For the record...
The carrier is an
Essex-class CV.
The heavy cruiser is a
Baltimore-class CA
Now for my "pet peeve" on the ships....
The small ships are NOT, in fact, destroyers, but destroyer escorts. Specifically, they belong to either of the so-called TEV or WGT classes. The TEVs and WGTs were identical externally, and match the shape of the DE in AH, but had different propulsion systems. The TEVs had turbo-electric drive and the WGTs had Westinghouse geared turbines. but both systems gave the same performance. The TEVs and WGTs were the only DEs built with 5" guns, although all supposedly could carry them and a few of the other varieties were so re-armed during the war. However, the vast majority of DEs had 3x3" guns instead of our 2x5" guns.
I don't mind so much folks calling these DEs "DDs" in AH. What annoys me is having DEs at all. In real life, most DEs topped out at 20 knots, although our TEV/WGT types were the fastest and could reach maybe 22-23 on a good day. This was entirely too slow for them to serve with carrier battlegroups, and so they never did. They were designed (at Brit request) to escort slow convoys, and thus didn't need that much speed. The only carriers that DEs ever hung out with were the little CVEs which, being converted cargo ships to begin with, weren't any faster.
Thus, it looks bizarre to me to see a fleet carrier and heavy cruiser tearing along in AH surrounded by such inappropriate DEs. Granted, all ships in AH move too fast (nearly 50 knots) in the interests of game play, but with the CV and CA able to reach the mid-30s in real life, that isn't too bad as concerns them. But it's just wrong to have little 20-knot DEs keeping pace with them
.
