


Hornet (Essex-class)
Country | United States |
Ship Class | Essex-class Aircraft Carrier |
Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding |
Laid Down | 3 Aug 1942 |
Launched | 30 Aug 1943 |
Commissioned | 29 Nov 1943 |
Decommissioned | 15 Jan 1947 |
Displacement | 27,100 tons standard; 36,380 tons full |
Length | 872 feet |
Beam | 147 feet |
Draft | 34 feet |
Machinery | 8 boilers, 4 Westinghouse geared steam turbines, 4 shafts |
Bunkerage | 6,330t fuel oil; 240,000gal aviation fuel |
Power Output | 150,000 SHP |
Speed | 33 knots |
Range | 20,000nm at 15 knots |
Crew | 2,600 |
Armament | 4x twin 5in, 4x5in, 8x quad 40mm, 46x20mm |
Armor | 2.5in to 4in belt, 1.5in hangar, 4in bulkheads, 1.5in STS top and sides of pilot house, 2.5in top of |
Aircraft | 90 |
Elevator | 3 (1 deck edge, 2 centerline) |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbaseOriginally named Kearsarge, the ship was renamed Hornet in honor of the carrier Hornet that was lost during the Solomons Campaign in Oct 1942. Her shakedown training took place off Bermuda. On 14 Feb 1944 she sailed from Norfolk, VA to join the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Marshalls. Her aircraft supported the invasion on New Guinea, bombarded Japanese bases in the Caroline Islands, and supported the landings on the Marianas Islands by striking Japanese bases on Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima on 15-16 Jun 1944 to prevent their aircraft from reinforcing the Marianas. On 18 Jun, Hornet participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, as known to the Americans as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. After raids on Japanese bases on Guam, Bonin, the Palau Islands, Okinawa, and Taiwan, she then supported the landings on Leyte, Philippines on 20 Oct 1944, and participated in the Battle off Samar by supporting the overwhelmed American fleet with air support. Near the end of the war, Hornet's aircraft raided the Japanese home islands and supporting the landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
ww2dbaseAs a carrier operating near Japan, Hornet was a prime target for whatever air power Japan had left. During the last 16 months of the war, she sustained 59 air attacks. However, her pilots had much to show for as well. During this time her pilots destroyed 1,410 Japanese aircraft and sank 1,269,710 tons worth of Japanese shipping.
ww2dbaseAfter the war, Hornet participated in Operation Magic Carpet that brought American service men back to the United States. She returned to San Francisco on 9 Feb 1946 and became decommissioned there in Jan 1947. She was recommissioned in 1951 for tension with Communist expansion in China and remained generally in the Pacific area on a wide array of missions, including the recovery of manned and unmanned spaceships of the Apollo program. She was decommissioned in 1970 and became a museum ship in 1998 at the former Alameda Naval Air Station in Alameda, California, United States.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.
Last Major Revision: Mar 2006
Aircraft Carrier Hornet (Essex-class) Interactive Map
Hornet (Essex-class) Operational Timeline
29 Nov 1943 | Hornet (Essex-class) was commissioned into service. |
13 Jul 1944 | USS Hornet spent the day conducting refueling operations. |
13 Oct 1944 | USS Hornet launched a reconnaissance mission over the Japanese Navy seaplane base at Toko Bay (now Dapeng Bay), southern Taiwan. |
15 Jan 1947 | Hornet (Essex-class) was decommissioned from service. |
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» J. J. Clark
Event(s) Participated:
» New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3
» Mariana Islands Campaign and the Great Turkey Shoot
» Philippines Campaign, Phase 1, the Leyte Campaign
» Typhoon Cobra
» Raid into the South China Sea
» Battle of Iwo Jima
» Okinawa Campaign
» Preparations for Invasion of Japan
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Chiang Kaishek, 31 Jul 1937