Originally posted by Elfie
Flight decks on the British carriers were pretty well armored. Made a big difference when they were attacked with bombs. I dont recall all the specifics, but the difference was very substantial.
Looks like you only know they
had armored flight deck, huh? Everything else is just your conjectures.
Read this, for example:
http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-030.htmActually, only Illustrious, Implacable and Ark Royal Class carriers has armored flight decks (of WW2 ships), 7 ships total if i'm not wrong.
Here some facts about Illustrious Class aircraft carrier (3'' flight deck + 2'' hangar deck)
The "Illustrious" Class ships were the radical next generation of aircraft carrier which the Admiralty took steps to develop in 1935. They were to have a hangar protected against 500lb bombs and 6" shells with armouring to the flight deck.http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/ships/ILLUSTRIOUS.htmlHMS Illustrious was heavily damaged by a concerted enemy air attack by German dive-bombers on 10 January 1941, when the armoured flight deck armour was penetrated by an 1100lb (500kg) bomb. That and six other bomb hits kept her out of action until the following December.http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/ships/FORMIDABLE.htmlHMS Formidable:
She supported Crete operations in May where she suffered serious damage in air attacks by 1000kg bombs on 26 May 1941, and so was out of action for six months.http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/ships/Indomitable.htmlIndomitable had her flight-deck armour pierced by an 1100lb bomb, in the Mediterranean in August 1942 when enemy bombers scored 2 hits and 3 near-misses; that and another hit aft where there was no armour put her out of action being repaired in the USA until February 1943.Armour helps against kamikaze though:
On 4 May she was hit by a Kamikaze - but received no damage -the Kamikaze aircraft simply slid up the armoured flight deck and over the side.And remember the end of BB Arizona, in has simular or slightly stronger deck's armour.
