Shipbucket

I doubt that any carrier can operate in Bering Sea, it's just soooo unfriendly space for any carrier operation. Storms, ice, lot's of ice everywere and storms, did I said already about loot of ice ?

But main question is about task that carrier would perform. Submarine hunter, Fleet carrier, escort ship, support carier ?

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!

Aye the sea is very unforgiving for any warship in that region however when beyond the range of land based aircraft, a carrier is your only option. Hence key factors for the ships design are that her hull is as enclosed as possible to reduce the water she'd ship in heavy seas, a low metacentric height to improve stability and no deck park, all aircraft being stowed in her hangar(s).

The primary role of the ship is to be a scout carrier, positioned behind the main battle fleet with scout bombers to locate targets and undertake limited strikes whilst fighters on board would cover the main fleet from Japanese aircraft and patrol planes. The carriers fighters would operate in conjunction with the AA escorts of the fleet to provide a layered defensive screen against air strikes whilst the carriers scouts supplement those carried by warships (and ultimately replace them).

Keep in mind that in 1939 the Japanese 5th (North Pacific) fleet was assigned the IJN - Aircraft 'Ryūjō' though later the Junyo joined her.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

North Pacific with Aleutan chain is probably a border of effective carrier operations. Bering Sea is nightmare for carrier operation mainly because thick ice that would cup on flight deck every night.


Border of ice pack would be probably also border of any effective flight operations from carrier.

Scout carrier with 3 squadrons... hmmm. If we take Brits plane maybe something like this:

1 squadron of Gladiators
1 squadron of Skuas
Additional number of Walrus or Seafoxes

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!

Agreed with all your statements. Any potential conflict is expected to be around the Aleutians (one of the reasons why pre-war Sieran attempted to pressure the US into building its forces in the chain). The SRN is familiar with working in heavy icing conditions (given 2/3 of the country is almost permanently frozen) so it would really be a matter of developing proper tactics for such conditions.

As for your air wing suggestion, that is basically what I was thinking, pretty much same generation aircraft as well. Naval Aviation in Sieran like the FAA suffered from severe underfunding and neglect as aviation was not valued until the late 30s. Land based fighters were adapted for naval use later (like the Sea Hurricane) but the strike wing remained its 1938 era aircraft until much later.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

canada had some aircraft carriers, while that was slightly later, those might be the best to look at.

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Did the Canadian carrier differ much from the standard British carriers? I've not noticed much difference from quick glances however the fact that the images are also a number of years apart makes things tricky. In this case the year the carrier I'm looking at being laid down is 1939 and 1940 respectively for each of the two vessels with a two year construction period.

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

they weren't much different, as they were IIRC originally constructed as regular british ones. the canadian navy had designs though which took icing into account, so you should look at how they operated their carriers to find where the problems and strengths will be for your nation.

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

For once it seems google has failed us, for it does not seem to be able to find anything on operations aboard HMCS Bonaventure nor procedures. Of course some of this is likely to be classified even after the carrier is long gone but such is the nature of things (I've had similar issues trying to locate much detail on the operations of aircraft on board HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Sydney).

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

Also anoth question I had whilst on the train this morning, how feasible would it be to run piping of hot water or air under the flight deck to combat or restrict the build up of ice upon the deck? I also contemplated rubber boots of the kind aircraft use for de icing however I'm not sure how practical (if at all) these would be on a ship.
The hangars themselves would likely need to be fitted with powerful heaters so that the aircraft engines could be warmed up before ignition to prevent them from freezing solid (as happened to German aircraft on the Eastern Front).

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"The first rule is not to lose; The second rule is not to forget the first rule"

Denodon, you might want to check out stuff on Operation Frostbite if you haven't already. The USS Midway conducted Arctic weather trials and found that operations were possible, but obviously at a reduced tempo. I thought the link might be useful to you!

http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedin ... ic-success

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