Yorktown class aircraft carrier

The "Yorktown" class aircraft carriers consisted of three carriers built by the U.S. and completed shortly before World War II. They bore the brunt of early action in that war, and the sole survivor of the class was to become the most decorated ship in the history of the U.S. Navy.

Development

The lessons learned from operations with the large battlecruiser conversion "Lexington" class in comparison with the smaller purpose-built USS|Ranger|CV-4|2 had taught the Navy that large carriers were more operationally flexible and survivable than smaller ones. As the result of this experience, the U.S. Navy built the USS|Yorktown|CV-5|3 and USS|Enterprise|CV-6|3, commissioned in 1937 and 1938 respectively. These were fast and versatile carriers, able to carry and operate over 80 warplanes, almost as many as the much larger "Lexington" class.

With the addition of the 14,700 ton USS|Wasp|CV-7, a scaled down version of the class, the U.S. Navy used up its full 135,000 ton Washington Naval Treaty limit of aircraft carrier tonnage. The scrapping of the treaty system in 1937 allowed the US to begin building more carriers, and the first of this new carrier program was USS|Hornet|CV-8|3, another of the class, commissioned in 1941. Improvements to the "Yorktown" design and freedom from the Washington Treaty limitations brought about the "Essex" (CV-9) class.

Unusually, the "Yorktown"s carried a seldom used catapult on the hangar deck level; this catapult was eliminated on all following carrier classes as it was relatively useless in operation. The hangar deck catapult was removed from USS|Enterprise|CV-6|2 and USS|Hornet|CV-8|2 in late June 1942.

All three ships of the "Yorktown" class were built at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company, Newport News, Virginia.

Ships in class

Operational History

"Yorktown" and "Wasp" had been lost by the end of 1942, with "Yorktown" sunk at the Battle of Midway in June; smaller cousin "Wasp" sunk in September, and "Hornet" lost in October at the Battle of Santa Cruz. All three ships had been lost to torpedo strikes. Orphaned sister "Enterprise", for a time the only operational carrier in the South Pacific, soldiered on, and participated in most of the principal actions of the Pacific War. She became the most frequently decorated ship of the war. Though the "Yorktown" class was soon overshadowed by the larger and more numerous "Essex" class, "Enterprise" remained at the forefront of the Pacific campaigns due to the experience of her crew.

By the end of World War II, "Enterprise" had been considerably modified. Her final displacement was 32,060 tons and her final armament was 8 single 5 in (127 mm) 38 DP, 6 quad 40 mm AA (replacing the ineffective 1.1"/75 (28mm) gun quad mounts which the "Yorktown" class had initially been fitted with), 8 twin 40 mm AA and 50 single 20 mm AA. The "Yorktown"s had proved to be vulnerable to torpedoes, and while undergoing repairs at Bremerton, Washington, from July to October, 1943, "Enterprise" received an extensive refit, which included an anti-torpedo blister that significantly improved her underwater protection.

"Enterprise" was finally put out of action on 14 May 1945 when she was struck in the forward elevator by a kamikaze aircraft flown by Japanese pilot Lt. Shunsuke Tomiyasu (note: many sources mistakenly credit the attack to Tomi Zai) [http://www.history.navy.mil/download/ww2-31.pdf] , which destroyed the elevator and severely damaged her hangar deck. She was still out of action on V-J Day but was subsequently fitted out for Operation Magic Carpet, ferrying over 10,000 veterans home from Europe. Stricken from the list in 1959 after multiple attempts to preserve her as a museum and memorial, ex-"Enterprise" met her fate in the breaker's yards at Kearny, New Jersey in 1960.