The first aircraft carriers in service were actually seaplane carriers. Aircraft could launch from the deck, but had to land on the water, to be hoisted back aboard. This method was severely limited by any kind of seas at all, as the planes couldn't survive a landing on rough water, but the Royal Navy made used HMS ENGADINE, RIVIERA and EMPRESS to take aircraft to sea operationally.
Between the wars, progress was made in the design of aircraft carriers and the supporting gear they carried, but Naval theory still held that the Battleship was the most important combatant, and that aircraft and their carriers existed only to provide scouting forces for the fleet. This facade began to crack in 1935, when Brigadier General Billy Mitchell was finally able to arrange his test of air against battlewagon, and sunk the old German battleship Ostfriesland with aerial bombs. The battleship Admirals were not amused, or impressed, but the writing was on the wall if you had the vision to see it. In 1940, that vision became reality when the British Fleet Air Arm crippled the Italian Fleet as it lay at anchor in Taranto harbor. This attack closely foreshadowed, and was very similar to, the raid on Pearl Harbor.
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