List of sunken aircraft carriers

The greatest loss of life was the 2,046 killed on Akitsu Maru—a converted passenger liner with a small flight deck, carrying the Imperial Japanese Army's 64th Infantry Regiment.

Submarines were the biggest enemy of aircraft carriers, having sunk eighteen throughout the Second World War.

HMS Glorious was en route ferrying aircraft to Norway in June 1940 when the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau found her within gun range and opened fire.

In October 1944, USS Gambier Bay was involved at the Battle off Samar, where she was sunk by naval gunfire, primarily from the Japanese battleship Yamato.

Meanwhile, the Japanese light carrier Chiyoda was crippled by US dive bomber aircraft, and later finished off by a US cruiser task force.