As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
One year after the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, a new class of American fast attack carrier in the Essex class appeared upon the 7 seas. The Essex had been laid down in April 1941 before the world war began due to Franklin Roosevelt's machinations in the east and west, but by December 1942, the USS Essex was beginning her shakedown run as a carrier, and would in 31 years on the high seas, become one of the epic ships of battle in world history, in founding an entire class of carriers of which 24 were produced.
What made the Essex class revolutionary was she was fast. From the dinosaur era of the first world war to the Essex class, ships began like Americans Clippers to literally fly through the water. The Essex would steam at 30 knots, and in her flotilla she would have fast attack transports, fast attack submarines and fast attack surface ships. An Essex group could move from Hawaii to the outer Japanese defenses in days. Once on station she could move over 400 miles in 10 hours. She literally could outrun Japanese attack aircraft or draw down on Japanese positions before the Japanese could maneuver away.
Class and type:
| Essex-class aircraft carrier | |
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| Draft: | 34 ft 2 in (10.41 m) (full load) |
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| Propulsion: | 4 × shafts; 4 × geared steam turbines |
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph) |
| Range: | 20,000 nmi (37,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Complement: | 2,600 officers and enlisted men |
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In all of the years of World War II, the Essex only went into port once for refitting. She participated from 1943 onward in a series of Task Forces in which she was the primary ship of battle. In an incredible run, she was there from the shattering of the Japanese defenses in the outlayer islands to leading attacks upon the Japanese main island in 1945.
She would be part of 7 task forces in the war and in some incredible photos below be struck by Japanese suicide missions and survive.
The Americans Admirals commanding these new fleets would inflict crushing blows upon the Japanese as they were becoming an invincible force. It would in the roll up be a factor that the Japanese would not appear in force until the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot where 243 of 373 Japanese aircraft were shot down to 29 American losses, that the weight of the great Task Force 58 which Essex was a part of would be felt on the empire.
May 1943. Departing from Pearl Harbor, she participated with Task Force 16 (TF 16) in carrier operations against Marcus Island. On 31 August 1943, she was designated the flagship of TF 14 and struck Wake Island on 5 and 6 October. On 11 November, she took part in carrier operations during the Rabaul strike, alongside Bunker Hill and Princeton. She then launched an attack with Task Group 50.3 (TG 50.3) against the Gilbert Islands where she took part in her first amphibious assault during the Battle of Tarawa. After refueling at sea, she cruised as the flagship of TG 50.3 to attack Kwajalein on 4 December. Her second amphibious assault delivered in company with TG 50.3 was against the Marshall Islands on 29 January to 2 February 1944.
Essex, in TG 50.3, now joined with TG 58.1 and TG 58.2 to constitute Task Force 58, the "Fast Carrier Task Force", launched an attack against Truk between 17 and 18 February 1944 during which eight Japanese ships were sunk. While en route to the Mariana Islands to sever Japanese supply lines, the carrier force was detected and subjected to a prolonged aerial attack which it repelled successfully. It then continued with the scheduled attack upon Saipan, Tinian, and Guam on 23 February 1944.A Japanese kamikaze aircraft explodes after crashing into Essex’s flight deck amidships on 25 November 1944.
After this operation, Essex proceeded to San Francisco for her single wartime overhaul. Following her overhaul, Essex became the carrier for Air Group 15, the "Fabled Fifteen," commanded by the U.S. Navy's top ace of the war, David McCampbell. She then joined carriers Wasp and San Jacinto in TG 12.1 to strike Marcus Island on 19 to 20 May 1944, and Wake, on 23 May 1944. She deployed with TF 58 to support the occupation of the Marianas on 12 June to 10 August; sortied with TG 38.3 to lead an attack against the Palau Islands on 6 to 8 September, and Mindanao on 9 to 10 September with enemy shipping as the main target, and remained in the area to support landings on Peleliu. On 2 October, she weathered a typhoon and four days later departed with Task Force 38 (TF 38) for the Ryukyus.
Lieutenant Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33) Suisei diving at Essex, 25 November 1944. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke.
For the remainder of 1944, she continued her frontline action, participating in strikes against Okinawa on 1 October, and Formosa from 1 to 14 October, covering the Leyte landings, taking part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf 24 to 25 October, and continuing the search for enemy fleet units until 30 October, when she returned to Ulithi, Caroline Islands, for replenishment. She resumed the offensive and delivered attacks on Manila and the northern Philippine Islands during November. On 25 November, for the first time in her far-ranging operations and destruction to the enemy, Essex received damage. A kamikaze hit the port edge of her flight deck landing among planes gassed for takeoff causing extensive damage, killing 15, and wounding 44.
Following quick repairs, she operated with the task force off Leyte supporting the occupation of Mindoro 14 to 16 December 1944. She rode out Typhoon Cobra and made a special search for survivors afterward. With TG 38.3, she participated in the Lingayen Gulf operations, launched strikes against Formosa, Sakishima, Okinawa, and Luzon. Entering the South China Sea in search of enemy surface forces, the task force pounded shipping and conducted strikes on Formosa, the China coast, Hainan, and Hong Kong. Essex withstood the onslaught of the third typhoon in four months on 20 and 21 January 1945 before striking again at Formosa, Miyako-jima, and Okinawa on 26 and 27 January.
For the remainder of the war, she operated with TF 58, conducting attacks against the Tokyo area on 16 and 17 February. On 25 February 1945, she was deployed to neutralize the enemy's air power before the landings on Iwo Jima and to cripple the aircraft manufacturing industry. She sent support missions against Iwo Jima and neighboring islands, but from 23 March to 28 May was employed primarily to support the conquest of Okinawa. In the closing days of the war, Essex took part in the final telling raids against the Japanese home islands on 10 July to 15 August 1945.
It was two platforms which changed the Pacific theater. The Marines amphibious landing craft and the fast attack carriers of the Essex class with their flotillas of fast attack surface craft. The Japanese were reeling by the Philippines Sea where teh carrier Hiyo was sank, with her escorts of two heavy cruisers, halving the Japanese carrier force remaining and losing 2/3rds of her fighter pilots.
There literally were aircraft carriers appearing everywhere and amphibious landing craft launching like hornets upon the ocean.
The Essex was in reality a fast cruiser built to immense battleship profile with a deck place on top. It was a perfect design which proved itself in decades of service patrolling and fighting upon the high seas.
For the world war which is coming, the United States would do well to modernize this design and deploy a shockwave desensitized version for deploying in troubled waters.
Nuff Said
agtG
