 The sinking of the British capital ships Prince of Wales and Repulse by Japanese land @-@ based aircraft on 10 December 1941 led the <unk> to realize that battleships could not operate in the face of enemy aircraft and required friendly air support to protect them . The loss of four Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in June 1942 severely limited the ability of the <unk> to provide any air cover and <unk> were sought . Earlier proposals to convert one or more battleships into carriers had been made and rejected at the beginning of the war , but they were revived after Midway . Plans for more elaborate <unk> were rejected on the grounds of expense and , most critically , time , and the <unk> settled on removing the rear pair of turrets and replacing them with a flight deck equipped with two <unk> to launch <unk> . The <unk> @-@ class ships were selected for the conversion because <unk> had suffered an explosion in <unk> No. 5 in early May that virtually destroyed the turret and their <unk> No. 6 could not elevate to the full + 43 degrees deemed necessary for the long @-@ range engagement anticipated by the <unk> . The <unk> were scheduled to follow once the first two were completed . 
