Airfields at Sea
Aircraft carriers would probably have come into their own regardless of events, but the destruction of the battleship fleet at Pearl Harbor forced them into a central role in the Pacific war. The ignominious defeat at Pearl, where most of the sunken ships were later raised, could have instead been an ignominious defeat on the high seas, where they would all have been lost. The Italian fleet at Taranto was never rebuilt, but the U.S. fleet was, and a major component of that rebuilding was aircraft carriers. The raised battleships became part of the protective screen for the carriers and worked at gunfire support for troops ashore, while the carriers, which were immediately available, began carrying the fight to the enemy. Their importance is reflected in the fact that, during WW II, the United States launched over 100 aircraft carriers of various types, and the British had 59.
The same criteria that made for a powerful battleship made for a powerful aircraft carrier, but the definition of the terms shifted around somewhat. The heavy guns of the battleship were more than matched by the weight of aerial bombs and torpedoes that a carrier air wing could carry into action. The guns could fire more or less continuously, though, while the carrier aircraft had to fly to their target, release ordnance, and return to the ship for re arming. Conversely, the battleship was trying to shoot at a target many miles away, where it was difficult to see the fall of the shot. Aircraft were attacking something that was probably way too close for the pilot's liking, but they could easily see what they were up against, and adjust their aim by direct observation, with little to obscure the view. The range of the engagement was vastly increased, from about 20 miles of the heavy guns, to several hundred miles; whatever the operational radius of the attack aircraft was.
The range of engagement was increased even more over land. Naval gunfire support is not effective much past the beach line unless observers are available to spot and adjust the fall of the shot. They are not able to make full use of their gun's range. (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles used for spotting have recently changed this limitation, and allowed more effective use of the guns. Historically, seaports and areas within about a day's march of the sea have had to worry about attack from the sea,
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