In the days before GPS, how did planes find their way back to their aircraft carrier, especially since the carrier would not be where it was when they took off?
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Primarily, radio beacons (that is the aircraft carrier transmits a signal and the airplane had equipment that could figure out the direction of the signal, so just fly in that direction until you find the aircraft carrier.
Later, they had LORAN, which worked kind of like GPS, but without the satellites. That would let you figure your location close enough to get to the radio beacon.
I think for most of WWII, they just didn’t stray that far from land or the carrier unless they had LORAN.
After WWII they started coming out with inertial navigators which perform dead reckoning and let you figure out your position with only your starting position known.
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