World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseOn 1 Dec 1941, six days before the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the fourth and fifth of the new, large Essex-class aircraft carriers to be laid down were both laid down at Newport News, Virginia, United States. The contracts called for the ships to be named Bon Homme Richard and Intrepid but the Bon Homme Richard was renamed Yorktown on 26 Sep 1942 after the loss of the Yorktown (Yorktown-class) at Midway. Yorktown (Essex-class) was launched on 21 Jan 1943 sponsored by the First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. Yorktown was commissioned on 15 April 1943 at the Norfolk Navy Yard with the colorful Captain Joseph J. "Jocko" Clark in command.

ww2dbaseYorktown made her shakedown cruise to Trinidad where her crew gave her the nickname "The Fighting Lady," a nickname that would stick throughout her career. In July 1943 she sailed for the Pacific Ocean and saw her first combat at Marcus Island before returning to Hawaii.

ww2dbaseAboard Yorktown during the Marcus Island strikes was a documentary film crew from Paramount Pictures. Overseen by the Navy's head of photography, Edward Steichen, they shot miles of film showing routine carrier operations and their combat operations against Marcus Island. A year later, additional footage was shot aboard Ticonderoga on her shakedown cruise to Trinidad. The two batches of film, along with other combat footage, were stitched together into a one-hour documentary film named The Fighting Lady. That film went on to win the Academy Award for the Best Documentary Film of 1944.

ww2dbaseBut all of that came later. After the Marcus Island strikes, Yorktown struck Wake Island in October 1943 followed by her first major assault operation in the Gilbert Islands in support of the amphibious assault on Tarawa. On their way back to Pearl Harbor, the Task Group made passing raids on Wotje and Kwajalein Atolls. In Jan 1944, Yorktown joined Admiral Marc Mitscher's Fast Carrier Task Force for the Marshall Islands operation. Yorktown then participated in a steady series of raids that ranged from the Marianas in the north to New Guinea in the south.

ww2dbaseIn June 1944, Yorktown sailed in support of the invasion of Saipan in the Marianas, specifically by suppressing Japanese aircraft on Guam. As the Japanese fleet approached, Yorktown aircrews divided their attention between Guam to the east and the enemy fleet closing from the west. During the first day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea ("The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot"), Yorktown aircraft claimed 37 Japanese planes destroyed while also dropping 21 tons of bombs on the Guam air bases.

ww2dbaseStarting the next day, Yorktown spent nearly forty straight days in combat or active searches for the Japanese fleet. Along the way she made strikes against Pagan in the Marianas, Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima, Yap, Ulithi, and the Palaus, as well as elements of the Japanese fleet when they could be located.

ww2dbaseOn 31 July 1944, Yorktown began making her way to the Puget Sound Navy Yard for a two-month overhaul. She rejoined the Carrier Task Force at Ulithi on 3 Nov 1944 and participated in the Leyte and Luzon engagements before the entire fleet steamed through Typhoon Cobra. That storm sank three destroyers and Yorktown participated in some of the rescue operations for the survivors.

ww2dbaseYorktown next sailed in support of the landings at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. On 10 Jan 1945, Yorktown and the rest of the Fast Carrier Task Force entered the South China Sea to begin a series of raids on Japan's inner defenses. On 12 Jan 1945 her planes pounded targets the vicinity of Saigon, French Indochina (now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam). The Task Force then struck Hong Kong, Canton (Guangzhou), Formosa (Taiwan), and Okinawa before making their way back to their anchorage in Ulithi Lagoon. Yorktown's next sortie was in support of the Iwo Jima invasion that started with strikes in the area of Tokyo, Japan, the first carrier borne air strikes on the Japanese home islands since the Doolittle Raid almost three years earlier. There were also strikes on Chichi Jima, Haha Jima, and ground support missions over Iwo Jima in direct support of the Marines on the ground. Even before Iwo Jima was secured, the fleet turned toward Okinawa. Yorktown planes flew strikes against mainland Japan and Okinawa itself, an area with the thickest concentration of Special Attack aircraft (kamikaze) seen at any time during the war.

ww2dbaseYorktown gunners fought as hard as any gunners in the fleet and were largely successful in keeping Japanese aircraft away from the carrier. On 18 Mar 1945 the task group came under air attack almost as soon as operations began. After fighting off several airplanes, one Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" flew through heavy fire and hit Yorktown with a bomb before disintegrating and falling into the sea. The bomb went through two decks of the island structure and exploded inside the island. Five sailors were killed but the damage was manageable and did not take the carrier out of action. Three days later another "Judy" made an apparent suicide dive on Yorktown. The plane passed very near island and struck the water about 60 feet from the ship.

ww2dbaseOn 30 March 1945, Yorktown and the other carriers of her task group began to concentrate solely on the island of Okinawa and the surrounding area. Before troops landed, they pounded the island in softening-up strikes and after the landings Yorktown's planes provided direct support for the troops for almost six weeks. On 7 April 1945, American reconnaissance observed a Japanese task force built around the battleship Yamato steaming south. Yorktown and the other carriers quickly launched strikes to attack Yamato and her escorts. Air Group 9 aviators from Yorktown arrived after Yamato was already badly damaged but they still claimed several torpedo hits on the battleship just before she exploded and sank. They also had bomb hits on light cruiser Yahagi before she also sank. After that engagement, Yorktown resumed support of the troops on Okinawa.

ww2dbaseYorktown's task group withdrew from Okinawa on 11 May 1945 for three weeks at Ulithi. On 28 May 1945 Yorktown returned to action for two more weeks of air support missions over Okinawa and the Japanese homeland. On 10 June 1945, Yorktown headed toward San Pedro Bay at Leyte for two weeks of replenishment, upkeep, rest, and relaxation.

ww2dbaseYorktown got underway again on 1 July 1945 with the rest of the fast carriers for raids on the Japanese home islands. She launched air strikes on the Tokyo area of Honshu, the northernmost island-Hokkaido, and most notably, the Japanese fleet anchorage at Kure. Skirting two typhoons and other heavy weather, Yorktown kept up the strikes as best she could right up to receiving orders to cease hostilities altogether.

ww2dbaseAfter Japan's capitulation, Yorktown provided cover for the forces occupying Japan and dropped supplies to Allied prisoners of war. Yorktown spent two weeks in Tokyo Bay before getting underway for the United States with a load of servicemen from Okinawa, the first of three such trips across the Pacific. On 9 Jan 1947, Yorktown was placed out of commission at Bremerton, Washington, United States.

ww2dbaseDuring the Korean War, Yorktown was ordered reactivated and outfitting work began at Puget Sound, Washington. On 20 Feb 1953, Yorktown was placed in full commission with Capt. William M. Nation in command. Before Yorktown could complete all her fitting out and shakedown, the Korean conflict ended. She completed two west Pacific deployments nevertheless and in Mar 1955 she began seven months of overhaul that included the addition of an angled flight deck needed for jet aircraft operations (CVA-10). She made two more west Pacific deployments before Sept 1957 when she was repurposed as an Anti-Submarine Warfare Carrier (CVS-10) followed by another six months of refits and more western Pacific cruises.

ww2dbaseBy 1958, Cold War tensions in Asia were escalating and Yorktown participated in several show-of-force sorties around Taiwan and Vietnam. A series of more peacetime western Pacific deployments followed until the United States became more directly involved in the war in Vietnam. Yorktown conducted anti-submarine sweeps around the carrier groups at Yankee Station off Vietnam. In the single year of 1968, Yorktown provided support following the North Korean seizure of USS Pueblo, she served unofficially as the "USS Akagi" for the filming of the movie, "Tora! Tora! Tora!," and Yorktown was the primary recovery vessel for the Apollo 8 astronauts, the first men to orbit the moon.

ww2dbaseIn 1969, Yorktown was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet and steamed around Cape Horn to Norfolk, Virginia. She made one European cruise before preparations began for her final decommissioning. Yorktown was decommissioned on 27 June 1970 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1975 she was donated as a museum ship and is currently open to the public at Patriot’s Point in Charleston, South Carolina, United States.

ww2dbaseThe USS Yorktown (Essex-class) earned 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation during World War II and five battle stars in Vietnam.

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2.  David Stubblebine says:
16 Jul 2015 11:26:39 PM

Rob:
Yes, the actual Akagi was the HIMJS Akagi but in 1968, when the USS Yorktown was dressed up to look like the Japanese carrier Akagi for the filming of the movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!,” the Yorktown earned the unofficial nickname of “USS Akagi” - in a tongue-in-cheek sort of manner.

As always, thank you for your interest but in this case, this was not a typo.