Comments by "" (@BobSmith-dk8nw) on "Aircraft Carriers - The Fleet Aircraft Carrier in the Interwar Years (1929-1939)" video.

In fairness to those favoring large guns on aircraft carriers ... you have the Glorious and the circumstances of her sinking. No amount of 8" guns she could have carried would have saved Glorious from the two German Battle-cruisers but ... you can see how this was the type of engagement that those favoring a large gun complement had in mind. Thus - they weren't just a bunch of silly people envisioning something which simply wasn't going to happen, it did happen to Glorious . Of course, there were a number of things that Glorious could have done which might have improved her chances but - the errors which caused these things to not be done - did bring about a situation where a carrier would have gotten to use a set of heavier guns. Thus - eliminating the surface engagement capabilities was more a case of making better use of the tonnage while stressing the need to make sure you didn't need it than it was stupidity on the part of the designers of the Lexington & Saratoga . Carrier design was evolving and not having them engage enemy surface forces was determined to be a better solution to the problem than equipping them to do so. Here - at Midway - knowing that the Japanese might try to engage them at night if they tried to pursue the Japanese survivors - the US abandoned the idea of such pursuit. This was a good thing as that is exactly what the Japanese tried to do - up until they determined the Americans weren't coming and began putting distance between their forces for when the sun came up. .
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