"The Fast Carrier Task Force" came into being in
late 1943, after the arrival in the Central Pacific of the first ships
of the Essex and Independence classes. This force was the Pacific
War's equivalent of the great gunship battlefleets of earlier conflicts.
By the time of the Battle for Leyte Gulf it had already proved itself
to be one of the most potent instruments in the history of naval warfare;
obliterating Japanese air power, and sweeping enemy warships and merchant
shipping from the seas, wherever it had ventured.
It was divided into carrier task groups, each group
containing typically between three and five carriers, and with each
group having its own strong escort, a large number of cruisers and
destroyers, and often two or more of the new fast battleships.
From early 1944 the Fast Carrier Force was known
as 'Task Force 58' when serving under Admiral Spruance's Fifth Fleet,
and as 'Task Force 38' as part of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet. (Third
and Fifth Fleets in general consisted of the same vessels, only their
command teams differed).
Essex 1943
The nucleus of the Fast Carrier Force consisted
of the large fleet carriers of the Essex Class, augmented by the two
surviving pre war carriers, Enterprise and Saratoga and the light
fleet carriers of the Independence Class.
For the Marianas operation, as 'Task Force 58',
the Force contained seven large fleet carriers and eight light carriers.
Of the seven big carriers six were of the new Essex Class, the seventh
being the older Enterprise (of the Yorktown Class), a ship with an
unmatched combat record.
