Aircraft Carriers: The World’s Greatest Carriers of the last 100 Years

Everything was outstanding.

My father is a Navy Vet. He really enjoyed this book. He did say that there were some ships he felt were excluded from the book. It was a great gift, well received.

This book unfortunately omits both the Kitty Hawk and America classes, which is why I don’t give it 5 stars. It also doesn’t really get into the doctrine behind successful carrier operations. The Japanese started WW2 with a fearsome carrier force, but the Battle of Midway proved that their carrier doctrine was seriously flawed and made their ships unnecessarily vulnerable during launch and recovery operations. Later war carriers suffered catastrophic internal explosions because doctrine couldn’t effectively change or accommodate design and safety concerns. Naval architects always strive to design carriers to meet the requirements of their respective navies, but the doctrine they are used for end up determining how successful they will be in battle.

Very informative about aircraft carriers.