Essex Class Carriers

Charybdis

Post subject: Re: Essex Class Carriers

Posted: July 30th, 2017, 8:59 pm

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Joined: November 8th, 2011, 4:29 am
Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka
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While CV-9 ESSEX was on a shakedown cruise off the Eastern Seaboard, CV-16 LEXINGTON, the second Essex class carrier was commissioned in February 1943. Originally named CABOT when laid down at Bethlehem, Quincy in July 1941, she was renamed after CV-2 was lost in the battle of Coral Sea in 1942.

All of the early Essex class carriers were essentially identical with a couple of distinguishing features but mainly the radar arrangement. In this drawing, you can see the SK air search radar (range: 100nm) located on the starboard side of the stack and the SC-2 back up air search (80nm) on a lattice mast on the port side. On the tripod is an SM height finder (50nm) for fighter control. SG surface search radar (22nm) is mounted above the SM and a YE homing beacon tops the foremast. A second SG radar could be mounted atop the main mast. Thanks again to Colosseum for the parts.

LEXINGTON arrived at Pearl Harbor in August 1942 and saw action in raids against the Japanese at Tarawa and Wake Island. She is depicted here in November 1943 as part of Task Group 50.1 (Interceptor Group) in company with CV-10 YORKTOWN and CVL-25 COWPENS as part of Operation GALVANIC (Gilbert Islands). I can find no photographic evidence of any deck markings other than the numbers. Information on deck markings is very sketchy before the standardized markings of 1944.

The Japanese referred to her as a "ghost ship" for her tendency to reappear after reportedly being sunk. She was the only wartime Essex not to be painted in dazzle and kept her Measure 21 paint scheme until May 1945. For these reasons the crew nicknamed her the "Blue Ghost".

Lexington sailed to raid Kwajalein on 4 December 1943. Her morning strike destroyed the SS Kembu Maru, damaged two cruisers, and accounted for 30 enemy aircraft. Her gunners splashed two of the enemy torpedo planes that attacked at midday, but were ordered not to open fire at night as Admiral Charles Pownall then in command believed it would give their position away (he was later replaced).

At 19:20 that night, a major air attack began while the task force was under way off Kwajalein. At 23:22, parachute flares from Japanese planes silhouetted the carrier, and 10 minutes later, she was hit by a torpedo on the starboard side, knocking out her steering gear. Nine people were killed, two on the fantail and seven in the chief petty officers' mess room, which was a repair party station during general quarters. Four members of the affected repair party survived because they were sitting on a couch that apparently absorbed the shock of the explosion. Settling 5 feet (2 m) by the stern, the carrier began circling to port amidst dense clouds of smoke pouring from ruptured tanks aft.

To maintain water-tight integrity, damage control crews were ordered to seal the damaged compartments and welded them shut, applying heavy steel plates where needed. An emergency hand-operated steering unit was quickly devised, and Lexington made Pearl Harbor for emergency repairs, arriving on 9 December. She reached Bremerton, Washington, on December 22 for full repairs, completed on February 20, 1944. The error in judgment concerning opening fire at night was never repeated, as thereafter gun crews were ordered to open fire anytime the ship came under attack. Following this attack, the ship was reported as sunk by Japan's Tokyo Rose, the first of several such assertions.

- taken from Wikipedia

LEXINGTON took part in most of the major battles of the remainder of the Pacific war and was decommissioned and placed in reserve in April 1947.
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Last edited by Charybdis on July 30th, 2017, 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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