Hal wrote:
You left out Kamakazi attacks as well.
Historically kamakazi attacks tended to not penetrate if they hit the flight deck, and just make a mess. Of course, if you happened to be running flight ops at the time and they set some fuelled aircraft on fire things could get dice, and fast. A hit to the hull (which would almost certainly be above any armoured belt, but if you carrier had armoured hanger sides they'd count, but I don't think any carriers had/have much armour there for topweight concerns) was more dangerous, because that meant the kamakazi would likely end up in the hanger. Even so, a mission kill is more likely than a sunk ship.
As for how much punishment a carrier could take - it varies enormously. The well armoured British carriers took huge punishment on the Malta run without sinking (though often required extensive dockwork afterwards to restore them to service). The Japanese carriers caught with a fully armed and fuelled strike force on their decks at Midway required many fewer hits to sink. The main cause of carriers sinking after only a few hits are 'fluke' hits (i.e. criticals), or of fuel and munitions catching fire. The munitions are usually well-protected unless they're on aircraft in the hanger or on deck (i.e. the carrier is hit during flight ops). However, the fuel tanks are large and can only be protected so well and aircraft fuel, unlike fuel oil, burns easily. Another 'instant' kill, which I don't recall ever happening to a carrier, is if a large torpedo is detonated directly under the ship - gas bubble formed by the explosion tries to travel upwards, and if the ship's hull is in the way it will hammer it, often several times in close succession, and this can break even a very large ship's spine. WWII torpedoes lacked the reliable proximity fuses required to make this consistently work, but modern ones have no such limitations.
Slow sinkings occur for the usual reasons - get enough penetrating hits and sooner or later you destroy something vital, cumulative damage making it impossible for the damage control parties to fight fires and flooding, and uncontrollable flooding from too many waterline and/or subsurface hits.
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