Combat Carriers

USN Air and Sea Operations from 1941

From World War Two to the present day, the aircraft carrier has been a potent display of the might of the US Navy. The nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of today are some of the largest ships afloat, with 3,200 crew as well as 2,480 in the air wing and upwards of eighty-five aircraft aboard. The modern carriers can trace their lineage back to before World War Two. From 1941 to 1945 there were almost twenty naval battles involving the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy and five of them would be fought between aircraft carriers. Critically, four of these battles would occur within a six-month period during 1942 and their outcome would affect the whole course of the war. Martin Bowman tells the story of the United States Navy's carrier war through the voices of the men who fought it, while continuing on through Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf Wars, to the present day. Profusely illustrated with images, many previously unpublished, this book graphically tells the story of US Navy aircraft carriers at war and the men who sailed on and flew from these veritable floating cities.