Doubling the Fleet

On 7 December 1941, the US Navy had 343 warships in commission; however, a “second” fleet, consisting of 344 warships, was in various stages of construction in shipyards across the country. Given that building a warship could take anywhere from less than a year for a destroyer, to over three years for a battleship or aircraft carrier, it is clear that the foresighted building of warships in the years prior to US involvement in World War II would play a major role in enabling the US Navy to ...