Comments by "Frank DeMaris" (@kemarisite) on "Kantai Kessen (Japanese Decisive Battle Doctrine) - Method or Madness?" video.

@Thirdbase9 the vast majority of which were "combustible, vulnerable, and expendable" escort carriers.
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Around 39-40 minutes in, I expected "And then the American Pacific fleet moved to Pearl Harbor." Edit: 44:50, there it is. Could have had a cut from Tora, Tora, Tora about the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor being a dagger at Japan's throat.
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@michaelkaylor6770 navweaps.com includes orders of battle for many named naval battles. The CVEs are listed as typically carrying about two dozen F4F or FM Wildcats and nine or so TBF/TBM Avengers. For a specific example, Sangamon (CVE-26) carried 12 F6F-3 and 5 F6F-5 Hellcats and nine TBM-1C Avengers at the start of the day. 30 or so aircraft per CVE, multiplied by the 17 CVEs present (Saginaw Bay was en route to Morotai to pick up replacement aircraft) equals over 500 aircraft.
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@DRENS2131 Battle of the Kommandorski Islands, where Richmond is one of only two Omaha class CLs to do anything significant during the war. Also, the Akutan Zero.
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@joshthomas-moore2656 BK_Jeong has something of a point about the AA presence of a light cruiser. The Cleveland and Baltimore class cruisers carry comparable crews and almost identical AA suites, but the US Navy found in 1942-43 that their 6"/47 armed light cruisers, with a rate of fire of 8-10 round per minute per gun, were far more useful at swatting destroyers in night actions than heavy cruisers with the 3-4 rpm 8"/55. Other navies had 6" (ish) guns firing at 5-6 rpm, maybe up to 8 rpm for the British 6"/50 Mark XXIII, so most light cruiser guns if WW2 do not make up in rate of fire what they lack in individual shell power compared to their heavy counterparts. On the other hand, if your navy also builds smaller ships as light cruisers because they have smaller guns, say the Italian Condotierri classes or the British Leanders and Arethusas, then the CL may also carry lighter AA suites and not be the better deal. On the gripping hand, an Atlanta or Dido can be a fine CL for AA work and the 5" or 5.25" guns still work just fine for swatting destroyers and making life unpleasant for cruisers, while the ship itself is lighter (about 6,000 tons) than a full size cruiser and needs a smaller crew (5-600)
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Thinking about Mahan's theorizing, it's clear how much he drew upon the most recent American war, the American Civil War. The Union began the war, and prosecuted the entire war, using the "Anaconda Plan" to strangle the Confederacy. The Confederacy did not begin the war with a big Navy, although the Union didn't have a huge fleet either, and the Confederacy did not have much of the pre-war shipbuilding capability either. In contrast, the Union could build a lot of ships and river gunboats with which to take command of the coastline and rivers. The biggest risk of British intervention is that the Royal Navy could deprive the Union of command of the sea and coastline.
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