Filipe Ramires wrote:
Akagi was crippled by one single bomb hit according to the latest studies.
Akagi's latest studies consist of one (1) study by one very opinionated person who wrote the "shattered sword". His research on the internal layout of Japanese carriers, upon which he based so much of his theory, consisted at least in part of buying a 1/700 scale plastic model of Japanese carriers and reading the sketch diagrams that came with its instructions. So reliable did he regard this source of evidence that he even reproduced that diagram, properly credited to the plastic model manufacturer, in his book, as evidence.
Filipe Ramires wrote:
Ark Royal was sunk by one single submarine torpedo.
Wasp turned into pyros when hit by two submarine torpedoes...nearly impossible to save.
So what? They were both fairly small carriers roughly comparable to heavy cruisers in full load displacement. Consequently their underwater damage resistance should be expected to be about the same as that of a heavy cruiser. And indeed their performance is right in line with what one expectes from a heavy cruiser of about 18,000 tons.
We can also extrapolate from their performance, and performance of other warships of the era, roughly how many total torpedo hits on both sides ships with of different full load displacements, outfitted with WWII standard damage control, can on average be expected to survive.
15,000 tons 1-2 torpedoes
30,000 tons: 3-4 torpedoes
40,000 tons: 6-7 torpedoes
50,000 tons: ~10 torpedoes
70,000 tons: >15 torpedoes
From this we might extrapolate that a modern super carrier of about 100,000 tons can withstand
many torpedoes hits indeed.
As to ships being broken in halves by underkeel explosion, keep in mind that all the spectacular photos of target ships broken in half are on ships with light construction and longitudinal framing. In other words ships whose hull is built like an airplane fuselage, with all the load paths on the ship's skin. All modern cruisers and destroyers are built like this. But heavy carriers? AFAIK, they are still built with transverse framing with multiple internal load path, rather like battleships. In this case I see no reason at all why they would be particularly susceptible to massive structure failure resulting from an moderate sized underkeel explosion.