Before the
attack on Pearl Harbor,
Hornet trained out of Norfolk. A hint of a future mission occurred on 2 February 1942 when
Hornet departed Norfolk with two
Army Air Forces North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers on deck. Once at sea, the planes were launched to the surprise and amazement of
Hornets crew. Her men were unaware of the meaning of this experiment.
Hornet returned to Norfolk, prepared to leave for combat, and sailed for the West Coast on 4 March via the
Panama Canal.
Doolittle Raid, April 1942 Hornet arrived at
Naval Air Station Alameda, California, on 20 March 1942 with her own planes on the hangar deck. By mid-afternoon on 1 April, she loaded 16 B-25s on the flight deck, under the command of
Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, 70
United States Army Air Corps officers and 64 enlisted men reported aboard. In company of her escort,
Hornet departed Alameda on 2 April under sealed orders. That afternoon, Captain Mitscher informed his men of their mission:
a bombing raid on Japan. Eleven days later,
Hornet joined the aircraft carrier at
Midway, and
Task Force 16 turned toward Japan. With
Enterprise providing combat air patrol cover,
Hornet was to steam deep into enemy waters. Originally, the task force intended to proceed to within of the Japanese coast, but on the morning of 18 April, a Japanese patrol boat,
No. 23 Nitto Maru, sighted the American task force. sank the patrol boat. Amid concerns that the Japanese had been made aware of their presence, Doolittle and his raiders launched prematurely from out, instead of the planned . Because of this decision, none of the 16 planes made it to their designated landing strips in China. After the war, Tokyo was found to have received the
Nitto Marus message in a garbled form and the Japanese ship was sunk before it could get a clear message through to the Japanese mainland. on board USS
Hornet in April 1942 As
Hornet came about and prepared to launch the bombers, which had been readied for take-off the previous day, a gale of more than churned the sea with crests. Heavy swells, which caused the ship to pitch violently, shipped sea and spray over the bow, wetted the flight deck, and drenched the deck crews. The lead plane, commanded by Colonel Doolittle, had only of flight deck, while the last B-25 hung its twin rudders far out over the fantail. Doolittle, timing himself against the rise and fall of the ship's bow, lumbered down the flight deck, circled
Hornet after take-off, and set course for Japan. By 09:20, all 16 were airborne, heading for the first American air strike against the Japanese home islands.
Hornet brought her own planes on deck as Task Force 16 steamed at full speed for Pearl Harbor. Intercepted broadcasts, both in Japanese and English, confirmed at 14:46 the success of the raids. Exactly one week to the hour after launching the B-25s,
Hornet sailed into Pearl Harbor. That the Tokyo raid was the
Hornets mission was kept an official secret for a year. Until then,
President Roosevelt referred to the ship from which the bombers were launched only as "
Shangri-La." Two years later, the Navy gave this name to
an aircraft carrier.
Hornet steamed from Pearl Harbor to aid and on 30 April at the
Battle of the Coral Sea, though the battle ended before she arrived. On 4 May, Task Force 16 crossed the equator; the first time ever for
Hornet.
Hornet, alongside
Enterprise, executed a
feint towards
Nauru and
Banaba (Ocean) islands, which caused the Japanese to cancel their
operation to seize the two islands. She returned to Hawaii on 26 May, and sailed again two days later to help repulse an expected Japanese assault on
Midway.
Battle of Midway, June 1942 s from
Hornet at Midway On 28 May 1942,
Hornet and Task Force 16 steamed out of Pearl Harbor heading for Point "Luck", an arbitrary spot in the ocean roughly northeast of Midway, where they would be in a flank position to ambush Japan's mobile strike force of four frontline aircraft carriers, the
Kidō Butai. Japanese carrier-based planes were reported headed for Midway in the early morning of 4 June.
Hornet,
Yorktown, and
Enterprise launched aircraft, just as the Japanese carriers struck their planes below to prepare for a second attack on Midway.
Hornets
dive bombers followed an incorrect heading and did not find the enemy fleet. Several bombers and all of the escorting fighters were forced to ditch when they ran out of fuel attempting to return to the ship. 15 torpedo bombers of
Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) found the Japanese ships and attacked. They were met by overwhelming fighter opposition about out, and with no escorts to protect them, they were shot down.
Ensign George H. Gay, USNR, was the only survivor of 30 men. Further attacks from
Enterprises and
Yorktowns torpedo bombers proved equally disastrous, but succeeded in forcing the Japanese carriers to keep their decks clear for combat air patrol operations, rather than launching a counter-attack against the Americans. Japanese fighters were shooting down the last of the torpedo bombers over when dive bombers of
Enterprise and
Yorktown attacked, causing enormous fires aboard the three other Japanese carriers, ultimately leading to their loss.
Hiryū was hit late in the afternoon of 4 June by a strike from
Enterprise and sank early the next morning.
Hornets aircraft, launching late due to the necessity of recovering
Yorktowns scout planes and faulty communications, attacked a battleship and other escorts, but failed to score hits.
Yorktown was lost to combined aerial and submarine attack. 's
Douglas TBD Devastator pilots on USS
Hornet in May 1942
Hornets aircraft attacked the fleeing Japanese fleet on 6 June and assisted in sinking the
heavy cruiser , damaging a
destroyer, and leaving the heavy cruiser heavily damaged and on fire. The attack by
Hornet on the
Mogami ended one of the great decisive battles of naval history. Midway Atoll was saved as an important base for American operations into the
Western Pacific Ocean. Of greatest importance was the crippling of the Japanese carrier strength, a severe blow from which the
Imperial Japanese Navy never fully recovered. The four large carriers took with them to the bottom about 250 naval aircraft and a high percentage of the most highly trained and experienced Japanese aircraft maintenance personnel. The victory at Midway was a decisive turning point in the
War in the Pacific. On 16 June 1942, Captain
Charles P. Mason became commanding officer of
Hornet upon her return to Pearl Harbor.
Hornet spent the next six weeks replenishing her stores, having minor repairs performed, and most importantly, having additional light antiaircraft guns and the new RCA CXAM air-search radar fitted. She did not sail in late July with the forces sent to recapture
Guadalcanal, but instead remained at Pearl Harbor in case she was needed elsewhere.
Solomon Islands campaign, August–October, 1942 Hornet steamed out of harbor on 17 August 1942 to guard sea approaches to the bitterly contested Guadalcanal in the
Solomon Islands. Bomb damage to
Enterprise on 24 August, torpedo damage to on 31 August, and the sinking of on 15 September left
Hornet as the only operational U.S. carrier in the South Pacific. She was responsible for providing air cover over the Solomon Islands until 24 October 1942, when she was joined by
Enterprise just northwest of the
New Hebrides Islands. Both carriers and their escorts steamed out to intercept a Japanese aircraft carrier/
battleship/
cruiser force closing in on Guadalcanal.
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands The
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands took place on 26 October 1942 without contact between surface ships of the opposing forces. That morning,
Enterprises planes bombed the carrier , while planes from
Hornet severely damaged the carrier and the
heavy cruiser . Two other cruisers were also attacked by
Hornets aircraft. Meanwhile,
Hornet was attacked by a coordinated dive bomber and torpedo plane attack. In a 15-minute period,
Hornet was hit by three bombs from
Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers. One "Val", after being heavily damaged by antiaircraft fire while approaching
Hornet, crashed into the carrier's island, killing seven men and spreading burning
aviation gas over the deck. A flight of
Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers attacked
Hornet and scored two hits, which seriously damaged the electrical systems and engines. As the carrier came to a halt, another damaged "Val"
deliberately crashed into
Hornet's port side near the bow. With power knocked out to her engines,
Hornet was unable to launch or land aircraft, forcing her aviators to either land on
Enterprise or ditch in the ocean.
Rear Admiral George D. Murray ordered the
heavy cruiser to tow
Hornet clear of the action. Japanese aircraft were attacking
Enterprise, allowing
Northampton to tow
Hornet at a speed of about . Repair crews were on the verge of restoring power when another flight of nine "Kate" torpedo planes attacked. Eight of these aircraft were either shot down or failed to score hits, but the ninth scored a fatal hit on the starboard side. The torpedo hit destroyed the repairs to the electrical system and caused a 14° list. After being informed that Japanese surface forces were approaching and that further towing efforts were futile,
Vice Admiral William Halsey ordered
Hornet sunk, and an order of "abandon ship" was issued. Captain Mason, the last man on board, climbed over the side, and the survivors were soon picked up by the escorting
destroyers. American warships attempted to
scuttle the stricken carrier, which absorbed nine torpedoes, most of which
failed to explode, and 430 rounds from the destroyers and . The destroyers steamed away when a Japanese surface force entered the area. The Japanese destroyers and finally finished off
Hornet with 4
Long Lance torpedoes. At 01:35 on 27 October,
Hornet finally capsized to starboard and sank, stern first, with the loss of 140 of her 2,200 sailors. 21 aircraft went down with the ship. == Legacy ==