USS Essex - Guide 093
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- Опубліковано 19 сер 2024
- The Essex class, aircraft carriers of the United States Navy, are today's subject.
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President Roosevelt: So how many Essex carriers do you want?
U.S. Navy: *Yes*
+1
They said ‘Yes, plus one more please.”
There is no such thing as the US Admiralty. It's the Department of the Navy..
@@rebeccaorman1823 my bad I’ll change that we’re not the Brits lol
Someone in the USN had an awesome sense of humour by naming CV-38 - "USS Shangri-La"!!
It was FDR who coined the term when asked where the Doolittle raid aircraft that bomded Tokyo came from .
?
It was a mythical fictional place that FDR said that's where we launched the Doolittle Raid frim
@@irohaboat ohhh ok
Star Chaser Read the Book Lost Horizon, it is fictional place of mystical beauty that nobody can locate.
FDR didn't want to tell the press the dolittle raid was launched from a carrier, so he said it was launched from Shangri La. Nobody epected that the US could launch land based bombers from an Aircraft Carrier.
I would enjoy the more in depth look at this class of carriers as well
Big Bill O'Reilly what?
Hear hear!
"However, they would also later to be assigned names from historic battles. And to make things even more confusing, the US Navy decided to name a number of Essex Class after previous carriers that had been sunk earlier in the war: Hence, USS Lexington, USS Yorktown...." Just a note that USS Lexington is named after the "Battle of Lexington [and Concord]", so there is no inconsistency on this score of naming a new CV "after a historic battle". The same is true of Yorktown, so named after the "Battle of Yorktown". Both are key battles in teh Revolutionary War.
Oh NM, Drachinifel amended it afterwards.
The Essex class carriers served for thirty+ years and deserve a closer look. I know you focus on battleships but these are the carriers that took out the Yamato and the Musashi.
LOVE this one. I carrier qualified by landing on Lexington in 1981 and 2. Did it in T-2 Buckeyes, and again in TA-4J Skyhawks. The taxpayer really got their money's worth out of these ships.
These days, I volunteer as a docent aboard USS Yorktown (CV/S 10) in Charleston, SC.
jim pollard isn't LEXINGTON a museum ship in Texas?
@@floydlooney6837 Yes, it is, now. Intrepid in NYC, Yorktown in Charleston, SC, and Lex in Corpus Christi. If you get the chance, go see one of these amazing ships.
When I was in the Boy Scouts we used to spend a weekend on the ship
Did the same in '75. That first "see me" when solo in a T-2 was an eye opener! Just as exciting was day and night quals in the F-4J in '76 aboard the Forrestal.
Semper Fi
Snake
When I was in Explorers in 1982 got to spend a wonderful weekend on CV/S-10 Yorktown.
Actually Bunker Hill and Franklin were repaired to a like new condition. The reason why they never saw more service was that the navy was waiting for a final Essex upgrade to carry out on them due to their like new condition. By the time this was scheduled to happen the Kittyhawks were well under construction and it was felt that said upgrades would cost money which would be better used elsewhere
Correct.
The Essex class is a pretty good example for the enormous output of the US industry. Damn they build so many of these huge cv's 😳
Admiral King scuttled the Idea of an angled deck on these carriers from the start because he was worried it would delay production.
It is interesting to speculate how things would have turned out if they had gone for angled armored decks to begin with. While not perfect, these ships got a lot right, and could be built in quantity. The class deserves a further look like the Iowas.
We were kind of running low on aircraft carriers by late 1942, so I think the decision was a good one.
i think it really didn't matter if it was a floating outhouse or super carrier... when you build 75 carriers, quantity has a quality all its own. the japanese really didn't understand what fight they started.
@@chokedup53
The US Navy started WW2 with 7 aircraft carriers. Another roughly 160 aircraft carriers were built during the war, including 24 Essex-class fleet carriers capable of carrying 90 to 110 aircraft
9 Independence-class light carriers, with up to 35 aircraft
And roughly 125 smaller and slower escort carriers capable of carrying 24 to 30 planes.
@@chokedup53 He warned them but they persisted. He was a very obedient man and made the plans as ordered.
@Jimmy De'Souza - if curtis lemay had started bombing the rail lines and the subs had stayed on station for another year, then Nimitz would have been correct, the only place japanese would be spoken would be hell, because national starvation would be next on the agenda. it was very close, as it was.
More in depth videos on the Essex class would be nice
I also support more in depth videos on the Essex class carriers.
I support this.
Essex Class
ua-cam.com/video/aNybu6u-wtE/v-deo.html
boreas real yes please!
Yes, yes...more!!
Now you've opened the Pandora's box of a ship class! Enough to keep you occupied making videos for about the next year at least. :-)
One indisputable fact about the Essex class is they are the best examples of US industrial ability and logistics of any class of naval vessel anywhere. Building 24 Essex ships while building two even larger Midway class carriers at the same time is a feat that still boggles the mind today.
While building "jeep" carriers, the Iowa's, liberty ships, cruisers and destroyers. And that's just the Navy. It doesn't fit in my head.
@@CSSVirginia Indeed. Add in tanks, artillery, and over 300,000 aircraft of all types. Even more amazing is that 90% of this production in took place less than four years. No other country has been able to produce things on this scale, and I seriously question if we could do it again.
@@sarjim4381 That kind of production? Never again.
@@sarjim4381 what is drug is american hook up on ww2 i pearl harbor revenge stuff but if the build like only half of what they built is enough to win wtf and yes i doubt us could do it again
@Steve Ala Look at it differently. The World is buying USA made products. Just not from the smoke industries of old. The want US made drugs and medical equipment. Not TV sets. They want films and music. Not washing machines. They want weapons from Boeing and not Mack trucks. Apple Iphones over Bethleham Steel.
Here's some interestings fact for you all --
Out of the 24 units finished (out of 26 ordered) of the Essex class,
the four that were preserved (CV-10, -11, -12, -16) as memorials were all ORIGINALLY short-hull ships. (The later refits brought the modernized Essex-class ships basically to similar standards. Long-hull and short-hull really only refer to the parts of the ship ABOVE the water, directly under the flight deck I believe.)
The numbers of the museum ships are 16 or lower by hull but the Lexington (CV-16) was actually commissioned FIRST because the yard that built her worked faster than the yards that built the other 3 museum ships. (To be honest, they also had a loose "numbering" system which meant ships weren't necessarily commissioned in the order they were contracted or meant to built in, either!) CV-16 ended up serving in the US Navy for close to 49 years, about 30 of those as THE primary training carrier.
(No, they never operated any fighter bigger than an F-8 off an Essex-class carrier. The flight deck wasn't stressed for fighters with the gross take-off or landing weights of the F-4 or F-14. The F-4 Phantom was originally intended to operate from the Essex-class ships but the USN felt the Essex-class flight decks would have to be strengthened to operate the plane safely from them and seeing as most Essex ships would be decommissioned by the late 1960s and early 1970s thought the modifications weren't worth the investment.)
Technically, we could say five of these ships still exist since Oriskany (CV-34) was scuttled and became an artificial reef. How long its hull will last under the beating waves of the Gulf of Mexico is anybody's guess but it will probably be recognizeable for at least a few decades more and there will still be pieces of it hundreds of years from now even after the hull degrades and becomes a jumbled, rusting mess. Two undeniable facts -- the Oriskany has already been shifted at least 10 ft deeper than when originally sunk by the action of Hurricane Gustav (2008) and the interior fittings made of steel are rusting quickly. There are layers of rust all over the interior of that ship. Divers have penetrated very deep into that ship since it was sunk in 2006. The Oriskany, btw, is the only surviving long-hull Essex-class ship.
There's a myth spread about the Bunker Hill and Franklin, guys. A lot of people said they weren't fit for service after World War. ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE -- they were fit enough to go back into combat after they were repaired and one of those ships (Bunker Hill) actually transported troops and remained in active until 1947.
These two ships basically became surplus in the 1950s as newer, supercarrier-class ships were commissioned (the Forrestal and Kitty Hawk Classes) and purpose LPH ships (heli-carriers) were built. A few of the unmodernized Essex-class ships actually were pressed into service as LPH's but not these two. Franklin was sold for scrap in 1966. The Bunker Hill continued on longer and was used in electronics tests by the Navy but never went back to sea in active duty. It was sold for scrap in 1973.
And, the other major visual differences when they were upgraded, apart from the new angled flight deck, were the enclosed Hurricane bows.
@Apple Gamers Incorporated True, but six were cancelled, they never even laid the keels for them. They actually worked on 26 hulls, 2 of them canceled construction at the point when they were less than 50% complete. Oriskay was finished well after the war because it was 60% or better finished and the Navy decided to use it as an experiment for post-war refits.
They also had 6 Midway class carriers planned but in the end only 3 were built. There are at least 8-10 hull numbers assigned by never used between the last Essex class ships built (they got up to at least CV-47 in finished ships) and the USS United States which was also not finished. They laid the keel of USS United States but they stopped construction when the original supercarrier program was canceled and the keel was scrapped. That might have been a good thing in the end because the US Navy probably avoided making more design mistakes than they did with the Forrestal class ships. The Forrestal ships were retired about a decade early because of all the problems with the design. They remodeled those first two Forrestal class ships halfway through building to incorporate angled decks and finished the last 2 ships to the same standard with the bad flight deck elevator arrangement!
Can you imagine if they built 8 ships like the USS United States (which the Forrestal class was based on) and had to remodel those right away during the mid, late-1950s? I bet they would have ended up either remodeling fewer Essex class ships (for budgetary reasons) in favor of the supercarriers or canceled the United States conversions halfway through if they had to reconstruct eight of those ships! It was an expensive enough proposition remodeling the Essex ships post-WWII with just reinforced decks let alone angled decks and steam catapults. The only thing that would have been worse would have been going ahead and building 6 ships like the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) as originally planned! The Enterprise is proving to be a nightmare to dispose of. Within 5 years, all the Forrestal class ships were scrapped in Texas but it will take at least 15 years to fully recycle/scrap the Enterprise now (and cost conservatively AT LEAST 10 times as much as it did to scrap ALL the Forrestal class ships) because of the 8-reactor design and toxic mess in her.
@@AvengerII I grew up in Corpus Christi. There were many thousands of Naval pilots that trained there and every few months a carrier came to Port Aransas and berthed at the oil docks on the channel there while making day trips into the Gulf of Mexico to let the trainees do their landing qualifications. What were the carriers names that did that before The Lex? I think Antietam was one.
@@larrytischler570 Antietam was the training carrier prior to the Lexington (and also THE FIRST angled deck carrier the US Navy ever operated) and they had at least 2 paddle wheel carriers that served as trainers during World War II; the paddle wheelers operated on the Great Lakes. The paddle wheelers were decommissioned immediately after the war since they were already obsolete! They had a hard time getting useful training done with those ships because of the limited speed. They barely had enough speed to create the wind conditions to launch even training planes.
Lexington herself was a limited ship, too. The Essex class ships could only safely accommodate up to F-8 class fighters. The vast majority of post-1950s designs could not be adequately operated from the Essex class carriers because of hangar deck restrictions, catapult weight limitations, and flight deck stress limits.
The US Navy wasn't going to invest more money in rebuilding the Essex class carriers so they canceled their original plans to deploy the F-4 Phantom aboard those carriers. The Essex ships carried on with F-8s or A-4s as their fighter-interceptors. The Essex carriers were the last US ships to deploy with F-8s. The F-8 (fighter version) ended service in 1976 when the last active-duty Essex carrier, Oriskany, decommissioned.
Prior to the Essex ships and the paddle wheelers, the first US carrier, CV-1 Langley, was the de facto primary training carrier in its experimental role. I imagined they used whatever was available for training between Langley's commissioning and World War II. Those paddle wheel carriers may have been the first officially designated training carriers -- at least for the US Navy.
They've had no official training carrier since Lexington was retired. They planned at one time to use the Forrestal CV-59 as the training carrier but it was already close to 40 years at that point and I think that ship had some mechanical issues -- iffy engines if I remember correctly and the flight deck was suboptimal design. They also figured it was probably cheaper just to use whatever active duty ship was available since they no longer had training craft restrictions. There were a lot of planes that could not be operated from the Lexington as I mentioned but that wasn't an issue for the supercarriers!
Actually, there are 32 planned Essex class ships.
The 26 are named ones, the other 6 unnamed ones was ordered during the war, but was cancelled in favor of the Midways. the unnamed 6 will be designated CV-50 through 55.
The USS Franklin CV 13 was fully repaired at Brooklyn Navy Yard and sent in "mothballs" at Bayonne New Jersey. In 1962, many crew members of the USS Lexington,went on board to strip her of any thing useful for repairs to machinery, etc as we were now to become a training carrier.The CV 13 was then scrapped. SMC, USN, Ret.
Thanks! I love to see so many comments here relating service or service of their relatives on this class of ship. My Dad served on the Boxer in the late 1960s right up until she was decommissioned. They never went into combat but did deploy SEALs via helicopter into Puerto Rico to attack Cuban infiltrators. He got to see it because his GQ station was on the bridge. He talked endlessly about his Navy service, lol. Died earlier this year, RIP.
I think a video on the USS Franklin would be interesting, especially with the circumstances around the kamikaze attack and the conduct of her captain and crew afterwards.
Yes indeed! Not enough can be said about the valor of the crew but the commander of USS Franklin was a psycho.
It wasn't a kamikaze attack. A bomber scooted over the deck, dropping two bombs, and I believe escaped.
My father served onboard the Bennington from late in 1953 through to her refit and repairs from her famous explosion in May of 1954 during which she was given her angled deck. She had the distinction of being named after both a battle from the Revolutionary war and another famous ship which in its time also had the distinction for being the ship to have the higest loss of life due to an explosion diring peacetime. The Bennington easily beat her namesake's record to become the worst peacetime US naval record for loss of life, a record she still holds to this day. Others try to put forward the USS Forrestal's fire as the record, but that is for wartime naval operations instead of peacetime as that fire took place in 1967 during the Vietnam War. Dad told me the explosion aboard the Bennington was due to a design flaw where the hydraughlic fluid from the over pressure on the catapault were vented into the hull instead of ouside of it, in effct setting up a fuel ir bomb in some of the ship's compartments. The explosion originate in the Officer's ward, likely when an officer at breakfast lit up a cigarette. Dad had just entered the enlited men's mess when the explosion occured and blew him back out of that compartment,saving his life. As I mentioned he continued on the Bennington after the blast and through much of the rebuild and was in a really good position to see the mess left by the explosion and be privy to the process of finding out what went wrong. The Bennington's two explosion. one in 1953, no less, are quite a story. Though you didn't mention her in connection with it, she partiipated in the space program as well as a recovery ship. I think she is very worthy of a video by you. If you would like more, I've made quite a study of her and her career since I was born in April 1956, almost two years after the explosion. My e-mail addy is stanleyloper@gmail.com.
Enough cannot be said about this class. At least do a "special" regarding survival of Franklin.
My father flew off the Yorktown over Okinawa. He was back in the USA gathering a new fighter wing to lead when the A-bombs were dropped. He took one of my brothers and me on a tour of the museum ship in Charleston back in the 90s. Awesome, long, and gallant history associated with that ship and her sisters! Thanks to everyone for all the additional details.
I bet your Dad had some interesting stories to tell!
@@josephstevens9888 he did indeed! Even so, like many of that war, he was not effusive in talking about it.
@@johngeverett I hear you. The men in my neighborhood were cut from the cloth.
Great video. I vote for more on the Essex class. FYI Oriskany is pronounced ore-iss-cany with emphasis on the middle syllable.
The Oriscaky was named after the Battle of Oriskany, which took place in 1777 in Upstate New York during the American Revolution. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Yeah, General Burgoyne probably couldn't pronounce it either.
I'm pretty sure one of Oriskany's screws are displayed near the battlefield.
Oh-risk-a-knee
@@timf2279Close enough.
I appreciated this short guide to the famous Essex class aircraft carrier, not least because of the more human-sounding voice which I, at any rate, found easier to listen to.
Thanks for this video! My grandfather, Gunners Mate 2nd Class Will Colbert (1918-1966) served in a 40 mm/65 calibre gun crew from 1943-1946 aboard USS ESSEX (CV-9). He was born on the original Veteran's Day (November 11, 1918); so were he alive today, he would have turned 100. "Daddy Will " would have been pleased with your video.
My dad was on the the Essex also. F6F Hellcat pilot. He was later transferred to the Hornet. As a officer I don't think they knew each other.
The Essex class is , by all means, a very interesting and useful class of ship. An extended look at these ships would be appreciated.
One of the Essex-class carriers I’d like to see a video on is the “Blue Ghost”, the USS Lexington. Had a pretty successful career. I’ve been aboard her. She’s like a floating city. I can only imagine what these new super carriers are like.😂
We also did the tour of the Lexington a few years ago when we escaped winter for two weeks for a Christmas vacation to Corpus Christi. My wife e even enjoyed it more than she usually does my military oriented tours.
I’d love to see more about these ships. My grandfather QM1c Clarence “Bud” Prue served aboard the Bunker Hill.
Extended coverage presentation satisfies two factions in the audience. Those preferring the more concise looks will not need to watch them. The rest of us will be glad for the in-depth version.
Since you did a special on the USS Constitution, I'd like to suggest a few ships of the line: SMS Kaiser from the battle of Lissa, the Napoléon class steam-powered SOTL and the Santísima Trinidad.
Thanks for another awesome informative video
The Essex class really were superb carriers and well suited to their role in the Pacific.
the only rael 'weakness' of the design was the open bow, which like all too many ships with this feature, led to problems in very rough weather.
The rougher weather more typically encountered in the Atlantic led British to use an enclosed or 'Altantic' bow for their modern carriers.
Interesting to see teh US alternative design was for an armoured deck as per British practice. It shows just how operational requirements and location affect choices.
The British carriers were meant for a close range hard punching war where enemy land based aircraft would be available in numbrs sufficient to swamp any air defence a carrier could put up.
A deck armoured Essex in the Med would have been an interesting thing to see.
For a video about carriers, perhaps a comparison on the differences of damage control, ventilation and aviation fuel stowage between the British, American and Japanese Navies to show just why Japanese carries were so vulnerable to fire and tended to explode or burn so violently.
I am sure many people have grown to like your voice as a commentator for anything maritime. I hope when the major television networks are planning to do any documentaries in the future they can consider to have you as the narrator and commentator for such programs.
Correction (respectfully!) to what is stated at 7:04 - USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) and Franklin (CV-13) were both repaired successfully but ironically it was their like-new condition which kept them from being converted to angled-deck carriers. They instead lived out their days as ASW carriers/ transports; only stricken 1966 and 1964 respectively.
Hello, thanks for the reply. The sources I have state that the two were never recommissioned into the USN after being brought back to CONUS.
They were reclassified in various roles but don't appear to have been on active service. Happy to be shown sources of them doing otherwise though.
But I will admit the wording is a little imprecise, as my US carrier history book lumps "repair and recommissioned" as one thing, which then makes it sound like they weren't even repaired, which they were as you mention. Apologies for any potential ambiguity.
@@Drachinifel Wikipedia basically states they stayed in the mothball fleet. But changed designation from CV's. They were never active again.
@@WALTERBROADDUS Both ships were in the Reserve Fleet from 1947 until being stricken from the Naval Ships Register in 1964 and 1966. Both were then sold for scrap. I think the confusion is because the USN reclassified ships in reserve based on perceived new roles, even if the ships never left the reserve fleet. This probably happened to unmodernized carriers more than any other class of ships.
+Drachinifel Yeah, I see the ambiguity now. Nevertheless, both Bunker Hill and Franklin survived as did ALL Essex-class carriers, which bears testament to how well these ships were designed and built - not forgetting superb effort in damage control by their crews.
I look forward to your arguments in comparing US and "armoured" RN carriers of WW2!
The Franklin was hit by bombers, not kamikaze.
Also, the Lake Champlain never got an angled deck: hence her nickname 'Straightest and greatest'.
Thanks for a good introduction to a fascinating class of ships. Their names took from tradition (e.g. the 1st USS Essex was the 1st US warship to enter the Pacific, where the CV9s were primarily destined to serve) and reflected its continuation (Philippine Sea, Tarawa, & Leyte). IMO Current USN shipnaming omits these principles!
I have to say I prefer your real voice over Cary Grant computer voice! Keep up the GREAT work!
The Essex has long been one of my favourite carrier classes. A good number of these ships were still in commissioned service when I was a lad and of course I remember watching Apollo missions being recovered at sea by these ships. Some of my first model ship kits were Essex class vessels. Good ships all around.
it been 2 years uncle drach could you please bless our collective souls with the graces over a new video on this class?
It would be interesting to see a video on some of the specific members of the Essex class. Intrepid, for example, I am certain would be quite entertaining to hear the various stories of more in-depth.
The first warship I ever visited after coming to this country, I have so many fond memories of visiting the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point in Charleston, SC. In many ways, my passion for naval history is rooted in my fascination with these wonderful childhood experiences. Alongside the USS Laffey (do you have a video on that DD? I am typing whilst not looking so I don’t remember but that’s an excellent history to that warship) and the USS Clamagore (and at one point a Coast guard cutter, although I am not remembering the name) this exhibit of naval vessels is fascinating and amazing, and for anyone close.... go!!! The size and scale are nothing compared to more modern ships, yet as a child of 11, nothing could have been more amazing. Shchasty tovorich, love these videos.
AK
PS I’ll be seeing the USS Texas next week, uncontrolled excitement is a true thing, even as an adult
I got to see the Bonhomme Richard up close as she had just been docked in San Pedro, CA to be scrapped back in 1991 or 92. It was a sad event, but I suppose the Essex class actually has a rather large number of surviving vessels as museum ships, which is rare for most classes of warships from any country or time.
As a kid sometime back in the late 1950's early 1960's I got a chance to tour the Valley Forge on a visit to Halifax. I recall that the local papers reported that the crew compliment exceeded the total strength ...military and civilian...of the Royal Canadian Navy and that the ship was ...up to that date...the largest warship ever to tie up at the Halifax naval docks.(All of my friends older teenage brothers were bemoaning the fact that there would be no girls available to date until after that damned Yankee ship left port).... I got in because I had relatives working at the docks. Apparently I was mixed in with a tour group of orphans and institution kids....as a public relations gesture the crew gave each of us a plastic model kit of the ship...which was the start of my collection.
If you're in the SF Bay area, it's well worth the trip to the former Alameda Navy base, where the U.S.S. Hornet CV-12 now sits as a museum ship. It has tours, special events, and various "mini museums" below deck that are dedicated to other ships that were scrapped. It also has several displays regarding Apollos 11 and 12, as the Hornet was the recovery ship after those missions returned to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. You can also spend the night on the Hornet, sleeping in crew quarters on old racks used by sailors long ago.
"Of course, it's the rare aircraft carrier which is defined mainly by its gun-based armament."
Look at Drach, just casually roasting the Graf Zeppelin.
+Ender Gaming I believe that is also a slight jab at HMS Furious in its half battlecruiser half Aircraft Carrier state where the front half of the ship was fitted with a 10 aircraft hangar and flight deck, ship's superstructure in the middle of the ship, and its single 18-inch turret on the aft end of the ship. Drach said in the part 1 video of the Courageous-class battlecruisers that the removal of the single 18-inch gun "incidentally ended her career as the most heavily armed aircraft carrier in existence", mostly by gun caliber alone.
My father was on this boat. He was a ADJ. Ended up a flight engineer on P2 v aircraft and transition to the p3a.
I would enjoy if you did an extended Essex video based on the stories of individual ships. I recently visited the USS Intrepid in New York, but i found it underwhelming. They don't allow you below the Hanger deck, and 95% of the ship is off limits. I really wanted to see the equipment spaces.
Oh...go ahead and do them. Three uncles served on these ships. They were Essex, Ticonderoga and Bon Homme Richard. Love your work and will continue watching no matter what you decide.
USS Interpid. If I remember correctly, that got more bomb hits and critical blows than most, that the Japanese considered it sunk on numerous occasions. But of course was never sunk.
At least 2 Medals off Honor were earned on her deck.
I thought that was the Yorktown class U.S.S Enterprise. She was nicknamed 'They Grey Ghost'
The Intrepid got a bad reputation in the fleet because of how she seemed to be a bomb, torpedo and kamikaze magnet and subsequent frequent trips to the repair docks. Variously nicknamed "Evil I", "Dry I" and "Decrepid".
Great video, as always. I would love to see you do an extended version of this video covering more info on this exceedingly important class of aircraft carrier. Please keep these outstanding videos coming and God bless you, my friend!
Awesome video!!! Please DO cover the ships individually. When the N. Koreans captured the U.S.S. Pueblo, my ship, the U.S.S. John R. Craig DD 885 was enroute to the Tonkin Gulf, but we diverted to the Sea of Japan to await further developments. Our duties varied, and included escorting the U.S.S. Yorktown CV 10. From my watch station as QMOW I witnessed the Yorktown take green water over her bows, and completely engulf her island! That was a bit unnerving! Perhaps not quite as much as steaming very close to the Soviet Naval units and exchanging impolite digital gestures with their crews, but unnerving nonetheless.
That is a lot of ships..... and only 52 weeks in a year.
Matthew, it must have more than a bit unnerving watching a ship the size of an Essex carrier taking green water over the bow from a Gearing class destroyer! Let's see, only about 33,000 tons heavier and 480 feet longer than your tin can. You're a braver man than me, Matthew, and thanks for your service.
A good bit of tin cans were built in orange. I have 2 consolidated steel newspapers announcing the launch of the Newman k perry! I work on 886! Have negatives from the haraden dd 585 (fletcher).
@@lelandgaunt9985 I'm not sure, but I think the Jolly John was built in Orange.
My grandpa served on the USS Essex 6 CV-9. He worked in the anchor room. I have a ton of really cool pictures from the carrier from him.
I would absolutely love to see a detailed look at the various SBC overhauls applied to the ships.
I met a guy last week that served on the Bonhomme-Richard. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to talk. But he had one of those caps on that had the name of the ship. I asked him & he said yeah, he served on the carrier.
I honestly love these videos. Great work mate
Yes please do an in depth look at this class.
Excellent presentation as always Drach. The Essex class is probably the most important class to come out of the war.
The Yorktown is in Charleston, SC. I'd visited it several times as a kid and actually had my Wando Highschool junior prom dance ONBOARD. Dance music and wandering the deck at night. Very interesting experience I figured was worth mentioning!
(involuntary twitch at someone who went to Wando High saying the Yorktown is in Charleston - Charleston Harbor, maybe, but docked in Mt. Pleasant, same town as either location of OP's alma mater) I had to laugh at the picture of the Yorktown in Patriot's Point, as I have a similar one I took when work had a staff day there one year. I did get to do some free touring of both her and the Laffey during breaks and after we were done with staff day, since we ended before Patriot's Point ended. I pass by them every work day on the Ravenel Bridge, going to/from Mt. Pleasant and Charleston, and they are always a great sight to see.
The USS Hornet museum in Alameda California is well worth a visit. They are restoring portions of it all the time and doing a great job.
USS Oriskany, is pronounced Or - Riss - kanny after the 1777 Battle of Oriskany (New York State) during the American Revolutionary War. The 1777 Battle of Oriskany was fought west of the modern village. At the time of the battle, the Oneida village of "Oriska" was located near the battlefield. The location is marked by the Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site.
The picture of USS Wasp you flash is the original CV-7 not the Essex class CV-18. The post-war modification of the enclosed "hurricane bow" deserves mention as well as the canted flight deck mod.
Great video, as always. This one brought back lots of memories. When the U.S.S. Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans, my ship, the U.S.S. John R. Craig DD 885 was en-route to Vietnam, and we were diverted to the Sea of Japan to "stand by" for further orders" (be there for WW III to start). We escorted the Yorktown CV 10, and I can remember watching her taking green water over her bow, and her island being completely engulfed. Witnessing that from the pilot house of a Gearing Class tin can, while standing Quartermaster of the Watch, that was more than a bit exciting.
USS Yorktown, CV-10. Lots of memories there. When I was a kid my dad would take me to the ship quite a lot. Every time I cross the Ravenel Bridge (just upriver) I have the urge to take the turn and visit Yorktown again. I'm planning to do a video tour of the ship and her history when I manage to get in that area again.
My father served on an essex during desert storm, learned some new things, thanks!
The only Essex active at that time was the Lexington, so your father never left the Gulf of Mexico?
Midway was in Desert Shield/Storm, but she's not an Essex.
You have to more on this class. I spent a week and on the York town, with my family. Just last year. Even then I can't get enough of this Essex class ships.
Liked that bit about the Avenger generally preferring to return to the ship alive 😆 - we always joke about the “Grumman Ironworks” at the hangar. Great aircraft!
I worked with a gentleman named Jim Brewer who served on the Essex during WW2.
"The Yorktowns themselves had been... fairly good ships..."
-*"Enterprise" has entered the chat.*
"Enterprise" gives the hairy eyeball
“The Yorktowns themselves had been... fairly good ships...”
Enterprise: Hold my SBD’s
Also don’t forget about Saratoga! She also survived the war alongside Enterprise!
@@stevenmoore4612 Old Sara was a "fairly good ship"
*Bikini Atoll exis- NUKED
Ranger CV-4: *exists*
Atlantic Ocean: hi
Ranger CV-4: I LOVE MY NEW HOME!
Pacific Ocean: what about me?
Ranger CV-4: HISS STAY AWAY
some of the most legendary ships are Essex-class!
Very nice overview of the class. Definitely would like to see more about individual ships. Alternatively, maybe a video covering just the WW2 history of the class, then one covering the post-war period. There's so much potentially to cover with these ships!
Recycling the names of just destroyed ships as a bonus benefit. 1 - Moral comes back up as the men serving on the ship have a sense of duty to avenge the previous ship. 2 - It screws with the enemy, they hear the name but know the ship was sunk, so now they think it's a different ship... hindering their ability to track enemy ships. 3 - Civilians back in the states are not easily able to soak in the total amount of ships lost = their sons lost, as the previously sunk ships are shown in news reels.
All hail the Lemon Queen!
Here here, more is always better when it comes to your videos. I look forward to each and every one!
I took the tour of the Hornet, it was that tour that got me into naval ships and lead me to watching your channel
Great series!!! Keep 'em coming!!! A more detailed and in depth look at one particular ship would be really cool too.
I really appreciate the absence of the robo voice as well.
On a more recent note, the Ford carrier class is going to start out with the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) which is in operation, then the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) and 3rd the USS Enterprise (CVN-80)
My Dad was on the Essex when it was converted from the straight to canted decks. He was a boiler mate.
My father served aboard the USS Boxer during the Korean War. I would like very much to hear about his ship.
My dad was on the Essex in Korea 1951-1954 as gunner loader, starboard aft. Neil Armstrong was a pilot on the Essex too.
A very important class of ships that did so much to win WWll. Long service life too.
Nice introduction to this class.This class of ships established the US as the dominant superpower of the 2nd half of the 20th century and on into the 21st. Pretty heady stuff indeed.
The more info the better. Keep it up. Love the the format.
Definitely, at your leisure. You do well. Hardly miss one.
Here in the US we say Bon Homme REE-SHARD. And it's Oh- RISK-ah-knee for USS Oriskany
Brilliant stuff. !! Best series on warships I've come across. Brief, accurate, to the point. On a very (very) minor side note, Navy folks generally put the emphasis on the second syllable of USS Oriskany (so it would be o-RIS-kany.)
I vote for a closer look at the Essex-Class Fleet Carriers. That would be excellent. You always do a fine job with your videos.
These were involved in so much of WWII, not to mention after the war (Cuban Missile Crisis). I would to see more detailed videos about how their design helped/hindered their careers.
I would love an in depth video on these ships particularly the ones that served in the Vietnam conflict.
I've been to USS Lexington. It was less than a year after it was decommissioned and made into a museum so at the time there wasn't much on board. I haven't been back since I was about 8 years old. A LONG time ago. Now they seem to have a lot more various aircraft they have operated in its life. Now they even have a couple of the 5 inch turrets.
well done thank you.
I had the honor of serving on three different carrier types/ classes.
Aviation structural hydraulic mechanic on board..
USS Midway CVA- 41. . USS Constellation cv-64
..
USS Enterprise CVN- 65..
my favorite of the three was the Midway.
They were all bad asses but she was old school badass.
if there was a record she was going to break it..
If there wa as a mission she was going to do it..
and she was just plain beautiful..
they did get carried away with her angle deck.. oh, it was redesigned and refurbished three times.
I still to this day walk listing to Port 2 degrees..
I do not know if you've done a Midway documentation or not but just one on her upgrades would be a documentation of her own right.
Thank you sir your videos are about all this old Sea Dog has left.
I wish a calm sea your way.
We used to see Lexington (IIRC) all the time around Pensacola, 1963 or so. She stayed there so long she wound up as the museum.
An in depth look at the Essex Class would be great. Essex ships provide tremendous value for the USA and provide quite durable.
Yeah, I would love to see a more indepth look at this class.
I'd love to hear more about the Essex
Fun fact about the Randolph: That Kamikaze hit in the picture that was used in the video actually damaged the main reduction gear, which was never fully repaired or replaced. It's quite likely a major part of why why not too long after my father served on her in '59-60 she was converted into a helicopter carrier. I can't imagine that the vibrations that occurred when she got up to speed to launch some planes was any better for the ship's structures than the poor SoBs in a bunk with a forgetful bunkmate's face. It shook hard enough that the general practice was to not leave anything on the personal shelves when you went on shift, as it usually meant that your hotbunk mate would get hit by them. Which also opened you up for being personally socked by them, later.
Yes, more please. The Carrier war was of great significance.
Oh that Devastator torpedo bomber. The only thing devastating about it is that it would find itself devastated and a carrier's flight group would in turn be devastated.
I served on a tin can (DD Gearing class) during my 4 year stint in the UNS, and am quite familiar with some of the Essex class carriers, screening ASW. We followed (in no particular order) the Bennington, Yorktown, Oriskany, Kearsarge, and a few I can't recall. We briefly screened for the Enterprise once. I still can recall how much larger she was than the Essex class carriers! Humongous as compared to the Essex ships. And that square island was quite distinctive.
Would like to see more on the Essex class as well.
originally today there were 5 exsex
oriskiny
intrepid
Lexington
hornet
Yorktown
but oriskiny sunk as a reef for the fishes
Planning on seeing the Intrepid in person soon. Very excited.
Nice job. And yeah, I would like a more in depth look at these legendary (wooden-decked!) ships.
Keep going with the Essex
Yes, please go into more depth on the Essex class. Love your videos. Keep it up.
the two most heavily damaged Essex class were repaired to new condition, but were never recommissioned. I heard they were held back for an "ultimate configuration" that never happend
More videos about the Essex class would be nice. CV-10 (Yorktown) is docked in my home town so it would be nice to have more in depth videos about her and her sisters. Also an idea for a video could be USS Laffey (DD-724) shes docked beside Yorktown, and is the only surviving Allen M. Sumner left.
Good ol Allen m summer class! I have a flag that was flown off of her.
@leland Gaunt, Seriously? If so, damn luck bastard. How the hell did you get you hands on something like that if you don't mind me asking.
Perhaps my post is misleading, when I retired I called patriots point and asked for permission to fly my flag off of her.
Ah, I thought you may have been one of the lucky bastards that actually has an authentic WW1 or WW2 flag. Irregardless its still a neat story, and pretty cool that your flag is flying on one of the most famous WW2 destroyers.
Sexual Tyrannosaurus
inside the radford museum dd446 she has a couple flags that do not reflect the previous territories that became states.
Please continue with the in depth series on these ships also can you please do a segment on the PT BOATS ? And lets not ignore the brave men and often overlooked service of the liberty ships and the merchant Marine without whose sacrifice the war would have been lost in 1941
I'd love an in-depth look at the Essex-class Bon Homme Richard, which wasn't scrapped until 1992, including an explanation of the name.
My grandfather served on the Tarawa what a great class of ships
thanks so much. this class certainly merits follow-on and more extensive installments.