Sea giants capable of bombing targets hundreds of kilometers away. With dozens of aircraft on their decks - versatile and powerful air wings. Each time they are helpless when faced with an underwater threat.
Now AUG has no chance at all.
There was no chance even in those days when submarines were primitive "shells" that spent 90% of their time on the surface. Deprived of the ability to dive quickly and change depth. Without homing torpedoes and modern GAS with spherical and conformal antennas. Without means of measuring the speed of sound in water layers. Without GPS and GLONASS. With unstable radio communications and ridiculous analog devices in the central post. Without space target designation and data from meteorological satellites. Submariners went to sea, relying only on blind luck. And luck did not disappoint them!
British losses
Korejges. Converted battle cruiser, length 240 m, displacement 23 thousand tons.
When: September 17, 1939
Culprit: U-29.
Acting as part of a search and strike anti-submarine group, the heavy aircraft carrier Korejges was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland. The victims of the attack were 519 sailors (10 times more than the crew of the U-boat that sunk it!), And the Koreyges itself became the first ship of the Royal Navy, sunk during the Second World War.
The tragedy forced the British to reconsider the concept of using the fleet. From now on, it was forbidden to involve aircraft carriers in anti-submarine operations.
"Eagle"
When: August 11, 1941
The culprit: U-73
Former dreadnought "Almirante Cochrane", completed as an aircraft carrier (203 meters, 27 thousand tons). Sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, 130 km south of Mallorca, while escorting a convoy to Malta (Operation Pedestal). 130 sailors became victims of the crash.
The Eagle was the only British ship whose design was calculated in metric units, since the ship was originally built for the Chilean Navy.
"Arc Royal"
When: November 14, 1941
Culprit: U-81
In November 1941, while making another delivery of fighters to Malta, the Arc Royal was torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea. The aircraft carrier was hit by a single torpedo, but that was enough. The fight for survivability lasted more than 10 hours. When the bank reached 35 °, the destroyers took off the crew, and two hours later the Arc Royal sank.
It is worth paying tribute to the competent operation to rescue the crew: out of 1500 crew members of the Arc Royal, only one person died.
In addition to three heavy aircraft carriers, in the period 1941-42. the British lost two "escorts" - "Odessity" and "Avenger" … The second case had especially grave consequences, during which more than 500 people died (the result of the U-751 attack).
Total - minus five floating airfields. Major consequences were avoided only by overtaking the remaining air wafers to the Pacific Ocean. Away from sin.
And in European waters a complete nightmare was going on. "Wolf packs" gnawed at 123 warships and 2700 transports with oil, tanks, thousands of tons of food and other important and expensive cargo.
American losses
Wasp
Sunk off San Cristobal Island by Japanese submarine I-19 in September 1942.
Irrecoverable losses - 193 people.
The most productive salvo in the history of the submarine fleet. Of the six torpedoes fired, four hit Wasp, one hit the destroyer, the last, sixth damaged the bow of the battleship North Caroline. The aircraft carrier immediately exploded and the destroyer O'Brien sank. The battleship suffered a blow without serious consequences.
The torpedo hit the destroyer. "Wasp" burns in the distance
Yorktown - the wounded hero of the Midway battle retreated in tow until his course crossed with the Japanese I-168. Four torpedoes fired - and the Yorktown went down, along with 80 of its crew.
By the time of the sinking, the Yorktown was no longer a combat-ready unit. Which, however, does not negate the fact that the meeting with the Japanese submarine became fatal for him.
In addition to two high-profile cases of the sinking of strike aircraft carriers, the Americans lost their escort Layscom Bay with an air group of 28 aircraft (torpedoed by I-175 in November 1943, 644 killed) and the same escort "Block Island" (torpedoed by German U-549 in the Canary Islands in 1944). It is curious that the latter himself was the leader of an anti-submarine group of ten destroyers and frigates.
Such modest losses were due to the presence of two factors:
a) the complete absence of the mighty "Essexes" and "Yorktowns" on communications in the Atlantic; where would they come to a complete end from U-bots;
b) the objective weakness of the Japanese submarine fleet. No Japanese submarine could dive deeper than 75 meters. And the first radars for Japanese submariners appeared only in 1945.
Japanese losses
First, a few facts about the forces of the warring parties.
The Yankees had 200 excellent submarines, on which not the very last people served. The typical American "Getow" was three times the size of the German U-bot: a real ocean cruiser capable of traveling 20,000 km - with ten torpedo tubes, the latest radar and sonars.
As a result, the Japanese AUGs did not even have time to reach the war zone.
Statistics on the Pacific theater of operations. Submarines have sunk more ships and vessels than aircraft carriers, base aircraft and surface ships combined.
In one day, June 19, 1944, the Imperial Navy lost two aircraft carriers at once.
The submarine "Cavela" torpedoed a heavy "Sekaku" (237 meters, 32 thousand tons), taking revenge on the Japanese for Pearl Harbor. 1272 Japanese pilots and sailors became victims of the attack.
The drowning had even more dire consequences "Taiho" (the newest, 260 meters, 37 thousand tons). The pride of the Imperial Navy sank to the bottom, never having time to strike the enemy. Together with him, 1,650 people went to the bottom.
An interesting legend is connected with the death of "Taiho": at the moment of the attack, the plane of the warrant officer Sakio Komatsu took off from its deck. The pilot saw six terrible breakers directed towards his ship - and without hesitation threw the bomber into a deadly dive. Of the five remaining torpedoes, four passed by. The only torpedo that hit "Taiho" was fatal for him.
Six hours later, gasoline vapors detonated on the "Taiho" due to erroneous actions of the crew. However, this does not negate the fact of his sinking by the boat "Albacore". And aircraft carriers are no strangers to burning and exploding, this is how these "crystal" ships are arranged.
In November 1944, the boat "Archerfish" sank "Shinano" (265 meters, 70 thousand tons). The largest ship ever sunk in a naval battle. 1,435 people became victims of the shipwreck.
Yes, the Shinano was not completed. Walked with unpressurized bulkheads. The crew did not know the plan of the compartments of their ship, and he was sinking for a long 7 hours. But how does that change the point? If the Shinano were in a combat-ready state, it would have died instantly: one of the four hits fell on the aviation gasoline storage area (fortunately for the Japanese, it was not yet filled with fuel).
Meanwhile, the beating continued.
In December 1944, the Redfish submarine sank an aircraft carrier "Unryu" (227 meters, 20 thousand tons). Irrecoverable losses - 1238 people.
Together with four attack aircraft carriers, the American submariners sank four "escort":
"Chiyo" (December 1943, the Sailfish boat). Victims - 1,350
"Akitsu Maru" (November 1944, boat "Queenfish"). As a result of a powerful shipwreck, 2,046 Japanese were killed.
"Xingyo" (November 1944, Spadefish). East China Sea, 1130 dead.
"Unyo" (September 1944, boat "Barb"). 239 dead.
Epilogue. "I will hit hard, but definitely."
17 aircraft carriers (9 shock, 8 escort). 12, 5 thousand dead sailors and pilots.
Such was the “catch” of submariners during the Second World War.
The last aircraft carrier to die was the unfinished Japanese Amagi, which sank at the quay wall after a bombing raid on the Kure naval base (July 29, 1945). Since then, no one has managed to destroy the aircraft carrier in combat conditions. Due to the absence of any serious maritime conflicts involving aircraft carriers.
During the Focklands Crisis (1982), the Argentine “Ventizisco de Mayo” hid in the base and did not leave until the end of the war. Otherwise, he would have repeated the fate of “General Belgrano”.
Modern "Nimitz" prefer to stay at a considerable distance from the coast, performing secondary tasks in local conflicts.
But what happens if they need to engage in combat with a modern submarine fleet?
Numerous facts eloquently testify to this:
The emblem of the Dutch submarine "Walrus" ("walrus"), which broke through the AUG defenses and conditionally "sank" the aircraft carrier T. Roosevelt”at the international exercises JTFEX-99.
Similar incidents were reported in joint exercises with the Australian Navy (Collins-class boats) and the Israeli Navy (Dolphin-class boats). In December 2005, a demonstration exercise, Joint Task Force Exercise 06-2, was held with the participation of the Swedish submarine Gotland, specially deployed to the Pacific Ocean.
The Gotland turned out to be fast, powerful and as secretive as possible. Six torpedo tubes, 18 torpedoes, the ability to set up to 48 minutes.
Tiny crew, high automation and perfect detection.
The low mass of the hull, low-magnetic steel and 27 compensating electromagnets completely excluded the detection of the boat by detectors of magnetic anomalies. Thanks to a single all-mode electric motor and vibration isolation of all mechanisms, the Gotland was hardly detectable even in the immediate vicinity of American ships, and the special coating of the hull, coupled with its small size, made it extremely difficult to detect the Gotland by active sonars. The boat simply merged with the natural heat and noise of the ocean.
Nobody understood where “Gotland” had gone. He just sank and disappeared. And then the Swedes showed photographs of all the AUG ships led by the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. The boat went through the squadron like a knife through butter, taking a close-up photo of each of the ships.
Similar stories happened during the Cold War. When the K-10 went unnoticed for 13 hours under the bottom of the aircraft carrier "Enterprise".
Trouble in Sixth Fleet when the C-360 raised the periscope next to Des Moines. President D. Eisenhower was aboard the cruiser at that time.
A secret anti-submarine antenna wound on a screw (incident with K-324). Modern legends about the "Pike" in the Gulf of Mexico …
Deck anti-submarine aircraft S-3 "Viking". Removed from service in 2006. No replacement and not expected
