АҚШ Әскери-теңіз күштерінің «Hornet» ұшақ тасушысы

Yorktown class aircraft carrier of the US Navy

USS Hornet (CV 8), the seventh U. S. Navy vessel of that name, was a of the United States Navy. During World War II in the Pacific Theater, she launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and participated in the Battle of Midway and the Buin Faisi Tonolai raid. In the Solomon Islands campaign, she was involved in the capture and defense of Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, where she was irreparably damaged by enemy torpedo and dive bombers. Faced with an approaching Japanese surface force, Hornet was abandoned and later torpedoed and sunk by approaching Japanese destroyers. Hornet was in service for one year and six days, and was the last U. S. fleet carrier ever sunk by enemy fire. For these actions, she was awarded four service stars and a citation for the Doolittle Raid in 1942, and her Torpedo Squadron 8 received a Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism for its performance at the Battle of Midway. In January 2019, the wreckage of the vessel was located near the Solomon Islands.

Because of the limit on aggregate aircraft carrier tonnage included in the Washington Naval Treaty and subsequent London treaties, the United States had intended to build two Yorktown class aircraft carriers and use the remaining allocated tonnage for a smaller, revised version of the same design, which eventually became Wasp. With war looming in Europe and the repudiation of the naval limitation treaties by Japan and Italy, the Navy's General Board decided to lay down a third carrier of the Yorktown design immediately followed by the first carrier of the succeeding Essex class (CV 9). When the design was finalized, authorization from Congress came in the Naval Expansion Act of 1938. Hornet had a length of 770 feet (235 m) at the waterline and 824 feet (251 m) overall. She had a beam of 83 feet (25 m) at the waterline, 114 feet (35 m) overall, with a draft of 24 feet (7 m) as designed and 28 feet (9 m) at full load. She displaced at standard load and at full load. She was designed for a ship's crew consisting of 86 officers and 1280 men and an air complement consisting of 141 officers and 710 men. She was powered by nine Babcock & Wilcox boilers providing steam at and to four Parsons Marine geared steam turbines each driving its own propeller. The turbines were designed to produce a total of , giving her a range of at a speed of She was designed to carry of fuel oil and of Avgas. Her designed speed was During sea trials, she produced and reached
Hornet was equipped with 8 /38 caliber dual purpose guns and 16 /75 caliber anti aircraft guns in quad mounts (four guns operating together). Originally, she had 24 M2 Browning machine guns, but these were replaced in January 1942 with 30 20 mm Oerlikon anti aircraft cannon. An additional quad mount was later added at her bow and two more 20 mm anti aircraft guns were added for a total of 32 mounts. In addition, her athwartships hangar deck aircraft catapult was removed. In June 1942, following the battle of Midway, Hornet had a new CXAM radar installed atop her tripod mast, and her SC radar was relocated to her mainmast. Unlike her sisters, Hornets tripod mast and its signal bridge were not enclosed when the CXAM was installed, making her unique among the three ships. Hornet had an armor belt that was thick on a backing of special treatment steel (STS). The flight and hangar decks were unarmored though the protective deck was STS. Bulkheads had armor, while the conning tower had splinter protection only, in contrast with her sister's armor on the sides with on top. The steering gear had protection on the sides with splinter protection on the deck. Her flight deck was and her hangar deck was and 17 feet (5 m) high. She had three aircraft elevators each with a lifting capacity of She had two flight deck and one hangar deck hydraulic catapults equipped with the Mark IV Mod 3A arresting gear with a capability of and She was designed to host a Carrier Air Group of 18 fighters, 18 bombers, 37 scout planes, 18 torpedo bombers, and six utility aircraft. Hornet was laid down on 25 September 1939 by Newport News Shipbuilding of Newport News, Virginia, and was launched on 14 December 1940, sponsored by Annie Reid Knox, wife of Secretary of the Navy Frank M. Knox. She was commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk on 20 October 1941, with Captain Marc A. Mitscher in command.

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 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.