Originally Posted by
ORAC
Yeah, but you were still putting on wooden decks up to and including the Essex and Ticonderoga class carriers, which proved a bit of an embarassment when the kamikaze attacks started.
The Royal Navy switched to steel decks in 1936 with the Illustrious class.....
True, up to a point. The armo(u)red RN decks were great at 'sweepers, man your brooms' for pushing the remnants of the Japanese a/c overboard, but the number of aircraft carried suffered as a result. Seems like it was around half (RN 45-ish v. 85-ish for a USN CV), so the trade between offensive and defensive is interesting.
But we did have air conditioning unlike the 'easy bake' ovens of the RN!