Carrier battle group at the Battle of Midway. In contrast, the United States Navy deployed its large carriers in separate formations, with each carrier assigned its own cruiser and destroyer escorts. These single-carrier formations would often be paired or grouped together for certain assignments, most notably the Battle of the Coral Sea and Midway. By 1943, however, large numbers of fleet and light carriers became available, which required larger formations of three or four carriers. These groups eventually formed the Fast Carrier Task Force, which became the primary battle unit of the U.S. Fifth and Third Fleets. With the construction of the large
Japanese aircraft carrier Chitose Japanese aircraft carrier Chitose "Chitose" underwent conversion to a light aircraft carrier at Sasebo Navy Yard commencing on 26 January 1943, was recommissioned on 1 November 1943 as CVL (24) and completed as a carrier on 1 January 1944. She was assigned to Carrier Division 3 as part of the Japanese Third Fleet. Both "Chitose" and were sunk by a combination of naval bombers, cruiser shellfire and destroyer-launched torpedoes during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. According to the plan for the "Sho-ichi go" operation, both carriers were divested of aircraft and successfully used to decoy the main body of the