Aircraft Carrier Hornet (Essex-class)

Hornet (Essex-class)

Country	United States
Ship Class	Essex-class Aircraft Carrier
Builder Name	Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., VA
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
Power Output	150,000 SHP
Speed	33 knots
Range	20,000nm at 15 knots
Crew	2600
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.

Photographs