Federalist: Much like the battles fought in the sky during World War II, the battles fought on the sea were crucial to ultimately boosting the fights on the ground. In his free online course “The Second World Wars” for Hillsdale College, professor and scholar Victor Davis Hanson discusses how the Allied powers built a strong naval fleet, and where the Axis powers lapsed in their strategy at sea.
Before WWII began, the British Royal Navy was the most advanced in the world. As the war progressed and America realized they were going to be fighting in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, they launched a massive ship-building effort to take on the infamous German U-boats and attack the islands of Japan.
Perhaps the most significant mistake Germany and Japan made at sea was their failure to build air craft carriers, and their focus on building the biggest battleships and swarms of U-boats. Here’s why.
1. Aircraft Carriers
Battleships were the flashy weapons of choice. The German, Japanese, and Italian navies poured their resources into the biggest battleships they could build, but failed to diversify their fleets. A battleship could fire in a 20-mile radius, but if you have an aircraft carrier with 90 dive bombers, fighters, and torpedo planes, they can fly 200 to 500 miles around the carrier and increase your damage radius 10-fold.
Germany and Italy failed to build a single aircraft carrier. Japan started the war with seven fleet carriers. The United States started the war with only three carriers in the Pacific, were able to bring over two more, and ordered 27 Essex-class carriers—better than any other carrier in the world.
A carrier might seem a static asset that doesn’t appear dynamic or deadly, but as technology advanced throughout the war, carriers proved to be more adaptable than battleships and destroyers. Once a battleship with a 16-inch gun is at sea, you’re stuck with it. Even though a bigger gun might be available, you cannot upgrade that ship you’ve already invested resources in. But a carrier could always be updated with the most advanced and deadly fighter planes and bombers available.
Before WWII, battleships were thought to be the most important asset in naval warfare, but they eventually proved to be ineffective against a more diverse and flexible fleet centered around aircraft carriers. more
Learning to Fly
USS Arizona
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I will listen to OUR greatest current historian VCH, will go down in HISTORY as being CORRECT.
Would love to argue about how GW asked Glover to help with the start of the Navy.
Washingtons Fleet, the Hannah, my mrs ship was one of the first ships commissioned for battle against those bastard Brits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hannah
May GOD Bless the US Navy, recon and amphigs. The 14th Mass Continental Army, and others, were there first.
And AGAIN God Bless the defenders and PILOTS and that came thereafter…
I submit reading both the Japanese and German coded traffic was why we won. We would have lost our only three carriers at Midway without this advantage.
The Axis powers could never match the US war production potential. Though if obama was present at the time, he’d say we couldn’t do.it. And that trans hog he tows around would have eaten all the k-rations.
“trans hog”… Hahahahahahaha…
Largest US Naval Battle — Leyte Gulf.
Man can you see the Obamboozler on a motorcycle with that “trans hog” on the back?
Talk about a weight distribution problem! Wheelie-casters mandatory… and that’s just for stability at a stop light!
Bird farms AKA aircraft carriers rule. And the USS Kitty Hawk CV 63 which I served on was the biggest and largest aircraft carrier ever built for the Navy. It was about 1100-1200 ft. long and 100 yds. wide and displaced approximately 100,000 tons and had a crew of between of 5000-6000 Sailors and Airmen. It was a huge ship and the flight deck was 80-90 ft. above the water line which is 8-9 stories tall. I loved that ship. It was also the last of the diesel powered ships like the USS Constellation CV 64 before the first nuclear powered carrier USS Enterprise CV 65.
Here is Bill Whittle on our military. Good stuff.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bUJDMT15oLE
The “escort” and “light carriers” (Bogue-class escort carriers CVE — and Independence Class light CVL) were THE major early decision by the US and British Navies to hold off the Axis until more Essex Class could be built . Unsung heroes. {and they could cross through the Panama Canal !}
Sometimes little details that are overlooked and can have serious repercussions. I read a book by an intelligence officer in Hawaii.
When the Japanese were getting ready to make a move, their ships would use different call signs than normal as to hide what ships were moving where. One particular radio operator on a major Japanese warship had a distinctive “hand” when sending code and the Americans monitoring Japanese radio traffic could easily identify him.
When his ship with its special call sign moved prior to a major operation, the Americans still knew what ship it was because of the operator. That information, along with other intelligence, helped the Americans beat the Japanese to the punch.
Thanks for posting this article, MJA! VDH’s The Second World Wars is a long but VERY good read, IMO. I recommend it to the “family”. I think our amazing productive capacity during WW2 still would not have won the War (remember how much support we gave the USSR, too) had our civilian and military leaders not had the balls to stick with it – and our citizens the determination to win it. Except for President Trump, I fear that many if not most of both today would appease or surrender when faced with the horrors faced back then.