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    Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers
    Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers
    Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers
    Ebook253 pages1 hour

    Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers

    By Roger Chesneau and A D Baker

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    About this ebook

    This fully illustrated guide offers historical context and step-by-step instruction for building and modifying US aircraft carrier models.
     
    This volume in the ShipCraft series covers the Yorktown class of American aircraft carriers. These legendary ships kept the Japanese at bay through World War II, in the dark days between Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway, where the USS Yorktown herself was lost. The USS Hornet launched the famous Doolittle Raid on Japan before being sunk at Santa Cruz in October 1942, but the USS Enterprise survived the fierce fighting of the early war years to become the US Navy's most decorated ship.
     
    This lavishly illustrated guide takes readers through a brief history of the development and careers of the Yorktown class. With its unparalleled level of visual information—including paint schemes, line drawings and photographs—it is simply the best reference for any modelmaker setting out to build one of these famous carriers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateNov 14, 2013
    ISBN9781473831643
    Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers

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      Book preview

      Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers - Roger Chesneau

      Design

      U

      NTIL the threat of fresh conflict began to simmer in the late 1930s, naval constructors had for some fifteen years been constrained in their approach to ship design thanks to the effective limitations imposed upon them by the world’s politicians. With the dreadful memories of the First World War still fresh, and because of a grim determination to do everything possible to ensure that such carnage as had been inflicted in 1914–18 could not be repeated, the United States President, Warren Gamaliel Harding, had in 1921 summoned representatives of the world’s leading navies and insisted that they come to a realistic agreement that would curb the new naval arms race then in prospect: the ‘dreadnought race’ that had taken place in the years prior to the First World War was seen, rightly or wrongly, as one of the primary causes of hostilities. One significant result of the Washington Conference, which was successfully concluded by way of a binding treaty the following year, was that severe restrictions were placed both on the number of warships that the five signatories—the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France and Italy—could have in commission and on their individual size.

      Enterprise (CV-6) in Puget Sound, 21 October 1943. The ship has just completed a big refit which saw her anti-aircraft firepower considerably enhanced and, invisibly here, stability-enhancing bulges added. Her displacement at this time was, at some 32,000 tons deep load, fully 20 per cent greater than when she was first commissioned.

      In terms of aircraft carriers, the promising newcomers to the list of ship types operated by the world’s major navies, the restrictions imposed an individual limit on ship displacement of 27,000 tons (standard) and an aggregate limit for the type of 135,000 tons (standard) on the US and Royal Navies (the latter to include Empire and Commonwealth navies), 81,000 tons on the Imperial Japanese Navy and 60,000 tons on the French and Italian Navies. Various definitions and restrictions were introduced to ensure that interpretations of the clauses could not be ‘stretched’.

      Langley (CV-1), the first American aircraft carrier, was converted from a collier (AC-3). The ship was experimental in character, at least initially, and her capability was limited (compared to what followed), but she pioneered flight-deck operations in the US Navy for nearly six years. Left, centre: The next two carriers were altogether different: converted from battlecruisers already under construction, they were the largest ships of their kind until the end of World War II. This is Lexington (CV-2) early in her career. As well as their huge complement of aircraft (around 80) she and her sister-ship Saratoga (CV-3) had a heavy cruiser type surface armament of 8in guns (one of the four twin turrets can just be seen, abaft the island superstructure), which, however, proved to be of limited value.

      The next carrier for the US Navy was Ranger (CV-4), her launch taking place in 1933. Though small, at 14,000 tons, she could nevertheless handle almost as many aircraft as the Lexingtons, demonstrating if nothing else that carriers designed as such from the beginning made more efficient use of their displacement than converted capital ships.

      THE SPARE 69,000

      The restrictions were not quite what they seemed: all sorts of exceptions were haggled over, including a variation that permitted aircraft carriers converted from capital-ship hulls already on the stocks to displace anything up to 33,000 tons. For the US Navy, this encompassed the ex-battlecruisers Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3)—although, as it turned out, both exceeded this figure by some margin when they were completed. The original US carrier, Langley (CV-1) was discounted in the calculations since she was deemed to be ‘experimental’. The major question facing US naval constructors following Washington was, therefore, how best to utilise the available carrier tonnage—69,000 tons.

      The problem in the years immediately after Washington was that no one really knew how best to proceed. The only country with any experience of operating carriers under combat conditions was Great Britain, which by 1922 had a motley assortment of conversions in commission, each of which differed in speed, capability and indeed configuration. Size governed capability to a large degree, but under the terms of the Treaty maximum size meant fewer ships and so options were presented. However, the optimum size for a carrier was difficult to reason; big ships offered big air groups, but, conversely, there was always safety in numbers (of individual ships). In the end, the US Navy General Board settled for an immediate construction programme that would result in a 13,800-ton carrier—Ranger (CV-4). The divisibility of 69,000 by this figure indicates the lines along which the Board was thinking, although of course other possibilities in parcelling out the remaining allocation were presented.

      GENESIS OF THE YORKTOWNS

      In the spring of 1931, just as work was about to commence on CV-4, a change of heart by the Bureau of Aeronautics—doubtless brought about by the three or four years of operating experience with the first trio of US Navy carriers that had by now accumulated—resulted in a submission that the next US Navy carriers be larger and more capable. There were several reasons for this. Aircraft capacity, perhaps surprisingly, was not at the forefront of the concerns: speed, seakeeping qualities, improved aircraft handling facilities, static protection and an improved defensive armament were what exercised the minds of the planners, who were keeping a steady gaze across the Pacific at developments in Japan.

      Of the numerous sketch designs on offer to the US Navy for additional carriers in 1930–31, this one, ‘I’, was eventually selected, forming the basis for the two

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