The Ships of Battlegroup: United States Hornet (CV-8 and CV-12)

Displacement	27,100 tons	Belt Armor	4 inches
Overall Length	820 feet	Deck Armor	6 inches
Beam	147.5 feet	Aircraft Complement	110
Speed	33 knots	Main Guns	12 × 5″

A popular name in the United States Navy, the sixth U. S. S. Hornet (CV-8) was a Yorktown class aircraft carrier commissioned in October 1941. She performed admirably during the first year of the war against Japan, carrying the Doolittle raiders to bomb Japan and participating in the decisive Battle of Midway, until the "Lucky Hornet" was hit for the first time and sunk on October 27, 1942, during the Battle of Santa Cruz.

The loss of CV-8 led to the renaming of the Kearsarge, a 27,100 ton Essex class aircraft carrier then under construction. The new Hornet (CV-12) was commissioned in November 1943 and left the Atlantic in February 1944 to fight Japan. After raids against enemy-held islands in the central Pacific, she participated in the June 1944 Marianas invasion and the Battle of the Philippine Sea (the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot"). Raids on Japanese bases continued as Hornet and the other fast carriers supported the capture of the Palaus and Philippines. She participated in the October 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf. In early 1945, Hornet entered the South China Sea for strikes on and near the Asian coast and attacks on Formosa and the Japanese home islands. She covered the landings on Iwo Jima and Okinawa and, on April 6, 1945, her planes helped sink the Japanese monster battleship Yamato. Hornet’s flight deck was damaged by a typhoon in early June, requiring a trip back to the United States for an overhaul. The war ended before this was completed and the carrier spent the rest of 1945 bringing veterans home from the Pacific. Hornet was decommissioned and joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet in January 1947.

Re-commissioned in March 1951, Hornet went to the New York Naval Shipyard for modernization and re-designation as an attack carrier (CVA-12). In 1958, Hornet was converted to an antisubmarine warfare support carrier and again re-designated, as CVS-12. The ship continued Seventh Fleet deployments through the next decade, including combat operations off Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. She was the recovery ship for several space flights, including the Apollo 11 and 12 trips to the Moon in 1969. U. S. S. Hornet was decommissioned for the last time in June 1970 and she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1989 and sold for breaking up in April 1993. The old carrier was saved from the scrap heap by the efforts of historically-minded citizens and in 1998 became the current memorial and museum ship at Alameda, California.

For other Yorktown class aircraft carriers, see: Enterprise (CV-6) and Yorktown (CV-5).

For other Essex class aircraft carriers, see: Intrepid (CV-11), Lexington (CV-16) and Yorktown (CV-10).

Where did we get all these fascinating historical tidbits and factoids? See the Bibliography for the culprits.

Hornet (CV-8)