southjn1982
Airman
- 64
- Dec 15, 2020
At that point we might as well do a Langley and convert Hermes to a seaplane tender. Something like HMAS Albatross that entered service in 1929.
View attachment 609636That would be the single worst thing you could do as it would have such a detrimental effect to her capability. Hermes was the starting point for the 1942 Light Carrier Programme as well as HMS Unicorn by mass producing her preferably throughout the late 20's and 30's on top of the obvious economic benefits of the job creation during the depression you have a cheap expendable carrier that is fast enough to operate with the cruiser groups as well as being a very capable sub hunter and good enough for second line resupply missions basically doing the roles ships like the Majestic class or the Escort Carriers like the Casablanca's did but 3 years earlier. This frees up the larger carriers for strike missions so they are not wasted in the OTL sub hunting groups of 1939-40 nor are they wasted on resupply missions like Malta or Norway. The early creation of an effective second line carrier doing non fleet roles could have saved every single one of the RN Fleet carriers that were wasted between 1939 and 41 (Courageous, Glorious, Ark Royal and Eagle) while simultaneously having more availiable strike capability considering how much damage 1 CV did at Taranto 2-3 would have perminantly put the Italians out of the war or if the hunting groups for commerce raiders had a baked in air component i.e. What would the Battle of the River Plate had looked like if aswell as his 3 cruisers Harwood had Hermes (or a Hermes clone) how much more ocean could they cover in looking for the Panzershiffes and how would Graff Spee have handled a simultaneous strike of 20 Skua dive bombers while also dealing with the 3 cruisers. . Turning her into a Sea Plane carrier would undo all of that potential
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