When you see footage taken from the starboard side of the carrier launching these, it is truly incredible how large the planes are compared to the ship. WWII carriers were much smaller than those of today, and even though these were small bombers they were still so much bigger than anything taking off carriers at the time. Back then catapults weren’t yet used; the ship had to face into the wind to help them get aloft.
To this day I’m surprised that Japan didn’t immediately seek a peaceful resolution after this attack (not necessarily surrender, but a ceasefire of sorts); while the physical damage was minimal, they were shocked that Tokyo itself could be reached like that.
Yup. Amazing stuff. And those early carriers had an inline flight deck unlike today where the flight deck is angled. Must have been a real panic to try and clear a deck of aircraft so you could recover inbound aircraft.