Demon Beast Forbidden Area
Chapter 002: Airship Carriers
The history of aircraft carriers was almost the same as the history of aircraft. After the Wright brothers invented the aircraft in 1903, in just seven years, the Frenchman, Henry. Fabre created the world's first seaplane, extending the take-off and landing range of the plane from land to the sea.
In 1910, the American pilot Eugene. Ellie piloted a biplane from the wooden deck of the light cruiser USS Nottingham, which was docked in the harbor. He successfully took off from the ship and landed on the cruiser USS Pennsylvania, setting a record for the first time that a human plane took off and landed on a warship.
The people who had a vision of the future of the air forces in various countries prompted the military to establish naval aviation. However, due to the limitations of the arms race between the navies of various countries to build warships equipped with large-caliber artillery, the construction of naval aviation was still a very avant-garde idea.
The United Kingdom built the first ship dedicated to carrying seaplanes, the Astrologer. In 1912, the world's first naval aviation was established. Japan, Italy, Germany, and Russia followed suit and developed seaplane carriers.
During the First World War, the United Kingdom was the only country to use seaplane carriers in naval operations. It also proposed that water reconnaissance aircraft would help the development of the war. In order to match the fighter planes to protect it, a new warship with a flight deck was designed. This was the prototype of the aircraft carrier.
The aircraft carrier Wrath was the representative of the enlightenment period in the history of the development of aircraft carriers. It had undergone several experimental modifications.
The British Navy Commander at that time, David. Betty ordered the Brave-class battle cruiser, Wrath, to be modified into an aircraft carrier with a large flight deck and conducted a series of experiments.
The appearance of the Wrath was like a combination of a cruiser and an aircraft carrier. There were many turrets in front and a long straight deck at the back. It was not a problem for the carrier aircraft to take off, but it would be affected by the airflow of the upper building when landing, which was very dangerous.
In order to solve this problem, another ocean-going cruise ship that was originally going to be built as an aircraft carrier, the Earl Roseau, was ordered to be modified to remove all the upper buildings and become a full-deck. It was named the Hundred-eyed Giant.
In 1923, the United Kingdom built the Sporting God. It was the first ship designed specifically for aircraft carriers. It had a full deck, a closed bow, and an island-like structure on the starboard side.
Japan and the United States also had aircraft carriers. Japan's first carrier, the Fengxiang, was the first ship in the world to be designed for aircraft carriers. America's first carrier ship was modified from the Jupiter coal carrier and was named the Langley. It also had a full deck.
The US Navy had developed many new technologies on the Langley, including catapults, landing commander systems, and blocking nets.
In 1936, after the Washington Navy Convention expired, the naval powers launched a new round of naval arms race. The United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan successively built a series of main-force aircraft carriers. In terms of carrier-based aircraft technology, Japan and the United States were developing vigorously. On the other hand, the United Kingdom's development was slow due to the vicious competition between the military services.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, the most intense naval and air war in the history of the Pacific Ocean occurred. The American and Japanese forces that fought had powerful fleets of aircraft carriers.
In 1941, the Great Japan Empire decided to go to war with the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands. The Imperial Japanese Navy designed an attack on Pearl Harbor. This was the first large-scale operation that focused on the use of aircraft carriers. The Japanese army sent a total of six aircraft carriers and 353 carrier-based aircraft to carry out a surprise attack on the US fleet in Pearl Harbor. In the end, 18 surface ships of the US Pacific Fleet were heavily damaged.
Although the Japanese naval air force performed a near-perfect attack on the ship in this operation, because there were no aircraft ships docked in the US port, the Japanese army failed to severely damage the US Navy's air force despite achieving the goal of containing the US Pacific Fleet.
In the successive offensives of the Japanese army in early 1942, aircraft carriers and aircraft demonstrated a powerful ability to attack ships. In the Battle of Malaysia, two British warships and battle cruisers sailed without air force protection and were immediately sunk by 88 Japanese land-based aircraft, while the Japanese only lost six aircraft.
In the Indian Ocean air raid, the Japanese once again concentrated their carriers on the British fleet stationed in Ceylon Port, expelling the British naval forces from the Pacific Ocean.
During the Second World War, the Essex class aircraft carrier battle group was the flourishing development of aircraft carriers in the Second World War. The power of the air became the new master of the battlefield.
The US military gradually reversed the naval situation between Japan and the United States with the use of aircraft carriers. In May 1942, the first battle between aircraft carriers took place, the Battle of the Coral Sea. The ships of both sides were out of sight of each other's crew, and they relied solely on their aircraft to attack and defend.
In June of the same year, the Battle of Midway in the Central Pacific was the first large-scale battle between aircraft carriers. Due to the fact that the Japanese aircraft carriers were carrying ammunition and lack of damage control capabilities, most of the Japanese aircraft involved in the battle were sunk by the US bomber raid. Since then, the Japanese's ability to launch an offensive in the Pacific has been greatly weakened.
In August 1942, Japan lost a large number of naval pilots in the South Pacific. During this period, the United States fought to put the national industrial capacity into war production. Batches of new aircraft ships were launched into service, and a large number of trained pilots were sent to the front line. The Japanese lost more people and aircraft than they replenished. In the end, the Japanese aircraft and pilots were exhausted. Other than suicide aircraft attacks, there was no way to stop the United States Navy from advancing to their homeland.
An aircraft carrier was basically made up of a flat deck and an island-like bridge on one side of the hull. There was a corridor under the deck, and there were multiple water-tight compartments, hangars, weapon depots, and crew quarters. The deck of a large carrier could even reach as many as six floors.
The bow was a closed design, from the flight deck to the bow. During World War II, most aircraft carriers, except for a few like the Lexington class, had a flight deck directly on the deck. This design was called an open bow. It had the advantages of setting up anti-air machine guns and convenient lifting and lowering anchors, but it had the problem of strength design. For example, the Essex class Bumblebee was severely damaged by a typhoon in 1944.
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