Uss Intrepid Aircraft Carrier - As Intrepid's planes flew missions in support of the Leyte landings 20 October 144 Japan's Navy desperately striving to hold the Philippines was converging on Leyte Gulf from three directions. Ships of the U.S. Navy parried thrusts in four ma jor actions collectively known as the Battle for Leyte Gulf.
As Intrepid's planes hit Clark Field 30 October a burning kamikaze crashed into one of the carrier's port gun tubs killing 10 men and wounding 6. Soon skillful damage control work enabled the flattop to resume flight operations.
Uss Intrepid Aircraft Carrier
The Japanese had also brought along one of their most powerful weapons, the battleship Musashi. Displacing 80,000 tons and armed with enormous 18-inch guns, the Musashi, along with her sister ship Yamato was the biggest and most powerful battleship ever built.
This was the final Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) job performed by the New York Naval Shipyard Brooklyn N.Y. slated to close after more than a century and a half of service to the nation. In September Intrepid with her wo rk approximately 75 percent completed eased down the East River to moor at the Naval Supply Depot at Bayonne N.J. for the completion of her multi-million dollar overhaul. After builder's sea trials and fitting out at Norfolk she sailed to Guantanamo on shakedown.
Shortly after noon 25 November a heavy force of Japanese planes struck back at the carriers. Within 5 minutes 2 kamikazes crashed into the carrier killing 6 officers and 5 bluejackets. Intrepid never lost propulsion nor left her station in the task group; and. in less than 2 hours had extinguished the last blaze. The next day Intrepid headed for San Francisco arriving 20 December for repairs.
The Intrepid sustained a total of 270 casualties during the Second World War, and November 25, 1944 was the single most deadly day in the ship’s history when two kamikaze aircraft struck the ship and killed 69 crew members. As a result of these repeated attempts to sink her, she became known as “The Ghost Ship” by the Japanese, as she continually returned to action. Truly the ship and her crew were “intrepid” in every respect.
During WWII it became increasingly obvious that aircraft carriers were the new kings of the seas. Battleships could unleash incredible firepower against other ships situated 10 to 20 miles away, but aircraft carriers could send a swarm of aircraft carrying bombs and torpedoes against targets hundreds of miles away. With many recognizing their might, they became high-value targets in the Pacific War.
I agree with the others. The USS Enterprise (CV-6) is the greatest American carrier, and I would say warship, to have served. She has 20 battle stars and fought in all the carrier on carrier battles except for The Battle of the Coral Sea. Her planes put down to Japanese carriers at Midway, damaged IJN carriers at Santa Cruz and Eastern Solomons and sank a total of 71 ships, mostly when the US Navy was fighting the Japanese Navy at its peak.
The still potent Center Force after pushing through San Bernardino Strait had steamed south along the coast of Samar where it was held at bay by a little escort carrier group of six "baby flattops" three destroyers and four destroyer escorts until help arrived to send it fleeing in defeat back towards Japan.
“Intrepid” means “fearless, undaunted, adventurous,” and all those words could certainly describe the World War II aircraft carrier that is now a floating museum on New York City’s West Side. Commissioned in August 1943 the USS Intrepid (CV-11) was the fourth ship to bear the name, but perhaps the one to earn it most.
Early in the next year Intrepid began preparations for a vital role in NASA's first manned Gemini flight. On 23 March 1965 Lt. Comdr. John W. Young and Maj. Virgil I. Grissom in Molly Brown splashed down some 50 miles from Intrepid after history's first controlled re-entry into the earth's atmosphere ended in the pair's nearly perfect three-orbit flight. A Navy helicopter lifted the astronauts from the spacecraft and flew them to Intrepid for medical examination and de briefing. Later Intrepid retrieved Molly Brown and returned the spaceship and astronauts to Cape Kennedy.
In the 1960s the Intrepid was tasked with a new type of mission – one related to space. On May 24, 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter landed in the Caribbean about 250 miles off course from his intended landing zone. A couple of hours after he splashed down USS Intrepid fished Carpenter out of the ocean.
Intrepid operated along the East Coast during the fall. Early in September she entertained 22 NATO statesmen as part of their tour of U.S. military installations. She was at Yorktown 18 to 19 October 1964 for ceremonies commemorating Lord Cor nwallis' surrender 183 years before.
Taking nothing away from the CV Intrepid, the original USS Interpid and it’s raid to destroy the Philadelphia and then use as a fire ship in Tripoli has quite the right to being “the ship that earned the name the most”.
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.
It was unfortunate the trend of preserving WW II warships was in its infancy when The Big E went to the breakers. Adm. Halsey did attempt to generate the money to save the ship but failed. The only consolation was CVN-65 was given the name.
The night of 17 February 1944 an aerial torpedo struck Intrepid's starboard quarter 15 feet below her waterline flooding several compartments and jamming her rudder hard to port. By racing her port screw and idling her starboard engine Cap tain Sprague kept her on course until 2 days later strong winds swung her back and forth and tended to weathercock her with her bow pointed [447] toward Tokyo. Sprague later confessed: "Right then I wasn't interested in going in that direction." At this point the crew fashioned a jury-rig sail of hatch covers and scrap canvas which swung Intrepid about and held her on course. Decorated by her crazy-quilt sail Intrepid stood into Pearl Harbor 24 February 1944.
USS Intrepid (CV-11) was an Essex-class aircraft carrier launched in 1943 and active in World War II and the Vietnam War. Between the wars, she was also active in training operations, life-saving missions (most notably of US astronauts), and anti-Communist operations.
In February of 1947 Intrepid was decommissioned. However, she managed to escape the scrapyard fate of so many other ships when she received a major overhaul in 1952, that allowed her to handle the newer, heavy jet aircraft coming into service.
Boasting a reinforced angle flight deck and a mirror landing system Intrepid departed the United States in September 1957 for NATO's Operation "Strikeback" the largest peacetime naval exercise up to that time in history. Operating out of Norf olk in December she conducted Operation "Crosswind" a study of the effects of wind on carrier launches. Intrepid proved that carriers can safely conduct flight operations without turning into the wind and even launch planes while steaming downwin d.
After shakedown out of Guantanamo Bay 1955 Intrepid departed Mayport Fla. 28 May 1955 for the first of two deployments in the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet mainstay in preventing Communist aggression in Europe and the Middle East. She ret urned to Norfolk from the second of these cruises 5 September 195. The carrier got under way 29 September for a 7-month modernization overhaul in the New York Navy Yard followed by refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay.
The Essex-class were also armed to the teeth to defend against air attacks. Over seventy 40 mm Bofors cannons, twelve 5 inch guns with proximity-fused air-burst shells, and air and surface-search radar provided a formidable shield against incoming aircraft.
After training midshipmen at sea in the summer and a thorough overhaul at Norfolk in the fall the carrier departed Hampton Roads 23 January 1963 for warfare exercises in the Caribbean. Late in February she interrupted these operations to join a sea hunt for Venezuelan freighter Anzotegui whose mutinous second mate had led a group of pro- Castro terrorists in hijacking the vessel. After the Communist pirates had surrendered at Rio de Janeiro the carrier returned to Norfolk 23 March 1963 .
Mid-1966 found Intrepid with the Pacific Fleet off Vietnam. Here her gallant pilots delivered powerful blows for freedom and scored what is believed to be one of the fastest aircraft launching times recorded by an American carrier. Nine A-4 Skyhawks and six A-1 Skyraiders loaded with bombs and rockets were catapulted in 7 minutes with only 28- second intervals between launches. A few days later planes were launched at 26-second intervals. After 7 months of outstanding service with the 7th Fleet off Vietnam Intrepid returned to Norfolk having earned her Commanding Officer Captain John W. Fair the Legion of Merit for combat operations in Southeast Asia.
The USS Intrepid was an Essex-class aircraft carrier built during WWII. Initially operating in the Pacific Theatre, Intrepid would end up serving a wild 30-year long career, which saw her hit by a number of kamikaze attacks, commissioned twice, rebuilt, serve through the Vietnam War, and fish three astronauts from the sea.
It was soon after that engagement that USS Intrepid suffered her first kamikaze hit, while in November she would be hit two more times by the suicide pilots. In March 1945 a bomb exploded just off the ship’s bow, but despite all this, she remained in action and helped sink the Japanese battleship Yamato just weeks later. By the end of the war, USS Intrepid suffered a total of four kamikaze attacks as well as a torpedo strike yet she survived.
[Note: The above USS INTREPID (CV-11) history may or may not contain text provided by crew members of the USS INTREPID (CV-11) or by other non-crew members and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]
After the war USS Intrepid was called back into service and was extensively modernized by the U.S. Navy in 1954. This included the removal of heavy guns, as well as the centerline elevator, while a new heavy-duty starboard side elevator was installed along with a new flight deck to handle modern combat jets. She became the principalship for multiple space mission recoveries including the recovery of the Mercury 7 and the Gemini 3 space capsules.
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Laid down on December 1, 1941, Intrepid was one of 24 Essex-class carriers, out of an original order of 32. The Essex-class was the 20th century’s most numerous class of capital ships and remained the backbone of the US Navy’s carrier fleet throughout the war until the arrival of the supercarriers in the 1960s.
During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, aircraft – including ones from Intrepid – harassed Musashi for hours. The fearsome battleship shot down four of Intrepid’s aircraft but was hit by an estimated 17 bombs and 19 torpedoes. She finally capsized on 24 October 1944.
The keel for the Essex-class USS Intrepid was laid down just six days before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and upon completion, she immediately headed to the Pacific where she was greeted by a baptism of fire when she took part in the invasion of the Marshall Islands in January 1944. Heavily damaged during the fighting, the ship returned to Pearl Harbor for repairs and then as quickly headed back into action. In October 1944 “The Fighting I” took part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history. Planes that sortied from the carrier helped sink the Japanese battleship Musashi.
The morning of 24 October an Intrepid plane spotted Admiral Kurita's flagship Yamato. Two hours later planes from Intrepid and Cabot braved intense antiaircraft fire to begin a day-long attack on Center Force. Wave after wave followed until by sunset American carrier-based planes had sunk mighty battleship Musashi with her mammoth 18-inch guns and had damaged her sister ship Yamato along with battleships Nagato and Haruna and heavy cruiser Myoko forcing the latter to withdraw.
Back in fighting trim in mid-February 1945 the carrier steamed for Ulithi arriving 13 March. The next day she pushed on eastward for powerful strikes against airfields on Kyushu Japan 18 March. That morning a twin engine "Betty" broke through a c urtain of defensive fire turned toward Intrepid and exploded only 50 feet off Intrepid's forward boat crane. A shower of flaming gasoline and plane parts started fires on the hangar deck out damage control experts quickly snuffed them out .
Intrepid stood out of San Francisco 29 June and enlivened her westward voyage 6 August as her planes smashed Japanese on by-passed Wake Island. The next day she arrived Eniwetok where she received word 15 August to "cease offensive operations."
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