Why were aircraft carriers not used during and following D-Day? They could have added a great deal of range to the air support operations.
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The only landing in Europe and Africa that got carrier support was the Torch landing in North Africa in late 1942. In that case, it was not possible to use land-based air support, since there weren't any bases there. All following landings were within land-based air range (deliberately) and relied on it soley. Aircraft carriers were very valuable, being necessary for fighting enemy fleets, supporting landings, raiding, and other missions. At the time of D-Day, the Japanese still had a powerful fleet, and it attacked US landings about two weeks after the Normandy invasion. Moreover, with the island-hopping strategy, Pacific invasions were often not within support range of any Allied airfield. Moreover, Normandy would have been a difficult landing to support with carriers. Carriers need to have a lot of wind blowing down the deck for aircraft to take off or land, which means that they generally need a large clear maneuvering area. The English Channel, near Normandy, was too small for effective operations and crowded with landing craft. The carriers would have had to stay either in the North Sea, which was still dangerous, or the Atlantic, and the ground air bases would have been closer than the carriers. After the Allied breakout, the air bases in England were still fairly close to the action, closer than carriers could have operated, and the Allies set up lots of air bases in France and other liberated areas. The Allied offensive didn't get anywhere near the open areas of the North Sea, where carriers could usefully operate, until about a month before the end of the war. |
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Aircraft Carriers are deep water vessels. Once you use them close to the shore they become vulnerable to attack from land bases aircraft and artillery once they get into a confined area like the channel. The advantage of getting aircraft closer to the action was outweighed by the risks. |
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Air superiority wasn't really in question for the Allies in mid-1944 over Western Europe and so the extra aircraft that would have been provided weren't necessary. The Allies had thousands of aircraft operating from airfields not far away in southern England - a few hundred more from aircraft carriers wouldn't have been all that helpful. Carrier based aircraft were not as good at their jobs as land-based aircraft, for example the best fighters of the day, the Spitfire and Mustang could not operate from carriers. No large bombers could operate from carriers. The English Channel is quite a confined stretch of water and it was absolutely stuffed full of ships around D-Day, carriers are large vessels that would have struggled to operate in such confines. All the carriers the Allies had were busy elsewhere, in the Pacific for example. The Allies were worried about mines in the channel and wouldn't want to lose such a valuable ship as a carrier to a mine. |
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Much of the allied airpower used in the invasion was for ground attack and for bombing. The aircraft used for these purposes weren't designed to operate from carriers. Also, the airfields of Southern England were only 25 minutes flying time to Normandy and the allies had so many ground based aircraft, carriers weren't needed. |
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Strategically, it didn't make sense to use aircraft carriers in the Atlantic. Any portion of the war that was taking place in the European theater could be reached from air bases already available in that area. The air support for D-Day was pretty considerable as it was. Towards the end of 1942, the US only had two aircraft carriers that were operational. They needed them to provide air support on the Pacific front. As they added more aircraft carriers to the fleet in 1943 and 1944, they were sent to the Pacific to help support advances being made there. Even though the US tried to build airfields on each island they captured in the Pacific, these temporary strips were not sufficient enough to provide continuous support in the Pacific. |
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