Another in their excellent New Vanguard series is this book on WWII build US Aircraft Carriers. This basically means the Essex and Independence class of fleet and light carriers. The Navy didn't want the light carriers, built on Cleveland Class cruiser hulls, but President Roosevelt was insistent on it and they were developed.

But let's start with the Essex class of fleet carriers. These were built to carry nearly 100 aircraft, and after the losses of 1942, were sorely needed to stem the tide of Japanese conquest and push them back. It is fortuitous that the need was seen prior to the start of hostilities as these ships were not quickly built.

Essex was ordered in 1938 and with war underway in Europe, the total ordered was 26  all but two were completed. 17 were finished before the end of the war and 14 of those seeing action, making it the largest class of aircraft carrier ever built.

The other class of carrier used was the Independence class. Of the 9 completed, five of them were converted from already started ships and four were built as such from keel up. All saw action and several of them were used post-war by foreign navies. The last of them, the Deldalo, ex-Cabot was unfortunately scrapped in 2000 despite efforts to save her as a museum ship, representing the only Independence class carrier around. Thanks to that short-sightedness, there are none of these ships left.

The book covers not only the basic construction of each ship and the various weapons that it carried, but also the complements of their air groups, which changed as the war evolved. A short history of each ship and its eventual fate are also provided. I found it interesting that only four Essex class ships were saved as museums: Yorktown CV-10, is at Charleston; Intrepid CV-11 is in New York City, Hornet CV-12 is at Alameda, and Lexington CV-16 is at Corpus Christi.

The superlative images in the book are further enhanced by the artwork of Tony Bryan who shows a number of these ships in the seemingly bewildering array of camouflage schemes worn by these ships.

This is a book that ship fans will just have to have in their libraries and the rest of us will find it an excellent primer on the types.

February 2007

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