Comments by "COL BEAUSABRE" (@colbeausabre8842) on "The Drydock - Episode 223 (Part 1)" video.

In terms of "worst" carrier conversions, I'd nominate the first two US built CVE's, USS Long Island and HMS Archer, The Maritime Commission had a world of trouble with its diesel powered C2's and C3's - so much so that the USN got rid of as many as possible after WW2, Unfortunately, both the vessels were diesel C3's and suffered accordingly. The Long Island was never trusted with a combat mssion, but served as an aircraft transport and training ship. The Royal Navy gave up in disgust with the Archer, " Her transmission was a constant cause of problems which led to her being withdrawn from front-line service. She was used as a stores ship and then as an accommodation ship before a refit and subsequent use as a merchant aircraft ferry ship, Empire Lagan" Of her diesel powered half-sisters, HMS Avenger was torpedoed, HMS Dasher blew up at her moorings and HMS Biter was fobbed off to the unlucky French. A war record to be truly proud of. Fortrunately, the steam powered C3 conversions of the Bogue/Attacker and Prince William/Ruler classes proved much more successful.
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In terms of armament, the plans for US battleships in the Fifties was to remove any remaining 20mm's and replace the quad 40mm's with dual 3 inch on a one for one basis. Too bad the KGV's were built with 4.5 inch, which the RN finally decided - way too late for most of its ships that actually served in WW2.
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Ref the Perisher Course. Admiral Ben Bryant, who commanded HMS Sealion in the Noth Sea and HMS Safari in the Med, recalled that one portion of the course had the prospective skipper conducting attacks via periscope against a target - all on dry land with the replica of the control room on the ground floor and the target "sailing" on the blue painted floor of the second story. The target's course and speed could be controlled via cables attached to the ceiling which led to a control station, allowing it to maneuver. He recalled that the news that the target had "rammed" the sub trying to attack it was announced by a wild pounding of feet from upstairs
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The air group on the Independence class (my dad served on one) was a double squadron (VF) of 36 F6F fighters and a squadron (VT) of 9 TBM torpedo bombers. CVE's had a composite squadron (VC) of 14 to 16 FM fighters and 8 to 10 TBM's. So, a task group of a CVL and CVE would have 50-52 fighters and 17 to 19 torpedo bombers for a total of 69 aircraft (Note, we're talking about authorized strength, obviously this could vary depending on operational and combat losses)
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