General history, alternate history, history through games, and history for fellow teachers. All of this and more. My goal is to provide entertaining topics and videos, covering areas of history that may not be as popular. To make videos that can appeal to history fans and to students. To teachers to use in the classroom. And everywhere in between.
The USA borrowed a British carrier for a time. The ship was called USS ROBIN and it served honorably in the US Navy. We had to return the ship to the Royal Navy too soon.
14:00 ... these planes, being blown off or sunk with the ship are NOT gravesite planes and in my opinion, too valuable for historical purposes to let rot away on the ocean bottom. They must be raised, restored to museum quality (marine life removed at the least) and kept for posterity. Yes, it would be an expensive endeavor, but there are far too many multi billionaires blowing their money on weird things today anyway, I'm sure a few would love to have their name attached to being the sponsors of raising these pieces of history before the ocean strips them to dust.
Italy was in no shape to go to war. This was just Mussolini's stupidity. Of course - Germany was in no shape to take on the UK, US & USSR either ... nor was Japan up to what they took on. One thing all the Axis Powers had in common - was stupidity. In contrast - in WWI - most of the nations involved - were roped into the war because of alliances. The War was caused by Serbia killing the Heir to the Austrian Throne - and his wife. They deserved to be invaded. Then the Russians were stupid for supporting them. Germany, France and Britain - were all sucked in because of obligations of one sort or another. Don't make Alliances with stupid people? Don't be stupid? Yeah ... right ... .
As you ststed, wiki is wiki. Also, as you stated, sources are sparse and details are contradictory. You did a good job on this one. Pay no mind to the youtube trolls.
I can't shake the impression that the problem is not a lack of resources. The material and means for 2-3 light cruisers (nere, coleoni...) which proved to be useless anyway, would be enough for one carrier similar to the Hirio class which would drastically change the situation. As in the case of the British, where the RAF stopped the development of naval aviation, so here too the aviation maintained its monopoly.
Formidable arrived at Alexandria the following day and disembarked her air group. She received emergency repairs before departing on 24 July 1941 for permanent repairs at Norfolk Navy Yard in the United States, 829 NAS flying aboard with its Albacores to provide anti-submarine patrols during the voyage. She arrived on 25 August, and the repairs were completed in early December. After several days of sea trials, she sailed for Britain in company with Illustrious on 12 December. During the night of 15/16 December, Illustrious collided with Formidable's stern, but neither ship was seriously damaged. She was repaired at Belfast from 21 December 1941 to 3 February 1942[33] and embarked the Albacores of 818 NAS and 820 NAS and the Grumman Martlet fighters of 888 NAS.
It's interesting to think of a completed Aquila in post-war service. The Italians always want to project power in the Med, and nothing does that like a carrier.
When one thinks of an Italian aircraft carrier one must first ask one question. Why? Second question would be did they know how to operate tactically in the Med no less.
The Italians had a huge manpower shortage in the ship building industry! Following WW1 many workers were laid off so most immigrated to America and many found their way into American ship yards during the late 1930s. Italy had no iron ore, no coal, and depended upon imports for special metals such as tungsten and copper. Added to this scarcity, they had no oil! Of all the countries in WW2 Japan and Italy were the least able to wage an industrial war! In fact as many historians have noted, only America had the resources within it's own borders plus the industrial infrastructure to actually wage a war on the scale of WW2!
German and Italy only have one carrier zero combat while British, America have plenty of carriers except for Japanese despite poorly plans and codes intercept
I could see her do a big hit on Malta if things ever went that way, she could rearm/refuel single seat aircraft for that , but otherwise I dunno if tactical, practicle, since ample land bases in range. TY for bringing her out to us.
Cavour is the same weight as an Essex-Class Carrier and roughly the same dimensions as Enterprise (though the flight deck is wider by 13 feet) after her 1943 refit.
@@ph89787 I'm impressed the Italians are keeping two modern aircraft carriers in active service. The cost of such ships and especially the cost of the air wing and pilots is not trivial. But it is a great capability to have, especially with F-35Bs.
The metal decks on the carrier's sent out to the Pacific to help the US navy helped the allies shorten the Pacific campaign. American carriers could be out for weeks with kamikaze hits. Wooden decks. The British carriers did not have that problem. You never hear of American sailors mentioning the British. The exception was admiral Nimitz. Who praised the royal navy.
I've long hoped that the Italians will build a true fleet carrier and they'd name it Aquila. They seem to be moving towards the lighter "assault ship" style carriers though. I think for F-35Bs.
There were plans to convert the dreadnought Francesco Caracciolo into an aircraft carrier. But due to the conversion proposals being too expensive, no work was done. She was then sold to a shipping firm for conversion in to a merchant ship, but again was proven to be too expensive and Francesco Caracciolo was sold for scrap in 1926. Edit: Never-mind, you talk about Caracciolo.
They realized that even though the trains ran on time, it was the little things, like aviation and radar that their sneaky allies had, that would dominate the Italian Sea. Oops.
Well they actually in reality didn’t require an aircraft carrier as Italy, Sardinian, Pantelleria, Sicily, and their Aegean Islands acted as airbases. My father was torpedoed by an S.M.79 on a Malta convoy run off Tunisia though the aircraft itself was shot down by the other Royal Navy. I still have the photographs.The approximate time aboard H.M.S. Nelson was forever recorded on his gold tank style wristwatch ruined by the ingress of salt water. Unfortunately he had disposed of it before I cleared his possessions. 👍🏻🏴
Well, the Aquila was intended for fleet protection, not as centre of an offensive operation. Again and Again the Regia Aeronautica and the Luftwaffe proved ineffective in providing timely cover for the Italian navy, not to mention when they bombed their own fleet. Obviously the Axis could gather much more effective strength when starting from airbases, but Recon and air umbrella really can save the day when a single Swordfish could ruin a whole operation. After 1942. the tide switched and the air superiority enjoyed by the Axis over the Mediterranean dwindled: Lack of fuel made the Regia Marina less eager to go out in combat and usually not far from Italy as the Convoy war was lost after North Africa was occupied by the Allies. In this scenario the actual use for a ship like Aquila , thirsty of fuel and planes which could be deployed otherwise, really made much less sense then it did in 1941
I know my pronunciations won’t be great here. Italian is a…difficult language for me. Rolling the ‘r’ especially so. Still, I looked things up and did my best.
No worries. You cannot imagine how relieved I am to hear a _human_ voice with the normal, individual idiosyncrasies rather than a damnable AI voice that can pronounce the subject right in one sentence and in the very next one offer an alternative pronunciation. Believe me, your reading is outstanding.
Cool video on the Italian aircraft carrier. She was doomed from the start but they tried. If they had tried harder in the 1920s and hadnt italy Mountain of issues in terms of logistics, manufacturing, quality control. Etc etc etc. oh and their economy too. I forgot about that. She would have made a good anti submarine warfare carrier carrying helos.
Glad you made this video on a this ship. I’ll say, Italian ship building from the era is some of the most interesting and most impressive out of all the major powers in world war 2. Especially with the fact that they lacked resources and made some interesting designs to say the least. Also have you thought about doing a video on the Impero? I’ve seen place online say that she was going to be converted to a carrier and others say she was going to be fully completed to a battleship. But anyways amazing video like always:)
The Germans didn't really "wait too long". They started as soon as they were legally allowed (1935 official work began, 1936 was when it was laid down). The only reason it wasn't completed was because of the invasion of Norway. It's estimated that had the ship been actually pursued, like never stopped production or no delays, it would have been completed sometime in 1940. Edit: The reason the Norwegian campaign affected it was due to the Germans demanding to use the already installed guns on the Graf Zeppelin as coastal batteries, the 15cm (5.9 inch) guns. Obviously after this there were other major delays but the Norway campaign was the first. Edit: By completed I don't mean commissioned. I mean starting sea trials kind of thing. The Graf Zeppelin was actually launched and was VERY close to completion before WW2 interrupted it.
@@mistersmiley9425 The German Navy wasn't prepared for WWII. All of their planning was to have their fleet ready for combat in 1947. I also do not think they had a very good idea of how they intended to operate what they had. If you look at the US Navy, they had the entire interwar period to develop their tactics and operational art with their aircraft carriers, and with underway replenishment. Every year there was a new "Fleet Problem" exercise off the California coast where tactics and operational art were refined. When WWII erupted the US Navy was ready to go with the right tactics and mostly the right weapons (the TBD Devastator the tragic exception). The Germans never got to the point of having fleet exercises with an aircraft carrier to understand how to use them. Just launching and recovering aircraft efficiently takes a lot of practice. Knowing how long you can go before needing to refuel, having the right support ships in the right numbers, all that takes time to figure out. The Germans and Italians were never there the way the US, Japanese and Royal Navies were.
@@philsalvatore3902 I wasn't talking about the capabilities of the German navy or anything akin to that. I was just saying the Germans didn't skip a beat on building a carrier. Soon as they had permission from the British (Anglo-German Naval Agreement, 1935) they began work on all sorts of things, including a carrier (Graf Zeppelin class)
@@mistersmiley9425 The Germans suspended work on Graf Zepplin several times as priorities changed. First it was on, then work was suspended for other surface ship projects. Then after losing Bismarck to carrier based aircraft it was on again. But later on Hitler, disgusted with the lack of performance of their surface navy ordered all the ships to be laid up and the Kreigsmarine was ordered to concentrate on subs. The Graf Zepplin was incomplete at the end of WWII just like its Italian counterparts.
Served on the USS BANG (SS385) out of NLON 66-72. Great Portsmouth boat! I knew about the Cutlass being still in service but not the Tusk. We tied up along the Tusk many times in the 60's. Thanks for the memories!
Even if they are raised sadly most people wont care AT ALL..... as they majority don't and wont learn the USA real culture and spirt as other cultures have taken hold
