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Posted on 02/01/2004 5:18:22 AM PST by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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 Part IIa — The War Years (1941-1942)   Feb. 27, 1942 - Early in the morning, USS Langley (AV 3) rendezvoused with her antisubmarine screen, USS Whipple (DD 217) and USS Edsall (DD 219) near Tjilatjap, Java. At 1140, nine twin-engine Japanese bombers attacked her. The first and second strikes were unsuccessful, but during the third strike, Langley took five hits. Aircraft topside burst into flames, steering was impaired, and the ship took a 10 degree list to port. Unable to negotiate the narrow mouth of Tjilajap Harbor, Langley went dead in the water as inrushing water flooded her main engines. At 1332, the crew was order to abandon ship, and shortly after all were clear, the two destroyers fired 4-inch shells and two torpedoes into her and she sunk about 75 miles south of Tjilatjap. Sixteen crew were lost.      Aug. 20, 1942 - The designation of escort carriers was changed from AVG to ACV.       Feb. 25, 1943 - USS Princeton (CV 23) commissioned at Philadelphia, Capt. George R. Henderson, commanding. The ship was originally laid down as Tallahassee (CL 61) by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J. She was reclassified as CV 23 on Feb. 16, 1942, and renamed Princeton on Mar. 31, 1942. The ship was launched Oct. 18, 1942. Following shakedown in the Caribbean, she was reclassified CVL-23 on 15 July 1943.  Apr. 21, 1943 - Capt. Frederick M. Trapnell made a flight in the Bell XP-59A jet Airacomet at Muroc, Calif., the first jet flight by a Naval Aviator.     Jul. 15, 1943 - New designations for carriers were established which limited the previous broadly applied CV symbol to Saratoga, Enterprise, and carriers of the Essex class, and added CVB (Aircraft Carriers, Large) for the 45,000 ton class being built and CVL (Aircraft Carriers, Small) for the 10,000 ton class built on light cruiser hulls. The same directive reclassified escort carriers as combatant ships and changed their symbol from ACV to CVE.   Aug. 18, 1943 - The Secretary of the Navy establishes the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air) with Vice Adm. John S. McCain as the first DCNO(Air).  Oct. 16, 1943 - The Navy accepted its first helicopter, a Sikorski YR-4B (later an HNS-1), at Bridgeport, Conn., following a 60 minute test flight by Lt. Cmdr. F.A. Erickson, USCG.  Nov. 17, 1943 - USS Bataan (CVL 29) commissioned, Capt. V. H. Schaeffer in command. Built by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J., she was originally laid down as Buffalo (CL 99) but was reclassified as CV 29 and renamed Bataan Jun. 2, 1942.        |
It would have been nice to have kept one as a museum or a memorial.
True enough. There's an effort to get the USS Des Moines (the last WWII-era heavy gun cruiser, though she was too late for WWII) up here in my neck of the woods. I hope we can get her before the gunfire does.
A flying-off deck aboard a US LST during WWII. This platform allowed light Army aircraft to be flown off to support invasions, but they could not land aboard.
This is LST 776 carrying a primitive aircraft recovery system, sometimes known as the "Brodie flycatcher", on her bow. A handful of LSTs were outfitted to launch light aircraft in support of amphibious operations, but only this ship could recover them, thanks to the "flycatcher". It is not surprising that this device saw only limited use.
Sable (IX-81), formerly named Greater Buffalo, was built in 1924 by the American Shipbuilding Co., Lorain, Ohio; acquired for Navy use on 7 August 1942 by WSA from the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Co., Detroit, Mich.; named Sable on 19 September 1942; converted at the Erie Plant, American Shipbuilding Co., Buffalo, N.Y.; and commissioned on 8 May 1943, Capt. William A. Schoech in command.
With the installation of a carrier deck, Sable was designated as a training vessel for qualification of carrier pilots. She was assigned to the 9th Naval District on 1 June 1943 and qualified pilots for carrier operations until decommissioned on 7 November 1945Sable was struck from the Navy list on 28 November 1945. Sold by the Maritime Commission to H. Buncher Co., on 7 July 1948, she was scrapped on the 27th.
Yep, thanks for that.
I hope they're successful. The WWII ships are the image I always have in mind when I thikn of a "warship"
Enterprise entered World War II on the morning of December 7, 1941, when her scout planes encountered the Japanese squadrons attacking Pearl Harbor. Not until May 14, 1945, when a Kamikaze attack off Kyushu, Japan, left a gaping hole in her flight deck, was she forced to leave the war.
Of the more than twenty major actions of the Pacific War, Enterprise engaged in all but two. Her planes and guns downed 911 enemy planes; her bombers sank 71 ships, and damaged or destroyed 192 more. Her presence inspired both pride and fear: pride in her still unmatched combat record, and fear in the knowledge that Enterprise and hard fighting were never far apart.
The most decorated ship of the Second World War, Enterprise changed the very course of a war she seemed to have been expressly created for.
Enterprise CV-6 was the second of the three Yorktown-class carriers. One of the most successful warship designs in history, the Yorktown-class carriers were built with the experience gained from earlier carrier designs: Lexington CV-2 and Saratoga CV-3, which were built on converted battle-cruiser hulls, and Ranger CV-4, the first US carrier specifically designed as a carrier.
Enterprise, and her sister ships Yorktown CV-5 and Hornet CV-8, while of a third smaller displacement than Lexington and Saratoga, could carry practically the same number of aircraft, and 30% more aviation fuel. In other words, they could deliver the same offensive punch more times, and more efficiently. The Yorktown-class carriers were exceptionally seaworthy, and more maneuverable than their predecessors. In keeping with American carrier doctrine, they sacrificed armor and guns to maximize the number of attack planes carried. Yet, with hundreds of watertight internal compartments, they were also capable of surviving terrific battle damage.
Perhaps their primary weakness as designed was vulnerability to torpedo attack. Both Yorktown (at Midway) and Hornet (at Santa Cruz) were severely damaged by Japanese torpedoes, though it's worth noting that both ships put up considerable resistance to actually sinking afterwards. It is also noteworthy that of the all the US fleet carriers to serve in the Pacific in the first year of the war, Enterprise was the only one not to be struck by an enemy torpedo ... and near the end of that first year, she was also the only battle-ready US fleet carrier. As part of her 1943 refit at Bremerton, Washington, Enterprise acquired a torpedo blister along three quarters of her hull, above and below waterline.
Her war-time modifications also reflected the nature of the Pacific war. After the tremendous carrier battles of 1942, it was clear that anti-aircraft protection was a vital component of any surface ship's armament. By the end of 1943, Enterprise and most other combatants in the US fleet bristled with 20mm and Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft guns, two of the most effective anti-aircraft weapons of the war. Radar-controlled fire directors for both the 5" and 40mm guns - added in 1943 - gave Enterprise the ability to beat back attacking aircraft in all weather, day or night.
Enterprise's exploits did not go unrecognized, at home or abroad. Over the course of the war, she received 20 battle stars, three more than any other ship (sisterships New Orleans CA-32, Minneapolis CA-36 and San Francisco CA-38 each received 17 battle stars), and seven more than the next carrier (Essex CV-9, which received 13 stars).
In May 1943, while she prepared to return to the States for much needed repair and refitting, Enterprise became the first aircraft carrier to be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. She later received a Navy Unit Commendation, becoming the only carrier awarded both decorations for service in the Second World War.
Perhaps her two most prestigious tributes were received after she left the war. In August 1945, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal cited Enterprise as the "one vessel that most nearly symbolizes the history of the Navy in this war." Two months later, following the Navy Day celebration in New York in October 1945, Secretary Forrestal recommended to President Truman that Enterprise, unable to operate the heavier, faster aircraft then entering service, be preserved "as a visible symbol of American valor and tenacity in war, and of our will to fight all enemies who assail us...."
Later that fall, while participating in the Magic Carpet program for returning servicemen to state-side from the European theater, Enterprise docked in Southampton, England on November 23, 1945. During her brief stay, she was boarded by the British First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Albert Alexander, who presented Enterprise a British Admiralty Pennant, the most prestigious decoration of the Royal Navy. Enterprise is the only ship outside the Royal Navy to have received the pennant, in the more than 400 years since its creation.
Enterprise and her veterans, included among the 16 ships and 10,000 sailors, airmen and Marines who took part in the Doolittle Raid in April 1942, were officially recognized for their daring exploit just recently, on May 15, 1995. The Task Force 16 Citation is the most recent decoration awarded Enterprise and her veterans: it may not be the last.
"Just as Enterprise deserves not to be forgotten, so too should her era not be forgotten."
Steve Ewing, from "USS Enterprise (CV-6): The Most Decorated Ship of World War II"
Enterprise left an indelible mark on the course of the Pacific War, and on the hearts of the men who served in her. Although the campaign to preserve Enterprise herself met with failure, her memory and spirit have been preserved in myriad ways, largely through the efforts of her former crew and air groups.
Speaking of Roger and Aircraft Carriers... ;-)
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