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Originally Posted by Antelope526
]It amazes me to see the condition some of those World War II warships looked like as they returned to port after battle.
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Originally Posted by Dawg
A testament to the quality of the construction, I think. Some of the bombers that made runs over Germany, too, came back so shot up it was amazing they didn't just fall our of the sky like a rock.
I am
Dawg
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Well, with airplanes, probably yes, with aircraft carriers, probably no. Our carriers had wooden flight decks to save weight and create more room for airplanes, while British carriers had armored steel decks but could carry fewer planes. If the Franklin had had an armored flight deck she probably would have suffered very little. Her wooden deck did nothing to keep the bombs from penetrating to the hangar deck. Now, a battleship would hardly have even noticed the impact, but the carriers suffered terribly for their fragile construction.
