Osprey ELI 232 World War II US Fast Carrier Task Force Tactics 1943 1945 By Brian Lane Herder True Pdf.pdf

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World War II US Fast
Carrier Task Force
Tactics 1943–45
BRIAN LANE HERDER
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM HOOK
Elite • 232
World War II US Fast
Carrier Task Force Tactics
1943–45
BRIAN LANE HERDER
ILLUSTRATED BY ADAM HOOK
Series editor Martin Windrow
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
COMPOSITION
Fast carriers
Escorts
Auxiliaries
4
5
ORGANIZATION
Command
10
AIR GROUP EQUIPMENT & ORGANIZATION
Fighters
Groups
n
n
13
Scout/Dive‑bombers
Squadrons
n
Torpedo‑bombers
n
Floatplanes
Shipboard & shore‑based personnel
n
Aviators
OPERATIONS & TACTICS
Doctrine: Prewar development, 1922–1941 – wartime development, 1942–1943
to perfection, 1943–44
n
Strategy and logistics
Flight operations: personnel and procedures – night operations
Task Force Tactics: Formations and communications
n
n
21
From practice
Radar
n
Fighter direction tactics
Task Group defense: aerial defense – anti‑aircraft guns – tactics against
kamikazes,
1944–1945
Carrier damage control
SURFACE COMBAT
AIR COMBAT
Scouting
n
46
47
Strafing and rocket attacks
Strikes
n
Fighter tactics
n
Bombing – torpedo attacks
Night attacks and interception
n
Air‑sea rescue – lifeguard submarines
Case study: Operation “Jamboree,” February 16–17, 1945
CONCLUSION
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
62
63
64
WORLD WAR II US FAST CARRIER
TASK FORCE TACTICS 1943–45
INTRODUCTION
By November 1943, the prewar US fleet so devastated in 1941 and 1942
had become a dimming memory. Replacing it was an essentially brand‑new
navy whose warships were being churned out by the United States’ surging
industrial mobilization. The new navy’s crown jewel was the
Fast Carrier Task
Force,
a combined‑arms weapons system comprising modern aircraft carriers
embarking fighters and bombers, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, tied
together by new technologies and tactics, and manned by overwhelmingly
new personnel.
While the US Navy deployed many fast carrier task forces in World
War II, including occasionally in the Atlantic, only one formation became
known simply as
the
Fast Carrier Task Force. Between November 1943
and August 1945 this single battle fleet had several commanders and
designations, but remains best‑remembered as Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher’s
Task Force 58 (TF‑58). Numerous volumes have analyzed the warships,
aircraft, campaigns, and admirals of the FCTF; this book will instead address
the structure, doctrine, and tactics of this powerful strike fleet.
The light carrier USS
Langley
(CVL‑27) leads Task
Group 38.3 into the Ulithi
anchorage in the Caroline
Islands on December 12,
1944, followed by the heavy
carrier
Ticonderoga
(CV‑14),
battleships
Washington
(BB‑56),
North Carolina
(BB‑55), and
South Dakota
(BB‑57), and light
cruisers
Santa Fe
(CL‑60),
Biloxi
(CL‑80),
Mobile
(CL‑63), and
Oakland
(CL‑95). This imposing
line of US carriers, battleships,
and cruisers symbolically
suggests the US Pacific Fleet
commanders’ dream of a
combined air‑surface “fleet
battle,” which ultimately never
transpired – largely due to
the carriers’ vastly superior
ship‑killing range compared
to that of all surface warships,
supported by the sophisticated
application of radar technology.
(Navsource)
4
Admiral Halsey’s Iowa‑class
battleship USS
New Jersey
(BB‑62) and Vice Adm McCain’s
Essex‑class carrier USS
Hancock
(CV‑19) in high
seas, November 1944. To
counter Japan’s 26‑knot
Kongo‑class battleships, the
USN conceived an independent
fast battleship/fast carrier
striking force, resulting in the
33‑knot Iowa‑class battleships
authorized in 1938. The
never‑realized independent
striking force conceptually
preceded the Fast Carrier Task
Force, demonstrating that the
USN’s operational revolution
from the “fleet battle” toward
swift strikes pre‑dated Pearl
Harbor. In practice, by 1945
any chance of a battle‑line duel
with IJN heavy warships had
come and gone. (Navsource)
From November 1943 to the end of the war the US Pacific Fleet’s
offensive spearhead was the Fast Carrier Task Force, a high‑speed battle fleet
comprising three to five carrier
Task Groups,
each cruising in a 4‑ to 6‑mile
wide circular formation centered on three or four fast carriers – typically two
Essex‑class carriers and one or two Independence‑class light carriers. (Note
that all distances given in this text are in nautical miles – see conversion
factor on page 2.) Surrounding the fast carriers in an inner ring were two to
three fast battleships, and four to five cruisers. A screen of 16–20 destroyers
maintained the outermost ring. The Task Groups themselves cruised 12nm
apart center‑to‑center, each Task Group being commanded by a rear admiral.
Task Group carriers, battleships, and cruisers were grouped together by type
into
divisions;
carrier division commanders simultaneously commanded their
carriers’ respective Task Group. Destroyers were grouped into
squadrons
comprising multiple divisions. Above individual ships, the division was the
smallest tactical and administrative unit.
COMPOSITION
Fast carriers
By 1943 the US Navy operated two carrier types: 30‑plus knot
fast carriers
(also called
fleet carriers)
intended for high‑intensity offensive combat, and
18‑knot
escort carriers
that performed anti‑submarine warfare (ASW),
amphibious air support, and aircraft ferrying duties. While their operations
supported each other, fast carriers and escort carriers typically operated
separately, and only the former are the subject of this book.
The American tradition of large, fast fleet carriers was established
by the 1920–27 conversions of the 874‑foot, 44,200‑ton
Lexington
and
Saratoga
battlecruiser hulls into high‑speed aircraft carriers. Being large
and fast imparted significant tactical and operational advantages. At
34.5 knots, the Lexingtons could outrun surface and submarine threats
that they couldn’t fight (for speed conversion factor, see page 2). High
speed additionally facilitated launch and recovery operations, while by
5

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