tlb wrote:tlb wrote:In WW2 it is clear that the Bismarck and the Yamato were mistakes; but battleships were quite useful for both the US and the British. The final tally of major ships lost by the US in WW2 is 2 battleships (both sunk at Pearl Harbor), 5 heavy carriers and 7 light carriers.Robert_A_Woodward wrote:5 heavy carriers? I count only 4 ("CV-2 Lexington", "CV-5 Yorktown", "CV-7 Wasp", and "CV-8 Hornet"). As far as I know, no Essex class or Midway class carriers were sunk in WWII (though several Essex class carriers were badly damaged).
Wikipedia grouped CV & CVL into what I labeled heavy carriers versus CVE (carrier escorts) into what I labeled light; which moves Princeton (CVL-23, a member of the Independence class that was sunk by a land-based aircraft bomb at the Battle of Leyte Gulf on 24 October 1944) into the heavy class, since it is not a carrier escort. I apologize if I caused confusion by including it with the others you mentioned. Perhaps I should have counted it with the escort carriers, since it is called a light carrier. Or perhaps I should used different names for the groups (like major and minor?).
Please let me know what you think.
I would have accepted 5 fleet carriers (and 7 escort carriers), but the Independence Class were called Light Fleet Carriers and using "Light" for escort carriers is confusing.