How many aircraft carriers did US have entering World War 2?

Answer 1

Seven. The first US carrier, the USS Langley, had been converted from a collier ( a coal carrier, which looked something like an oil tanker), and was still on the Navy lists but had been converted again, to a seaplane tender, and was incapable of operating aircraft like a regular carrier. The next carriers were the Lexington and the Saratoga (CV 2 and CV 3). Both of these were begun as battle cruisers, but then the US signed the Washington Naval Treaty, which was an effort at arms control and limited the size and number of ships the signatory countries could possess. These uncompleted battle cruisers would either have to be scrapped uncompleted, or they could under the Treaty be completed as carriers, which was what was done. As battle cruisers they had been built with armored hulls, and so were the only carriers the US has ever had with side armor. Both were sunk during the war. The fourth US carrier, and the first designed and built from the keel up to be an aircraft carrier, was the USS Ranger (CV 4). The Ranger was experimental, and proved too small to operate as a heavy fleet carrier in WWII. It survived the war and was scrapped after, having played no part in the great carrier battles of WWII. The next carriers were the Enterprise, Yorktown, Hornet and Wasp. The only one to survive the war was the Enterprise, which participated in every major battle of the Pacific and had twenty battle stars. Unforgivably, she was cut up for scrap also after the war.

So the US had seven carriers when the war began, but only six were useful, large fleet type ships, and the US had two oceans to worry about, so generally only three or four could be allocated to the Pacific at any one time, which gave the Japanese a definite edge, until they were trimmed down to size at Midway.

Answer 2

23 CV Fleet

78 CVE Escort (Jeep)

9 CVL Light

US had 8 CV Fleet built before the war