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
Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II was also sunk by a single torpedo, from the submarine . The next day, the Japanese carrier force was subjected to an American carrier air attack, and suffered the loss of the carrier "Hiyō". The four Japanese air strikes involved 373 carrier aircraft, of which 130 returned to the carriers. Many of these survivors were subsequently lost when "Taihō" and "Shōkaku" were sunk by American submarine attacks. After the second day of the battle, losses totaled three carriers, with more than 433 carrier aircraft and around 200 land-based aircraft. Although, the defeat at the Philippine Sea was severe in terms