Did RN Illustrious Class armoured decks provide significant benefit against bombs?

[HealzDevo]

I notice that in Modern Day US carriers, that the practice of doing deck parking is alive and well. Is this just because, most of the conflicts that the US has been involved in with Carriers since WW2 have been relatively minor, or would this continue against a well-armed foe like China for instance? I just ask for an opinion as it would seem that a lot of the damage was done by Kamakazies aiming for the deck-park as best they could. I know there are inventions such as Radar and SAMs on perimeter ships but still, wouldn't it be risky if just one enemy aircraft got through, even on a suicide run, considering how few aircraft carriers, the US has?

 

[parsifal]

Biggest threat to US CVNs is tactical nuclear strike....having aircraft above or below decks is not going to affect the survivability of the ship.

Its not just the USN that accept a deck park these days. So too do all other carrier operators

 

[HealzDevo]

How much damage though, would having that deck-park get hit do, especially if it was as the elevator was open while raising or lowering a plane from below decks? I'm just asking for a rough guess from those of you that are experienced in this thing.

I know the deck would be armoured but it would still get very flameable with all that fuel on deck... Isn't that what caused the problems? I know there is good fire control practices but still, is deck parking that sensible a practice, considering the Vietnam War example of the USS Forestal which put a carrier out of action for quite a while in getting repairs?

 

[Freebird]

How much damage though, would having that deck-park get hit do, especially if it was as the elevator was open while raising or lowering a plane from below decks? I'm just asking for a rough guess from those of you that are experienced in this thing.

I know the deck would be armoured but it would still get very flameable with all that fuel on deck... Isn't that what caused the problems? I know there is good fire control practices but still, is deck parking that sensible a practice, considering the Vietnam War example of the USS Forestal which put a carrier out of action for quite a while in getting repairs?

Deck hits on parked aircraft caused much more damage lots more casualties. (as there were usually lots of crew working on the aircraft)

 

[parsifal]

with regard to us carrier losses, the list you guys have drawn up, doesnt include all the carriers lost, or effectively lost. case in point....us carriers sunk or wqithdrawn, and not returned due to damage. heres where the relative weakness of us carriers to bomb attacks really stands out

 

[Glider]

Deck hits on parked aircraft caused much more damage lots more casualties. (as there were usually lots of crew working on the aircraft)

True, but on the RN carriers it was at least contained on deck. I am not aware of one spreading into the hanger below

 

[Freebird]

True, but on the RN carriers it was at least contained on deck. I am not aware of one spreading into the hanger below

Quite correct.
And the difference vs kamikaze hits is very striking.

HMS Victorious: Kamikaze attacks on 4 9 May '45, armoured deck prevented serious damage - operational within hours
HMS Indomitable: Kamikaze attacks on 4 May '45, armoured deck prevented serious damage - operational within hours
HMS Indefatigable: Kamikaze hit 1 April '45, 14 men killed, operational within 5 hours
HMS Formidable: Kamikaze hit on 9 May, no serious damage, operational within hours
HMS Formidable: The most serious of the Kamikaze hits on UK carriers, hit with considerable velocity on May 4, made a 10 x 2 foot by 2 foot deep dent, 11 aircraft destroyed, out of action for only 5.5 hours

USS Ticonderoga: Hit by 2 Kamikaze on 22 Jan '45, 100+ killed, out of action 3 months
USS Randolph Hit by Kamikaze on 11 Mar '45 - 27 killed, out of action for 4 weeks
USS Lexington: Major damage from Kamikaze Nov 5 '44, continued flight operations later that day, but repairs took 1 month
USS Intrepid: 25 Nov '44 Kamikaze hit - out of action 11 weeks, from 26 Nov - Mid Feb
USS Bunker Hill - Hit on May 11 '45, 346 killed, 4 months out of action

 

[RCAFson]

How much damage though, would having that deck-park get hit do, especially if it was as the elevator was open while raising or lowering a plane from below decks? I'm just asking for a rough guess from those of you that are experienced in this thing.

I know the deck would be armoured but it would still get very flameable with all that fuel on deck... Isn't that what caused the problems? I know there is good fire control practices but still, is deck parking that sensible a practice, considering the Vietnam War example of the USS Forestal which put a carrier out of action for quite a while in getting repairs?

The problem for non armoured carriers is that fires in the hanger could easily spread to other parts of the ship if the hanger floor was damaged, so a bomb equipped kamikaze could cause a lot of damaged to parked aircraft while its bomb could then enter the hanger, detonate, and then blow a hole in the hanger deck allowing the fire and blast to spread damage below the hanger deck. Thus happened to several USN carrierss including Franklin, which suffered casualties to 1/3 of the crew with over 700 dead, from hits that would not have penetrated the armoured flight deck of an RN carriers.

Regarding bomb hits, if an AP bomb does penetrate and armoured flight deck it is no worse, in terms of flight deck damage than a GP bomb penetrating an unarmoured deck, however GP bombs that strike an armoured deck stand a good chance of simply breaking up or detonating with a very low order detonation since the casing gets broken by striking the armour.

 

[norab]

interesting page here

Kamikaze Damage to US and British Carriers

 

[Glider]

Very interesting, many thanks