Flightdeck Friday: Implementing the Maritime Strategy-Quantity vs Quality (II) CV OPS
So the discussion earlier this week revolved around quantity vs quality and used as an argument in favor of quality that the Navy in the 1920’s and 30’s chose to press technology (and hence chose quality) over quantity (maintaining a large force structure), developing the tools, tactics and laying the groundwork for success in the war that lay over the horizon. One of the examples of this approach was what Navy did with the carriers – watch the progress in technology and procedures in the film clips below (mute the soundtrack if necessary) from Langley’s first halting steps to the first of the Essex class CVA’s.
Consider — without the experience gained with the operation of a small handful of carriers cobbled together from an ex-collier, planned battle cruisers and a keel-up but smaller carrier design, could the first Essex have been ready in 1942? The operational concept of fast carrier battle groups? Even the over-the-top idea of launching medium bombers in a daring and signatory strike against the Japanese homeland a few short months after the devastation at Pearl Harbor? One must confess that it is a compelling argument… BTW, how many previous Flightdeck Friday subjects can you spot? – SJS
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Have to say that I feel a bit sorry for our British friends…apparently the producers of this piece have never heard of a place called Taranto, as according to them the Japanese were the first to implement the whole “attack ships with planes” thing. I could be wrong, but as I recall, Yamamoto got the idea to attack shallow anchorages with modified torpedoes from a service who still used biplanes to deliver said torpedoes.
SJS
Thx for the pic of my old boat, the last of the single digit CVs. My time aboard was 25 years later. Most proud to be an Essex airdale, I am.
Sometimes (OK, often times) we wonder who does the fact checking for History channel and have on occasion offered our services. Crickets have been the response. Ob. Taranto, somewhere in our vast archives (which, much to the dismay of Mrs. Scribe, closely resemble the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark…) we have pics of Taranto from one of our anchorages on IKE during a MED deployment long ago…
– SJS