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Yes, Victorious for some time had aboard Martlets of FAA squadrons 882, 896 and 898, and most of the Wildcats of VF-6 USN squadron.
Saratoga instead carried about 60 or more Dauntless and Avengers of VB-3, VT-3 and No.832 FAA squadrons, along with the remaining Wildcats of VF-6.
Max
Yes I don't know why the British didn't operate more aircraft, the Illustrious class obviously could operate up to 60 fighters. Imagine what a difference it would have made during "Pedestal" to have 150+ fighters defending the fleet instead of only about 75 total. (Argus 20 aircraft, Spit V/SeaHurri; Indomitable 31 SeaHurri, 24 Albacore; Victorious 12 Hurri, 12 Spit V, 12 Albacore) They could have had 60 Martlet/Hurri/Spit V on the Victorious, probably 75 on the Indomitable. They could still have operated 3 squadrons of Albacores + another 25 Martlet/SeaHurri from the Argus Furious.
Considering that Victorious Indomitable were both put out of action for 6 months by the Axis bombings, it might have prevented this. With that much fighter cover they could have protected the fleet all the way instead of turning back. Yes I know that in the end the tanker "Ohio" DID make into Malta harbour, but just barely!
I have often wondered what the British were thinking about when the deployed the Fulmar as a carrier fighter. I believe they were fairly effective against unescorted JU87s.
As I said, numbers depends on the size of planes and much of the size depends on the ability of folding wings. I believe that 60 folding wings Martlets is the absolute maximum. I'm afraid that not so many of them were available in 1942.
At the time, also, the Seafire wasn't operational yet, and it did not have folding wings till later (Mk III version). The same for Sea Hurricane. So they could be embarked only in small numbers in Victorious, and in the other carriers much space was required.
For example in 1943 during Salerno Landings the escort carriers had about 18 Seafires aboard (Mk II), while later the same ships had up to 28 Mk III, maybe more.
The same effect was done by USN F4F-3 (not folding wings) vs F4F-4 and FM (folding), so the usual VF squadron doubled the number of planes (18 vs 36)
So, apart for a fleet use of Furious (but anyway Spitfires were nedded in Malta), the fighter complement was about at the maximum. The Albacores were nedded in case of battle with italian fleet and ASP.
Max
To make two examples, Spitfire and Wildcats initially hadn't folding wings, but later they got. Wildcat was a success, but it was designed as a carrier plane, Seafire instead was a poor carrier plane with or without f.w.
In my opinion everything is feasible, but to navalize a plane adds weight (foldign mechanism, and in general structure strenghthening, hook, cat gear...) that dereases performances.
I believe that in general the strenghteining is required.
Max
A couple of questions if anyone knows, several carriers were used as "aircraft transports", I believe I read that "Ranger" launched aircraft. (P-40's to Freeport I think) How much deck was needed for a Hurricane or P-40 for a non-catapult take off?
Also how difficult was it to remove the wings of a Hurricane or P-40 for transport? Not disassembled or crated, just with wings removed.
I can't think of any successful conversion of a landbased AC to carrier borne during or since WW2. Too much weight to be added to make a successful carrier plane.
CV1, the Langley was sunk while ferrying P40s to Java. The Allies launched Spitfires off of a carrier to reinforce Malta. It might have been Wasp or a RN carrier I can't remember which. These were regular Spits not Seafires. The Glorious a Brit carrier landed a few Hurricanes evacuating from Norway. These were landplanes with no arresting gear. Must have been hair raising. A carrier doing almost 30 knots into a 15 or 20 mph wind would mean a Hurricane might only have a speed over the deck of 45 mph when it touched down.
How much deck did the lead B-25 have to take off from?Those aviators must have been relieved to get aboard. Short term relief though. The carrier was sunk by Scharnhorst very shortly. Obviously with a good wind over the deck, WOD, landplanes could get off with 400 or 500 ft of deck. Remember the Doolittle raid. Those were B25s with a full load of fuel and some bombs. A fighter, especially the early model European fighters being light would have no trouble doing a non catapult takeoff. .
The ferrying of assembled single engine fighters was best done with aircraft carriers. No need of unload facilities and aircrafts ready very soon after ground landing. It was one of the duty of CVEs as soon as they became available.
During the invasion of Marianas, two CVEs (loaded with 37 P-47D each) launched the Army fighters for their own defence, and they later landed on their intended destination (Saipan).
AFAIK the fitting of wings was a lenghty and hard process, but was sometimes done during the battle for Malta, because the transporting carrier had to keep some naval fighters for fleet defence along with the air force planes.
freebird, it was Freetown, not Freeport.
Max