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USS Hornet (CV-8) |
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This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (September 2008) |
.jpg) Hornet shortly after completion |
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| Career (US) |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 30 March 1939 |
| Builder: | Newport News Shipbuilding Company |
| Laid down: | 25 September 1939 |
| Launched: | 14 December 1940 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Frank Knox |
| Commissioned: | 20 October 1941 |
| Struck: | 13 January 1943 |
| Honours and awards: |
American Defense Service Medal ("A" device) / American Campaign Medal/European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (1 star) / Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1 star) / World War II Victory Medal |
| Fate: | sunk 27 October 1942 in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Yorktown-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | As built: 20,000 long tons (20,000 t) Standard (Design) 26,507 long tons (26,932 t) full load 29,114 long tons (29,581 t) maximum |
| Length: | As built: 770 ft (230 m) (waterline at design draft) 824 ft 9 in (251.4 m) (overall) as built. From Feb 1942 - 827 ft 5 in (252.2 m) overall length |
| Beam: | As built: 83 ft 3 in (25.4 m) (waterline) 114 ft (35 m) (overall) |
| Draught: | 24 ft 4 in (7.4 m) design 28 ft (8.5 m) full load |
| Propulsion: | 9 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 4 × Parsons geared turbines, 120,000 shp (90 MW) 120,000 shp (89 MW) 4 × screws |
| Speed: | 32.5 knots design (33.84 knots-builder's trials) |
| Range: | 12,500 nautical miles (23,200 km) at 15 knots (17 mph/28 km/h) |
| Complement: | 2,919 officers and enlisted (wartime) |
| Armament: | As built: 8 × 5 inch/38 caliber guns (8×1) 4 × Quad 1.1 in/75 caliber automatic cannons 24 × .50 caliber machineguns From 2/42 8 × 5 in/38 cal 4 × Quad 1.1/75 cal 30 × 20mm Oerlikons From 7/42 8 × 5in/38cal 5 × Quad 1.1"/75cal. 32 × 20mm Oerlikons. |
| Armour: | As built: 2.5–4 in (6.3–10 cm) belt 60 lb protective decks 4 in (10 cm) bulkheads 4 in (10 cm) side and 2 in (5.1 cm) top around conning tower 4 in (10 cm) side over steering gear |
| Aircraft carried: | As built: 90 aircraft 3 × elevators 2 × flight deck hydraulic catapults 1 × hangar deck hydraulic catapults |
The seventh USS Hornet (CV-8) of the United States Navy was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of World War II, notable for launching the Doolittle Raid, as a participant in the Battle of Midway, and for action in the Solomons before being irreparably damaged and sunk in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
She was launched 14 December 1940 by Newport News Shipbuilding of Newport News, Virginia (sponsored by Annie Reid Knox, wife of Secretary of the Navy Frank M. Knox), and commissioned at Norfolk 20 October 1941, Captain Marc A. Mitscher in command.
During the uneasy period before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hornet trained out of Norfolk. Her armament was upgraded in her January 1942 yard period, deleting all .50 caliber machine guns and replacing them with 30 × 20mm Oerlikon AA guns. A hint of a future mission occurred 2 February 1942 when Hornet departed Norfolk with two Army Air Force B-25 Mitchell medium bombers on deck. Once at sea, the planes were launched to the surprise and amazement of Hornet's crew. Her men were unaware of the meaning of this experiment, as Hornet returned to Norfolk, prepared to leave for combat, and on 4 March sailed for the West Coast via the Panama Canal.
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Hornet arrived at Alameda, California 20 March 1942. With her own planes on the hangar deck, she loaded 16 Army Air Force B-25 bombers on the flight deck. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, 70 officers and 64 enlisted men reported aboard. In company of her escort, Hornet departed Alameda 2 April under sealed orders. That afternoon, Captain Marc Mitscher informed his men of their mission: a bombing raid on Japan.
Eleven days later, Hornet joined USS Enterprise (CV-6) off Midway, and Task Force 16 turned toward Japan. With Enterprise providing combat air cover, Hornet was to steam deep into enemy waters. Originally, the task force intended to proceed to within 400 miles (600 km) of the Japanese coast; however, on the morning of 18 April a Japanese patrol boat, No. 23 Nitto Maru, sighted the American task force. The cruiser USS Nashville (CL-43) sank the patrol boat. Amid concerns that the Japanese had been made aware of their presence, Doolittle and his raiders were forced to launch prematurely from 600 miles (970 km) out instead of the planned 450 miles (720 km). Because of this decision, none of the 16 planes made it to their designated landing strip in China. After the war, it was found that the Japanese ship was sunk before it could contact the Japanese mainland.
As Hornet swung about and prepared to launch the bombers, which had been readied for take-off the previous day, a gale of more than 40 knots (50 mph/70 km/h) churned the sea with 30-foot (9 m) crests; heavy swells, which caused the ship to pitch violently, shipped sea and spray over the bow, wet the flight deck and drenched the deck crews. The lead plane, commanded by Colonel Doolittle, had only 467 feet (142 m) of flight deck, while the last B-25 hung it's twin rudders far out over the fantail. Doolittle, timing himself against the rise and fall of the ship's bow, lumbered down the flight deck, circled Hornet after take-off, and set course for Japan. By 09:20, all 16 were airborne, heading for the first American air strike against Japan.
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Hornet brought her own planes on deck as TF16 steamed at full speed for Pearl Harbor. Intercepted broadcasts, both in Japanese and English, confirmed at 14:46 the success of the raids. Exactly one week to the hour after launching the B-25s, Hornet sailed into Pearl Harbor. Hornet's mission was kept an official secret for a year; until then President Roosevelt referred to the base the bombers started from only as "Shangri-La". Several years later, the USN would give this name to an aircraft carrier.
Hornet steamed from Pearl Harbor 30 April, to aid USS Yorktown (CV-5) and USS Lexington (CV-2) at the Battle of the Coral Sea, but the battle ended before she reached the scene. She returned to Hawaii 26 May, and sailed 2 days later to help repulse an expected Japanese assault on Midway.
Japanese carrier-based planes were reported headed for Midway in the early morning of 4 June 1942. Hornet, Yorktown, and Enterprise launched aircraft, just as the Japanese carriers struck their planes below to prepare for a second attack on Midway. Hornet dive bombers were unable to locate their targets, but 15 torpedo bombers of her Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) found their enemy and pressed home their attacks. They were met by overwhelming fighter opposition about 8 miles (13 km) out and were shot down one by one. Ensign George H. Gay, USNR, was the only survivor of thirty men.
Of 41 torpedo planes launched by the three American carriers, only six returned. But their sacrifice drew enemy fighters away from the dive bombers of Enterprise and Yorktown; these aircraft sank three Japanese carriers, with an indirect but crucial assist from submarine USS Nautilus (SS-168). The fourth Japanese carrier, Hiryū, was hit late in the afternoon of 4 June and sank in the early hours of the morning on the following day. Yorktown was lost to combined aerial and submarine attack.
Hornet’s planes (this time assisted by submarine USS Tambor (SS-198) attacked the fleeing Japanese fleet on 6 June 1942, and assisted in sinking the cruiser Mikuma, damaging a destroyer, and left the cruiser Mogami aflame and heavily damaged; hits were also made on other ships. Hornet's attack on Mogami ended one of the decisive battles of history. Midway was saved as an important base for operations into the western Pacific. Of greatest importance was the crippling of Japan's carrier strength, a severe blow from which she never fully recovered. Additionally, the four large carriers carried with them to the bottom some 250 planes and a high percentage of Japan's most highly trained and battle-experienced carrier pilots. The victory at Midway is widely seen as a turning point in the battle for the Pacific.
Following the battle of Midway, Hornet had a new CXAM radar installed atop her tripod mast, and her SC radar was relocated to the mainmast, an additional 1.1-inch (28 mm) quad mount was added at the bow, her 20mm complement was increased from 30 to 32 mounts, her athwartships hangar deck catapult was removed, and she trained out of Pearl Harbor. She sailed 17 August 1942 to guard the sea approaches to bitterly-contested Guadalcanal in the Solomons. Bomb damage to Enterprise (24 August), torpedo damage to USS Saratoga (CV-3) (31 August), and loss of USS Wasp (CV-7) (15 September) reduced carriers in the South Pacific to one: Hornet. She bore the brunt of air cover in the Solomons until 24 October 1942 when she joined Enterprise northwest of the New Hebrides and steamed to intercept a Japanese carrier/battleship force bearing down on Guadalcanal.
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands took place 26 October 1942 without contact between surface ships of the opposing forces. That morning Enterprise planes bombed carrier Zuihō. Planes from Hornet severely damaged carrier Shōkaku, and cruiser Chikuma. Two other cruisers were also attacked by Hornet aircraft. Meanwhile, Hornet was attacked by a coordinated dive bombing and torpedo plane attack. In a 15-minute period, Hornet took three bomb hits from Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers, another bomb hit (followed by the Val itself crashing into the deck), two torpedo hits from Nakajima B5N "Kate"s, and one more Val crashing into the deck.
Rear Admiral Murray ordered USS Northampton (CA-26) to tow the damaged Hornet. Since the Japanese were attacking Enterprise, it allowed Northampton to tow at about 5 knots (9.3 km/h/5.8 mph). Hornet, while under tow, came under attack again from another wave of torpedo bombers later in the day. One more Kate scored a torpedo hit, and "abandon ship" was ordered. Captain Charles P. Mason, the last man on board, climbed over the side, and survivors were soon picked up by destroyers.
U.S. forces then attempted to scuttle the abandoned Hornet, which stubbornly absorbed nine torpedoes and more than 400 5 in (130 mm) rounds from destroyers USS Mustin (DD-413) and USS Anderson (DD-411). Mustin and Anderson moved off when Japanese naval forces appeared in the area. Japanese destroyers then finished the Hornet with four 24-inch (610 mm) torpedoes. At 01:35, 27 October 1942, the gallant carrier finally sank. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register 13 January 1943, but her name was revived.
Hornet received four battle stars for World War II service. Torpedo Squadron 8 was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation "for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service beyond the call of duty" in the Battle of Midway.
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