Why Were There Aircraft Carriers In The Great Lakes?
Projecting air power over Canada or something else?
In 1943, if you squinted from the shores of Chicago, you could potentially catch a glimpse of streams of small dot-like planes swooping and flying about over Lake Michigan. These planes were taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier assigned to Chicago’s navy pier. But why were there not just one but two aircraft carriers operating on the Great Lakes? Wouldn’t carriers be better served in the Pacific, where the United States was fighting one of history’s most expansive conflicts against Imperial Japan?
The truth is that these carriers were not “real.” These were training devices used to certify thousands of pilots during the war. The carriers operating in the Great Lakes, the USS Sable (IX-81) and the USS Wolverine (IX-64), were converted training ships built from existing Great Lakes steamers. These carriers had no armor, no weapons, and no combat elevators. They were used to get pilots the take-offs and landings they needed before they were deployed to the Pacific.
Notice that these ships did not carry the regular designation for carriers, which is (CV), but rather (IX), which stands for unclassified miscellaneous auxiliary vessel.
