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Originally Posted by Cowperson
And the Bismark was effectively rendered to turn in circles, waiting for the British battleships to finish her off, by a few obsolete bi-planes. (The Hood was a WWI era ship, effectively obsolete compared to the Bismark).
As late as Gulf War I, the US Navy found it useful to have a great big battleship blowing things up on land but it had been many, many decades since that kind of behemoth could sail around without air cover for protection.
I'll stick by the point the Japanese found the Taranto ambush very instructive . . . . . and I think Japan had about 10 fleet carriers at the start of WWII versus about four for the Americans which indicates where their thoughts were lying.
The Japanese were doing pretty well holding their own initially but for every carrier sunk, they lost valuable, highly trained pilots which they could never replace.
America, in turn, could turn out an infinite supply of highly trained pilots and continually updated equipment, hence the Great Mariannas Turkey Shoot later on.
At the end of the war, America had about 100 aircraft carriers in the Pacific alone.
Cowperson
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The American's stumbled across the strategy of building cheap Jeep or Escort Carriers in the second World War. They were slow compared to the fleet carriers, held about half the amount of planes and were half the size of the Fleet Carriers that the Americans had.
If you were going to compare in modern turns the British carriers that sail today would be considered Jeep carriers compared to the monsters that the U.S. Navy put out.
The American's built 150 aircraft carriers in WW2 120 of which were the jeep or escort which mainly stuck to convoy duties.