[BroJoeK]

"With the Arc Royal completed the navy has seven aircraft carriers in service and five more building. With the Admiralty's decision to develop its own air fleet until it becomes a striking arm of the first magnitude, these carriers immediately assume the importance almost equal to that of a battleship."

Do I read this correctly? Are they saying that in 1938, 12 (!!) aircraft carriers are considered of "importance almost equal to that of A battleship"?

Do the Brits really think they have 12 carriers to equal ONE battleship? And if the NY Times' syntax is just a bit garbled here, and they really mean to say, that EACH carrier "almost equals" a battleship, isn't that astonishing enough?

I had no idea the Brits had 12 carriers in service or building in 1938. You have to wonder, if they were "almost equal" to a battleship, why build so many?

British Illustrious class carriers

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I had no idea the Brits had 12 carriers in service or building in 1938.

According to a chart in Appendix F of Gathering Storm, At 9/3/39 the British had seven aircraft carriers operational and two under construction. That is more than I would have guessed but it is still a long way from twelve. Also, I would have expected battleships and carriers to be considered apples and oranges, as far as relative worth is concerned. Battleships were still considered the main offensive strikers while aircraft carriers were more of a useful innovation for ASW and support tasks.

[CougarGA7]

Realize that the Arc Royal was the first "purpose built" aircraft carrier built by the British. The other 6 current carriers were converted from coalers or other ship designs much like the American aircraft carrier Langley. I did find it interesting that they had 5 additional purpose built carriers under construction as well as a commitment to make the naval air arm an actual force (though circumstance will effect this some).

The Arc Royal was commissioned only earlier this month too. I posted on that in the December 16th thread post #19. I have a link there that give more detail and a couple of post down there is a picture that isn't a little red x.