The Ships of Battlegroup: United States Yorktown (CV-5 and CV-10)

Yorktown (CV-10)

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″

United States Aircraft carriers were named after famous ships or battles. The Yorktown name adorned a number of smaller ships over the years but here it commemorated the battle and the British surrender in October 1781 that decided the American Revolution. The first aircraft carrier named Yorktown (CV-5) was the lead ship of a class that also contained Enterprise and Hornet (CV-8).

Commissioned in September 1977, the “Fighting Lady”, had a short but dramatic wartime career. Damaged during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, she was sunk during the Battle of Midway on June 7, 1942. The loss of CV-5 led to the renaming of the Bon Homme Richard, an Essex class aircraft carrier already under construction at Newport News, Virginia.

The new Yorktown (CV-10) was launched on January 21, 1943, commissioned in April 1943, did her shakedown cruise in the Atlantic, passed through the Panama Canal in July 1943 and joined the growing Pacific Fleet. Yorktown’s first combat operation was a raid on Marcus Island in August, followed by a raid on Wake Island and support for the invasion of the Gilberts. From late January into May 1944, Yorktown covered landings in the Marshall Islands and western New Guinea and battered Japanese bases in raids throughout the central Pacific. In the June 1944 invasion of the Marianas, her planes attacked Saipan and Guam and damaged the Japanese flattop Zuikaku during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. For the rest of that month and in July, CV-10 struck other targets in the Marianas, the Bonins and the Volcano Islands. With a break for an overhaul, Yorktown rejoined the fighting fleet in November 1944, participating in attacks on the Philippines, Formosa and the China coast through January 1945. She supported the invasion of Iwo Jima and raided the Japanese home islands during the next two months and was slightly damaged by a bomb on March 18. During the Okinawa campaign, on April 7, 1945, her planes helped sink the huge Japanese battleship Yamato and some of her consorts. The remainder of the Pacific war was spent conducting raids on the Japanese home islands.

After the Japanese surrender, Yorktown covered the occupation and brought servicemen home from the Pacific Theater. A documentary movie called “The Fighting Lady” was filmed on the ship. Yorktown was decommissioned in January 1947. Yorktown was modernized starting in 1951 and, now carrying heavier modern jet aircraft, she was re-designated CVA-10 and resumed active service in February 1953, starting the first of eleven Seventh Fleet deployments in August of that year. In 1955, she was received an angled flight deck and enclosed bow to better operate modern jets. After two more tours as an attack carrier, in 1957-58 she became an antisubmarine warfare support aircraft carrier, with the new designation CVS-10.

By the mid-1960s, the carrier’s deployments included flying support for the Vietnam War. In 1968, Yorktown was featured in the motion picture “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and participated in the Apollo 8 space flight recovery effort. Transferred to the Atlantic Fleet in early 1969, she visited Europe that same year. Decommissioned in June 1970, in 1975 Yorktown became the present memorial in Charleston, South Carolina.

For other Essex class aircraft carriers, see: Hornet, Intrepid and Lexington .

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

Yorktown (CV-5)