The jeep carriers also couldn’t carry Hellcat fighters. The fielded the older less capable Wildcats. Though, well piloted a Wildcat was no pushover. And Japanese pilot quality never recovered from the losses at Midway.
It got even worse for them in the battles around the Solomons after that. To be fair, they were generally intended to be used in areas for invasion ground support missions and such where their lack of armor and armament wouldn’t be as much of an impediment.
Boy, we did get that part wrong. The Japanese simply weren’t going to roll over, and they didn’t.
Yes, but it was a wilder Wildcat. The FM2 couldn't match late war fighters, but it was a hotrod compared to the earlier models.