USS Hancock (CV-19)
_off_Pearl_Harbor_1968.jpg) The Hancock , 1968
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The USS Hancock (CV / CVA-19) was one of a total of 24 aircraft carriers of Essex class . It was built for the United States Navy during World War II .
The ship is named after John Hancock , President of the Second Continental Congress and first Governor of Massachusetts . As early as 1775 there was a ship of the Continental Army under this name.
The ship has been in service in the Pacific Ocean since 1944 and performed various operations there during World War II. It gained four service stars . After the war, the Hancock was modernized and played an important role in the Vietnam War .
In 1975 she was decommissioned.
history
Emergence
The keel-laying took place on January 26, 1943. The ship was then called Ticonderoga and was built by Bethlehem Steel in the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy . On May 1, 1943, the ship was renamed Hancock . The reason was that the insurance company John Hancock life insurance company had raised money for the construction of the ship. The Quincy shipyard was near their administrative headquarters.
Thanks to the commitment of the insurance company, the ship could be built and operated for the first year. The entire costs were covered by the fundraising campaign.
The launch took place on January 24, 1944. The Hancock was baptized in her name by Juanita Gabriel-Ramsey, wife of Navy Admiral DeWitt Clinton Ramsey. The Hancock began its service in the US Navy on April 15, 1944 under Captain Fred C. Dickey.
Use in World War II
_at_Philippines,_December_1944.jpg)
After the ship was equipped at the Boston Naval Shipyard , it conducted a training operation in Trinidad and Venezuela . On July 9, 1944, it returned to Boston for further modifications and expired on July 31. Via the stations Panama Canal , San Diego and Pearl Harbor , the Hancock joined the 3rd US fleet at Ulithi on October 5, 1944 . The 3rd Fleet was then commanded by Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey . The ship was part of Task Group 38.2 , which was commanded by Admiral Gerald F. Bogan.
In the following months, the Hancock operated off the coast of the Philippines and Japan and in the South China Sea . The missions mostly related to the destruction of enemy airfields.
On October 10, 1944, the ship's planes destroyed the airport on Okinawa and a little later, on October 12, airfields on Formosa . On October 18, 1944, the Hancock sent their aircraft against positions in the Philippine cities of Laoag , Aparri and the Babuyan Islands . On October 23, 1944, the TG 38.1 was sent to the island of Samar to take position there against the Japanese fleet.
On November 25, 1944, the Hancock was damaged by a kamikaze attack . Due to unfavorable weather conditions, the enemy aircraft could only be destroyed 90 meters from the aircraft carrier. The ship then returned to Ulithi on November 27th.
On January 21, 1945, an accident occurred near Taiwan when a landed TBF Avenger bomber rolled over the deck and a 500-pound (227-kg) aerial bomb detached itself from its bomb bay and fell on the deck, where it was exploded. 52 seamen and the three crew members of the TBF were killed and 75 seamen injured. However, the damage to the ship was quickly repaired and the ship was able to take up aircraft again half an hour after the accident.
On March 14, 1945, Task Force 58 ran from Ulithi and took a course in the direction of Kyūshū to take off aircraft from about 100 nautical miles to attack the Japanese ports and airfields, so that they are later not available to defend the island of Okinawa would. After the USS Franklin was badly damaged in an air raid, Admiral Ralph Davison transferred to the USS Hancock as the new flagship. Two enemy planes were shot down by the air defense. By March 29, around 70 combat missions had been flown by bombers from the USS Hancock .
_burning_after_kamikaze_hit_in_April_1945.jpg)
On April 1, 1945, American troops began a landing operation on the island of Okinawa. The USS Hancock was part of the cover group that flew backup and support attacks for the landing forces during the Battle of Okinawa . On April 7, 1945, the Japanese armed forces started a combined air and naval operation to sink the American ships. The operation Ten gō should prevent the aircraft from the carrier by a naval bombardment, while at the same time Kamikaze planes attacked the ships. The pilot of a Yokosuka D4Y managed to break through the defensive fire. Its machine hit the flight deck at the bow at a flat angle, its propeller destroyed the port aircraft catapult , the 250 kg bomb tore off the aircraft, broke through the deck and exploded in the front aircraft hangar, disabling the front elevator. The wreck of the D4Y slid over the flight deck into a group of parked aircraft on deck, three of which were immediately destroyed and caught fire. After about an hour the fires were extinguished, after about four hours the deck was in good condition for planes to land again. 63 sailors were killed and 83 wounded. Since the damage did not allow a regular take-off operation, the USS Hancock was sent to Pearl Harbor for repairs for six weeks.
At the beginning of June 1945, their planes launched another attack on the Japanese garrison of Wake . On July 1, the Leyte carrier combat group marched in the direction of Japan, where their aircraft first attacked airfields near Tokyo and from July 13, targets on Hokkaidō . They met sailing boats, small freighters, ferries, steam locomotives and industrial plants. Towards the end of the month, their planes attacked Kure again as part of a major attack . At the end of the war on September 2, 1945, aircraft from the USS Hancock were flying over the surrender ceremony on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay .
The USS Hancock was assigned to Operation Magic Carpet and was involved in the transport of personnel and material from the Pacific region back to the US in the following months.
On April 29, 1946, the ship was sent back to the USA. It was assigned to the reserve fleet in Bremerton , Washington.
Use in the Pacific Fleet
On December 15, 1951, the conversion to the SCB-27C version began in Puget Sound . On October 1, 1952, it was designated CVA-19. The Hancock was the first ship in the US fleet to be equipped with a steam-powered aircraft catapult and was therefore able to carry modern aircraft. On February 15, 1954, she was put back into service under Captain WS Butts.
On May 7, 1954, the Hancock sailed along the California coast and began the first catapult tests.
It was decommissioned in April 1956 and returned to service in November 1956.
A short television report with the USS Hancock can be seen in the film The Going Through Hell .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Phillip A. St. John: " USS Hancock CV-19 / CVA-19 - Fighting Hannah ", Turner, 1999/2004, ISBN 1-56311420-8 , pp. 41 to 43
- ↑ Phillip A. St. John: " USS Hancock CV-19 / CVA-19 - Fighting Hannah ", Turner, 1999/2004, ISBN 1-56311420-8 , pp. 46 to 50
- ↑ Phillip A. St. John: " USS Hancock CV-19 / CVA-19 - Fighting Hannah ", Turner, 1999/2004, ISBN 1-56311420-8 , pp. 50 to 56
- ↑ Phillip A. St. John: " USS Hancock CV-19 / CVA-19 - Fighting Hannah ", Turner, 1999/2004, ISBN 1-56311420-8 , pp. 56 and following
Web links
- The Hancock on navy.mil (English)
- Archive page about Hancock (English)