First of the Mega carriers, the Dias class carriers were huge. At just over 1200 feet and with a hull beam of 138 feet, there were only half a dozen places in the world they could dock to do hull work and two of those were in enemy hands (St Nazaire and Kure Naval Yard (Yamato dock)). This limited the number of places in the world that the Dias class could operate during the end of WW2. The ships weighed in at over 80,000 tons when at full load and were unable to use the floating docks. These ships were just too big.
Three of this class were laid down 1 in 1938 (Captain Diego Dias), 1939 (Admiral James T Kirk), 1940 (Admiral Richie McCaw) which replaced the ship of the same name lost during the war. The Dias was completed in October 1943, the Kirk in November 1945, and the McCaw in September 1946. The Kirk and McCaw were both adversely affected by the steel shortage of 1940 and by being put on lesser priorities from 1940-43.
The Dias finished its work-up period and its escorts joined it and the new fleet headed for the Pacific. With a dozen squadrons aboard, one of the biggest problems found was being able to brief a full strike. It was found during the work-up period that the best way was to use two waves of aircraft. One reason was the time to assemble a full 144 aircraft strike took too long. The aircraft that took off first used half their fuel waiting for the strike to assemble and thus halved the range that the aircraft could operate in.
Even with a country the size of Algarve, several ships had to be laid up to produce enough crew to man the Dias. Over 4000 crew were required to man the ship, fly and service the aircraft. It had taken almost as long to train crew and build aircraft for the ship as it took to build it.
Displacement: 74,000 tons standard, 88,400 tons full load
Dimensions: 1208 x 138 x 35 feet
Machinery: 4 shaft, geared turbines, 220,000shp
Speed: 30 knots
Endurance: 14,000 miles at 15 knots
Armour: 6 belt and anti-torpedo hull, 1.5 flight deck, 5.5 main deck.
Armament:
20 x 4.5 (10x2)
72 x 40mm (18x4)
Aircraft: 156
Crew: 4,250
