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
Propaganda in Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II that the carrier "Hornet" had been sunk, thus taking revenge for its part in the Doolittle Raid, when in fact "Hornet" had not been in the battle. The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, while a Japanese tactical victory, gained time for the Americans on Guadalcanal and inflicted heavy losses on Japanese aircraft; it was considered so momentous that it was praised in an imperial rescript. However, by 1943, the Japanese population was aware of the stark difference between the crude propaganda and the facts. The death of Isoroku Yamamoto inflicted a severe blow. It was followed by defeat at