USS Bennington (CV-20)
_underway_at_sea_on_20_October_1944.jpg) The Bennington in October 1944
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The USS Bennington (CV-20 / CVA-20 / CVS-20) was an aircraft carrier for the US Navy . The ship, which was commissioned in 1944, belonged to the Essex class consisting of a total of 24 units and was deployed in the Pacific theater of war in the final phase of World War II . The Bennington was the second ship in US Navy history to bear this name; It was named after the Battle of Bennington . The construction of the aircraft carrier was authorized by the United States Congress on December 15, 1941 , and exactly one year later, on December 15, 1942, the Bennington was the twelfth ship of her class at the New York Naval Shipyard in New York City ( US New York State ) laid down . After being launched on February 26, 1944, it was put into service on August 6, 1944. The construction costs amounted to around 77 million US dollars in 1944 , which, adjusted for inflation, would now (2012) correspond to just under one billion US dollars. The Bennington's first in command was Captain James B. Sykes.
Technical details, conversions and modifications
The Bennington was at the maximum enslavement 265.78 m and 44.93 m wide (width of the flight decks). The width at the height of the waterline was 28.35 m. These are the original parameters from 1944 - these data are also used in the adjacent information block. In the course of its service life, however, the aircraft carrier was rebuilt and reclassified several times, whereby the technical parameters changed slightly.
After the ship was temporarily transferred to the fleet reserve , a first conversion took place between October 1950 and November 1952, which raised the Bennington's maximum water displacement to 40,600 ts . This conversion as part of the so-called SCB-27A program increased the maximum length to 273.74 m and the width of the flight deck to 46.25 m. In addition, new and more powerful came aircraft catapults the type H-8 on board that aircraft up to 20 tons mass and thus also the newly introduced jet aircraft could start the first generation. Furthermore, the Bennington received stronger aircraft elevators and jet deflectors for jet engines, additional air conditioning and new ammunition elevators. The 12.7 cm Mark 12 L / 38 guns set up in twin turret shields in front of and aft of the island were dismantled and replaced by 28 7.62 cm Mark 33 L / 50 guns in 14 double mounts. These guns replaced also all light 4-cm and 2 cm Oerlikon - aircraft guns . As the maximum water displacement had increased by around 11% as part of these modifications, but the machinery remained unchanged, the maximum speed of the girder fell to around 31.7 kn (almost 59 km / h). After the conversion work was completed, Bennington, now classified as a so-called attack vehicle, received the new identifier CVA-20 . Since there were new and larger jet aircraft on board, the number of aircraft on board dropped from around 100 to around 70.
_underway_at_sea_on_5_March_1965_(NH_97581).jpg)
Between June 1954 and April 1955 the Bennington was rebuilt at the New York Naval Shipyard ( SCB-125 program ), with the aircraft carrier receiving a new angled deck. In addition, the rear aircraft elevator, which was previously located in the center of the deck, was moved to the starboard side of the flight deck (about 60 m behind the island). This conversion work caused the water displacement to increase again slightly, so that the maximum displacement around 1955 was now just under 44,000 ts . While the length was hardly changed at 271.27 m, the total width was 59.74 m (April 1955) due to the new angled deck after the renovation. Although still classified as an attack carrier with the identifier CVA-20, the Bennington was used as an aircraft carrier for submarine hunting from June 30, 1959 and received the new identifier CVS-20 from 1959 . From this time on, the number of aircraft carried was around 50 to a maximum of 70 machines. After these numerous modifications, the crew strength was around 2,300 men from around the end of the 1950s.
Aircraft equipment
After the commissioning in 1944, the so-called Carrier Air Group on board the Bennington (Carrier Air Group 82) consisted of four bomber squadrons (VB-82), equipped with dive bombers of the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver type , a squadron of torpedo bombers (VT-82) with Grumman TBF as well three fighter squadrons (VF-82). While one of these squadrons belonged to the US Navy and was equipped with Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft , two squadrons (VMF-112 and VMF-123) belonged to the United States Marine Corps and partly flew F4U Corsair machines . The highest number of aircraft on board the Bennington was reached in March 1945 (102 machines, including 18 F4U).
From around the beginning of the 1950s, a squadron of fighter-bombers North American FJ3 Fury , Grumman F9F Cougar and McDonnell F2H Banshee as well as Douglas A-1 were stationed on the Bennington, which was now classified and used as an attack vehicle . There was also a squadron of twin-engined North American AJ-2 Savage bombers , which were also designed as nuclear weapons carriers, as well as early warning aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft of the type F9F-8P (a special version of the Grumman F9F). Twelve Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw helicopters were also available for rescue, recovery and transport tasks . In the mid-1950s, aircraft of the type Vought F-8 Crusader , Douglas A-4 and F11 Tiger , which replaced some of the previously used and partly already obsolete jet aircraft of the first generation and the AJ-2 bombers, were also disembarked from the Bennington used from.
After 1960, after the Bennington was reclassified as an anti-submarine carrier, there were two squadrons of S2F Tracker anti- submarine aircraft and initially a squadron of Sikorsky SH-34 helicopters. These helicopters were later replaced by Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King machines.
Working time
After commissioning, the Bennington was first subjected to a three-month test and trial phase off the US east coast and in the Caribbean . In December 1944, the aircraft carrier was finally detached to the US Pacific Fleet . After the Panama Canal had been passed on December 21, 1944 , the Bennington reached Pearl Harbor on January 8, 1945 .
Pacific War 1945
From February 8, 1945 , Bennington , assigned to Task Force (TF) 58 ( Vice Admiral Marc Andrew Mitscher ) , operated as part of the subordinate Task Group (TG) 58.1 (Rear Admiral Joseph J. Clark ), from Ulithi Atoll and intervened On February 10th and 18th, 1945 participated in the first major attack by the aircraft carriers of the TF 58 against the area and the surrounding area of Tokyo . Among other things, these attacks were intended to support the US offensive against Iwojima , which was starting at the time . Within eight days, TF 58 aircraft flew 2,761 missions. Bennington machines first took part in the attacks on February 16, 1945. In total, the Carrier Air Group flew 82 of the carrier 41 missions, with a Curtiss Helldiver with two crew members (probably over the airfield Mikatagahara on Honshū by fighter defense), an F4U Corsair (over the Bay of Tokyo , also by fighter defense) and a Grumman TBF ( via Chichi-jima , probably due to flak fire). In return, at least 13 Japanese aircraft and three smaller patrol boats were destroyed.
From February 20, 1945, Bennington aircraft were flying close air support against Japanese targets on Iwojima , where American troops began landing on February 19. Up to February 23, 63 missions had been flown, including the 4,000. Landing of an aircraft on which Bennington (including all exercise and maneuver landings) could be recorded. From mid to late March 1945 machines of the Bennington undertook again attacks against Japanese airfields on Kyūshū and Honshū as well as on ship targets in the Seto Inland Sea . During these missions by the end of March 1945 at least 18 Japanese planes were shot down and 39 more devastated. The Bennington was at times only about 80 nautical miles from the Japanese coast. The losses of Carrier Air Group 82 were only very small here; only one Helldiver of the carrier was hit and shot down by Japanese flak fire near Kanoya on March 18 . Both crew members of the SB2C survived and returned to the USA after the war.
From April 1, 1945, the Bennington was included in the Battle of Okinawa , with the carrier's fighter planes being able to shoot down at least 31 Japanese aircraft, mostly kamikaze machines , by April 6 and without their own losses . On April 7, 1945, Bennington aircraft also took part in the defense of the last operational advance of the Japanese fleet against Okinawa. Almost 400 TF 58 carrier aircraft sank the battleship Yamato , the light cruiser Yahagi and four destroyers , killing over 3,500 Japanese sailors.
_with_damaged_flight_deck_1945.jpg)
In the following period, until the end of May 1945, Bennington aircraft intervened in the land fighting on Okinawa. On June 5, 1945, however, the aircraft carrier, now part of TG 38.1 (after TF 58 had been renamed TF 38), fell into a strong typhoon east of Okinawa . Almost all of the TG 38.1 ships suffered more or less severe damage. The Bennington itself suffered considerable damage, among other things, the flight deck protruding over the bow on both sides was bent down by about 9 m, which meant that the aircraft catapults could no longer be used. As a result, the carrier was replaced on June 12, 1945 by the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard and ordered to Leyte , where the necessary repairs were carried out by early July 1945.
In the final phase of the Pacific War, Bennington aircraft again attacked targets on the Japanese mother islands from mid-July to early August 1945. During the signing of the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 on board the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay , a show of force flew over more than 1,500 carrier aircraft, led by machines from Bennington , over the battleship and the US naval forces assembled there.
Service from 1946 to 1954
After the Bennington returned to the United States in November 1945, the carrier was transferred to the reserve fleet in November 1946, after a major overhaul at the Norfolk naval base , and mothballed for around four years. In the fall of 1950 the order was finally issued to convert the Bennington to meet the requirements of the new jet aircraft and to put it back into service. From October 1950, the aircraft carrier was therefore converted according to the SCB-27A program and put back into service in November 1952, under the command of Captain David B. Young. The Bennington was now classified as an attack vehicle and carried the new identifier CVA-20.
In the following six months, the aircraft carrier mostly completed training missions with the then new jet aircraft, with a fighter jet, a Grumman F9F Cougar , landing on the Bennington for the first time on February 18, 1953 . During further landing maneuvers, an almost fatal accident happened on March 9, 1953, when an F9F of the Marine Corps missed the landing ropes, broke the safety nets of the so-called "crash barrier" and fell into the open, front aircraft elevator. The plane fell onto another F9F parked on the elevator, damaging both planes beyond repair. Fortunately, although the engine of the F9F that had crashed into the hangar ran for a while, no explosion occurred. The pilot, Captain William H. Bezzell, survived the incident and escaped unharmed from his aircraft. In total, around 40 crew members were slightly injured in the incident.
Another and more momentous incident occurred on April 27, 1953, while the Bennington was cruising east of Cuba . Presumably as a result of material fatigue, a pipe of the front boiler No. 1 on the port side and escaping superheated steam killed eleven members of the engine room. Four other seamen suffered serious injuries and had to be flown to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base .
The catapult explosion on May 26, 1954
After repairing the damage caused by the explosion in the boiler room at the New York Naval Shipyard , the Bennington continued her training voyages from late summer 1953, with the ship making a visit to the Mediterranean in the winter of 1953/54 . On the morning of May 26, 1954, the carrier was in front of Narragansett Bay performing take-off and landing maneuvers. At 8.11 a.m. there was a devastating explosion of the ( hydraulic ) H-8 aircraft catapult on the port side , which in turn triggered two subsequent explosions. The pressure waves from the explosions were so violent that bulkheads were bulged up like bubbles in the entire front third of the ship and separating doors were torn out. Ceiling beams and companionways were later found twisted like corkscrews.
After the explosions, it quickly became apparent that the on-board hospital was completely overwhelmed with accommodating the many injured, which is why cots were set up in the rear part of the hangar deck from 9.25 a.m. to take temporary photos of the wounded. Almost two hours after the disaster, the first rescue helicopters from Quonset Point arrived at Bennington and began to fly the seriously injured. The porter himself reached Quonset Point at 12:33 p.m. on his own, albeit supported by five tugs .
As could be reconstructed later, the disaster was very likely caused by a leak in the hydraulic system of the catapult. Although the hydraulic fluid itself was normally not flammable, the gases in the fluid and the surrounding air formed an explosive gas-air mixture . What ultimately ignited this mixture could not be clarified for safety reasons, as all crew members perished in the rooms concerned.
The disaster killed a total of 103 and wounded 201, including 139 seriously injured, and is considered the worst disaster on a United States Navy warship in peacetime. In addition, the event, after the Forrestal disaster of 1967 (which occurred during the Vietnam War and therefore cannot be regarded as an accident in peacetime), is the most casualty on board an American aircraft carrier. While a total of 99 fatalities were rescued on May 26 and 27, 1954, four more wounded died in the days and weeks that followed. The last victim died on June 10, 1954 in the hospital from the injuries suffered. In memory of the victims at the Bennington was in Fort Adams State Park in Newport ( Rhode Iceland a monument erected).
,_30_November_1967_(NH_97584).jpg){kind=tracking}
Service from 1955 to 1966
After the catapult explosion, which had serious consequences, the Bennington was docked and repaired at the New York Naval Shipyard in June 1954 . There the aircraft carrier was rebuilt in accordance with the SCB-125 program and equipped with an angled deck until April 1955 . After a new commander came on board with Captain Paul F. Foley in May 1955 , the Bennington moved to Yokosuka, Japan, in November 1955 . The porter remained on the station in Japan for almost four years , visiting Sydney , Okinawa and Hawaii , among others .
After a major overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California between March and June 1959, the Bennington was classified as a submarine fighter aircraft carrier from June 30, 1959 and received the new identification CVS-20. By December 1960, the ship carried out anti-submarine maneuvers off the American west coast. The Bennington collided on August 11, 1960 about 175 nautical miles west of San Francisco with the American destroyer USS Richard S. Edwards , with the destroyer sustaining considerable damage. The Bennington was only slightly damaged in the collision, which had been caused by a rudder damage on board the Richard S. Edwards . There were no personnel losses.
In January 1961, as a result of the threatened escalation of the civil war in Laos , Bennington , part of the US 7th Fleet, formed a carrier combat group in the South China Sea together with the aircraft carriers USS Coral Sea and USS Lexington . Although aircraft from the three carriers did not intervene in the clashes in Laos, this show of force ensured that the situation in the country calmed down. In June 1961, the combat group was disbanded as a result and the Bennington moved to San Diego . In late 1961, the carrier was detached to Bremerton and there on the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard until March 1963 subjected to a conversion and modernization according to the FRAM II program .
_1966.jpg)
Between March 1963 and January 1965 the Bennington made two trips to Asia, including a visit to Hong Kong . In December 1964, the carrier also took part in the rescue operations after the flood disaster in California , where the ship's helicopters flew 102 transport and recovery missions, mostly in the urban area or in the vicinity of Eureka . According to another shipyard time spent in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in 1965, which served Bennington subsequent to mid-1966 as a testing vessel, wherein on May 18, 1966, the first landing of the VTOL aircraft of the type LTV XC-142 on the Bennington and so that took place on an aircraft carrier at all.
_with_Apollo_4_1967.jpg)
Service from 1966 to 1970
In November 1966 the Bennington moved via Hawaii and Sasebo to the United States Naval Base Subic Bay ( Philippines ) and operated from there in the context of the Vietnam War in the following months off the coast of Vietnam at the so-called Yankee Station . The ship did not take part in direct air strikes, but mostly carried out rescue and anti-submarine operations. Several of the carrier's helicopters were lost, but not due to enemy action. For example, on January 12, 1967, an SH-3A Sea King fell into the sea during a night operation for unknown reasons. Two crew members were killed and four others were injured. In September 1967 it was also 100,000. Landing of an aircraft on the Bennington registered.
On November 9, 1967, the aircraft carrier also hid the (and still unmanned) American space probe Apollo 4 , which had been brought into space for test purposes, and which had plunged into the Pacific about 940 nautical miles northwest of Honolulu after completing two orbits of the earth . At the end of 1968 the Bennington was finally ordered back to the United States.
After several stays in the shipyard, the Bennington served from June 1969 as a training ship for carrier pilots off Long Beach . During that time the 112,000 found. Landing of an airplane on the Bennington place. Nevertheless, another fatal accident occurred on June 25, 1969, when a Douglas A-4 crashed into the sea during a night flight maneuver for reasons that are not certain for certain reasons, and the pilot was killed. On October 13, 1969, the order was finally issued to transfer the Bennington to the reserve fleet and mothball. On January 15, 1970, the aircraft carrier was finally decommissioned in Bremerton .
Whereabouts
The Bennington remained mothballed in Bremerton for almost 20 years before it was removed from the fleet register on September 20, 1989. The now badly rotten ship was sold for scrapping in January 1994 and in December 1994, after the island and the aircraft elevators had already been removed in Bremerton in September of the same year , towed to India and dismantled there at the scrapping yards near Alang until spring 1995.
Awards
_laid_up_at_Bremerton_1990.JPEG)
For its operations in the Second World War, which was Bennington with three battle stars excellent. In addition, the wearer was twice awarded a Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation and were awarded the World War II Victory Medal and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal .
literature
- Raven, Alan: Essex-Class Carriers . US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1989.
- Stille, Mark: US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1942-45 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007.
- Stefan Terzibaschitsch : US Navy aircraft carrier . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001.
