Carriers for Christmas: French Aircraft Carriers 1920-2000 & Japanese Aircraft Carriers 1920-45

The review pairs a broad French carrier history spanning 1910-2000 with a Japanese carrier study covering 1920-1945, then alternates examples to compare their research value and design detail.

The Japanese carrier book's appendices bring together radar notes, paint schemes, camouflage, plans, and reference material for identifying ships accurately.

French planners turn a second fleet-carrier requirement into a treaty-conscious seaplane transport that could support overseas squadrons, repairs, and forward attack missions.

Successive requirements expand the French aviation transport's air group, armament, hangars, machinery, fuel, and stores before the final Commandant Teste design emerges.

Commandant Teste avoids treaty carrier tonnage and supports long-range aircraft cheaply, but weather sensitivity limits operations compared with faster, experienced fleet-carrier forces.

Japan's projected modified Taiho class pairs armored carrier design with improved underwater protection, safer ordnance handling, and stronger petrol-vapor defenses.

The carrier volume sits alongside Italian studies of Japanese battleships, cruisers, construction, and naval history, giving readers specific authors and works for further research.

The unfinished cruiser Ibuki becomes a light-carrier candidate after Midway, although converting the hull into a fast fleet oiler might have addressed Japan's severe logistical shortage.

Ibuki's conversion trades half her machinery for fuel stowage, protects petrol tanks inside the armored citadel, and fits a 27-aircraft hangar within the revised cruiser hull.

Ibuki's revised defensive fit replaces six Type 96 25 mm mounts with two Type 98 twin mounts, adds 28-barrel rocket launchers, and combines several radar types with passive hydrophones.

A design-table comparison places the smaller French Joffre alongside Ark Royal and Graf Zeppelin through displacement, flight-deck geometry, aircraft capacity, and aviation-fuel stowage.

Joffre offsets its flight deck to balance a heavy island and preserve deck width, but the solution concentrates major anti-aircraft guns and lengthens the island.

Joffre's unusual lifts could move aircraft with wings spread and support double-ended landings, prioritizing rapid deck clearance over British hangar organization.