Which is the best fleet aircraft carrier class of WW2?

[Werner]

In fact, the Navy started sending carriers out without Hellcats because the Corsair was a better strike fighter. Hellcats, if any, were relegated to the night fighter mission. If you look at Air Group 5 on CV-13 in March of 1945, she had 6 hellcats (four night fighters and two photographic), 36 corsairs, 15 avengers, and 15 helldivers. The Tiny Tims that cooked off in the hangar bay were on F4Us.

I thought Franklin was a prototype night airwing ship like her taskgroup mate Enterprise. If so, her airwing would be not at all typical. Proof is she carries little more than half the airwing of her other Essex sisters.

If the war had progressed, we would have seen some of the next generation make their appearance in combat: F7F, F8F, Maybe the FH1 Jet within the Olympic timeframe. In bombers, the AD1 would have moved heavy attack into a new league, and maybe even the AM1 would have made an appearance.

With no surrender, several additional CVs and CVBs would have been completed and the 1945 fleet carrier would have progressed.

[bengtsson]

USN:

4. The Independance class CVL was a conversion acceptable but not awesome.

Those acceptable ships did pretty good maybe better than you give them credit. There were 9 of them by the end of 1943 and they out numbered the Essex ships almost the whole year. They kicked butt at a time they were needed badly and were right there with the big carriers even after they finally got caught up. Dont sell them short the Japanese didnt.

I agree about these ships. They were conversions and have to be looked at in that light. Seen as conversions, they were the best , most combat valuable conversions of any war. Great ships at a time they were badly needed.

Bob B.