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170-600: USS Shangri-La (CV/CVA/CVS-38) was one of 24 Essex -class aircraft carriers completed during or shortly after World War II for the United States Navy . Commissioned in 1944 and named after the mythical paradise of the same name , Shangri-La participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II, earning two battle stars . Like many of her sister ships, she

340-407: A fast carrier task force . Lessons learned from operating the carriers as a single group of six, as two groups of three, and three groups of two, provided the basis for many tactics that later characterized carrier task force operations, with the evolution of the fast carrier task force and its successful employment in future operations. The original aircraft complement, nicknamed the "Sunday Punch",

510-483: A Forward Air Support Link at each brigade to forward air support requests. When trained tentacle teams arrived in 1942, they cut response time on support requests to thirty minutes. It was also in the North Africa desert that the cab rank strategy was developed. It used a series of three aircraft, each in turn directed by the pertinent ground control by radio. One aircraft would be attacking, another in flight to

680-440: A concern – pilots did not know recognition signals and regularly bombed friendly units, until an A-36 was shot down in self-defense by Allied tanks. The expectation of losses to friendly fire from the ground during the planned invasion of France prompted the black and white invasion stripes painted on all Allied aircraft from 1944. In 1944, USAAF commander Lt. Gen. Henry ("Hap") Arnold acquired 2 groups of A-24 dive bombers,

850-443: A critical importance in places where the infantry had got pinned down. At this time, British doctrine came to recognize two forms of air support; trench strafing (the modern-day doctrine of CAS), and ground strafing (the modern-day doctrine of air interdiction ) – attacking tactical ground targets away from the land battle. As well as strafing with machine-guns, planes engaged in such operations were commonly modified with bomb racks;

1020-706: A declining supply of aircraft and fuel, crippled their ability to provide effective CAS on the western front after 1943. The Royal Air Force (RAF) entered the war woefully unprepared to provide CAS. In 1940 during the Battle of France , the Royal Air Force and Army headquarters in France were located at separate positions, resulting in unreliable communications. After the RAF was withdrawn in May, Army officers had to telephone

1190-768: A further and lower convergence point than aerial combat did. Of the Allied powers that fought in the Second World War, the Soviet Union used specifically designed ground attack aircraft more than the UK and US. Such aircraft included the Ilyushin Il-2 , the single most produced military aircraft at any point in world history. The Soviet military also frequently deployed the Polikarpov Po-2 biplane as

1360-452: A greater psychological effect on friendly and hostile forces alike. Moreover, unlike massive, indiscriminate artillery strikes, small aerial bombs would not render ground untrafficable, slowing attacking friendly forces. Although the prevailing view in official circles was largely indifferent to CAS during the interwar period, its importance was expounded upon by military theorists, such as J. F. C. Fuller and Basil Liddell Hart . Hart, who

1530-484: A high tempo of exploitation even when they outran their artillery assets. He also used a modified antiaircraft radar to track friendly attack aircraft to redirect them as necessary, and experimented with assigning fighter pilots to tours as forward air controllers to familiarize them with the ground perspective. In July 1944, Quesada provided VHF aircraft radios to tank crews in Normandy. When the armored units broke out of

1700-471: A key factor in the rapid advance and success of his Third Army. The American Navy and Marine Corps used CAS in conjunction with or as a substitute for the lack of available artillery or naval gunfire in the Pacific theater . Navy and Marine F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs used a variety of ordnance such as conventional bombs, rockets and napalm to dislodge or attack Japanese troops using cave complexes in

1870-433: A nickel-chrome steel alloy that provided the same protective qualities as Class B armor plate, but which was fully structural rather than deadweight. The original design for the class assumed a complement of 215 officers and 2,171 enlisted men. However, by the end of World War II, most crews were 50% larger than that. The tactical employment of U.S. carriers changed as the war progressed. In early operations, through 1942,

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2040-467: A role previously dominated by FACs on the ground, and the use of B-52s for CAS . U.S. Marine Corps Aviation was much more prepared for the application of CAS in the Vietnam War, due to CAS being its central mission. In fact, as late as 1998, Marines were still claiming in their training manuals that "Close air support (CAS) is a Marine Corps innovation." One of the main debates taking place within

2210-427: A third heavier than Yorktown -class carriers. A longer, wider flight deck and a deck-edge elevator (which had proven successful in the one-off USS  Wasp ) facilitated more efficient aviation operations, enhancing the ship's offensive and defensive air power. Machinery arrangement and armor protection were greatly improved from previous designs. These features, plus the provision of more anti-aircraft guns, gave

2380-540: Is a well known example of a dive bomber built for precision bombing but which was successfully used for CAS. It was fitted with wind-blown sirens on its landing gear to enhance its psychological effect. Some variants of the Stuka were equipped with a pair of 37 mm (1.5 in) Bordkanone BK 3,7 cannons mounted in under-wing gun pods, each loaded with two six-round magazines of armour-piercing tungsten carbide -cored ammunition, for anti-tank operations. Other than

2550-691: The AN/MPQ-14 , a system that enabled radar-guided bomb release at night or in poor weather. Though the Marine Corps continued its tradition of intimate air–ground cooperation in the Korean War , the newly created United States Air Force (USAF) again moved away from CAS, now to strategic bombers and jet interceptors . Though eventually the Air Force supplied sufficient pilots and forward air controllers to provide battlefield support, coordination

2720-747: The Boston Naval Shipyard , South Annex, Shangri-La decommissioned on 30 July 1971. She was placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet and berthed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . Shangri-La remained in the reserve fleet for the next 11 years, and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 July 1982. She was retained by MARAD for several years to provide spare parts for the training carrier Lexington . On 9 August 1988, she

2890-966: The Brooklyn Navy Yard and Newport News respectively. After the US declaration of war, Congress appropriated funds for nineteen more Essex -class carriers. Ten were ordered in August 1942 (CV-31 and 33-35 from Brooklyn, CV-32 from Newport News, CV-36 and -37 from the Philadelphia Navy Yard , CV-38 through -40 from the Norfolk Navy Yard ) and three more in June 1943 (CV-45 from Philadelphia, -46 from Newport News and -47 from Fore River). Only two of these were completed in time to see active World War II service. Six ships ordered in 1944 (CV-50 through -55) were canceled before construction

3060-597: The Central Pacific to participate in Operation Crossroads , the atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll . Following this, she made a brief training cruise to Pearl Harbor, then wintered at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . In March 1947, she deployed again, calling at Pearl Harbor and Sydney , Australia. When she returned to the United States, Shangri-La was decommissioned and placed in

3230-528: The Doolittle Raiders flew from the fictional Himalayan kingdom setting of the novel Lost Horizon . At the conclusion of the war, the six ships ordered but never laid down (CV-50 through 55) were cancelled. Of the nine still unfinished, six were completed, two ( Reprisal and Iwo Jima ) were scrapped, and Oriskany was taken in hand for modification to an improved design, completing in 1950. In summary, during World War II and until its conclusion,

3400-469: The Essex building program. The number of 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns was greatly increased, new and improved radars were added, the original hangar deck catapult was removed, the ventilation system was substantially revised, details of protection were altered, and hundreds of other large and small changes were executed. In the meantime, earlier ships were continually modified as they returned to

3570-710: The Essex carriers participated in the Korean War. These ships played a major role throughout the entire war. Missions included attacks on all types of ground targets, air superiority, and antisubmarine patrols. Thirteen of the twenty-four carriers originally built participated in the Vietnam War , including the prelude and follow-up. However, their inability to support the latest aircraft constrained some of those ships to specialized roles as helicopter carriers or antisubmarine platforms. The ships still performing an attack mission generally carried older aircraft types than

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3740-489: The Essex -class ships laid down after 1942, only Bon Homme Richard followed the original "short bow" design. The later ships have been variously referred to as the "long-bow units", the "long-hull group", or the " Ticonderoga class". However, the U.S. Navy never maintained any institutional distinction between the long-hull and short-hull members of the Essex class, and postwar refits and upgrades were applied to both groups equally. Less immediately visible aspects of

3910-1014: The Moon in December 1968; and Princeton recovered the second crew to orbit the Moon, aboard Apollo 10 , in May 1969. Close air support The requirement for detailed integration because of proximity, fires or movement is the determining factor. CAS may need to be conducted during shaping operations with special forces if the mission requires detailed integration with the fire and movement of those forces. A closely related subset of air interdiction , battlefield air interdiction , denotes interdiction against units with near-term effects on friendly units, but which does not require integration with friendly troop movements. CAS requires excellent coordination with ground forces, typically handled by specialists such as artillery observers , joint terminal attack controllers , and forward air controllers . World War I

4080-764: The North African Campaign in 1941 the British Army and the Royal Air Force established Forward Air Support Links (FASL), a mobile air support system using ground vehicles. Light reconnaissance aircraft would observe enemy activity and report it by radio to the FASL which was attached at brigade level. The FASL was in communication (a two-way radio link known as a "tentacle") with the Air Support Control (ASC) Headquarters attached to

4250-949: The North American A-36 Apache , a P-51 Mustang modified with dive brakes, the Americans and British used no dedicated CAS aircraft in the Second World War, preferring fighters or fighter-bombers that could be pressed into CAS service. While some aircraft, such as the Hawker Typhoon and the P-47 Thunderbolt , performed admirably in that role, there were a number of compromises that prevented most fighters from making effective CAS platforms. Fighters were usually optimized for high-altitude operations without bombs or other external ordnance – flying at low level with bombs quickly expended fuel. Cannons had to be mounted differently for strafing – strafing required

4420-556: The Reserve Fleet at San Francisco on 7 November 1947. Shangri-La recommissioned on 10 May 1951, Captain Francis L. Busey in command. For the next year, she conducted training and readiness operations out of Boston, Massachusetts . Reclassified as an attack carrier ( CVA-38 ) in 1952, she returned to Puget Sound that fall and decommissioned again on 14 November, this time for modernization at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. During

4590-488: The SCB-144 program in the early 1960s. The updated units remained active until age and the growing number of supercarriers made them obsolete, from the late 1960s into the middle 1970s. However, one of the first of the type, Lexington , served until 1991 as a training ship. Four of the modernized ships ( Yorktown , Intrepid , Hornet , and Lexington ) have been preserved as museums; the remainder were scrapped starting in

4760-631: The Second Battle of the Aisne , the British debuted the first ground-attack aircraft, a modified F.E 2b fighter carrying 20 lb (9.1 kg) bombs and mounted machine-guns . After exhausting their ammunition, the planes returned to base for refueling and rearming before returning to the battle-zone. Other modified planes used in this role were the Airco DH.5 and Sopwith Camel – the latter

4930-481: The Spanish Civil War lead to the creation of five ground-attack groups in 1938, four of which would be equipped with Stukas . The Luftwaffe matched its material acquisitions with advances in the air-ground coordination. General Wolfram von Richthofen organized a limited number of air liaison detachments that were attached to ground units of the main effort. These detachments existed to pass requests from

5100-716: The War Office in London to arrange for air support. The stunning effectiveness of German air-ground coordination spurred change. On the basis of tests in Northern Ireland in August 1940, Group Captain A. H. Wann RAF and Colonel J.D. Woodall (British Army) issued the Wann-Woodall Report, recommending the creation of a distinct tactical air force liaison officer (known colloquially as "tentacles") to accompany Army divisions and brigades. Their report spurred

5270-621: The anti-submarine warfare carrier (CVS) designation established in August 1953. As the Forrestal -class " supercarriers " entered the fleet, the eight 27A conversions were designated CVS to replace the original unconverted ships; the latter began to leave active service in the late 1950s. Two 27C conversions were designated CVS in 1962 (although CVS-11 Intrepid would operate as an attack carrier off Vietnam) and two more in 1969. The seven angle-deck 27As and one 27C received specialized CVS modifications including bow-mounted SQS-23 sonar under

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5440-473: The battleship Nagato , moored close to shore at Yokosuka . From 20 to 22 July, Shangri-La joined the logistics group for fuel, replacement aircraft, and mail. By 24 July, her pilots were attacking shipping in the vicinity of Kure . They returned the next day for a repeat performance, before departing for a two-day replenishment period on 26–27 July. On the following day, Shangri-La ' s aircraft damaged light cruiser Ōyodo and battleship Haruna ,

5610-491: The flagship of Carrier Task Force 2. Vice Admiral John S. McCain, Sr. hoisted his flag on Shangri-La on 18 May. Six days later, TG 58.4, with Shangri-La in company, sortied from the lagoon. On 28 May, TG 58.4 became TG 38.4 and McCain relieved Mitscher as Commander, TF 38, retaining Shangri-La as his flagship. On 2–3 June, the task force launched air strikes on the Japanese home islands – aimed particularly at Kyūshū ,

5780-460: The invasion of Normandy , 33 divisions had received no joint air-ground training. The USAAF saw the greatest innovations in 1944 under General Elwood Quesada , commander of IX Tactical Air Command, supporting the First U.S. Army. He developed the "armored column cover", where on-call fighter-bombers maintained a high level of availability for important tank advances, allowing armor units to maintain

5950-518: The invasion of Normandy . CAS continued to advance during the conflicts of the Cold War , especially the Korean War and the Vietnam War ; major milestones included the introduction of attack helicopters , gunships , and dedicated CAS attack jets . The use of aircraft in the close air support of ground forces dates back to World War I , the first conflict to make significant military use of aerial forces. Air warfare, and indeed aviation itself,

6120-631: The 1970s save Oriskany , which the Navy contemplated reactivating in the 1980s and which was eventually scuttled as an artificial reef off the Florida coast in 2006. Of the unmodernized Essex es, Boxer , Princeton , and Valley Forge were redesignated Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH) amphibious assault ships for the Marine Corps , and remained in commission with their original straight decks until about 1970. The remainder decommissioned in

6290-521: The 1970s. For a typical attack carrier (CVA) configuration in 1956–57 aboard Bennington , the air wing consisted of one squadron each of the following: FJ-3 Furies , F2H Banshees , F9F Cougars , AD-6 , AD-5N , and AD-5W Skyraiders, AJ-2 Savages , and F9F-8P photo Cougars . By the mid-to-late 1960s, the attack air wing had evolved. Oriskany deployed with two squadrons of F-8J Crusaders , three squadrons of A-4E Skyhawks , E-1 Tracers , EKA-3B Skywarriors , and RF-8G photo Crusaders . In 1970,

6460-494: The 1973 Yom Kippur War , provided aircraft with an effective ranged anti-tank weapon. These considerations motivated armies to promote the helicopter from a support role to a combat arm. Though the U.S. Army controlled rotary-wing assets, coordination continued to pose a problem. During wargames, field commanders tended to hold back attack helicopters out of fear of air defenses, committing them too late to effectively support ground units. The earlier debate over control over CAS assets

6630-596: The Allied system used to subsequently gain victory in the air over Germany in 1944 and devastate its cities and industries. The use of forward air control to guide close air support (CAS) aircraft, so as to ensure that their attack hits the intended target and not friendly troops, was first used by the British Desert Air Force in North Africa, but not by the USAAF until operations in Salerno. During

6800-479: The American arrangement to have been superior. In the late 1930s, locating the strength deck at hangar deck level in the proposed Essex -class ships reduced the weight located high in the ship, resulting in smaller supporting structures and more aircraft capacity for the desired displacement. The Midway class which followed armored both the hangar and flight deck (the latter more heavily). The larger size of

6970-613: The British achieved air superiority over the German aircraft sent to aid the Ottoman Turks , squadrons of S.E 5a's and D.H. 4s were sent on wide-ranging attacks against German and Turkish positions near the Jordan river . Combined with a ground assault led by General Edmund Allenby , three Turkish armies soon collapsed into a full rout. In the words of the attacking squadron's official report: No 1 Squadron made six heavy raids during

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7140-580: The British system. At the start of the War, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) had, as its principal mission, the doctrine of strategic bombing. This incorporated the unerring belief that unescorted bombers could win the war without the advent of ground troops. This doctrine proved to be fundamentally flawed. However, during the entire course of the war the USAAF top brass clung to this doctrine, and hence operated independently of

7310-536: The CAS role. Though the Army gained more control over its own CAS due to the development of the helicopter gunship and attack helicopter, the Air Force continued to provide fixed-wing CAS for Army units. Over the course of the war, the adaptation of The Tactical Air Control System proved crucial to the improvement of Air Force CAS. Jets replaced propeller-driven aircraft with minimal issues. The assumption of responsibility for

7480-772: The Cold War heated up, the Essex carriers were often involved, including Quemoy and the Matsu Islands , the Bay of Pigs Invasion , and the Cuban Missile Crisis . Also, from 1957 through 1991 an Essex -class ship served as the Navy's training carrier— Antietam from 1957 through 1962 and Lexington for the remainder of the time. Several Essex -class ships played a part in the United States' human spaceflight program, as recovery ships for uncrewed and crewed spaceflights, between 1960 and 1973. USS Valley Forge

7650-512: The Dead Reckoning Tracer was also implemented for navigation and tracking of surface ships. Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) was used to identify hostile ships and aircraft, especially at night or in adverse weather. The four-channel Very High Frequency (VHF) radio permitted channel variation in an effort to prevent enemy interception of transmissions. It also allowed for simultaneous radio contact with other ships and planes in

7820-690: The Desert Air Force, was steadily refined and perfected, during the campaigns in Italy, Normandy and Germany. By the time the Italian Campaign had reached Rome , the Allies had established air superiority . They were then able to pre-schedule strikes by fighter-bomber squadrons; however, by the time the aircraft arrived in the strike area, oftentimes the targets, which were usually trucks, had fled. The initial solution to fleeing targets

7990-615: The Germans were first exposed to dive-bombing , which permitted greater accuracy while making attack aircraft more difficult to track by antiaircraft gunners. As a result, Ernst Udet , chief of the Luftwaffe's development, initiated procurement of close support dive bombers on the model of the U.S. Navy's Curtiss Helldiver , resulting in the Henschel Hs 123 , which was later replaced by the famous Junkers Ju 87 Stuka . Experience in

8160-537: The Honshū area on the latter date. From 23 August – 16 September, her planes sortied on missions of mercy, air-dropping supplies to Allied prisoners of war in Japan. Shangri-La entered Tokyo Bay on 16 September, almost two weeks after the surrender ceremony onboard battleship Missouri , and remained there until 1 October. Departing Japan, she arrived at Okinawa on 4 October staying until 6 October, and then headed for

8330-717: The Luftwaffe refused to provide Erwin Rommel with an air liaison officer for the Afrika Korps , because it "would be against the best use of the air force as a whole." German CAS was also extensively used on the Eastern Front during the period 1941–1943. Their decline was caused by the growing strength of the Red Air Force and the redeployment of assets to defend against American and British strategic bombardment. Luftwaffe's loss of air superiority, combined with

8500-428: The March 1943 design modification included safer ventilation and aviation-fuel systems, moving the combat information center below the armored deck, the addition of a second flight-deck catapult, the elimination of the hangar deck catapult, and a third Mk 37 fire-control director; some of these changes were also made to short-bow ships nearing completion or as they returned to the yards. Modifications were made throughout

8670-458: The Marine Corps during the war was whether to adopt the helicopter gunship as a part of CAS doctrine and what its adoption would mean for fixed-wing CAS in the Marine Corps. The issue would eventually be put to rest, however, as the helicopter gunship proved crucial in the combat environment of Vietnam. Though helicopters were initially armed merely as defensive measures to support the landing and extraction of troops, their value in this role led to

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8840-420: The Mediterranean and operations in the western Atlantic, out of Mayport. She sailed east for her first tour of duty with the 6th Fleet on 2 February 1961. She returned to the United States that fall and entered the New York Naval Shipyard . Back in Mayport by the beginning of 1962, Shangri-La stood out again for the Mediterranean on 7 February. After about six months of cruising with the 6th Fleet, she departed

9010-450: The Mediterranean in mid-August and arrived in Mayport on 28 August. Following a month's stay at her home port, the aircraft carrier headed for New York and a major overhaul. Shangri-La was modified extensively during her stay in the yard. Four of her 5 in (127 mm) mounts were removed, but she received a new air search and height finding radar and a new arrester system. In addition, much of her electrical and engineering equipment

9180-457: The Normandy beachhead, tank commanders were able to communicate directly with overhead fighter-bombers. However, despite the innovation, Quesada focused his aircraft on CAS only for major offensives. Typically, both British and American attack aircraft were tasked primarily to interdiction, even though later analysis showed them to be twice as dangerous as CAS. XIX TAC , under the command of General Otto P. Weyland used similar tactics to support

9350-494: The RAF to create an RAF Army Cooperation Command and to develop tentacle equipment and procedures placing an Air Liaison Officer with each brigade. Although the RAF was working on its CAS doctrine in London, officers in North Africa improvised their own coordination techniques. In October 1941, Sir Arthur Tedder and Arthur Coningham , senior RAF commanders in North Africa, created joint RAF-Army Air Support Control staffs at each corps and armored division headquarters, and placed

9520-448: The US Navy ordered 32 aircraft carriers of the Essex class, including the Ticonderoga subgroup, of which 26 were laid down and 24 actually commissioned. In drawing up the preliminary design for Essex , particular attention was directed at the size of both the flight and hangar decks. Aircraft design had come a long way from the comparatively light planes used in carriers during the 1930s. Flight decks now required more takeoff space for

9690-405: The USS Shangri La Reunion Group, who repaired and restored the bell before loaning it to the NROTC unit. Shangri-La earned two battle stars for World War II service and three battle stars for service in the Vietnam War . CV-38 USS Shangri-la received the only carrier landings by a modified P-51 Mustang #44 41017 on 15 Nov 1944 . Between the long nose and Inline Liquid Cooled powerplant and

9860-430: The United Nations Commander, Gen. Mark Clark , to permanently attach an attack squadron to each of the four army corps in Korea. Though the request was denied, Clark allocated many more Navy and Air Force aircraft to CAS. Despite the rocky start, the USAF would also work to improve its coordination efforts. It eventually required pilots to serve 80 days as forward air controllers (FACs), which gave them an understanding of

10030-526: The United States in company with Task Unit 38.1.1 . She sailed into San Pedro Bay , on 21 October and stayed at Long Beach for three weeks. On 5 November, she shifted to San Diego , departing that port a month later for Bremerton, Washington . She entered Puget Sound on 9 December, underwent availability until 30 December, and then returned to San Diego. Upon her return, Shangri-La began normal operations out of San Diego, primarily engaged in pilot carrier landing qualifications. In May 1946, she sailed for

10200-440: The activity of the Panzers . Joseph Stalin paid the Il-2 a great tribute in his own inimitable manner: when a particular production factory fell behind on its deliveries, Stalin sent the following cable to the factory manager: "They are as essential to the Red Army as air and bread". From Navy experiments with the KGW-1 Loon , the Navy designation for the German V-1 flying bomb, Marine Captain Marian Cranford Dalby developed

10370-402: The advent of war, airplane weights began to go up as armor and armament got heavier; aircrew complements also increased. By the war's end in 1945, catapult launches would become more common under these circumstances, with some carrier commanding officers reporting up to 40% of launches by catapult. The hangar area design came in for many design conferences between the naval bureaus. Not only were

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10540-410: The air request net by the Air Force improved communication equipment and procedures, which had long been a problem. Additionally, a major step in satisfying the Army's demands for more control over their CAS was the successful implementation of close air support control agencies at the corps level under Air Force control. Other notable adaptations were the usage of airborne Forward Air Controllers (FACs),

10710-487: The air. And in 1943, the USAAF changed their radios to a frequency incompatible with ground radios. The situation improved during the Italian Campaign , where American and British forces, working in close cooperation, exchanged CAS techniques and ideas. There, the AAF's XII Air Support Command and the Fifth U.S. Army shared headquarters, meeting every evening to plan strikes and devising a network of liaisons and radios for communications. However, friendly fire continued to be

10880-403: The area for logistics. She evaded another typhoon on 11–12 August, then hit Tokyo again on 13 August. After replenishing on 14 August, she sent planes to strike the airfields around Tokyo on the morning of 15 August 1945. Soon thereafter, Japan's capitulation was announced; and the fleet was ordered to cease hostilities. Shangri-La steamed around in the strike area from 15 to 23 August, patrolling

11050-462: The army rather than the air force. Fighters and ground attack aircraft like the A-10 Thunderbolt II provide close air support using rockets, missiles, bombs, and strafing runs. During the Second World War, a mixture of dive bombers and fighters were used for CAS missions. Dive bombing permitted greater accuracy than level bombing runs, while the rapid altitude change made it more difficult for anti aircraft gunners to track. The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka

11220-468: The army version of the Navy's SBD-2, in response to the success of the Stuka and German CAS. Later, the USAAF developed a modification of the North American P-51 Mustang with dive brakes – the North American A-36 Apache . However, there was no training to match the purchases. Though Gen. Lesley McNair, commander of Army Ground Forces, pushed to change USAAF priorities, the latter failed to provide aircraft for even major training exercises. Six months before

11390-683: The available Hellcat & Corsair A/C it was not deemed a usefull modification. Essex-class aircraft carrier The Essex class is a retired class of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy . The 20th century's most numerous class of capital ship , the class consisted of 24 vessels, which came in "short-hull" and "long-hull" versions. Thirty-two ships were ordered, but as World War II wound down, six were canceled before construction, and two were canceled after construction had begun. Fourteen saw combat during World War II. None were lost to enemy action, though several sustained crippling damage due to kamikaze attacks. Essex -class carriers were

11560-402: The backbone of the U.S. Navy from mid-1943 and, with the three Midway -class carriers added just after the war, continued to be the heart of U.S. naval strength until supercarriers joined the fleet in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Several of the carriers were rebuilt to handle heavier and faster aircraft of the early jet age, and some served until well after the Vietnam War . Of the 24 ships in

11730-400: The basis of the actual Essex design; 9G became the ancestor of the 45,000-ton Midway class. After the abrogation of disarmament treaties by Japan in 1936, the U.S. took a realistic look at its naval strength. With the Naval Expansion Act of Congress passed on 17 May 1938, an increase of 40,000 tons in aircraft carriers was authorized. This permitted the building of Hornet , which

11900-411: The battle area, while a third was being refuelled and rearmed at its base. If the first attack failed to destroy the tactical target, the aircraft in flight would be directed to continue the attack. The first aircraft would land for its own refuelling and rearming once the third had taken off. The CAS tactics developed and refined by the British during the campaign in North Africa served as the basis for

12070-491: The canal the next day. Shangri-La departed from Balboa on 25 January and arrived at San Diego, California , on 4 February. There she loaded passengers, stores, and extra planes for transit to Hawaii and got underway on 7 February. Upon her arrival at Pearl Harbor on 15 February, she commenced two months of duty, qualifying land-based Navy pilots in carrier landings. On 10 April, she weighed anchor for Ulithi Atoll where she arrived 10 days later. After an overnight stay in

12240-406: The carrier and the hole was quickly patched at sea by the crew of the tender ship Shenandoah . As a result of this incident, Shangri-La underwent an extensive overhaul during the winter of 1965 and the spring of 1966, this time at Philadelphia, then resumed operations as before. On 30 June 1969, she was redesignated an antisubmarine warfare carrier ( CVS-38 ). In 1970, Shangri-La returned to

12410-537: The class were made, particularly with regard to the ventilation system, lighting systems, and the trash burner design and implementation. These carriers had better armor protection than their predecessors, better facilities for handling ammunition, safer and greater fueling capacity, and more effective damage control equipment. Yet, these ships were also designed to limit weight and the complexity of construction, for instance incorporating extensive use of flat and straight metal pieces, and of Special Treatment Steel (STS),

12580-457: The class, four – Yorktown , Hornet , Lexington , and Intrepid  – have been preserved as museum ships . The preceding Yorktown -class aircraft carriers and the designers' list of trade-offs and limitations forced by arms control treaty obligations shaped the development of the Essex class – a design sparked by the Japanese and Italian repudiation of

12750-552: The command module from that flight is currently on display aboard Hornet . Bennington recovered the command module of Apollo 4 , the first uncrewed flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, on 9 November 1967. Eleven months later, Essex recovered the astronauts of Apollo 7 , the first crewed mission in the Apollo program, after eleven days in orbit. Yorktown recovered the astronauts of Apollo 8 , after their historic flight around

12920-501: The conflict. Aviators, who wanted institutional independence from the Army, pushed for a view of air-power centered around interdiction, which would relieve them of the necessity of integrating with ground forces and allow them to operate as an independent military arm. They saw close air support as both the most difficult and most inefficient use of aerial assets. Close air support was the most difficult mission, requiring identifying and distinguishing between friendly and hostile units. At

13090-441: The corps or armoured division which could summon support through a Rear Air Support Link with the airfields. They also introduced the system of ground direction of air strikes by what was originally termed a "Mobile Fighter Controller" traveling with the forward troops. The controller rode in the "leading tank or armoured car" and directed a "cab rank" of aircraft above the battlefield. This system of close co-operation first used by

13260-473: The creation of the air liaison officer (ALO) position. The ALO is an aeronautically rated officer that has spent a tour away from the cockpit, serving as the primary adviser to the ground commander on the capabilities and limitations of airpower . The Korean War revealed important flaws in the application of CAS. Firstly, the USAF preferred interdiction over fire support while the Army regarded support missions as

13430-472: The creators of the combined-arms tactical doctrine commonly known as " blitzkrieg ", believed the best way to provide cover for the crossing would be a continuous stream of ground attack aircraft on French defenders. Though few guns were hit, the attacks kept the French under cover and prevented them from manning their guns. Aided by the sirens attached to Stukas , the psychological impact was disproportional to

13600-417: The day, dropped three tons of bombs and fired nearly 24,000 machine gun rounds. The close air support doctrine was further developed in the interwar period . Most theorists advocated the adaptation of fighters or light bombers into the role. During this period, airpower advocates crystallized their views on the role of air-power in warfare. Aviators and ground officers developed largely opposing views on

13770-851: The decision was made to create a unified RAF Iraq Command to use air power as a more cost-effective way of controlling large areas than the use of conventional land forces. It was effectively used to suppress the Great Iraqi Revolution of 1920 and various other tribal revolts. During the Spanish Civil War German volunteer aviators of the Condor Legion on the Nationalist side, despite little official support from their government, developed close air support tactics that proved highly influential for subsequent Luftwaffe doctrine. U.S. Marine Corps Aviation

13940-564: The demise of the treaty limitations and the growing tensions in Europe, naval planners were free to apply both the lessons they had learned operating carriers for fifteen years and those of operating the Yorktown -class carriers to the newer design. Designed to carry a larger air group, and unencumbered by the latest in a succession of pre-war naval treaty limits , USS  Essex was over sixty feet longer, nearly ten feet wider, and more than

14110-526: The destructive power of close air support (although as often as not, the Stukas were used as tactical bombers instead of close air support, leaving much of the actual work to the older Hs 123 units for the first years of the war). In addition, the reliance on air support over artillery reduced the demand for logistical support through the Ardennes. Though there were difficulties in coordinating air support with

14280-401: The difficulties from the ground perspective and helped cooperation when they returned to the cockpit. The USAF also provided airborne FACs in critical locations. The Army also learned to assist, by suppressing anti-aircraft fire prior to air strikes. The U.S. Army wanted a dedicated USAF presence on the battlefield to reduce fratricide , or the harm of friendly forces. This preference led to

14450-406: The doctrine was to operate singly or in pairs, joining together for the offense and separating when on the defense—the theory being that a separation of carriers under attack not only provided a protective screen for each, but also dispersed the targets and divided the enemy's attack. Combat experience in those early operations did not bear out the theory, and new proposals for tactical deployment were

14620-533: The end of the war, beginning with raids in the central Pacific and the invasion of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands . The ships successfully performed a number of missions, included air superiority, attacking the Japanese fleet, supporting landings, fleet protection, bombing the Japanese home islands, and transporting aircraft and troops. Along the way, the carriers survived bombs , torpedoes , kamikazes , and typhoons without one ship being sunk. Eleven of

14790-602: The end of the war, was completed to an improved design between August 1948 and September 1950, with a much stronger (straight) flight deck and a reconfigured island. Eight earlier ships were thoroughly rebuilt to the Oriskany design under the SCB-27 A program in the early 1950s. Six more of the earlier ships were rebuilt to an improved 27C design as the last stage of the SCB-27 program; these ships received steam catapults instead of

14960-780: The enlisted members of the Tactical Air Control Party . Since their 1977 introduction into modern military practice for close air support purposes, General Crosbie E. Saint provided the AH-64 Apache the doctrinal cover for use in AirLand Battle operations such as in the NATO European theatre. Various aircraft can fill close air support roles. Military helicopters are often used for close air support and are so closely integrated with ground operations that in most countries they are operated by

15130-455: The fighters to map grid coordinates, or they might resort to a description of prominent terrain features as guidance. However, one drawback for the Rovers was the constant rotation of pilots, who were there for fortnightly stints, leading to a lack of institutional memory. US commanders, impressed by the British tactics at the Salerno landings, adapted their own doctrine to include many features of

15300-456: The final Gemini spaceflight, Gemini 12 on 15 November. The successful use of the carriers as recovery ships continued into the Apollo program . On 26 February 1966, Boxer recovered the command module from AS-201 , the first uncrewed flight of a production Apollo Command and Service Module . AS-202 , another sub-orbital test flight of the command module, was recovered in August by Hornet ;

15470-508: The first ceremony of its type ever undertaken in a combat zone. Eight days later, her air group commenced a series of air strikes against Japan which lasted until the capitulation on 15 August. Shangri-La ' s planes ranged the length of the island chain during these raids. On the 10th, they attacked Tokyo, the first raid there since the strikes of the previous February. On 14–15 July, they pounded Honshū and Hokkaidō and, on 18 July, returned to Tokyo, also taking part in an attack against

15640-416: The first crewed flight, Gemini 3 . Wasp recovered the crew of Gemini IV on 7 June, and on 29 August, Lake Champlain picked up Gemini 5 after eight days in space. In December 1965, Wasp made history by picking up two spacecraft in just over two days: Gemini VI-A on 16 December, and Gemini 7 on 18 December, after their orbital rendezvous test flight. She also recovered Gemini 9A on 6 June 1966 and

15810-611: The first operational United States angled deck aircraft carrier in 1955. Oriskany , the first of the modernized ships but the last angled-deck conversion, received a unique SCB-125A refit which upgraded her to 27C standard, and included steam catapults and an aluminum flight deck. Korean War and subsequent Cold War needs ensured twenty-two of the twenty-four ships had extensive post–World War II service ( Bunker Hill and Franklin had suffered heavy damage and were never recommissioned). All initially carried attack air groups; however by 1955 seven unconverted Essex es were operating under

15980-685: The first purpose-built ground attack aircraft , the Junkers J.I . During the 1918 German spring offensive , the Germans employed 30 squadrons, or Schlasta , of ground attack fighters and were able to achieve some initial tactical success. The British later deployed the Sopwith Salamander as a specialized ground attack aircraft, although it was too late to see much action. During the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of 1918, CAS aircraft functioned as an important factor in ultimate victory. After

16150-553: The first supercarriers necessitated a deeper hull and shifted the center of gravity and center of stability lower, enabling moving the strength deck to the flight deck, thus freeing US Naval design architects to move the armor higher and remain within compliance of US Navy stability specifications without imperiling seaworthiness. One of the design studies prepared for the Essex project, "Design 9G", included an armored flight deck but reduced aircraft capacity, and displaced 27,200 tons, or about 1,200 tons more than "Design 9F", which formed

16320-544: The ground to the air, and receive reconnaissance reports, but they were not trained to guide aircraft onto targets. These preparations did not prove fruitful in the invasion of Poland , where the Luftwaffe focused on interdiction and dedicated few assets to close air support. But the value of CAS was demonstrated at the crossing of the Meuse River during the Invasion of France in 1940. General Heinz Guderian , one of

16490-427: The heavier aircraft being developed. Moreover, US carrier doctrine was premised on the "deck-load strike", launching as rapidly as possible as many aircraft as could be spotted on the flight deck beforehand. Most of the first-line carriers of the pre-war years were equipped with flush deck catapults , but, owing to the speed and size of these ships, very little catapulting was done except for experimental purposes. With

16660-671: The immediate postwar period. The newly formed Royal Air force (RAF) contributed to the defeat of the Afghan military during the Third Anglo-Afghan War by harassing Afghani troops and breaking up their formations. Z Force, an RAF air squadron, was also used to support ground operations during the Somaliland campaign , in which the Darawiish king Diiriye Guure 's insurgency was defeated. Following from these successes,

16830-632: The importance of CAS, views that would frame institutional battles for CAS in the 20th century. The inter-war period saw the use of CAS in a number of conflicts, including the Polish–Soviet War , the Spanish Civil War , the Iraqi revolt of 1920 and the Gran Chaco War . The British used air power to great effect in various colonial hotspots in the Middle East and North Africa during

17000-404: The lagoon, Shangri-La departed Ulithi in company with destroyers Haggard and Stembel to report for duty with Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher 's Task Force 58 (TF 58). On 24 April, she joined Task Group 58.4 (TG 58.4) while it was conducting a fueling rendezvous with TG 50.8. The next day, Shangri-La and her air group, CVG-85, launched their first strike against the Japanese. The target

17170-513: The last nine ships completed stayed on active duty to form, with three Midway s, the backbone of the post-war Navy's combat strength. Though the Truman administration 's defense economies sent three of the active Essex es into "mothballs" in 1949, these soon came back into commission after the Korean War began. Ultimately, all but two short-hulls and all thirteen long-hulls had active Cold War service. Oriskany , which had been left unfinished at

17340-590: The late 1950s and early 1960s and were promptly reclassified as aircraft transports (AVT), reflecting their very limited ability to operate modern aircraft safely. An unmodernised Essex was offered to the Royal Australian Navy in 1960 as a replacement for HMAS  Melbourne but the offer was declined due to the expense of modifications required to make it operationally compatible with the RAN's primarily British-designed fleet. All were scrapped, most in

17510-517: The late 1950s and early 1960s, the US Army began to identify a dedicated CAS need for itself. The Howze Board, which studied the question, published a landmark report describing the need for a helicopter-based CAS requirement. However, the Army did not follow the Howze Board recommendation initially. Nevertheless, it did eventually adopt the use of helicopter gunships and attack helicopters in

17680-459: The latest technology and communications equipment. All units were commissioned with SK air-search and SC and SG surface-search radars. Several of the class received SM fighter-direction radar. Two Mark 37 fire control directors fitted with FD Mark 4 tracking radar for the 5"/38 battery were installed; the Mk4 proved inadequate at distinguishing low-level intruders from surface clutter and

17850-572: The latter part of the Second World War. The Soviet Union 's Red Air Force quickly recognized the value of ground-support aircraft. As early as the Battles of Khalkhyn Gol in 1939, Soviet aircraft had the task of disrupting enemy ground operations. This use increased markedly after the June 1941 Axis invasion of the Soviet Union . Purpose-built aircraft such as the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik proved highly effective in blunting

18020-505: The latter so badly that she beached and flooded. She later had to be abandoned. They pummeled Tokyo again on 30 July, then cleared the area to replenish on 31 July and 1 August. Shangri-La spent the next four days in the retirement area waiting for a typhoon to pass. On 9 August, after heavy fog had caused the cancellation of the previous day's missions, the carrier sent her planes aloft to bomb Honshū and Hokkaido once again. The next day, they raided Tokyo and central Honshū, then retired from

18190-455: The less powerful hydraulic units. The otherwise unmodified Antietam received an experimental 10.5-degree angled deck in 1952. An angled flight deck and enclosed hurricane bow became the distinctive features of the SCB-125 program, which was undertaken concurrently with the last three 27C conversions and later applied to all 27A and 27C ships except Lake Champlain . Shangri-La became

18360-617: The limitations proposed in the 1936 revision of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 (as updated in October 1930 in the London Naval Treaty ). Effectively, this rejection allowed all five signatories to resume the interrupted naval arms race of the 1890s-1910s in early 1937. At the time of the repudiations, both Italy and Japan had colonial ambitions, intent on or already conducting military conquests. With

18530-668: The local operating area around Guantánamo Bay , Cuba , she embarked upon her first Atlantic deployment, a NATO exercise followed by liberty in Southampton , England. Almost immediately after her return to Mayport, Shangri-La was ordered back to sea—this time to the Caribbean in response to trouble in Guatemala and Nicaragua . She returned to Mayport on 25 November and remained in port for more than two months. Between 1961 and 1970, Shangri-La alternated between deployments to

18700-573: The main concern for air forces. Then, the Army advocated a degree of decentralization for good reactivity, in contrast with the USAF-favored centralization of CAS. The third point dealt with the lack of training and joint culture, which are necessary for an adequate air-ground integration. Finally, USAF aircraft were not designed for CAS: "the advent of jet fighters , too fast to adjust their targets, and strategic bombers , too big to be used on theatre, rendered CAS much harder to implement". During

18870-475: The modification of early helicopters as dedicated gunship platforms. Though not as fast as fixed-wing aircraft and consequently more vulnerable to anti-aircraft weaponry, helicopters could use terrain for cover, and more importantly, had much greater battlefield persistence owing to their low speeds. The latter made them a natural complement to ground forces in the CAS role. In addition, newly developed anti-tank guided missiles , demonstrated to great effectiveness in

19040-550: The need for aerial support of ground operations. Though the Luftwaffe , like its counterparts, tended to focus on strategic bombing, it was unique in its willingness to commit forces to CAS. Unlike the Allies, the Germans were not able to develop powerful strategic bombing capabilities, which implied industrial developments they were forbidden to take according to the Treaty of Versailles . In joint exercises with Sweden in 1934,

19210-425: The next six years. From 15 February 1965 to 20 September 1965, she made a Mediterranean deployment with Carrier Air Wing 10 embarked. In the fall of 1965, Shangri-La collided with the destroyer Newman K. Perry off Sardinia . Shangri-La was struck below the waterline, breaching the hull. On the destroyer, one man was killed and another injured. The ship itself suffered a bent hull. There were no casualties on

19380-529: The next two years, she received an angled flight deck and twin steam catapults , and her aircraft elevators and arresting gear were overhauled. At a cost of approximately $ 7 million, she was virtually a new ship when she commissioned for the third time on 10 January 1955, Captain Roscoe L. Newman commanding; she was the second (after USS  Antietam  (CVA-36) ) operational U.S. carrier with an angled flight deck. She conducted intensive fleet training for

19550-438: The plane would fly in very low to the ground and release the bombs just above the trenches. The Germans were also quick to adopt this new form of warfare and were able to deploy aircraft in a similar capacity at Cambrai. While the British used single-seater planes, the Germans preferred the use of heavier two-seaters with an additional machine gunner in the aft cockpit . The Germans adopted the powerful Hannover CL.II and built

19720-439: The position of the elevator. The elevator also increased the effective deck space when it was in the "up" position by providing additional parking room outside the normal contours of the flight deck, and increased the effective area on the hangar deck by the absence of elevator pits. In addition, its machinery was less complex than the two inboard elevators, requiring about 20% fewer man-hours of maintenance. Ongoing improvements to

19890-518: The purpose built Iwo Jima -class amphibious assault ships providing floating helicopter bases for US Marines. The LPHs were sometimes also used as aircraft ferries for all branches of the U.S. armed forces. The AV-8A arrived into Marine Corps inventory too late to see regular fixed wing operations return to these ships. It was possible to launch and recover small aircraft like the OV-10 Bronco without need of catapult or arresting wires, but this

20060-528: The rapid advance, the Germans demonstrated consistently superior CAS tactics to those of the British and French defenders. Later, on the Eastern front , the Germans would devise visual ground signals to mark friendly units and to indicate direction and distance to enemy emplacements. Despite these accomplishments, German CAS was not perfect and suffered from the same misunderstanding and interservice rivalry that plagued other nations' air arms, and friendly fire

20230-483: The rapid armored advance of General Patton 's Third Army in its drive across France. Armed reconnaissance was a major feature of XIX TAC close air support, as the rapid advance left Patton's Southern flank open. Such was the close nature of cooperation between the Third Army and XIX TAC that Patton actually counted on XIX TAC to guard his flanks. This close air support from XIX TAC was credited by Patton as having been

20400-505: The remainder of 1955, then deployed to the Far East on 5 January 1956. Until 1960, she alternated western Pacific cruises with operations out of San Diego. On 16 March 1960, she put to sea from San Diego en route to her new home port, Mayport, Florida . She entered Mayport after visits to Callao , Peru ; Valparaíso , Chile ; Port of Spain , Trinidad; Bayonne, New Jersey ; and Norfolk, Virginia . After six weeks of underway training in

20570-500: The rest of the Army. Thus it was initially unprepared to provide CAS, and in fact, had to be dragged "kicking and screaming" into the CAS function with the ground troops. USAAF doctrinal priorities for tactical aviation were, in order, air superiority, isolation of the battlefield via supply interdiction, and thirdly, close air support. Hence, during the North African Campaign , CAS was poorly executed, if at all. So few aerial assets were assigned to U.S. troops that they fired on anything in

20740-428: The same time, targets engaged in combat are dispersed and concealed, reducing the effectiveness of air attacks. They also argued that the CAS mission merely duplicated the abilities of artillery, whereas interdiction provided a unique capability. Ground officers contended there was rarely sufficient artillery available, and the flexibility of aircraft would be ideal for massing firepower at critical points, while producing

20910-549: The ship was a radical departure from the general practice of the time, which was to name aircraft carriers after battles or previous US Navy ships. After the Doolittle Raid , launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet , President Roosevelt answered a reporter's question by saying that the raid had been launched from " Shangri-La ", the fictional faraway land of the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon . Shangri-La

21080-532: The ships much enhanced survivability. In fact, during the war, none of the Essex -class carriers were lost and two, USS  Franklin and USS  Bunker Hill , came home under their own power and were successfully repaired even after receiving extremely heavy damage. Debates raged regarding armoring the hangar deck . British designers' comments tended to disparage the use of hangar deck armor, but some historians, such as D.K. Brown in Nelson to Vanguard , see

21250-407: The ships to handle the jets' increased weight and speed. Among these modification were jet-blast deflectors (JBDs), greater aviation fuel capacity, stronger decks and elevators. Also included were the British innovations of an optical landing system , steam catapults and, ultimately, an angled flight deck . All of the short-hulls were laid up in 1946–47 along with five of the long-hulls. Eight of

21420-422: The side elevator. It was a standard elevator, 60 by 34 ft (18 by 10 m) in platform surface, which traveled vertically on the port side of the ship. There would be no large hole in the flight deck when the elevator was in the "down" position, a critical factor if the elevator ever became inoperable during combat operations. Its new position made it easier to continue normal operations on deck, irrespective of

21590-401: The skilled observer, no two ships of the class looked exactly the same. The large numbers of new ships, coupled with their larger Midway -class contemporaries, sustained the Navy's air power through the rest of the 1940s, the Korean War era, and beyond. While the spacious hangars accommodated the introduction of jets, various modifications significantly improved the capability of fifteen of

21760-405: The southernmost of the major islands. Facing the stiffest airborne resistance to date, Shangri-La ' s airmen suffered their heaviest casualties. On 4–5 June, she moved off to the northwest to avoid a typhoon ; then, on 6 June, her planes returned to close air support duty over Okinawa. On 8 June, her air group hit Kyūshū again, and, on the following day, they came back to Okinawa. On 10 June,

21930-475: The subject of much discussion. As the new Essex - and Independence -class carriers became available, tactics changed. Experience taught the wisdom of combined strength. Under attack, the combined anti-aircraft fire of a task group 's carriers and their screen provided a more effective umbrella of protection against marauding enemy aircraft than was possible when the carriers separated. When two or more of these task groups supported each other, they constituted

22100-520: The supercarriers. Yet, the Essex class still made significant contributions to all aspects of the U.S. war effort. In one notable event, during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident , aircraft from Ticonderoga fired at North Vietnamese torpedo boats that had attacked a U.S. destroyer. The carriers also contributed between the wars, projecting U.S. power around the world and performing antisubmarine patrols. When

22270-408: The supporting structures to the flight deck required to carry the increased weight of landing and parked aircraft, but they were to have sufficient strength to support the storing of spare fuselages and parts (50% of each operational plane type aboard, hence 33% of carried aircraft) under the flight deck and still provide adequate working space for the men using the area below. One innovation in Essex

22440-597: The target. If it can identify the target, it can't hit it. But if it does hit the target, it doesn't do a great deal of damage anyway." It is unsurprising, then, that MacArthur excluded USAF aircraft from the airspace over the Inchon Landing in September 1950, instead relying on Marine Aircraft Group 33 for CAS. In December 1951, Lt. Gen. James Van Fleet , commander of the Eighth U.S. Army , formally requested

22610-512: The task force cleared Okinawa for Leyte , conducting drills en route. Shangri-La entered Leyte Gulf and anchored in San Pedro Bay on 13 June. She remained at anchor there for the rest of June, engaged in upkeep and recreation. On 1 July, Shangri-La got underway from Leyte to return to the combat zone. On the 2nd, the oath of office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air was administered to John L. Sullivan on board Shangri-La ,

22780-474: The task force. Beginning in March 1943, one very visually significant change was authorized for ships then in the early stages of construction. This involved lengthening the bow above the waterline into a "clipper" form. The increased rake and flare provided deck space for an additional quadruple 40 mm mount; these units also had the flight deck slightly shortened forward to provide better arcs of fire. Of

22950-481: The terms of the Two-Ocean Navy Act , eight more of these carriers were programmed. Eight were ordered on 9 September, CV-12 through −15 from Newport News, and CV-16 through −19 from Bethlehem Steel 's Fore River Shipyard ; the last two, CV-20 and CV-21 , were authorized 23 December 1941, with the primary intention of keeping existing slipways busy, and were ordered eight days after Pearl Harbor from

23120-452: The three A-4 squadrons were replaced by two squadrons of A-7A Corsair IIs . The F-4 Phantom II and A-6 Intruder were considered too heavy to operate from the Essex -class. Tasked and fitted out as an ASW carrier (CVS), the air wing of an Essex such as Bennington in the 1960s consisted of two squadrons of S2F Trackers and one squadron of SH-34 Seabat ASW helicopters (replaced in 1964 by SH-3A Sea Kings ). Airborne early warning

23290-403: The universal acceptance of the integration of air power into combined arms warfare, with all of the war's major combatants having developed effective air-ground coordination techniques by the conflict's end. New techniques, such as the use of forward air control to guide CAS aircraft and identifying invasion stripes , also emerged at this time, being heavily shaped by the Italian Campaign and

23460-474: The war some Essex es, such as Bunker Hill , also included Vought F4U Corsairs in fighter-bomber squadrons (VBFs), the precursor to modern fighter-attack squadrons (VFAs). In the last year of the Pacific War , all of the carrier-based combat aircraft could mount several 5-inch High Velocity Aircraft Rockets (HVARs), which greatly improved their effectiveness against ground targets. The defensive plan

23630-408: The water, creating waterspouts which could bring down low flying aircraft such as torpedo planes. In addition there were seventeen quadruple Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and 65 single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon . The Bofors 40 mm guns were a significant improvement over the 1.1 in/75 caliber guns mounted in the earlier Lexington and Yorktown classes. The Essex class also made use of

23800-1043: The western Pacific after an absence of 10 years. She got underway from Mayport on 5 March, stopped at Rio de Janeiro , Brazil, from 13 to 16 March, and headed east through the Atlantic and Indian oceans. She arrived in Subic Bay , Philippines on 4 April, and during the next seven months launched combat sorties from Yankee Station . Her tours of duty on Yankee Station were punctuated by frequent logistics trips to Subic Bay, by visits to Manila and Hong Kong , in October, and by 12 days in drydock at Yokosuka, Japan, in July. On 9 November, Shangri-La stood out of Subic Bay to return home. En route to Mayport, she visited Sydney, Australia; Wellington , New Zealand; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She arrived in Mayport on 16 December and began preparations for inactivation. After inactivation overhaul at

23970-500: The yard for repair and overhaul. For example, Intrepid , one of the first to be commissioned, by the end of the war had received two H-4B flight deck catapults in place of her original single H-4A; three quad 40 mm mounts below the island to starboard, three more on the port side and one additional on both the starboard quarter and the stern; twenty-one additional 20 mm mounts; SM fighter-control radar; FD Mk 4 radar replaced with Mk 12/22; and an enlarged flag bridge. In fact, to

24140-422: Was Okino Daito Jima , a group of islands several hundred miles to the southeast of Okinawa . Her planes successfully destroyed radar and radio installations there and, upon their recovery, the task group sailed for Okinawa. Shangri-La supplied combat air patrols for the task group and close air support for the 10th Army on Okinawa before returning to Ulithi on 14 May. While at Ulithi, Shangri-La became

24310-404: Was a portside deck-edge elevator in addition to two inboard elevators. The deck-edge elevator was adopted in the design after it proved successful on Wasp . Experiments had also been made with hauling aircraft by crane up a ramp between the hangar and flight decks, but this method proved too slow. The Navy's Bureau of Ships and the chief engineer of A.B.C. Elevator Co. designed the engine for

24480-472: Was an advocate of what later came to be known as ' Blitzkrieg ' tactics, thought that the speed of armoured tanks would render conventional artillery incapable of providing support fire. Instead he proposed that: actual 'offensive' support must come from an even more mobile artillery moving alongside. For this purpose the close co-operation of low-flying aircraft ... is essential As a continental power intent on offensive operations, Germany could not ignore

24650-491: Was begun. The Essex -class carriers combined the policy of naming aircraft carriers after historic battles begun with the Lexington class with the policy of naming them for historic navy ships generally followed for the Yorktown class. The first eight hulls were originally assigned names from historic Navy ships ( Essex , Bon Homme Richard , Intrepid , Kearsarge , Franklin , Hancock , Randolph , Cabot ). Lexington

24820-470: Was changed from Oriskany after the original USS  Wasp  (CV-7) was sunk in September 1942 in the South Pacific near Guadalcanal , and Hornet 's name was changed from Kearsarge after the original USS  Hornet  (CV-8) was lost in October 1942 in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands . The erstwhile Valley Forge was renamed Princeton after USS  Princeton  (CVL-23)

24990-517: Was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s, and redesignated as an attack carrier (CVA). She operated in both the Pacific and Atlantic / Mediterranean for several years, and late in her career was redesignated as an anti-submarine carrier (CVS). She earned three battle stars for service in the Vietnam War . Shangri-La was decommissioned in 1971 and sold for scrap in 1988. The naming of

25160-560: Was first provided by modified EA-1Es ; these were upgraded in 1965 to E-1Bs. A small detachment of A-4Bs or A-4Cs (4 aircraft) were also embarked to provide daylight fighter protection for the ASW aircraft. Landing platform helicopter –converted ships such as Boxer never had an angled landing deck installed and flew only helicopters such as the UH-34 Seahorse and CH-46 Sea Knight . Four converted Essex -class ships served alongside

25330-503: Was not uncommon. For example, on the eve of the Meuse offensive, Guderian's superior cancelled his CAS plans and called for high-altitude strikes from medium bombers, which would have required halting the offensive until the air strikes were complete. Fortunately for the Germans, his order was issued too late to be implemented, and the Luftwaffe commander followed the schedule he had previously worked out with Guderian. As late as November 1941,

25500-553: Was not until 1916 that an air support doctrine was elaborated and dedicated fighters for the job were put into service. By that point, the startling and demoralizing effect that attack from the air could have on the troops in the trenches had been made clear. At the Battle of the Somme , 18 British armed reconnaissance planes strafed the enemy trenches after conducting surveillance operations. The success of this improvised assault spurred innovation on both sides. In 1917, following

25670-814: Was one of the "long-hull" Essex -class ships. She was laid down by the Norfolk Navy Yard , at Portsmouth, Virginia , on 15 January 1943, and was launched on 24 February 1944, sponsored by Josephine Doolittle (wife of Jimmy Doolittle ). Shangri-La was commissioned on 15 September 1944, with Captain James D. Barner in command. Shangri-La completed fitting out at Norfolk and took her shakedown cruise to Trinidad , between 15 September and 21 December 1944, at which time she returned to Norfolk. On 17 January 1945, she stood out of Hampton Roads , formed up with large cruiser Guam and destroyer Harry E. Hubbard , and sailed for Panama . The three ships arrived at Cristobal , Panama Canal Zone on 23 January and transited

25840-559: Was originally laid down as Cabot , but was renamed during construction after the previous USS  Lexington  (CV-2) was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Yorktown , originally to be named Bon Homme Richard , was renamed after the previous USS  Yorktown  (CV-5) was lost at the Battle of Midway on 7 June 1942. Lexington and Yorktown share the unique distinction of being named after both historic ships and historic battles. Likewise, Wasp 's name

26010-401: Was particularly successful in this role. Aircraft support was first integrated into a battle plan on a large scale at the 1917 Battle of Cambrai , where a significantly larger number of tanks were deployed than previously. By that time, effective anti-aircraft tactics were being used by the enemy infantry and pilot casualties were high, although air support was later judged as having been of

26180-484: Was picked up by Intrepid on 24 May 1962, and Kearsarge recovered the last two Mercury spacecraft, Mercury-Atlas 8 ( Sigma 7 ), on 3 October 1962, and Mercury-Atlas 9 ( Faith 7 ), on 16 May 1963. When the Mercury program's successor, Project Gemini , got underway, Essex es were again closely involved. Lake Champlain recovered the second uncrewed flight, Gemini 2 , on 19 January 1965; and Intrepid recovered

26350-409: Was quickly replaced with the improved Mark 12/Mark 22 combination. 40mm AA batteries were controlled by Mark 51 optical directors with integrated gyro gun-sight lead-angle calculators. A Plan Position Indicator (PPI) display was used to keep track of ships and enabled a multi-carrier force to maintain a high-speed formation at night or in foul weather. The new navigational tool known as

26520-487: Was reiterated between ground commanders and aviators. Nevertheless, the US Army incrementally gained increased control over its CAS role. In the mid-1970s, after Vietnam, the USAF decided to train an enlisted force to handle many of the tasks the ALO was saturated with, to include terminal attack control . Presently, the ALO mainly serves in the liaison role, the intricate details of mission planning and attack guidance left to

26690-477: Was relatively difficult at this early date to co-ordinate these attacks due to the primitive nature of air-to-ground radio communication . Though most air-power proponents sought independence from ground commanders and hence pushed the importance of interdiction and strategic bombing, they nonetheless recognized the need for close air support. From the commencement of hostilities in 1914, aviators engaged in sporadic and spontaneous attacks on ground forces , but it

26860-442: Was renovated. After sea trials and visits to Bayonne and Norfolk, Shangri-La returned to Mayport for a week in late March 1963; then put to sea for operations in the Caribbean. Eight months of similar duty followed before Shangri-La weighed anchor for another deployment. On 1 October 1963, she headed back to the 6th Fleet for a seven-month tour. Shangri-La continued her United States Second Fleet and Sixth Fleet assignments for

27030-457: Was sold for scrap and later towed to Taiwan for demolition. One of Shangri-La ' s four propellers is on display outside Meding's Seafood in Milford, Delaware . On 6 September 2017, USS Shangri-La ' s bell was placed on display at Jacksonville University NROTC Building as a permanent loan. The bell was found by a farmer in his field at Hudson, Florida , in June 2017. He notified

27200-646: Was still in its infancy – and the direct effect of rifle caliber machine guns and light bombs of World War I aircraft was very limited compared with the power of (for instance) an average fighter bomber of World War II, but CAS aircraft were still able to achieve a powerful psychological impact. The aircraft was a visible and personal enemy – unlike artillery – presenting a personal threat to enemy troops, while providing friendly forces assurance that their superiors were concerned about their situation. The most successful attacks of 1917–1918 had included planning for co-ordination between aerial and ground units, although it

27370-434: Was still lacking. Since pilots operated under centralized control, ground controllers were never able to familiarize themselves with pilots, and requests were not processed quickly. Harold K. Johnson, then commander of the 8th Cavalry Regiment , 1st Cavalry Division (later Army Chief of Staff ) commented regarding CAS: "If you want it, you can't get it. If you can get it, it can't find you. If it can find you, it can't identify

27540-596: Was sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. The names of Ticonderoga and Hancock were swapped while they were under construction: the John Hancock life insurance company had offered to conduct a bond drive to raise money for Hancock if that name was used for the carrier under construction in the company's home state of Massachusetts. USS Shangri-La was named after a facetious remark by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suggesting that

27710-478: Was the British "Rover" system. These were pairings of air controllers and army liaison officers at the front but able to switch communications seamlessly from one brigade to another – hence Rover. Incoming strike aircraft arrived with pre-briefed targets, which they would strike 20 minutes after arriving on station only if the Rovers had not directed them to another more pressing target. Rovers might call on artillery to mark targets with smoke shells, or they might direct

27880-560: Was the first conflict to make extensive use of CAS, albeit using relatively primitive methods in contrast to later warfare, though it was made evident that proper coordination between aerial and ground forces via radio made attacks more effective. Several conflicts during the interwar period —including the Polish–Soviet War , the Spanish Civil War , the Iraqi Revolt , and the Chaco War —made notable use of CAS. World War II marked

28050-652: Was the pride of the carrier and consisted of the offensive power of 36  fighters , 36  dive bombers , and 18  torpedo bombers . The Grumman F6F Hellcat would be the standard fighter, the Douglas SBD Dauntless , the standard scout aircraft and dive bomber which was later replaced by the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver , and the Grumman TBF Avenger as the torpedo bomber, but also often used in other attack roles. Later in

28220-489: Was the recovery ship for the uncrewed flight of Mercury-Redstone 1A on 19 December 1960. The first spaceflight by an American was on Mercury-Redstone 3 ( Freedom 7 ), recovered by Lake Champlain on 5 May 1961. Randolph recovered the next flight, Mercury-Redstone 4 ( Liberty Bell 7 ), on 21 July 1961, and she was the primary recovery ship for Mercury-Atlas 6 ( Friendship 7 ), the first orbital flight by an American. The next crewed flight, Mercury-Atlas 7 ( Aurora 7 ),

28390-509: Was the third Yorktown -class carrier, and Essex , which was the lead ship of a new class. CV-9 was to be the prototype of the 27,000-ton (standard displacement) aircraft carrier, considerably larger than Enterprise , yet smaller than Saratoga (a battlecruiser converted to a carrier). The Navy ordered the first three of the new design, CV-9 , CV-10 and CV-11 , from Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock on 3 July 1940. These were to become known as Essex -class carriers. Under

28560-591: Was to use radio and radar in a combined effort to concentrate anti-aircraft fire. The class, as designed, mounted twelve 5 in (127 mm) 38 caliber gun mounts (4 enclosed twin mounts located near the island on the starboard side and 4 single open mounts located on the port side forward and port side aft), these guns had a maximum range of seven miles and a rate of fire of fifteen rounds per minute. The 5-inch guns could fire VT shells, known as proximity fuzed -shells, that would detonate when they came close to an enemy aircraft. The 5-inch guns could also aim into

28730-581: Was used as an intervention force in support of U.S. Marine Corps ground forces during the Banana Wars , in places such as Haiti , the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua . Marine Aviators experimented with air-ground tactics and in Haiti and Nicaragua they adopted the tactic of dive bombing . The observers and participants of these wars would base their CAS strategies on their experience of

28900-447: Was very rarely permitted on these straight-deck ships for safety reasons and to avoid interruption of helicopter operations. One author called the Essex class "the most significant class of warships in American naval history", citing the large number produced and "their role in making the aircraft carrier the backbone of the U.S. Navy." Essex -class ships played a central role in the Pacific theater of World War II from 1943 through

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