American carrier production exposes the scale mismatch

The American carrier programme made a decisive result from twenty-four attackers implausible. Thirty-two Essex-class and six Midway-class carriers were planned or building, with twenty-four Essexes and three Midways ultimately completed in the figures given here. Those totals excluded light and escort carriers. A much larger strike might damage enough ships to delay operations, but even that would buy time rather than change the war's outcome. Decisive-battle doctrine required a force large enough to achieve the result its planners promised.