You see lots of carrier action in Pacific. But I've never seen anything about the Atlantic.

Lots of escort carriers were used in the Atlantic during WWII.  Google "Battle of the Atlantic" for lots of info like this.

List of CVEs can be found here with some details about various ships.

There were no carrier battles. However, escort carriers were used for ASW patrols. And the Brits used carriers to sink the Bismark and gain control of the Med.

Yep... Escort carriers.

A British Fleet carrier had a important role in sinking Bismarck.

You don't see much about the Atlantic, 'cause Hitler didn't bother to build carriers. They were proposed, but like most good ideas Hitler ignored them.

USS Wasp is the most notable. In addition to Navy aircraft she holds the distinction of operating both Army and British aircraft of her deck. Ferried Army aircraft to Iceland and British aircraft to Malta. Only carrier I know of that had Spitfire's take off and land from her deck.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wasp_%28CV-7%29

But most carriers in the Atlantic did escort duty against U-boats operating in the North Atlantic, which is a pretty crappy place to operate aircraft in at times. Carriers weren't used to my knowledge in the invasions because there wasn't anywhere that couldn't be reached by land based planes. No reason to risk a carrier where you don't need to, especially when they were needed in the Pacific.

At least in the early part of the war, they often sent the fleet carriers off to do a patrol or two in the Atlantic to get everything up to snuff before shipping them off to the Pacific to fight the japs.  

The USN had 2  carriers in the atlantic for the first half of 1942, The Wasp (CV-7) and the Ranger(CV-4). Yorktown was in Norfolk on Dec 7 and was rapidly transferred to the Pacific Fleet. Until she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, Wasp helped resupply the british base at Malta with Spitfire fighter planes on two occasions. The Ranger was considerd too inferior to potential japanese opponents in terms of speed and aircraft complement. The navy didn`t want to transfer her to the pacific. She did help spearhead the US contribution to the Torch landings in africa, and later went on to conduct some air raids around Norway and the periphry of europe with the RN.

Since the Italian Navy had an inferiority complex with the RN, it seldom came out to fight in force. Most of the carrier action was sub hunting which was done well by the CVEs. The Royal Navy learned the hard way with HMS Courageous, that fleet carriers weren`t the best for sub hunting. And since sub hunting was a more secretive operation overall and conducted by smaller ships, they probably didn`t have many photographers on board. But there are pics out there.

Two Royal Navy carriers, the Illustrious and Eagle, (both CV's planes were used, but they only flew off the Illustrious due to damage to the Eagle) attacked the Italian fleet while it was anchored at Taranto in October, 1940.  They hit three battleships during the attack, sinking one and knocking the other two out of action for several crucial months.  

The Japanese navy studied this attack extensively and used it as a basis for its attack on Pearl Harbor.

The British even lost a Carrier to surface fire.

Quoted: You don't see much about the Atlantic, 'cause Hitler didn't bother to build carriers. They were proposed, but like most good ideas Hitler ignored them. USS Wasp is the most notable. In addition to Navy aircraft she holds the distinction of operating both Army and British aircraft of her deck. Ferried Army aircraft to Iceland and British aircraft to Malta. Only carrier I know of that had Spitfire's take off and land from her deck. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wasp_%28CV-7%29 But most carriers in the Atlantic did escort duty against U-boats operating in the North Atlantic, which is a pretty crappy place to operate aircraft in at times. Carriers weren't used to my knowledge in the invasions because there wasn't anywhere that couldn't be reached by land based planes. No reason to risk a carrier where you don't need to, especially when they were needed in the Pacific.

Spade, not trying to be a troll, but if you check the Santee class cves took part in the Torch landings with Ranger. Unfortunately there isn`t much out there, but Brit cves may have provided local air support to the sicilian and italian landings, but I`m not sure.

Quoted: You don't see much about the Atlantic, 'cause Hitler didn't bother to build carriers. They were proposed, but like most good ideas Hitler ignored them.

Well, not absolutely true...the German Navy did build one carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, but never completed her. They decided to put their eggs in the U-Boat basket...Hitler never was one for surface ships, and became very timid and stingy with them after the Bismark sank...

The Ranger was regular carrier that spent her entire war I believe in the Atlantic...she was considered to small to be of real use in the Pacific (She was the smallest besides Langley of the pre-war carriers...Langley, Lex, Sara, Ranger, Yorktown, Enterprise, Wasp, and Hornet....)

The Ranger did flew sorties in support of the Torch Landings


A Grumman Wildcat taking off from USS Ranger supporting the Operation TORCH invasion of Morocco, 8 November 1942.   It's fighters engaged French fighters and straffed French ships who tried to leave port an engage the invasion fleet.  A good write-up is here: www.internet-esq.com/ussaugusta/torch/

And here is a good write-up on the USN CVE's in the Atlantic: www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/cv-escrt.html

This operational phase was so successful that three Jeeps — USS Core (CVE 13), USS Card (CVE 11) and USS Bogue (CVE 9)  — and their escorting destroyers sank a total of 16 U-boats and 8 milch cows in a period of 98 days.

And the British did build a carrier based version of the Spitfire, called the Seafire:

Seafire taking off from the HMS Indomitable

By 1945 the Seafire was serving in the Far East, with eight squadrons operating from six carriers. By the end of hostilities in August 1945 there were 12 squadrons in front-line service, four equipped with Mk IIC Seafires, eight with Mk III Seafires...The Seafire saw much action operating from the carriers of the British Pacific Fleet during the Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns, and in the final operations against the Japanese mainland - primarily in defending the fleet from the intensive kamikaze attacks which dominated this, the final phase of the naval war...A Seafire fighter of the Royal Navy shot down the last enemy aircraft on the very day of the Japanese surrender in August 1945. Seafire L. Mk.III of 887 Squadron (HMS Indefatigable) of the British Pacific Fleet and piloted by Sub Lt GJ Murphy shot down two Mitsubishi A6M Reisens, at Odaki Bay, Japan, 15.8.45. http://www.ww2aircraft.net/?p=info&airinfo=211

Yes, we had a rather large one, the USS Great Britain.  Too bad she's permanently moored.

Quoted: Spade, not trying to be a troll, but if you check the Santee class cves took part in the Torch landings with Ranger. Unfortunately there isn`t much out there, but Brit cves may have provided local air support to the sicilian and italian landings, but I`m not sure.

That's not trolling, that's being informative.

I didn't know that. I'm gonna look into that.


Edit: I have also just learned there was a paratroop drop during Torch. Neat.