Some early US carriers were fitted with forward wires for the same reason… and also in case the aft flight deck was damaged by a landing crash with aircraft still aloft.

Their turbines were fitted to be able to reach ~20 knots astern to assist the operation.

Here is a link to a USS Hornet CV-12 (early Essex class) site which describes this… and includes a pic of a F6F Hellcat launching off the stern:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~drmiles/cv-12_stern_launch.html