Small Aircraft Carriers

Admiral Beez said:

True. The Independence class may be the best of the smallest. But Ryujo down to one hangar deck and add an island bridge and we have something better

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Again. expected sea state. What works in the Med or the Baltic (or even North Sea) does not work in the North Atlantic or North Pacific. South Atlantic can really depend on where.

For a Ryujo inspired ship, what are you going to be facing?
Am HMS Hermes or Eagle or a Glorious or Ark Royal?

Why does RCN need fast carrier with monoplanes?

With that requirement, our carrier needs:

It's not going to fight a carrier vs carrier battle in Pacific, but it can do its part to win the Battle of the Atlantic

don4331 said:

Why does RCN need fast carrier with monoplanes?

From WWI, (we always refight the previous war, just with better hardware) the main combatants will be U-Boats and HSKs with may be an occasional warship raider to be located and slowed down, so the capital ships can earn their pay.
And much of the effort can be in mid-Atlantic/Northern Indian Ocean/Mediterranean Sea​

With that requirement, our carrier needs:

Long range (ideally with enough extra capacity to extend range of escorts aka USN Casablanca class) - Diesel engines are advantageous for part power efficiency/rapid acceleration (relatively) to launch/recover planes.​

Long range invokes some crew size requirements -> e.g. they will need a doctor on board (historically, it was...challenging...to get a doctor aboard a MAC.)​

Planes fulfill the ability to:​

a. locate U-Boats, b. force U-boats to submerge and c. direct escorts to the kill
i. locate HSK and ii. direct escorts to the capture/kill
v. locate Raiders, vv. maintain surveillance and vvv. slow so gun ships may apply the coup de grace
as they aren't facing enemy air opposition, biplanes do fine.​

It's not going to fight a carrier vs carrier battle in Pacific, but it can do its part to win the Battle of the Atlantic

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There is need and then there is aspiration, not to mention politics. The RCN grew dramatically in both size and confidence as WW2 progressed and wanted to take its place alongside the larger allied navies. This article shows how naval aviation developed within the RCN from 1942.

From its early plans in 1942 for CVEs to support its escort groups in the North Atlantic, which saw them manning 2 RN escort carriers (Nabob & Puncher). That pair did no convoy escort, spending their time on ferry duties and then a strike role with the Home Fleet in 1944/45.

By 1944 the aspirations of Canada and the RCN were changing. A more confident country and service wanted to be more than a North Atlantic escort service. It wanted to play its full part in the Pacific War alongside the USN and RN. The loss of of Canadian troops in Hong Kong in Dec 1941 gave them skin in that game. To that end it wanted to build a balanced fleet to do just that. So the plan became one of the RCN contributing a task force(s) built around:-

2 light cruisers. Uganda was taken over in Oct 1944 while under repair in the USA. Ontario followed fresh from the builders in May 1945.
2 light fleet carriers. Intended to be in service by the end of 1945. Warrior & Magnificent were earmarked.
2 destroyer flotillas built around the modern 3 Tribals and 2 V class in RCN service plus the 4 Tribals building in Canada (the first completed in Sept 1945) and the 8 Cr class building in Britain (only Crescent & Crusader were transferred in late 1945 due to the end of the war).
Plus some 40 River class frigates and the AA cruiser Prince Robert.

By Aug 1945 many of these vessels were in the process of being refitted for such service or were already en route to the Pacific (Prince Robert, Ontario, Algonquin)

Admiral Beez said:

But Ryujo cut down to one hangar deck and add an island bridge and we have something useful.

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Do we?

I note Wiki gives her air group as 48. However after her reconstructions she was rated at 12 Type 90 fighters (+4 spare), and 24 (+8 spare) Type 89 torpedo bombers. Total 36 + 12 spares not available for immediate operations (usually carried broken down in Japanese carriers). But she rarely seems to have carried that number. In Nov 1940 her air group consisted of 18 B5N1 Kate and 16 A5M4 Claude fighters. Total 34. She never carried Val dive bombers, one reason being that they were too large for her after elevator.

The A5M4 were not replaced by A6M Zeros until May 1942. By then her air group was 12 (+2 spare) Zeros and 18 Kates (A mix of N1 & N2 models. +2 spares). Total 30 + 4 spares.

Now remove one hangar and you are down to an operational air group of around 15. Now we are getting down to Hermes / Eagle levels.

Chitose & Chiyoda when converted in 1943 with a single hangar had an air group of 21 Zeros and 9 Kate torpedo bombers. Total 30. But 7 of the Zeros had to be carried as a permanent deck park, due to limited hangar space.