Yorktown-class aircraft carrier

The Yorktown-class aircraft carrier was an American aircraft carrier class of the Second World War, comprising USS Yorktown, USS Enterprise, and USS Hornet, three ships that fought in the most important carrier battles of the Pacific War. The class was designed under the Washington Naval Treaty, with a displacement of about 20,000 tons, a speed of 32.5 knots, and an air group of about 90 aircraft, and it was the basis for the larger Essex class that followed. Yorktown was sunk at Midway, Hornet was sunk at Santa Cruz, and Enterprise survived the war as the most decorated ship in American naval history, earning twenty battle stars. The Yorktown class was one of the most important carrier designs of the Second World War.

1. Key Facts

Field	Value
Type	Aircraft carrier
Country	United States
Designer	US Navy Bureau of Construction and Repair
Production	1934–1941
Number built	3 (Yorktown, Enterprise, Hornet)
Displacement	About 19,800 tons standard; 25,500 tons full load
Length	251.4 metres (824 ft 9 in)
Beam	33.4 metres (109 ft 6 in) at flight deck
Draught	7.9 metres (26 ft)
Propulsion	Steam turbines, 120,000 shaft horsepower, 4 shafts
Speed	32.5 knots
Range	About 12,500 nautical miles at 15 knots
Complement	About 2,919 officers and men, including air group
Aircraft carried	About 90 (fighters, dive bombers, torpedo bombers)
Main armament	8 × 5-inch (127 mm) guns
Anti-aircraft armament	24 × 40 mm Bofors; 32 × 20 mm Oerlikon (wartime)
Armour	Belt 2.5–4 inches; deck 1.5 inches; hangar deck 1.5 inches
Main theatres	Pacific 1941–1945
Fate	Yorktown sunk at Midway, June 1942; Hornet sunk at Santa Cruz, October 1942; Enterprise scrapped 1958–1960

2. Origins and Development

The Washington Treaty and Carrier Design

The Yorktown class was developed under the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which limited the total tonnage of aircraft carriers that the United States could build, and which encouraged the Navy to build carriers that were as capable as possible within the treaty limits. The first American carriers, Lexington and Saratoga, were large, fast ships converted from battlecruisers, and the Ranger, the first purpose-built American carrier, was too small and too slow. The Yorktown class was designed to be the ideal treaty carrier, with a displacement of about 20,000 tons, a speed of 32.5 knots, and an air group of about 90 aircraft, and it was the first American carrier class to be designed from the keel up as a fleet carrier. The class was a compromise between size, speed, and aircraft capacity, and it was a successful one.

Design and the Three Ships

The Yorktown class was 251.4 metres long, 33.4 metres wide at the flight deck, and displaced about 19,800 tons standard and 25,500 tons at full load. Her steam turbines produced 120,000 shaft horsepower, driving four shafts, and gave her a top speed of 32.5 knots. Her flight deck was 251 metres long, with three lifts and a hangar that could hold about 90 aircraft. Her armour was light, with a belt of 2.5 to 4 inches and a deck of 1.5 inches, because the treaty limited her displacement and the Navy chose speed and aircraft capacity over protection. The three ships were built by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company in Virginia: Yorktown, commissioned in September 1937, Enterprise, commissioned in May 1938, and Hornet, commissioned in October 1941, the last American carrier completed before Pearl Harbor.

The Air Group

The air group of the Yorktown class consisted of about 90 aircraft, including fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers, organised into squadrons that were embarked for each operation. In 1942, the air group typically included a fighter squadron of F4F Wildcats, a bombing squadron and a scouting squadron of SBD Dauntless dive bombers, and a torpedo squadron of TBD Devastators, later replaced by TBF Avengers. The air group was the heart of the ship, and its pilots and aircrew were among the best trained in the world. The Yorktown-class carriers were designed to launch and recover aircraft quickly, with three lifts, a large flight deck, and a well-organised hangar, and they could launch a full strike of 30 to 40 aircraft in a short time.

The Doolittle Raid

USS Hornet, the last ship of the class, is famous for the Doolittle Raid of April 1942, when she carried sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers to a point 600 miles from Japan and launched them on a raid against Tokyo, the first American air attack on the Japanese home islands. The B-25 bombers were too large to land on a carrier, and they flew on to China after the raid, but the raid was a major boost to American morale and a shock to the Japanese. The Doolittle Raid showed the versatility of the Yorktown class, and it demonstrated that an aircraft carrier could be used for a mission that had never been imagined when the ship was designed. Hornet’s role in the raid is one of the most famous episodes in the history of the class.

3. Technical Design

Hull, Machinery, and Speed

The Yorktown class was a long, fast ship, built for speed, with a hull that was 251.4 metres long and a machinery plant that produced 120,000 shaft horsepower. Her top speed of 32.5 knots made her one of the fastest carriers of her time, and her range of about 12,500 nautical miles at 15 knots gave her the endurance for operations in the Pacific. Her crew of about 2,919 officers and men, including the air group, was well trained and experienced, and her habitability was good by the standards of the time. Her hull was strong and well built, and it could survive damage that would have sunk a smaller ship, as Yorktown proved at Coral Sea and Midway, where she was hit by bombs and torpedoes and remained afloat for days.

Flight Deck and Aircraft Handling

The flight deck of the Yorktown class was 251 metres long and 33.4 metres wide, with three lifts, two on the centreline and one on the side, and a hangar below that could hold about 90 aircraft. The ship was fitted with arrester gear, crash barriers, and catapults, which allowed her to launch and recover aircraft quickly and safely. Her aircraft-handling arrangements were among the best in the world, and her crews became expert at operating aircraft in bad weather and in the Pacific, where they flew in heat, rain, and high seas. The Yorktown-class carriers were known for their efficiency, and they could launch a full strike and recover it in a short time, which was essential in a carrier battle, where the first strike often decided the outcome.

Armament and Protection

The armament of the Yorktown class was eight 5-inch/38 guns, mounted singly around the flight deck, which could fire at aircraft and at surface targets, and a wartime anti-aircraft battery of twenty-four 40-millimetre Bofors guns and thirty-two 20-millimetre Oerlikon cannon. The Bofors gun was the best light anti-aircraft gun of the war, and the Yorktown class carried a large number of them, which gave it a strong defence against Japanese aircraft. The armour of the class was light, with a belt of 2.5 to 4 inches and a deck of 1.5 inches, because the treaty had limited her displacement, and the Navy had chosen speed and aircraft capacity over protection. The light armour was a weakness, and it was one of the reasons why Yorktown and Hornet were sunk, but it was the price of the treaty’s limits.

4. Coral Sea and Midway

The Battle of the Coral Sea

The Yorktown class first saw combat in the Pacific in May 1942, at the Battle of the Coral Sea, where USS Yorktown and USS Lexington fought the Japanese carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku in the first carrier battle in history, a battle fought entirely by aircraft, with the ships never seeing each other. Yorktown was hit by a bomb, but she survived, and her aircraft damaged Shokaku and shot down many Japanese aircraft. The Battle of the Coral Sea was a tactical draw but a strategic victory for the Allies, because it stopped the Japanese advance on Port Moresby in New Guinea, and it showed that the aircraft carrier had replaced the battleship as the capital ship of the Navy. Yorktown’s service at Coral Sea was the beginning of the class’s legend.

The Battle of Midway

A month later, in June 1942, the Yorktown class fought in the Battle of Midway, the decisive battle of the Pacific War, where USS Yorktown, USS Enterprise, and USS Hornet, with the support of land-based aircraft from Midway Island, sank four Japanese carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu, and destroyed the core of the Japanese naval air arm. Yorktown was hit by bombs and torpedoes from Japanese aircraft, and she was abandoned, but she remained afloat, and she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine while under tow, sinking on 7 June 1942. Enterprise and Hornet survived, and their aircraft sank the Japanese carriers. Midway was the turning point of the Pacific War, and the Yorktown class was at its centre. The battle showed that the carrier, properly used, could destroy an enemy fleet, and it established the Yorktown class as one of the most important carrier designs in history.

The Loss of Yorktown

USS Yorktown was sunk at Midway after being hit by three bombs and two torpedoes, which killed 141 of her crew, but she remained afloat for two days, and she was taken in tow by the destroyer Hammann, which was sunk by a Japanese submarine while alongside. Yorktown sank on the morning of 7 June 1942, and her loss was a blow to the Navy, but it was outweighed by the sinking of four Japanese carriers. Yorktown’s sacrifice at Midway is remembered as one of the great episodes in American naval history, and her wreck was found in 1998 by Robert Ballard, lying in 5,000 metres of water, remarkably well preserved.

5. Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, and Enterprise Alone

The Battle of Santa Cruz

In October 1942, USS Enterprise and USS Hornet fought in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, where they faced four Japanese carriers in a hard-fought battle that cost the Americans Hornet and damaged Enterprise. Hornet was hit by bombs, torpedoes, and kamikaze aircraft, and she was abandoned, and she was sunk by Japanese destroyers after American destroyers failed to scuttle her. Enterprise was hit by bombs, but she survived, and her aircraft damaged the Japanese carriers Shokaku and Zuiho. The Battle of Santa Cruz was a tactical victory for Japan, but a strategic defeat, because Japan lost many of its best pilots, and it could not replace them. After Santa Cruz, Enterprise was the only operational American carrier in the Pacific, and she became known as the “Big E” and as the “Grey Ghost”, because the Japanese repeatedly reported her sunk, only for her to reappear.

Guadalcanal and the Solomons

After Santa Cruz, Enterprise supported the Marines on Guadalcanal, providing air cover for the landings and for the supply convoys, and fighting in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942, where American ships sank the Japanese battleship Hiei and damaged Kirishima. Enterprise was the only American carrier in the South Pacific for several months, and she carried the burden of the air war alone, flying patrols, bombing Japanese positions, and defending the fleet against air attack. Her service at Guadalcanal was the hardest of her career, and it earned her a reputation for toughness and for fighting spirit. Enterprise was repaired and refitted in 1943, and she returned to the Pacific with a new air group and a new anti-aircraft battery, ready for the offensive that would carry the war to Japan.

Enterprise Alone

The period from October 1942 to early 1943, when Enterprise was the only American carrier in the Pacific, is one of the most famous in the history of the class, because it showed how a single carrier, properly handled, could hold the line against a superior enemy. Enterprise’s air group flew more sorties, shot down more aircraft, and sank more ships than any other carrier in the Navy, and her crew became the most experienced in the fleet. The Japanese called her the “Grey Ghost”, because they could not sink her, and the Americans called her the “Big E”, a nickname that stuck. Enterprise’s service alone in the Pacific is a legend in the Navy, and it is remembered as a testament to the ship and to her crew.

6. The Offensive Across the Pacific

The Central Pacific Drive

From 1943 to 1945, Enterprise took part in the American offensive across the Central Pacific, fighting in the battles of the Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and in the raids on Truk, the Marshalls, and the Palaus. At the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”, Enterprise’s aircraft shot down many Japanese aircraft, and helped to destroy the Japanese naval air arm. At Leyte Gulf in October 1944, Enterprise’s aircraft sank Japanese ships and supported the landings, and at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945, she provided air cover for the Marines and bombarded Japanese positions. Enterprise was in the thick of the fighting for the whole of the offensive, and she earned twenty battle stars, more than any other American ship in the war.

Night Operations and the End of the War

In 1945, Enterprise was fitted with night-fighter aircraft and radar, and she became the first American carrier to operate night fighters on a regular basis, flying patrols over Okinawa and over Japan. She was hit by a kamikaze aircraft in May 1945, which killed 14 of her crew and damaged her flight deck, but she was repaired and returned to service, and she took part in the final operations of the war, including the bombardment of Japan and the occupation of Tokyo Bay. Enterprise was present at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, and she carried American troops home from the Pacific in Operation Magic Carpet, the largest troop movement in history. Her service in the offensive across the Pacific was the culmination of a career that had begun at Pearl Harbor and ended at Tokyo Bay.

7. Strengths

Speed, Aircraft Capacity, and Efficiency

The greatest strengths of the Yorktown class were its speed, its aircraft capacity, and its efficiency, because it was fast, with a speed of 32.5 knots, it could carry about 90 aircraft, and it could launch and recover them quickly and safely. The class was designed to be a fleet carrier, and it was, with a large flight deck, three lifts, and a well-organised hangar, and its crews were among the best trained in the world. The Yorktown class was a carrier that could fight a carrier battle and win, as it proved at Midway and at the Philippine Sea, and it was trusted by the admirals who commanded it. Its speed and its aircraft capacity were the reasons why it was chosen as the basis for the Essex class, which became the standard American carrier of the war.

Toughness and Damage Control

The Yorktown class was tough and survivable, because it was well built, with a strong hull and a good damage-control system, and because its crew was well trained and experienced. Yorktown survived a bomb hit at Coral Sea and three bombs and two torpedoes at Midway, remaining afloat for two days, and Enterprise survived bomb hits at Santa Cruz, at the Philippine Sea, and at Okinawa, and a kamikaze hit in 1945. The class proved that a carrier, properly built and properly fought, could survive damage that would have sunk a smaller ship, and that it could be repaired and returned to service. Its toughness and its damage control were the reasons why Enterprise survived the war, and why she became the most decorated ship in American naval history.

8. Weaknesses

Light Armour and Vulnerability

The main weakness of the Yorktown class was its light armour, because its belt of 2.5 to 4 inches and its deck of 1.5 inches could not stop a bomb or a torpedo, and its hangar was unarmoured, which meant that a bomb hit could cause a fire that spread through the ship. Yorktown was sunk at Midway after being hit by bombs and torpedoes, and Hornet was sunk at Santa Cruz after being hit by bombs, torpedoes, and kamikaze aircraft, and both losses were due, in part, to the light armour of the class. The Essex class, which followed the Yorktown, had better protection, with a thicker deck and a better damage-control system, and it proved more survivable. The light armour was the price of the treaty’s limits, but it was a real weakness.

Small Air Group by Later Standards

The Yorktown class could carry about 90 aircraft, which was a large air group in 1937, but which was small by the standards of 1944, when the Essex class could carry more than 100 aircraft, and when the air group had become larger and heavier. The Yorktown-class carriers were also cramped, with a small hangar and a limited capacity for fuel and ammunition, which meant that they could not operate for as long as the Essex class without replenishment. These were minor weaknesses compared with its strengths, but they were real, and they were among the reasons why the Yorktown class was replaced by the Essex class as the standard American carrier.

9. Legacy

The Most Decorated Ship

The legacy of the Yorktown class is USS Enterprise, the most decorated ship in American naval history, with twenty battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation, and a ship that served from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, fighting in every major battle of the Pacific War. Enterprise was decommissioned in 1947 and scrapped in 1958–1960, despite a campaign to preserve her as a museum ship, and her loss is still mourned by naval historians. The Yorktown class is remembered as the class that won the Battle of Midway, that held the line at Guadalcanal, and that carried the war to Japan, and as one of the most important carrier designs in history. Its name lives on in the modern USS Enterprise, CVN-65 and CVN-80, which carry the name of the most famous ship of the class.

Influence on Carrier Design

The Yorktown class influenced the design of later American carriers, notably the Essex class, which was a larger, better-protected Yorktown, with a thicker deck, a larger air group, and a better anti-aircraft battery, and which became the standard American carrier of the war, with 24 ships built. The Essex class used the Yorktown hull as its starting point, and it showed how a successful design could be improved and adapted for new roles. The Yorktown class is remembered as the bridge between the early carriers and the Essex class, and as the class that proved the aircraft carrier was the capital ship of the modern Navy.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier?
It is an American aircraft carrier class of the Second World War, comprising USS Yorktown, USS Enterprise, and USS Hornet, with a displacement of about 20,000 tons, a speed of 32.5 knots, and an air group of about 90 aircraft.

Which ships were in the class?
USS Yorktown (CV-5), USS Enterprise (CV-6), and USS Hornet (CV-8). Yorktown was sunk at Midway in June 1942, Hornet was sunk at Santa Cruz in October 1942, and Enterprise survived the war.

What was the Battle of Midway?
The Battle of Midway, in June 1942, was the decisive battle of the Pacific War, in which the Yorktown-class carriers sank four Japanese carriers and destroyed the core of the Japanese naval air arm. Yorktown was lost in the battle.

What was the Doolittle Raid?
The Doolittle Raid, in April 1942, was the first American air attack on Japan, launched from USS Hornet, which carried sixteen B-25 bombers to a point 600 miles from Japan and launched them against Tokyo.

Why is USS Enterprise famous?
Enterprise, CV-6, is the most decorated ship in American naval history, with twenty battle stars, and she served from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay, fighting in every major battle of the Pacific War.

What happened to Enterprise after the war?
Enterprise was decommissioned in 1947 and scrapped in 1958–1960, despite a campaign to preserve her as a museum ship. Her name lives on in the modern carriers CVN-65 and CVN-80.

Sources

• The Naval History and Heritage Command, Yorktown-class carrier records
• Norman Friedman, US Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History
• The National WWII Museum, carrier exhibits
• Robert Gardiner, Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1922–1946
• The US Navy, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
• The USS Hornet Museum, Alameda, California, carrier collection