as the Dead Reckoning Tracer was also implemented for navigation and tracking of surface ships. The Identification Friend-or-Foe (IFF) was used to identify hostile ships and aircraft especially at night and in bad weather conditions. The four-channel VHF radio permitted channel variations in effort to prevent enemy interception of transmissions. A four-channel radio also allowed for simultaneous radio contact with other ships and planes. Along with advanced communication equipment, the Essex also had a wide array of new weapons.
The pride of the carrier known as the “Sunday Punch” was the offensive power of 36 fighters; 36 dive-bombers; and 18 torpedo planes. The XF6F Hellcat soon replaced the Chance-Vought F4U Corsair, known to the Japanese as the “Whistling Death.” The fighting XF6F Hellcat would prove to be a plane superior to that of the Japanese Zero. It had twice the horsepower of the Zero and could fly faster and climb higher. Due to the increase in power the Hellcat could carry and enormous amount of firepower. The Hellcat boasted six .50 caliber machine guns with a rate of fire of over 1000 rounds per minute. Eventually the planes were to be out fitted with 3.5 inch firing rockets. The SB2C-1 Helldiver, was a dive-bomber with a capacity of 2650 pounds of ordnance or one torpedo. Designed solely as a torpedo plane, Grumman Aircraft produced the Avenger (TBF-1). As for defensive weaponry, the Essex carried a plethora of munitions for its guns.
The defensive plan for the carriers was to use radio and radar in a combined effort to concentrate anti-aircraft fire. The ship boasted seventeen quad-barrel, 40mm, anti-aircraft guns and 65 single, 20mm, close-in defense guns. The main defensive weapons were the five-inch guns. With a range of ten miles and a rate of fire of fifteen rounds per minute these guns launched the deadly VT shells. The VT shells, known as proximity fused-shells, would detonate when they came within 70 feet of an enemy aircraft. Heavy armor and armaments protected the Essex Class Carriers throughout the World War II. No Essex Class Carriers were sunk during the duration of the war.
The use of the fast carriers as an offensive weapon in World War II changed the face of naval strategy. In an effort to protect our national security and economic interests the U.S. Navy now deploys carriers around the globe. As Secretary of Defense William Cohen stated: “If you don’t have that forward deployed presence, you have less of a voice, less of an influence.”