Admiral Beez
Major
Instead of OTL of sending the cruiser Ashigara to the May 1937 Spithead Review, Japan sends their recently reconstructed aircraft carrier Kaga.
Seen on the carrier's flight deck are two Mitsubishi A5M flighters, a single Yokosuka B4Y torpedo bomber and a single Aichi D1A divebomber. What is the reaction in the British and other nations' military, media and public opinion to this 38,000 ton, 812 ft vessel with its apparent three level hangar?
For comparison, Britain's HMS Courageous and HMS Furious were also on display at Spithead.
Britain has nothing like it in service in May 1937, with Ark Royal (91) not entering service another year and a half and the three Illustrious class having only just begun construction. Britain's naval fighter was the Hawker Nimrod, its torpedo bomber the Blackburn Baffin, with no dive bomber whatsoever, though the prototype Blackburn Skua had flown earlier that year in February 1937.
Now, we have to accept this would be madness on the part of the Japanese, as they intentionally kept their best and biggest ships out of sight because they needed superiority of individual ships vs. their likely opponents, AND they were fighting in China at this time. So, we must assume someone in the Japanese high command pulled rank and demanded that their big carrier be sent to impress the Europeans and Hitler or another reason.
Seen on the carrier's flight deck are two Mitsubishi A5M flighters, a single Yokosuka B4Y torpedo bomber and a single Aichi D1A divebomber. What is the reaction in the British and other nations' military, media and public opinion to this 38,000 ton, 812 ft vessel with its apparent three level hangar?
For comparison, Britain's HMS Courageous and HMS Furious were also on display at Spithead.
Britain has nothing like it in service in May 1937, with Ark Royal (91) not entering service another year and a half and the three Illustrious class having only just begun construction. Britain's naval fighter was the Hawker Nimrod, its torpedo bomber the Blackburn Baffin, with no dive bomber whatsoever, though the prototype Blackburn Skua had flown earlier that year in February 1937.
Now, we have to accept this would be madness on the part of the Japanese, as they intentionally kept their best and biggest ships out of sight because they needed superiority of individual ships vs. their likely opponents, AND they were fighting in China at this time. So, we must assume someone in the Japanese high command pulled rank and demanded that their big carrier be sent to impress the Europeans and Hitler or another reason.
