in MAJOR war the MAJOR warships:

in MAJOR war  the MAJOR warships:

the history of the humans in the past hundred recent years was filled with many wars in many places... but where were the MAJOR wars.

one was called the "great" war for its large area affecting around the world. but a "greater area" and more monstrous war followed.

so from all the wars we can start with the most monstrously large wwar affecting  countries around the world.

from the many warships so many were small where to begin? begin with the most major warships the long and fat battleships like floating artillery. after studying many of their battles their gins were barely effective almost always failing. so insted of the expectation many large guns have effect experience shows wrong.

the warplane carrier brought warplanes that together had effect.

where were these major battles?

not on land ! in europe and neither their navies. the axis had zero major warplane carriers in atlantic. nazis had one w.c. but minor carrying only a few planes far less than the major w.c. of japan and washington government.

so from all the ships and battles we begin with the major ones w.c. in pacific where major w.c. fought each other between u.s. and jap'.

until december 1941 u.s.a. avoided war. even when a nazi submarine sunk a us destroyer in october 1941 u.s. would not send soldiers to fight nazis. 

however in december 1941, when japan coulda used its warpanes for conquering china which it had started in 1937 war, and its battleships to chase out the british and duth ALREADY at war by kapuas rr and ganges rr and for shelling china coast to conquer the entire china coast and allied nan rr... the emperor wanted a sea empire... which he coulda had almost whole pacific if he woulda compromised... instead as yamamoto said "he awoke a sleeping dragon" the massssive production industry nation u.s. which had avoided war until then.

on dec' 7, 1941 all of the jap' w.c. available all six carried warplanes that attacked loa chain the chain of isles called hawaii by loa mountain.

then, on dec' 7, '41, how many u.s.w.c. were in the region? only THREE named:

ENTERPRISE-6

LEXINGTON-2

SARATOGA-3

they had a code cv the v means aviation or air and that joind with c means carrier of aviators. in contrast to c in ca cruiser the main heav were coded ca but light with l cl.

on dec' 7, when jap' successfuly bombed u.s.ba' and sank 3 major [ARIZONA bb and 2 that got fixed.], where were these 3?

ent'6 had carried warplanes to wake isle, u.s. base. it returned to the west part of loa chain 200 miles west from the battle, safe from the jap' warplanes. its w' fout j.w. there.

lex'2 was carrying warplanes toward midway isle/atoll.

sar'3 by coast whitney m.r. that day came to san diego. all far from that battle.

u.s. had other w.c. in atlantic. some: hornet8 and wasp7 would come to pacific later, to fight until sunk... and replaced by new-better essex-class w.c.-s with same name but different numbers.

lex'2 was the first w.c. lost when it served with yorktown-5 that came thru panama canal.

yorktown5 was by virginia east coast of u.s. when the u.s. lost ba' arizona. knowing the jap' fleet had SIX major w.c. u.s. knew the need to ADD to the three, ent', lex' sar'.

yor'5 left that coast and in just 4 four days reached and went thru p.c. dec' 20. nine days later, a week trip from p.c. to west coast arriving in san diego by whitney mr.

wasp7 came later in june.

april 24, a sad day: 115 lost only 77 survived.
on april 24, 1945, in the atlantic, after the american group had a successful week hunting and sinking three nazi subs that were far from home trying to sink allied cargo, on date 24, the American destroyer-escort=DE #136, (306feet 36feet, so slightly shorter than dd), named USS Frederick C. Davis got sunk by a torpedoe from German submarine U-546 in Atlantic [nearly 700 miles northwest from  azores=isles west from portugal coast]. it sank quickly so only a fraction escaped. despite this warship was minor of the minor, even a small ship if sank quickly had many dead: 115 sailors died. 
the group "avenged" and sunk that sub the same day. depth charges damaged it and when it surfaced gunfire destroyed and sunk the nazi u-boat. the survivors from both wrecks were rescued and kept separate, alive once they could not shoot at each other.
the categories: 
battleships bb characteristics very thick 100 ft with thick armor 12 inches in contrast to heavy cruisers ca only 6 inch armor and thinner 70 feet.
destroyers minor thinner: arond 33 feet so dd almost same as de which were slightly shorter as above.
for major see link and below