I'm tired of the Ack 'O' Ramma parked off the shore. Generally that duty was left to BB, CA, DD Task Forces to perform. And even at that they were really there for bombardment to suppress shore batteries, troops, etc in preparation for a landing. The CV group stayed WAY beyond the range of their 5" guns. The planes were what did the grunt work for the CV. As it is now the CV can not only supply flack support for it's planes but shore bombardment with it's 5" guns and the rest of the CV groups guns. On top of that if there was a big dog fight over the CV group they weren't popping of GIANT shot gun shells into the middle of their buddies above. In those situations the smaller cal. weapons were used for anything that got thru. If at all possible the CV group relied on it's air cover for protection. If I remember right the F8F was specifically designed with that in mind. Not that it couldn't do more of course.
[This message has been edited by Jimdandy (edited 02-17-2001).]
