World War II Database

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.

Aircraft Carrier Hornet (Essex-class) Interactive Map

Hornet (Essex-class) Operational Timeline

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