Aircraft Carrier: The Majestic Weapon (Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II: Weapons Book No. 3)

160 pp. Summary of the development of the aircraft carrier and its role in World War II. It describes the development and evolution of British, American, and Japanese aircraft carrier designs in general and their respective aircraft. It adequately describes the five great aircraft carrier battles in the Pacific: Coral Sea, Midway, Santa Cruz, Eastern Solomons, and the Philippine Sea / Marianas. It only briefly mentions the Japanese attacks in early 1942 on Ceylon in the Indian Ocean and the attack on Darwin in Australia. It also describes the British aircraft carrier attacks against the German battleship “Bismarck” and the attack on Taranto in Italy in the Mediterranean. There is a short 12-pages chapter on the development and deployment of escort carriers in the Atlantic against the German U-boats.