Shad
Veteran Member
On Dec. 7 our carriers were out of port, and the entire carrier fleet remained intact.
The Carriers in the Pacific were the Lexington and Enterprise not the whole Carrier arm of the fleet. The Ranger was too small and slow for Fleet Operations against surface ships. Ranger was assigned to ASW and convoy escort in the Atlantic while the Wasp was more or less a ferry for plane. The Warp was too small and had no armour as it's construction used the last of the tonnage leftover for carriers the US could use according to Naval Treaties. The Yorktown was in the Atlantic at the time. The Saratoga just finished an overhaul in WA and was on the way to pick up planes in San Diego. The Hornet was in the middle of it's shakedown and sea trials.
At best the US could have lost 2 carriers.