There is no doubt that when a suicide plane was inbound, I'd rather be aboard a WWII British carrier than an Essex-class.
But the purpose of an aircraft carrier is not to survive attacks, it is to launch them. The USN made the decision to go with more hanger space as well as increased avgas storage and magazine space. Did it make US carriers more prone to damage, without a doubt! But it also allowed the USN to throw heavier airstrikes for a longer period of time than another navy in WWII. And those larger air groups allowed the carriers defense in depth. Coupled with the development of the new VT fuze, it made attacking an American carrier task force a bloody affair.
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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