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Show CARRIERS CHANGE ' 11 TACTICS K SOUTH PACIFIC American aircraft carriers have sved one of the most powerful i'ensive weapons in the cam-against cam-against Japan. As the spear (id of every naval striking force i" flattops, shepherding fighters ii bombers, revolutionized am-iblous am-iblous warfare. The damage our triers caused and their ability to stand punishment and to in-sjse in-sjse the range of air combat i; thousands of miles convinced uval experts that they were in-lipensable in-lipensable to victory. Carriers were the core of the lighty task forces that roared crtss the Pacific deep. Tie carrier plane had four amissions: to search out and I'M the enemy fleet, help pro-is! pro-is! its own fleet from attack, serve as a strategic air force in attacking enemy bases and installations instal-lations and finally to operate as a tactical air force, strafing and bombing the enemy in support of ground troops. Flattops provided new uses for the battlehip. On the offensive the battleship delivered the heavy blows after carrier planes had neutralized the enemy air force. Moreover, while carrier dive bombers were pin-pointing enemy targets, the battleships loosed hundreds of shells to devastate the general area of the targets. Because they never before had been tested in the ordeal of war, carriers had to prove their value in the hard way. In 1941 the navy had only seven of them and four of these, the Lexington, York-town, York-town, Hornet and Wasp, were lost in the first year. In the early days many critics at home contended con-tended that flattops were easy picking for land-based planes. It seemed a foolhardy business to try to match these flat, vulnerable targets with unsinkable aircraft carriers" the scores of key Pacific Pa-cific islands on which the Japs had hoisted their flag. But seagoing airfields were vital vit-al to the navy's plans. After Adm. Wm. F. (Bull) Halsey Jr.' demonstrated dem-onstrated he could send a carrier force against entrenched enemy positions and come back the winner, win-ner, and after the first big naval battles were fought by carrier planes without contact by the main bodies of the fleets, not much doubt remained in the public mind that the fighting lady was destined des-tined to be queen of the seas. America built more and more of them. By the end of 1943 some 50 carriers of all types were in service. That number was to grow |