Surprised something like this didn't show up earlier. Every scene with Litto aside from like 3, involves her either complimenting or actively hitting on the Illustrious CVs.
She may even take Wale's crown in the womanizing department. I love her so much.
Illustrious damaged Littorio at Taranto, and Formidable damaged Vittorio Veneto at Cape Matapan. Littorio seems to not mind.
It looks like things went differently in AL.
After Taranto Littorio sailed and fought Illustrious, and she gave as good as she took (somehow being an "armoured carrier" means "I'm able to whitstand a battleship's salvo"). As for Matapan... I'm not sure if it wasn't a mix between Punta Stilo and Gavdos, honestly, but in any case Veneto showed up only in the cutscene so it wasn't shown.
After Taranto Littorio sailed and fought Illustrious, and she gave as good as she took (somehow being an "armoured carrier" means "I'm able to whitstand a battleship's salvo").
What do you think a heavy armor-piercing bomb is if not a battleship-grade shell, dropped from a few thousand feet up? Those are what armored flight decks were meant to take and keep performing flight operations, so yeah, an armored carrier would be able to take punishment from a battleship and keep fighting.
What do you think a heavy armor-piercing bomb is if not a battleship-grade shell, dropped from a few thousand feet up? Those are what armored flight decks were meant to take and keep performing flight operations, so yeah, an armored carrier would be able to take punishment from a battleship and keep fighting.
In the first place, the Italian 381 mm shells had a very flat trajectory, and thus it is more likely that they would not have hit their flight decks but her sides (belt armour 4.5 in).
Then, even if they had struck their armoured flight decks (with 3 in armour), by this table they would have been able to reliably punch through them above 24'000 yds.
Therefore, I find your idea that an "armoured carrier" would have been able to take such punishment and keep fighting rather ludicrous. At any distance range, the Illustrious would have been very much vulnerable to the guns of the Littorio, with no hope whatsoever that her armour would do more than set off the fuzes.
