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• Machine generated contents note:
• i. The Political Situation in 1930s Japan -- Manchuria
• ii. Palau
• iii. Truk
• i. USA
• ii. Japan
• iii. US Preparations
• iv. The US Pacific Fleet Moves to Hawaii
• i. 7 December 1941 -- Japan's Surprise Attack on Pearl Harbor
• ii. Japan's Second Offensive
• i. Command Appointments
• ii. Early US Fast-Carrier Operations, 1942
• iii. Halting the Japanese Expansion
• a. Battle of the Coral Sea, 4-8 May 1942
• b. Battle of Midway, 3-7 June 1942
• i. Battle of the Eastern Solomons, 24-5 August 1942
• ii. Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942
• iii. Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 12-15 November 1942
• iv. US Fleet Reorganisation Post Guadalcanal, March 1943
• i. Allied Timetable of Operations -- Rainbow 5
• ii. Two-prong Advance Across the Pacific
• iii. The Japanese Position Deteriorates, Reorganisation and New Carriers
• i. The Fast Carriers
• ii. US Navy Aircraft
• a. Fighters
• b. Dive-bombers
• c. Torpedo-Bombers
• i. The Isolation of Rabaul -- Operation CARTWHEEL, 13 June 1943-20 March 1944
• ii. The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay -- Operation CHERRYBLOSSOM, 1-2 November 1943
• iii. The Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign the Central Pacific Drive Begins, Operation GALVANIC, 20-8 November 1943
• a. Strike Force Composition
• b. Battle of Tarawa, 20-8 November 1943
• c. Battle of Makin, 20-3 November 1943
• i. Rear Admiral Marc 'Pete' Mitscher Takes Command, 23 December 1943
• ii. Service Squadrons 4 and 10
• iii. Task Force 58 is Formed, 6 January 1944
• i. The Invasion of Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls -- Operation FLINTLOCK, 29 January 1944-7 February 1944
• a. The Invasion of Majuro Atoll, 31 January 1944
• b. The Invasion of Kwajalein Atoll
• ii. The Invasion of Eniwetok Atoll -- Operation CATCHPOLE, 17 February 1944
• iii. Task Force 58 Smashes Truk -- Operation HAILSTONE, 17-18 February 1944
• a. DOG-DAY-MINUS-ONE, 17 February 1944
• b. DOG-DAY, 18 February 1944
• i. Scouting the Marianas
• ii. The First Air Assault on Palau -- Operation DESECRATE 1,30 and 31 March 1944
• a. K-DAY, 30 March 1944
• b. K-DAY PLUS ONE, 31 March 1944
• c. Aftermath
• iii. The Hollandia and Aitape Landings -Operations RECKLESS and PERSECUTION, 22-7 April 1944
• iv. Fast-Carrier Strikes Against Truk, 29-30 April 1944
• i. Battle of Saipan, 15 June-9 July 1944
• ii. First Battle of the Philippine Sea, 19-20 June 1944
• i. Guam and Tinian, July 1944
• a. 2nd Battle of Guam, 21 July-10 August 1944
• b. Battle of Tinian, 24 July-1 August 1944
• c. Aftermath
• ii. Aerial Photo-reconnaissance and the 2nd Palau Air Assault -- Operation SNAPSHOT, 23-30 July 1944
• iii. Raiding the Jimas and the Bonins, August 1944
• iv. Task Force 38 is Formed
• v. New Carriers and New Planes
• vi. Japan
• i. Operation STALEMATE II, 15 September-27 November 1944
• i. The Battle of Leyte Gulf, 23-6 October 1944
• a. Prelude to Battle -- Initial Submarine Action in the Palawan Passage, 23 October 1944
• b. Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, 24 October 1944
• c. Battle of the Surigao Strait, 24-5 October 1944
• d. Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944
• e. Battle off Cape Engano, 25 October 1944
• i. Raiding Tokyo and the Invasion of Iwo Jima Operation DETACHMENT, February-March 1945
• ii. Invasion of Okinawa -- Operation ICEBERG, 1 April-22 June 1945
• i. Invasion of Kyushu -- Operation OLYMPIC, 1 November 1945 (Projected)
• ii. Invasion of Honshu -- Operation CORONET, 1 March 1946 (Projected)
• iii. Endgame
• iv. Aftermath 467 Appendix Dramatis Personae
• i. Fleet Admiral Ernest Joseph King (23 November 1878-25 June 1956)
• ii. Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz (24 February 1885-20 February 1966)
• iii. Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr, KBE (30 October 1883-16 August 1959)
• iv. Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance (3 July 1886-13 December 1969)
• v. Admiral John Henry Towers (30 January 1885-30 April 1955)
• vi. Admiral Marc Andrew Mitscher (26 January 1887-3 February 1947)
• vii. Admiral John Sidney McCain Sr (9 August 1884-6 September 1945)
• viii. Admiral Frederick Carl Sherman (27 May 1888-27 July 1957)

The new breed of American fast aircraft carriers could make thirty-three knots, and each carried almost one hundred strike aircraft. Brought together as Task Force 58, also known as the Fast Carrier Task Force, this armada at times comprised more than one hundred ships carrying more than ten thousand men afloat. By 1945, more than one thousand combat aircraft, fighters, dive- and torpedo-bombers could be launched in under an hour. Rod Macdonald covers the birth of naval aviation, the appearance of the first modern carriers in the 1920s, through to the famous surprise six-carrier Kido Butai Japanese raid against Pearl Harbor, and then the early U.S. successes of 1942 at the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. The fast carriers allowed America, in late 1942 and early 1943, to finally move from bitter defense against the Japanese expansionist onslaught, to mounting her own offensive to retake the Pacific. Task Force 58 swept west and north from the Solomon Islands to the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, neutralizing Truk in Micronesia, and Palau in the Caroline islands, before the vital Mariana Islands operations, the Battle of Saipan, the first battle of the Philippine Sea and the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. The strikes by Task Force 58 took Allied forces across the Pacific, to the controversial Battle of Leyte Gulf and to Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Task Force 58 had opened the door to the Japanese home islands themselves --allowing US bombers to finally get close enough to launch the devastating nuclear bombing raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Task Force 58 participated in virtually all the US Navy's major battles in the Pacific theatre during the last two years of the war. Historian Rod Macdonald has created the most detailed account to date of the fast carrier strike force, the force that brought Japan to its knees and brought World War II to its crashing conclusion.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Figures Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction
• Chapter 1. Carrier Interpretation
• Chapter 2. "Combustible, Vulnerable, and Expendable"
• Chapter 3. Triptych
• Chapter 4. Pearl
• Chapter 5. Amalgamation
• Chapter 6. "Well Done, Massie Hughes"
• Chapter 7. "Luminous Metallic Underworld"
• Chapter 8. "Better Part of Six Years"
• Chapter 9. "The Lord Looks Out for Drunks, Small Children, and CVEs"
• Chapter 10. "Quickening of Pulse"
• Chapter 11. "Like Bananas in Bunches"
• Chapter 12. "Rocket Business"
• Chapter 13. Denver Omelet Sandwiches
• Chapter 14. "Long Haired Scientists"
• Chapter 15. Massie
• Chapter 16. "Stand by to Repel Boarders!"
• Chapter 17. Buoyant Battlefield
• Chapter 18. Crucible
• Chapter 19. "Seeing Ghosts"
• Chapter 20. St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• Chapter 21. Okinawa
• Chapter 22. The Last D-Day
• Chapter 23. "Yanks Are on Their Way!"
• Chapter 24. Magic Carpet
• Chapter 25. Remembering Conclusion: Void of Memory Notes Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Recounts the stories of the USS Block Island CVE-21 and CVE-106 and their crews, many of whom served on both ships in the Atlantic and Pacific theatres In Valor and Courage: The Story of the USS Block Island Escort Carriers in World War II Benjamin Hruska explores the history and commemoration of the USS Block Island-or, more properly, the Block Islands, as two escort carriers bore that name during WWII. The first, CVE 21, bears the distinction of having been the only American aircraft carrier sunk in the Atlantic Theatre after being torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of North Africa. Of the CVE-21's 957 crew members, six sailors were killed and eighteen injured in the strike, and four of the Block Island's fighter pilots were lost later in the day searching for a safe place to land their planes. When the CVE-106 was commissioned to replace its predecessor, Captain Massie Hughes successfully persuaded the Navy to keep the CVE-21's crew together in manning the new ship. After resurrection as the CVE-106, the Block Island was assigned to the Pacific theater where it fought until the end of the war. The saga of these two ships and the crew that navigated two very different theaters of war offers a unique lens on naval strategy and engineering as it evolved during WWII, especially as pertains to the escort carrier class-generally underappreciated both in naval studies and in public memory. Using archival materials, dozens of oral histories, primary sources, and official records, Hruska traces the life of the Block Island from the CVE-21's construction through its missions in the Atlantic, its work as an antisubmarine hunter, its destruction, and the lasting impact of those experiences on its crew. Hruska's study juxtaposes traditional military history with an examination of the acts of remembrance and commemoration by veterans who served on the escort carriers, how those practices evolved over time, and how the meanings of personal wartime experiences and memories gradually shifted throughout that process.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Among all the celebrations of the RAF's centenary, it was largely forgotten that the establishment of an independent air force came at a cost - and it was the Royal Navy that paid the price. In 1918 it had been pre-eminent in the technology and tactics of employing aircraft at sea, but once it lost control of its own air power, it struggled to make the RAF prioritise naval interests, in the process losing ground to the rival naval air forces of Japan and the United States. This book documents that struggle through the cash-strapped 1920s and '30s, culminating in the Navy regaining control of its aviation in 1937, but too late to properly prepare for the impending war. However, despite the lack of resources, British naval flying had made progress, especially in the advancement of carrier strike doctrine. These developments are neatly illustrated by the experiences of Lieutenant William Lucy, who was to become Britain's first accredited air 'ace' of the war and to lead the world's first successful dive-bombing of a major warship. Making extensive use of the family archive, this book also reproduces many previously unseen photographs from Lucy's album, showing many aspects of life in the Fleet Air Arm up to the end of the Norway campaign. Although it is beyond the scope of this book, in November 1940 the inter-war concentration on carrier strike was to be spectacularly vindicated by the air attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto - it inspired the Japanese to a far larger effort at Pearl Harbor the following year, but the Royal Navy had shown the way.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the 'as fitted' general arrangements, these drawings represented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service. Intended to provide a permanent reference for the Admiralty and the dockyards, these highly detailed plans were drawn with exquisite skill in multi-coloured inks and washes that represent the acme of the draughtsman's art. Today they form part of the incomparable collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, which is using the latest scanning technology to make digital copies of the highest quality. This book is one of a series based entirely on these draughts which depict famous warships in an unprecedented degree of detail-complete sets in full colour, with many close-ups and enlargements that make every aspect clear and comprehensible. Extensive captions point the reader to important features to be found in the plans, and an introduction covers the background to the design. HMS _Victorious_ was a ship with two almost separate incarnations-as built in 1941 she was one of a new type of armoured carrier which saw strenuous wartime service; post-war the ship underwent a massive reconstruction lasting nearly eight years that saw her recommission in1958 as one of the best equipped carriers in the world, ready for another decade of duty. Both these phases of the ship's life are fully documented, which allows this novel form of anatomy to cover two generations of carrier design.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Beginnings
• A purpose-built ship and numerous conversions
• Take-off decks
• Take-off platforms, catapults and lighters
• HMS Furious
• HMS Argus
• USS Langley
• Progress
• Different navies, different techniques
• Flight from ships other than carriers
• HMS Implacable described and compared
• Flying from a straight-deck carrier
• Design innovation and the 'rubber deck'
• Transformation
• Flying from an angled-deck carrier
• Helicopters
• Short take-off, vertical landing
• What might have been
• Cross-deck operations
• Postscript.

• Super carrier
• Thunder ballet
• The golden age
• The Kitty Hawk
• Cold wars and hot spots
• Next-generation aircraft
• New developments
• Vietnam
• The Forrestal fire
• Turning point and aftermath
• Evolution
• Challenges
• A dangerous world
• Into the sunset
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Technical data
• Appendix B: Individual ships
• Appendix C: Aircraft technical data
• Appendix D: Air wings.

The book covers the Forrestal class supercarriers and the follow-on ships, which are basically of the same design, i.e. the Forrestal CV-59, Saratoga CV-60, Ranger CV-61, Independence CV-62, Kitty Hawk CV-63, Constellation CV-64, America CV-66 and Kennedy CV-67. (The Enterprise CVN-65 is unique and is not covered beyond an explanation of the reasons for returning to conventional power in the America and Kennedy that followed her.) As in The Essex Aircraft Carriers and The Independence Light Aircraft Carriers, the main emphasis is on the operational history of these ships, which covers a span of over fifty years. There are 81 photographs included in four signatures covering the whole history of the supercarriers interspersed within the body of the book. Maps include the Western Pacific, Vietnam, Mediterranean, Middle East, Indian Ocean and Caribbean. The front end paper illustration shows the Saratoga as representative of the Forrestal class with port and starboard profiles and an overhead view. The rear end paper shows similar views of the Constellation as part of the Kitty Hawk class. Appendix A gives a brief overview of the design technical data for the ships including their dimensions, propulsion systems, arresting gear, catapults, armament, and radars. Illustrations include an annotated inboard profile of the class as built, as well as annotated cross sections comparing the differences between Forrestal and the John F. Kennedy. Appendix B profiles individual ships with a short description of significant items that are not included in the main body of the book. Data for each ship includes the builder as well as dates for keel laying, launch, commissioning, redesignations and decommissioning. Illustrations include the command shield for each ship. Appendix C provides technical data (power plants, dimensions, weights, performance, crew, and armament) for aircraft that operated from the ships over the course of their careers. Included is a table comparing the old Navy designations with the uniform system adopted in 1962 as well as an explanation of each system. Appendix D includes a description of the air wing and its component squadrons and how they have evolved over time, as well as an explanation of the tail code system. For each ship, every deployment is covered with tables showing the dates of deployment, the squadrons assigned within the air group/air wing, the modex and aircraft types. Where the tail code letters are different from the air wing, they are shown next to the modex.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Jack Fletcher *Proposes a new theory on radio intelligence which mitigates Fletcher's decisions *Based on an abundance of primary sources never before used An abundance of new evidence demanded this re-evaluation of Frank Jack Fletcher, the 'black shoe' admiral who won his battles at sea but lost the war of public opinion. A surface warrior (as opposed to a 'brown shoe' naval aviator), Fletcher led the carrier forces that won against all odds at Coral Sea, Midway and the Eastern Solomons. These and other early carrier victories decided the Pacific War, not only because they inflicted crippling losses but also because they denied Japan key strategic positions in the region. Despite these successes, by 1950 Fletcher was portrayed as a timid bungler who failed to relieve Wake Island in December 1941, and who deliberately abandoned the Marines at Guadalcanal. Fletcher once remarked that 'after an action is over, people talk a lot about how the decisions were deliberately reached, but actually there's always a hell of a lot of groping around'. In this dramatic reappraisal of his career, Lundstrom explores the notion of Fletcher's 'groping around', and, drawing on new material, offers a fresh look at his decisions and actions. The first major reassessment in more than fifty years of this oft maligned naval officer, it provides a careful analysis of the effect of radio intelligence on decision-making in the carrier battles during the first nine months of the war in the Pacific. This new assessment is based on thousands of documents, despatch files and personal papers that no historian has previously employed. John B. Lundstrom is Curator Emeritus of History at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where he has worked since 1967. He is the author of five books, including The First Team and The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier fleet must meet the forward presence requirements of theater commanders. With a decreasing fleet size, planners must balance the timing of maintenance, training, and deployment with presence and surge demands. Evaluating multiple one- and two-deployment scenarios per cycle, RAND examines the feasibility of different cycle lengths, their effect on carrier forward presence, and their impact on shipyard workloads.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Recent campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated that American carrier air power can conduct coordinated deep-strike missions well beyond coastal reaches, providing around the clock target coverage, consistently accurate target attack, and multiple successful target attacks per sortie.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Illustrations and Maps
• The Dawn of Naval Air Power: From Dreadnoughts to Flattops
• Mobilizing for War
• Flattops in the Atlantic
• The Rising Sun
• Carriers at War: Fighting for Time
• Coral Sea
• Midway - The Turning Point
• Evolution of Combat Tactics: The Eastern Solomons
• The Battle for Guadalcanal
• Refining Carrier Tactics
• Island-Hopping in the Pacific
• The Marianas Turkey Shoot
• Ascent of the Air Admirals: The New Air Navy
• Prelude to the Philippines
• Leyte Gulf
• The Setting Sun
• Command of the Seas: Korea - Carriers and Politics
• Vietnam - President Johnson's War
• Cold Wars and Brush Fires
• The Desert Wars
• Afterword
• Notes
• Bibliography.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This book explores the development, technology, and tactics of aircraft carrier warfare. The aircraft carrier emerged in the twentieth century as a major new weapon of war. Since World War II, there have been no engagements between carrier air groups, but flattops have been prominent and essential in every war where targets could be struck from planes at sea. Carriers can range at will, with planes that can be refuelled in the air to strike targets thousands of miles inland. From the improvised wooden platforms of the early 20th century to today's nuclear-powered supercarriers, Hearn explores how combat experience of key individuals drove the development, technology, and tactics of carriers in the world's navies. In the early 20th century, during the days of the dreadnoughts, naval officers first wondered whether aeroplanes could be launched from the deck of a surface vessel. From these early experiments, the first carriers emerged in the 1920s. While the rest of the world viewed them as defensive weapons, Japan focused on offensive capabilities and produced the finest carrier in the world by 1940. World War II would see the carrier emerge as the greatest surface ship afloat. Since then, no war has been fought without them. It has been published under the new Praeger Security International imprint and will appeal to readers interested in either naval or airpower history. It includes the key individuals responsible for the evolution of carriers and provides a comprehensive look at carrier development.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Shipbuilding outsourcing practices and implications for the CVF
• Advanced outfitting practices and implications for the CVF
• Appendix: Outsourcing survey
• Advanced outfitting survey.

Advises how the United Kingdom should best use modern outsourcing and outfitting practices for shipbuilding in the years to come. The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (MOD) is preparing for the construction of the Royal Navy's two new Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs), slated to enter service in 2012 and 2015, respectively. The CVFs will be the largest warships built in the United Kingdom in decades. At the request of the MOD, the RAND Corporation looked at the risks of current contractor plans and estimated the cost implications of using alternative manufacturing options in the coming years.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Examines ways in which the UK Ministry of Defence can reduce the whole-life costs and manpower requirements of the Royal Navy's two Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs). In 2012 and 2015, respectively, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence will replace its three Invincible-class aircraft carriers with two Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs), the largest ships ever constructed for the Royal Navy. The research described in this report focuses on possible reductions in whole-life costs and manpower requirements of the carriers.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Examines alternatives to full-funding strategy (appropriation of enough money for an entire construction project in the initial year of construction) for funding aircraft carriers. The present practice of fully funding aircraft carriers in a single year causes spikes of several billion dollars in the budget every fourth or fifth year, and it complicates the funding of other programs in those years. RAND assessed the advantages and disadvantages of three alternative strategies: incremental funding, advance appropriations, and a revolving fund. Each strategy can reduce budget spikes but introduces other risks to each participant in the budgeting process: the Navy, DoD, and Congress. No strategy was found to be clearly superior.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

With the advent of the atomic bomb in 1945 and its impact on strategic thinking, the future of naval aviation looked bleak. Rapid demobilization after the war eliminated many carriers, and most policy makers believed that future wars would be fought with nuclear weapons delivered by land-based aircraft. In "Nuclear Weapons and Aircraft Carriers", Jerry Miller traces the struggle of respected naval leaders to promote a different vision and the innovations in the design and engineering of carriers and aircraft that resulted. He argues that the Navy's hard-won nuclear capability played a significant role in ending the Cold War.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

The U.S. Navy is in the process of designing the CVX, its next-generation aircraft carrier. One technological advance for the CVX, compared with the current Nimitz class of carriers, is a new propulsion system. To help in deciding between a nuclear and non-nuclear propulsion system for the CVX, the Navy asked RAND to determine the effects of the CVX propulsion choice on the industrial bases supporting nuclear propulsion systems and those supporting conventional propulsion systems. RAND began the research in April 1998 and provided the results of the analyses to the CVX program office in August 1998. Shortly thereafter, the decision was made that the CVX class would use nuclear propulsion. The research findings described in this document helped influence that decision. This report offers the briefing presented to the program office along with accompanying annotation. The researchers delineated the various propulsion system options being considered and contacted suppliers and integrators of key system components to establish how a CVX decision would affect their company and their industry, as well as other Navy programs.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Traces the history of aircraft carriers from the first flight from a ship in 1910 to the present-day operations of a nuclear-powered carrier.

Arranged by country and class, the book discusses each basic design and presents appearance notes and career summaries.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)