USS Wasp (CV-7)

USS Wasp (CV-7) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier commissioned in 1940 and lost in action in 1942. She was the eighth ship named , and the sole ship of a class built to use up the remaining tonnage allowed to the U.S. for aircraft carriers under the treaties of the time. As a reduced-size version of the hull, Wasp was more vulnerable than other United States aircraft carriers available at the opening of hostilities. Wasp was initially employed in the Atlantic campaign, where Axis naval forces were perceived as less capable of inflicting decisive damage. After supporting the occupation of Iceland in 1941, Wasp joined the British Home Fleet in April 1942 and twice ferried British fighter aircraft to Malta.

Wasp was then transferred to the Pacific in June 1942 to replace losses at the battles of Coral Sea and Midway. After supporting the invasion of Guadalcanal, Wasp was hit by two or three torpedoes from Japanese submarine on 15 September 1942. The resulting damage set off several explosions, destroyed her water-mains and knocked out the ship's power. As a result, her damage-control teams were unable to contain the ensuing fires that blazed out of control. Of the 2,139 people aboard, 193 were killed and 366 injured; 46 of her 71 aircraft were lost. She was abandoned and scuttled by torpedoes fired from later that evening. Her wreck was found in early 2019.

Design

Wasp was a product of the Washington Naval Treaty. After the construction of the carriers and , the U.S. was still permitted to build a carrier.

thumb|left|Wasp was the first carrier fitted with a deck-edge elevator.

The Navy sought to squeeze a large air group onto a ship with nearly 25% less displacement than the Yorktown-class. To save weight and space, Wasp was constructed with low-power propulsion machinery (compare Wasps machinery with Yorktowns , the 's , and the 's ).

Additionally, Wasp was launched with almost no armor, modest speed, and more significantly, no protection from torpedoes. Absence of side protection of the boilers and internal aviation fuel stores "doomed her to a blazing demise". These were inherent design flaws that were recognized when constructed, but could not be remedied within the allowed tonnage. These flaws, combined with a relative lack of damage control experience in the early days of the war, proved fatal.

Wasp was the first carrier fitted with a deck-edge elevator for aircraft. The elevator consisted of a platform for the front wheels of the plane and an outrigger for the tail wheel. The two arms on the sides moved the platform in a half-circle up and down between the flight deck and the hangar deck.

Construction and commissioning

Her keel was laid down on 1 April 1936 at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts; launched on 4 April 1939, sponsored by Carolyn Edison (wife of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison), and commissioned on 25 April 1940 at the Army Quartermaster Base, South Boston, Massachusetts, with Captain John W. Reeves, Jr. in command.

Service history

Wasp remained at Boston through May, fitting out, before she got underway on 5 June 1940 for calibration tests on her radio direction finder gear. After further fitting out while anchored in Boston harbor, the new aircraft carrier steamed independently to Hampton Roads, Virginia, anchoring there on 24 June. Four days later, she sailed for the Caribbean in company with the destroyer .

En route, she conducted the first of many carrier qualification tests. Among the earliest of the qualifiers was Lieutenant, junior grade David McCampbell, who later became the Navy's top-scoring ace in World War II. Wasp arrived at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in time to "dress ship" in honor of Independence Day.

During shakedown on 9 July, one of her Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator dive bombers crashed from the ship killing the two crew.

Wasp returned to Hampton Roads 15 July, embarking aircraft from the 1st Marine Air Group for qualification trials at sea, and then returning a week later. The Marines and their planes were disembarked at Norfolk, and the carrier moved to Boston for post shakedown repairs.

She fired a 21-gun salute in honor of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose yacht, , stopped briefly at the Boston Navy Yard on 10 August.

Wasp departed the Army Quartermaster Base on 21 August to conduct steering drills and full-power trials. Late the following morning, she got underway for Norfolk, Virginia. For the next few days, while destroyer operated as plane guard, Wasp launched and recovered her aircraft: fighters from Fighter Squadron 7 (VF-7), and scout bombers from Scouting Squadron 72 (VS-72). The carrier put into the Norfolk Navy Yard on 28 August for repair work on her turbines and Wasp was drydocked from 12 to 18 September.

Wasp ran her final sea trials in Hampton Roads on 26 September 1940. Assigned to Carrier Division 3, Patrol Force, Wasp shifted to Naval Operating Base, Norfolk on 11 October. There, she loaded 24 Curtiss P-40 fighters from the Army Air Corps' 8th Pursuit Group and nine North American O-47A reconnaissance aircraft from the 2d Observation Squadron, as well as her own spares and utility unit Grumman J2F Duck amphibian on the 12th. Wasp subsequently flew off the Army planes in a test designed to compare the take-off runs of standard Navy and Army aircraft. This was the first time that Army planes had flown from a Navy carrier and foreshadowed the use of the ship in the ferry role in World War II.

thumb|P-40Bs aboard Wasp in October 1940

Wasp then proceeded on toward Cuba in company with the destroyers and . Over the ensuing four days, the carrier's planes flew routine training flights, including dive-bombing and machine-gun practices.

For the remainder of October and into November, Wasp trained in the Guantánamo Bay area. Her planes flew carrier qualification and refresher training flights, while her gunners sharpened up their skills in short-range battle practices at targets towed by the new fleet tug .

thumb|Wasp on 27 December 1940

Wasp sailed for Norfolk and arrived shortly after noon on 26 November. remaining at the Norfolk Navy Yard through Christmas of 1940. Then, after first conducting degaussing experiments with the survey ship , she steamed independently to Cuba.

Arriving at Guantánamo Bay on 27 January 1941, Wasp conducted a regular routine of flight operations into February. With destroyer as her plane guard, Wasp operated out of Guantanamo and Culebra, conducting her maneuvers with an array of warships— the WWI-era battleship Texas, carrier , heavy cruisers , , and destroyers. Wasp ran gunnery drills and exercises, as well as routine flight training evolutions into March. Underway for Hampton Roads on 4 March, the aircraft carrier conducted a night battle practice into the early morning hours of the 5th.

During the passage to Norfolk, heavy weather sprang up on the evening of 7 March. Wasp was steaming at standard speed, . Off Cape Hatteras, a lookout spotted a red flare at 22:45, then a second set of flares at 22:59. At 23:29, with the aid of her searchlights, Wasp located the stranger in trouble. She was the lumber schooner George E. Klinck, bound from Jacksonville, Florida, to Southwest Harbor, Maine.

The sea, in the meantime, worsened from a state 5 to a state 7. Wasp lay to, maneuvering alongside at 00:07 on 8 March. At that time, four men from the schooner clambered up a swaying Jacob's ladder buffeted by gusts of wind. Then, despite the raging tempest, Wasp lowered a boat, at 00:16, and brought the remaining four men aboard from the foundering schooner. Wilcox's body was spotted an hour after he went overboard, face down in the raging seas, but it was not recovered due to the weather and the heavy seas.

thumb|left| accompanies Wasp on her second voyage to Malta

As a result, it looked as if a second ferry run to Malta was needed. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, fearing that Malta would be "pounded to bits", asked President Roosevelt to allow Wasp to have "another good sting." and Wasp loaded another contingent of Spitfire Vs at King George V Dock Glasgow and sailed for the Mediterranean on 3 May in Operation Bowery. On this occasion, the group included the British carrier with her own load of Spitfires.

The two carriers reached their launching points early on Saturday, 9 May - Wasp steaming in column ahead of at a distance of . At 06:30, Wasp launched 11 Wildcats of VF-71 to serve as CAP over the task force. First, Eagle flew off her 17 Spitfires in two waves; then Wasp flew off 47 more. The 23rd Spitfire that took off at 06:43, piloted by Sergeant-Pilot Don Sherrington, lost power soon after takeoff and plunged into the sea, with loss of pilot and aircraft. The other planes flew off safely and formed up to fly to Malta.

An auxiliary fuel tank on another aircraft failed to draw; without the additional fuel the pilot could not make Malta, and his only alternatives were to land on board Waspwith no tailhookor to ditch and take his chances in the water. Pilot Officer Jerrold Alpine Smith chose to attempt a landing on Wasp, setting down at 07:43 with his Spitfire stopping just from the forward edge of the flight deck. One Wasp sailor observed it to be a "one wire" landing. Wasp set sail for the British Isles while a German radio station broadcast the startling news that the American carrier had been sunk; on 11 May, Prime Minister Churchill sent a message to Wasp: "Many thanks to you all for the timely help. Who said a wasp couldn't sting twice?" where the destroyer tender was stationed, with four days estimated for the work there. Wasp arrived 18 July for those repairs and on 21 July CTF 18 reported that Wasp had successfully completed a trial making 27 knots with and 25 knot operations were possible with reduced reliability. Replacement turbine blades were available at Pearl Harbor, and repairs there were recommended after the current operations were complete.

Wasp, screened by the heavy cruisers and , and four destroyers, steamed westward toward Guadalcanal on the evening of 6 August until midnight. Then, she changed course to the eastward to reach her launch position from Tulagi one hour before dawn. Wasps first combat air patrol fighter took off at 05:57.

The early flights of Wildcats and Dauntlesses were assigned specific targets: Tulagi, Gavutu, Tanambogo, Halavo, Port Purvis on Florida Island, Haleta, Bungana, and the radio station dubbed "Asses' Ears".

The Wildcats, led by Lieutenant Shands and his wingman Ensign S. W. Forrer, patrolled the north coast toward Gavatu. The other two headed for the seaplane facilities at Tanambogo. The Grummans, arriving simultaneously at daybreak, surprised the Japanese and strafed patrol planes and fighter-seaplanes in the area. Fifteen Kawanishi H8K "Emily" flying boats and seven Nakajima A6M2-N "Rufe" floatplane fighters were destroyed by during low-level strafing passes. Shands was credited with four "Rufes" and one "Emily", while his wingman, Forrer, was credited with three "Rufes" and an "Emily" and would later be awarded the Navy Cross for his efforts. Lieutenant Wright and Ensign Kenton were credited with three patrol planes apiece and a motorboat tending the "Emilys"; Ensigns Reeves and Conklin were each credited with two and shared a fifth patrol plane between them. The strafing also destroyed an aviation fuel truck and a truck loaded with spare parts.

Post-attack assessment estimated that the antiaircraft and shore battery sites pinpointed by intelligence had been destroyed by the Dauntless dive bombers in their first attack. None of Wasps planes were shot down, but Ensign Reeves landed his Wildcat aboard Enterprise after running low on fuel.

At 07:04, Wasp launched 12 Avengers loaded with bombs for use against land targets, and led by Lieutenant H. A. Romberg. The Avengers silenced resistance by bombing Japanese troop concentrations east of the knob of land known as Hill 281, in the Makambo-Sasapi sector, and the prison on Tulagi Island.

Some 10,000 men had been put ashore during the first day's operations against Guadalcanal, and met only slight resistance. On Tulagi, however, the Japanese resisted stoutly, retaining about of the island by nightfall. Wasp, Saratoga, and Enterprise – with their screens – retired to the south at nightfall.

thumb|F4Fs launching off Guadalcanal, 7 August 1942.

Wasp fighters led by Lieutenant C. S. Moffett maintained a continuous CAP over the transport area until noon on 8 August. Meanwhile, a scouting flight of 12 Dauntlesses led by Lieutenant Commander E. M. Snowden searched a sector to a radius of from their carrier, extending it to include all of the Santa Isabel Island and the New Georgia groups. The Dauntless made no contact with the Japanese during their two hours in the air, but at 08:15, Snowden sighted a "Rufe" some from Rekata Bay and shot the plane down.

Meanwhile, a large group of Japanese planes approached from Bougainville to attack the transports off Lunga Point. Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner ordered all transports to get underway and to assume cruising disposition. Eldridge was leading a formation of Dauntlesses from VS-71 against Mbangi Island, off Tulagi. His rear seat gunner assumed the formation of Japanese planes were friendly until six Zeroes bounced the first section making 12 unsuccessful firing passes.

Meanwhile, the leader of the last section of VS-71 – Lieutenant, junior grade Robert L. Howard – unsuccessfully attacked twin-engined Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" medium bombers heading for the American transports, and was engaged by four Zeroes escorting the bombers. Howard shot down one Zero with his fixed guns while his rear gunner, Seaman 2nd Class Lawrence P. Lupo, discouraged Japanese fighters attacking from astern.

At 18:07 on 8 August, Vice Admiral Fletcher recommended to Ghormley that the air support force be withdrawn. Fletcher, concerned by the large numbers of Japanese planes that had attacked on 8 August, reported that he had only 78 fighters left (of 99 he started with) and that fuel for the carriers was running low. Ghormley approved the recommendation, and Wasp joined Enterprise and Saratoga in retiring from Guadalcanal. By midnight, the landing had attained the immediate objectives. Japanese resistance – except for a few snipers – on Gavutu and Tanombogo had been overcome. Early on 9 August, a Japanese surface force engaged an Allied one in the Battle of Savo Island and retired with minimal damage after sinking four Allied heavy cruisers off Savo Island, including two that had served with Wasp in the Atlantic: Vincennes and Quincy.

After the initial day's action in the Solomons campaign, the carrier spent the next month engaged in patrol and covering operations for convoys and resupply units headed for Guadalcanal. The Japanese began transporting reinforcements to contest the Allied forces.

Wasp was ordered south by Vice Admiral Fletcher to refuel and did not participate in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August. After fueling on 24 August Wasp hurried to the battle zone. Her total aircraft group was 26 Grumman F4F Wildcats, 25 Douglas SBD Dauntlesses, and 11 Grumman TBF Avengers. (One SBD Dauntless was earlier lost on 24 August by ditching in the sea because of engine trouble). On the morning of 25 August, Wasp launched a search mission. The Douglas SBD Dauntless of pilot Lieut. Chester V. Zalewski shot down two of Aichi E13A1 "Jake" floatplanes from (Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondō's flagship). But the SBD Dauntlesses sighted no ships. The Japanese fleet had withdrawn out of range. At 13:26 on 25 August, Wasp launched a search/attack mission of 24 Dauntlesses and 10 Avengers against the convoy of Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka that seemed to be still within range. Although the SBD Dauntlesses shot down a flying boat, they could not find the enemy ships anymore.

About 14:20, the carrier turned into the wind to launch eight Wildcats and eighteen Dauntlesses and to recover eight Wildcats and three Dauntlesses that had been airborne since before noon. Lt. (jg) Roland H. Kenton, USNR, flying a Wildcat of VF-71 was the last aircraft off the deck of Wasp. The ship rapidly completed the recovery of the 11 aircraft before turning to starboard, heeling slightly as she did so. At 14:44 a lookout reported "three torpedoes ... three points forward of the starboard beam". Whatever the case, all hit in the vicinity of the ship's gasoline tanks and magazines. Two of the spread of torpedoes passed ahead of Wasp and were observed passing astern of before was hit by one at 14:51 while maneuvering to avoid the other (structural damage from this torpedo hit would eventually lead to O'Briens sinking a month later). The sixth torpedo passed either astern or under Wasp, narrowly missed in Wasps screen about 14:48, and struck North Carolina about 14:52.

After consulting with Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes, Captain Sherman ordered "abandon ship" at 15:20. All badly injured men were lowered into rafts or rubber boats. Many unwounded men had to abandon ship from aft because the forward fires were burning with such intensity. The departure, as Sherman observed it, looked "orderly", and there was no panic. The only delays occurred when many men showed reluctance to leave until all the wounded had been taken off. The abandonment took nearly 40 minutes, and at 16:00 Sherman abandoned the ship once he was satisfied that no survivors were left on board.

Although the submarine hazard caused the accompanying destroyers to lie well clear or to shift position, they carried out rescue operations until , Lansdowne, Helena, and had 1,946 men embarked. The fires on Wasp, drifting, traveled aft and there were four violent explosions at nightfall. Lansdowne was ordered to torpedo the carrier and stand by until she was sunk. 193 men had died and 366 were wounded during the attack. All but one of her 26 airborne aircraft made a safe landing on Hornet nearby but 45 aircraft went down with the ship.

Another Japanese submarine, , observed and reported the sinking of Wasp, as other US destroyers kept I-19 busy. I-19 avoided 80 depth charges and escaped safely. She was subsequently sunk with all hands in a depth charge attack on 25 November 1943 by destroyer USS Radford.

Wreck located

On 14 January 2019, Wasps wreck was located by the research vessel Petrel. The carrier sits upright in of water, though parts of the hull appear to have split.

Awards

{| style="margin:1em auto; text-align:center;"

|colspan=3|

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto; text-align:center;"

|colspan=2|American Defense Service Medal<br>with "A" Device

|colspan=2| American Campaign Medal

|European-African-Middle<br>Eastern Campaign Medal<br>with 1 star

|colspan=2|Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal<br>with 1 star

|World War II Victory Medal

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

Navy photographs of Wasp (CV-7)
General Plan for the U.S.S. Wasp (CV-7), hosted by the Historical Naval Ships Association (HNSA) Digital Collections
Combat History of the Supermarine Spitfire – The Defence of Malta (1942)
Oral history interview with Rudolph Cusson, a Petty Officer on the Wasp when it was torpedoed from the Veterans History Project at Central Connecticut State University
Action report U.S.S. WASP (CV7) Loss in Action
USS WASP (CV-7) Detailed history on YouTube