First clash of carriers was the Battle of Coral Sea.
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The USS Langley (CV-1), although later redesignated in WWII, it was sunk by Japanese dive bombers while ferrying crated P-40 Warhawks, shortly after the battle of the Java Sea in 1942.
Technically it was Pearl Harbor since Enterprise sent scout planes ahead of the ship and fought with Japanese Zeroes supporting the attack. The first *major* carrier battle was at Coral Sea.
History's first decisive aircraft carrier battle. OR History's first decisive sea battle fought between carrier fleets.
The British ship HMS Hermes was the first ship designed and built as an aircraft carrier. She was commissioned in 1924. The Japanese ship Hosho was the first converted aircraft carrier in 1922.
No. The first aircraft carriers they constructed were laid down in 1965. They were late in getting into carrier production, and still have none of the US class carriers.
The aircraft carrier was preceded by the balloon barges of the US Civil War, and the first aircraft carriers were seaplane tenders that did not launch or recover planes aboard the ship. This included the French "Foudre" in 1911. The HMS Ark Royal (1914) was a seaplane carrier that experimented with shipboard launches and recovery. The first US carrier was a converted coal ship, the Jupiter, which became USS Langley in 1920. The first aircraft carrier designed with a flight deck was the Japanese carrier "Hosho" (1922), followed by the commissioning of the British carrier HMS Hermes in 1924.
The French seaplane tender LaFoudre was launched in 1911. The British seaplane tender Hermes was launched in 1913. These allowed launching of seaplanes over the bow that were retrieved by crane after landing on the sea, They carried three aircraft. The first purpose built aircraft carrier was the HMS Ark Royal in 1914 which carried five aircraft.