http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/nov1943/f18nov43.htm
Red Army captures Korosten
Thursday, November 18, 1943 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces capture Korosten and Ovruch, farther north, to the west of Kiev. The German 7th Panzer Division attack toward Zhitomir continues. West of Gomel, Soviet forces capture Rechitsa and cut the rail line in that direction.
Over Germany... RAF Bomber Command begins its “Battle of Berlin” campaign. This is the third well publicized series of bombing raids launched by the forces of Air Marshal Harris.
...the new 45,000-ton aircraft carriers, the first of which is under construction at New3port News, should be superior to any carriers afloat...
...The ships will not have an excessively greater amount of machinery than the carriers of the 27,000-ton Essex class..."
This article refers to the 45,000 ton Midway class carriers, which indeed were not completed in time for the war.
But the Essex class, by the time all was said & done, grew from 27,000 tons to 36,000 tons, and as the USS Franklin showed, were themselves pretty tough little ships -- in the words of John Cameron Swayze, in a different context, Essex class: "Takes a Licking and keeps on Ticking"
You can still see the old Midway, in San Diego harbor.
These photos I took some years ago from the Midway, of three Nimitz class carriers: