USS Tarawa (CV-40)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see USS Tarawa.

USS Tarawa
USS Tarawa underway in December 1952
History
United States
NameTarawa
NamesakeBattle of Tarawa
BuilderNorfolk Naval Shipyard
Laid down1 March 1944
Launched12 May 1945
Commissioned8 December 1945
Decommissioned30 June 1949
Recommissioned3 February 1951
Decommissioned13 May 1960
Reclassified
  • CVA-40, 1 October 1952
  • CVS-40, 10 January 1955
  • AVT-12, May 1961
Stricken1 June 1967
FateScrapped, 3 October 1968
General characteristics
Class and typeEssex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement27,100 long tons (27,500 t) standard
Length888 feet (271 m) overall
Beam93 feet (28 m)
Draft28 feet 7 inches (8.71 m)
Installed power
  • 8 × boilers
  • 150,000 shp (110 MW)
Propulsion
Speed33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Complement3448 officers and enlisted
Armament
Armor
  • Belt: 4 in (102 mm)
  • Hangar deck: 2.5 in (64 mm)
  • Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm)
  • Conning tower: 1.5 inch
Aircraft carried90–100 aircraft

USS Tarawa (CV/CVA/CVS-40, AVT-12) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during and shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the first US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for the bloody 1943 Battle of Tarawa. Tarawa was commissioned in December 1945, too late to serve in World War II. After serving a short time in the Far East, it was decommissioned in 1949. She was soon recommissioned after the Korean War began, serving in the Atlantic as a replacement for carriers sent to Korea. In the early 1950s, she was redesignated an attack carrier (CVA) and then an antisubmarine warfare carrier (CVS). Except for one tour in the Far East, she spent her entire second career operating in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Consequently, Tarawa was the only ship of her class to never see combat action.

Unlike many of her sisters, Tarawa received no major modernizations, and thus throughout her career retained the classic appearance of a World War II Essex-class ship. She was decommissioned in 1960, and while in reserve was redesignated an aircraft transport (AVT). She was sold for scrap in 1968.

Construction and commissioning

Tarawa was 888 ft (270.7 m) long, had a beam of 93 ft (28.3 m), an extreme width of 147 ft 6 in (45.0 m), and a draft of 28 ft 7 in (8.7 m). She had a top speed of 32.7 kn (60.6 km/h; 37.6 mph), displaced 27,100 t (26,672.0 long tons; 29,872.6 short tons), and a complement of 3,448 men. She was armed with twelve 5 in (127.0 mm) guns, and seventy-two 40 mm (1.6 in).[1]

Tarawa was one of the

2nd Marine Division at Tarawa).[1] She was commissioned on 8 December 1945, with Captain Alvin Ingersoll Malstrom in command.[1][2]

Service history

Early service

Tarawa remained in the Norfolk area until 15 February 1946, when she sailed for shakedown training in the vicinity of

San Diego, California on 15 July.[1]

Tarawa in 1946

Following training and upkeep, she left San Diego for a deployment to the western Pacific. The aircraft carrier reached

Kwajalein. As a unit of Task Force 57 (TF 57), she participated in battle practice attacks upon the carriers of TF 38 until early March. Tarawa returned to Pearl Harbor on 11 March for about a month, then headed for the west coast and arrived in San Francisco on 29 April.[1]

After more than 16 months of air operations out of San Francisco and San Diego, Tarawa stood out of San Diego on 28 September 1948 and embarked upon a cruise most of the way around the world. She stopped at Pearl Harbor at the end of the second week in October and then continued her voyage on to her first foreign port of call, Tsingtao, China. The carrier arrived there on 29 October and spent the next five weeks observing events in strife-torn northern China. Early in December, she headed south for liberty calls at

Atlantic Reserve Fleet.[1]

Recommissioning

Tarawa during Operation Argus in 1958

Her retirement, however, lasted less than 18 months. On 30 November 1950, she was ordered reactivated in response to the Navy's urgent need for warships – particularly for aircraft carriers – to prosecute the war which had erupted in

attack aircraft carrier, and was redesignated CVA-40. The warship finally made it to the Asiatic war zone in the spring of 1954, but long after the July 1953 armistice had ended hostilities.[1]

The ship returned to the east coast in September 1954 and resumed her normal operations. In December, she entered the

Quonset Point, Rhode Island, conducting training missions with the ASW air squadrons based there. That fall, she participated in exercises with Hunter-Killer Group 4 before returning to Quonset Point to prepare for the 1956 Springboard exercise.[1] 30 September 1957 she visited Rotterdam.[3]

In August and September 1958, Tarawa was part of Navy Task Force 88 (TF 88) during Operation Argus, which was involved in conducting nuclear tests in the very high atmosphere.[1]

Tarawa served with the

Baltimore, Maryland for scrapping.[1][4][5]

Awards

Gallery

  • Tarawa under construction at Norfolk Navy Yard in 1945
    Tarawa under construction at Norfolk Navy Yard in 1945
  • Tarawa underway at sea, 1948
    Tarawa underway at sea, 1948
  • F8F Bearcats on Tarawa in 1948
    F8F Bearcats on Tarawa in 1948
  • Tarawa underway on 18 December 1952
    Tarawa underway on 18 December 1952
  • F2H-2 of VA-172 on Tarawa in 1957
    F2H-2 of VA-172 on Tarawa in 1957
  • Tarawa in 1958
    Tarawa in 1958
  • S2F-1 Trackers of VS-27 launching from Tarawa in 1959
    S2F-1 Trackers of VS-27 launching from Tarawa in 1959

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DANFS.
  2. ^ A Brief History of U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers III.
  3. ^ Nationaal archief The Netherlands
  4. ^ A Brief History of U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers V.
  5. ^ Silverstone 2011, p. 4.

Books

  • Silverstone, Paul (2011). The Navy of the Nuclear Age, 1947–2007. Routledge.
    ISBN 9781135864668
    .

Websites

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Tarawa (CV-40).


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Tarawa_(CV-40)&oldid=1155493879"