USS Intrepid aircraft carrier

Original title: USS Intrepid aircraft carrier biography

April 26, 1943, Newport News Shipyard, Virginia, USA

A brand-new Essex-class aircraft carrier is slowly being launched from the shipyard's dock as Admiral John Hoover's wife pours a bottle of champagne, watched by shipyard workers and a crowd of naval officers Smashed on the bow, the No. 3 ship of the Essex-class aircraft carrier sisters: USS intrepid (USS intrepid) began her extraordinary life.

historical accumulation

The name "intrepid" is an old ship name in the U.S. Navy with a deep history. The first generation of purpose "Intrepid" came from a French brig captured by the US Navy from the naval fleet of the Kingdom of Tripoli in the late 18th century. At that time, the U.S. Navy was fighting Berber pirates along the coast in North African waters to protect the free navigation of U.S. merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea.

However, in October 1803, the USS "Philadelphia" ran aground near the port of Tripoli and was captured by the Tripoli Fleet. The Tripoli Naval Fleet, which supported the pirates, immediately used the powerful warship as a naval battery and attacked the coming and going. US ships.

To this end, then a Navy Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a small detachment of the Marine Corps, aboard the captured schooner "Intrepid", approached the "Philadelphia" and boarded the ship to kill all the enemies. Army guards set the "Philadelphia" on fire. However, due to the failure to completely sink the "Philadelphia", the U.S. military originally planned to let the "Brave" carry a large amount of explosives into the port to blow it up, but the small sailboat was discovered and destroyed by the defenders during the process of sneaking into the port. This is the story of the first generation of "Intrepid".

A painting depicting the Intrepid (small sailboat on the left) carrying the Marines raiding the USS Philadelphia

Since then, the "Ferocious" name has been passed on to a torpedo boat and a sail training ship. As the No. 3 ship of the Essex-class aircraft carrier that the U.S. Navy served in batches in World War II, the "Brave" at this time is already the fourth generation.

Essex-class aircraft carrier - leading the United States to victory

Since the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States, which has entered a state of total war, has tried its best to expand the strength of its navy. As the aircraft carrier with the most advanced comprehensive performance of the U.S. Navy equipment in World War II, the "Essex" class was quickly built in major U.S. shipbuilding companies after the war. A total of 24 aircraft carriers of this class were built, of which 17 were built during World War II and 7 were built after the war. It is the largest number of first-class fleet aircraft carriers ever built by the US Navy.

In 1936, Japan, which had long been dissatisfied with the tonnage ratio of naval armaments stipulated in the Washington Naval Treaty (the gross tonnage of US, British, Japanese, Italian, and French naval capital ships was equipped with a ratio of 5:5:3:1.67:1.67) , withdrew from the London Naval Conference in 1936, accelerated the expansion of the tonnage and scale of the Navy's main ship force, and built two new cutting-edge large aircraft carriers, "Shokaku" and "Zuihe". In response to the Japanese's military expansion, the US Congress approved the construction of a new aircraft carrier with a displacement of less than 40,000 tons in the same year. The end result is the USS Hornet, which has been designed and modified on the basis of the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier. However, the US Navy in the same period also realized that its own aircraft carriers are not only insufficient in number, but also unsatisfactory in overall combat performance indicators, and the existing aircraft carriers cannot meet the take-off, landing and parking requirements of the new carrier-based aircraft being developed. So, while the Hornet was under construction, work on the design of the next-generation fleet carrier: the Essex class was also underway in secrecy.

At the beginning, the basic design of the Essex-class aircraft carrier was still based on the Yorktown-class, but the Navy, based on 20 years of experience in the operation of aircraft carriers, believed that the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier could carry too few aircraft and the combat distance was not far enough. Extend the design dimensions of the aircraft carrier deck and fuel tanks. At the same time, the U.S. Navy also attaches great importance to the high speed of the aircraft carrier, and installed 4 steam turbines produced by Westinghouse on the Essex class. Reached 32.7 knots, about 60.6km/h).

Intrepid sailing at high speed in the Philippine waters in November 1944

Strengthening the defense capabilities of the aircraft carrier is also indispensable. At that time, the design of the main armored aircraft carrier of the British Navy required heavy armor to be installed on the deck of the aircraft carrier to prevent heavy damage from the dive bombing of enemy aircraft. Influenced by its own teacher, the Japanese Navy tried the design concept of an armored aircraft carrier on the "Dafeng". But the U.S. Navy believes that offense is the best defense. There is no article on the deck of the aircraft carrier, and the design of wooden deck + light armor is still used. What if the armor-piercing bomb dropped by the enemy plane smashed through the deck and exploded in the hangar? The solution given by the Americans is: use an open hangar and fire pipes extending in all directions, and separate the hangar from the core compartment (power part), after the blockbuster penetrates the deck and explodes in the hangar, the open The hangar can prevent the "smouldering explosion" tragedy similar to Taifeng in the Mariana naval battle. At the same time, the fire pipeline quickly sprays foam and water to the hangar and aviation ammunition depot to prevent detonation.

The Essex class has done enough work on the hull protection. In addition to designing a 4-layer armored defense structure on the broadside, the Americans also used the cross-boiler design for the first time on the Essex class. In the past, once the US aircraft carrier was hit by a torpedo, although a large number of watertight compartments could prevent the aircraft carrier from sinking, the integrated boiler design made it very easy for the aircraft carrier to lose power after the first creation. An aircraft carrier that has lost its power will only become a living target for the enemy on the battlefield. The use of the cross-boiler design allows the Essex-class aircraft carrier to lose at most one side of the boiler after being hit by an enemy torpedo, while the other side can still operate normally, allowing the aircraft carrier to rely on its own power to leave the battlefield.

In terms of combat core: carrier-based aircraft, each Essex-class aircraft carrier can carry 90-100 carrier-based aircraft, one-third more aircraft than the York City-class aircraft carrier, and the combat capability has greatly improved. The carrier-based aircraft are mainly composed of F6F fighter jets, TBF/TBM torpedo attack aircraft and SB2C dive bombers. The air force composition of the Essex-class aircraft carrier in the later period of the war is roughly: 1 F6F fighter squadron (36) + 1 F4U fighter-bomber squadron (36) + 1 torpedo squadron (15) + 1 dive bomber Squadron (15)

The U.S. military ground staff who are loading 2,000-pound bombs on the TBF torpedo attack aircraft carried by the brave, the bombs are full of "greetings" to the emperor

With such a large carrying capacity, whether it can be released in a short period of time is another question. To this end, in addition to having two elevators in the middle of the deck, the Essex class also continued the design of the "Wasp" aircraft carrier and installed an elevator on the side, which greatly improved the take-off and landing of carrier-based aircraft. and scheduling efficiency.

On the shipborne air defense weapon system, the Essex-class aircraft carrier is equipped with 1 SK air search radar, 1 SC air search radar, and 2 SG-type sea search radars, which cooperate with the avant-garde destroyers as radar sentries. In the later period of the war, the US aircraft carrier fleet can often confirm the size and altitude of the incoming Japanese aircraft group in the airspace 100 kilometers away, and guide F6F fighter jets to intercept. It is also armed with 12 5-inch (127 mm) dual-purpose guns, 68 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns and 55 20 mm Oerrie anti-aircraft cannons, guided by ship-mounted fire control radars. Among them, the 5-inch anti-aircraft gun is equipped with a radio proximity fuze (VT fuze), which can effectively solve the penetration of the Japanese kamikaze aircraft, which is called "the plague god of special attack aircraft" by the Japanese.

SK, SG-type anti-air/anti-sea search radars installed above the brave bridge, and Mk.28 fire control radars (two left and right) to control anti-aircraft artillery fire

The 5-inch (127 mm) 38-caliber Mark 12 anti-aircraft gun mounted on the Brave, and the 5-inch combined gun sauce with VT fuze are called "the plague god of special attack aircraft" by the Japanese.

In June 1940, with the strong support of President Roosevelt, the US Congress passed the Fleet Expansion Act and the Two Oceans Fleet Act, planning to build 13 Essex-class aircraft carriers in the 1940-1941 fiscal year. On April 28, 1941, construction of the first Essex-class aircraft carrier, HMS Essex, began. But the Americans were still a step behind. On December 7 of the same year, with the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet attacking Pearl Harbor, the United States was finally involved in the war. At this time, only five Essex-class aircraft carriers were under construction. The U.S. government immediately decided to accelerate the construction of the Essex-class aircraft carrier, and Congress also gave the green light to the construction budget, planning to build 10 ships in fiscal year 1942, three in fiscal year 1943, and six in 1944.

After the outbreak of the war, American companies that put almost all their machines into the military industry, in order to improve the efficiency of weapons production, learned from Ford's standardized assembly line production method to produce rifles, aircraft and tank armored vehicles. In the construction of aircraft carriers, the U.S. Navy and shipbuilding companies have also made full use of standardized management and production methods, and have also implemented highly standardized management, manufacturing and installation in aspects such as the type of steel used, ship equipment, and weapons. A large number of flat and straight metal plates are used, which greatly simplifies the structure of the aircraft carrier and improves the construction speed and efficiency. Under the efficient construction management, the Essex-class ships in the later period of the war can be completed and put into service in an average of 1 year and 2 months. Strong war-readiness potential.

On November 25, 1943, the Intrepid was photographed at the Norfolk Navy Pier. Its flat hull looked like a steel castle at sea from a distance.

"Brave" Pacific War

After more than half a year of sea trials and training, Yong Meng and her crew were finally dispatched to Hawaii in January 1944 to join the newly formed Task Force 58 (TF 58). The brave first battle was to participate in the landing support operation of the US military's attack on Kwajalein Atoll with his sister "Essex". After that, in February 1944, Yong Meng and TF 58 once again participated in the major air raid on the important Japanese fleet anchorage in the Pacific: Truk Atoll anchorage. The fleet moorings were hit hard.

However, on February 17, just after the U.S. military ended the air raid, a 1-type land attack of the Japanese naval base air force with torpedoes raided the TF 58 parked in the nearby waters in the dark. An aerial torpedo hit the ferocious broadside, causing her rudder to jam, and she had to turn left (remembering a boat whose leg was broken by a swordfish). To this end, the brave captain Thomas Sprague decided to pull up the sails in the hangar, cooperate with the emergency rudder, control the course of the aircraft carrier, and return to Pearl Harbor for maintenance. This also makes the Intrepid the only aircraft carrier in history to have sailed by sail.

After three months of maintenance, Brave returned to the battlefield and joined the TG 38.2 task force commanded by "Bull" William Halsey to undertake a series of major US landings in the Caroline Islands and Perry Iwo Islands. Battlefield support missions in the campaign.

In June 1944, the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier was repaired, and the US military painted it with the new MS 32/3A hull camouflage

In October 1944, the Battle of Leyte Gulf broke out, and the U.S. Navy, advancing all the way to the Philippine Islands, wanted to cover a large number of U.S. landing troops successfully landing on Leyte Island. In order to prevent the landing of the US military, the Japanese Navy launched the "Jie No. 1 Operation". The Japanese naval surface ships with the Kurita Fleet as the core almost came out of their nests and attacked the Tacloban landing site in Leyte Bay from the north and south.

Intrepid's SB2C reconnaissance plane patrolling the Sibuyan Sea spotted the Kurita fleet. She quickly took off a group of SB2C dive bombers and TBF torpedo planes, followed by the large group of TG 38.2, and joined the large air raid on the Kurita fleet. In a chaotic air raid, the intrepid dive bomber pilots focused their attack on the battleship Musashi, one of Kurita's two largest targets, hitting several 500kg bombs on her deck and turrets, TBF torpedo planes Also scored 3 torpedo hits. The U.S. aircraft were like lingering flies over the Kurita fleet, causing a lot of losses to the Kurita fleet. Under the concentrated attack of U.S. carrier-based aircraft, the battleship Musashi finally sank into the depths of the Sibuyan Sea with the bodies of 1,021 officers and soldiers, including Captain Inoguchi, at 7:35 pm on October 24.

On October 25, 1944, a photo taken by a brave carrier-based aircraft pilot: the Japanese battleship Nagato is evading an air attack in the center of the picture, and the heavy cruiser Haguro is in the distance

On October 25th, the Ozawa mobile unit that appeared from the north and was dispatched as a decoy successfully attracted Halsey's attention. The TG 38.2 where Bravery was located was transferred to search and attack the Ozawa fleet. Brave carrier aircraft was in Enga. The waters near Nuojiao attacked the light mother "Zuifeng" and the regular aircraft carrier "Zuihe" together with the friendly aircraft, and sent them to the bottom of the sea.

After the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Valiant returned to Luzon with the fleet. But at this time, the Japanese army had already launched a large-scale kamikaze special attack operation. On October 29, Yongmeng encountered the first kamikaze special attack: a Japanese aircraft hit her port side anti-aircraft gun position, causing 16 casualties. On November 25, Japanese planes struck the Valiant again, killing 66 people and forcing her to return to San Francisco for repairs. Since then, Yongmeng also participated in the Battle of Okinawa and the air raid on Wugang, and finally ushered in the victory of the war.

The picture taken by the navy photographer on Brave: After a Japanese military plane was hit by a volley and exploded, it still crashed into Brave's deck, causing dozens of casualties

On November 26, 1944, the crew of the USS Intrepid held a sea burial ceremony for the American sailors who died in the kamikaze attack the previous day.

postwar life

After the end of World War II, the U.S. Navy soon ushered in the era of jet-based carrier-based aircraft. In order to accommodate the take-off and landing of heavy jet carrier aircraft, the U.S. Navy modernized the Valiant with the addition of steam catapults. In September 1956, the Intrepid received an angled deck and closed bow and was reclassified as an attack carrier (hull number changed from CV-11 to CVA-11). With the intensification of the Cold War, dealing with Soviet submarines has become one of the important tasks of the US aircraft carrier fleet. Brave was reclassified as an "anti-submarine warfare aircraft carrier" in the 1960s, and the hull number was changed to CVS-11.

A top-view comparison of the deck of Intrepid during World War II (left) and the modernized deck (right) in the 1950s. The angled deck separates aircraft landing from parked aircraft and take-off operations, and enables simultaneous ejection and recovery operations

In 1962, the USS Intrepid, transformed into an anti-submarine carrier (CVS), was patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, carrying a variety of fixed-wing anti-submarine aircraft on its deck.

The 1960s were also an era of explosive growth in American aerospace. In order to recover the manned return capsule that fell on the sea, Yong Meng was ordered to go out to sea to perform the task of recovering the astronauts and the return capsule. On May 24, 1962, Brave recovered the two astronauts and the return capsule of the "Aurora" 7 spacecraft; on March 23, 1965, Brave recovered the two astronauts and the return capsule of the "Gemini" 3 spacecraft . The recovery of the capsule has also become a special experience in Valor's career.

On March 23, 1965, the photo of the brave recovery of the "Gemini" 3 spacecraft's return module

Intrepid made three trips to the Western Pacific from 1966 to 1969 to participate in ground support operations during the Vietnam War. In 1974, the brave who ended the last ocean cruise mission finally took off his shirt and officially retired at the Norfolk Naval Base.

Yong Meng was originally going to be dragged into a shipbreaking yard with her sisters and turned into a pile of scrap metal. However, luck favored her, and the dismantling plan was opposed by the public. Several American philanthropic entrepreneurs established a committee to protect the Intrepid, raising funds to buy the Intrepid and convert it into a museum ship. In August 1982, The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum was officially opened to the public. Intrepid settled in New York and has been moored to this day, becoming one of the important landmarks of New York City.

It is still moored in New York today as a museum ship, and it is visited by tourists from all over the world.

postscript

Earlier, there were several translations of the name intrepid in China, such as "fearless" and "valiant", but after discussing with several friends, the author believes that the translation of "fearless" in the navy should refer specifically to dreadnought, that is, World War I. The full-heavy artillery battleships built by various naval powers in the period: dreadnoughts. In order to avoid confusion, the author finally adopted the translation of "brave".

Due to the limitation of materials, time and space, the author did not introduce the performance of bravery in the Vietnam War in more detail, please forgive me

If there are errors or omissions in the text, you are welcome to point them out in the comment area, and I would also like to thank the column readers for their continued support.

Some references:

John.Arthur.Roberts. "Anatomy of the Ship: The Aircraft Carrier Intrepid"

Willmott, HP "The Battle Of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action"

Zhang Zhaozhong's "Centennial Aircraft Carrier"

Liu Yi and Yan Jingsheng, "History of the Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Navy"

Author Zero601 Return to Sohu to see more

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