Ghosts of the USS Yorktown

by Bruce Orr

  On the morning of August 31, the USS Yorktown (CV-10)’s task force, TF15, arrived at a launching point approximately 128 miles from Marcus Island. She spent most of that day launching strikes on Marcus Island before returning to Hawaii that evening.

  On October 5, she began two days of air strikes on Japanese installations on Wake Island. She resumed those attacks early on the morning of October 6 and continued them through most of the day.

  On November 10, she departed Pearl Harbor in company with Task Force 50, the Fast Carrier Task Force of the Pacific Fleet. She participated in her first major assault operation—the occupation of the Gilbert Islands.

  On November 19, she arrived at the launch point near Jaluit and Mili Atoll and launched the first of a series of air attacks to suppress enemy airpower that was attacking the amphibious assaults on Tarawa, Abemama and Makin. By November 22, her air group concentrated on installations and planes at Mili once again, and before returning to Pearl Harbor, the aircraft carrier made passing attacks on the installations at Wotje and Kwajalein Atolls.

  On January 16, 1944, she participated in Operation Flintlock, supporting an amphibious assault during the Marshall Islands invasion. Her task group, Task Group 58.1, arrived at its launching point early on the morning of January 29, and its carriers, Yorktown, Lexington and Cowpens, began sending up air strikes for attacks on Taroa airfield, located on Maloelap Atoll.

  When the amphibious troops stormed ashore on January 31, Yorktown pilots continued strikes on Kwajalein. On February 4, the task group retired to the fleet anchorage at Majuro Atoll, which had recently been secured from the enemy.

  Over the next four months, USS Yorktown (CV-10) continued to participate in a series of successful air raids. After eight days at Majuro, she combined with her task group on February 12 to conduct additional highly successful air strikes on the Japanese at Truk Atoll. On February 22, she conducted a single day of raids on enemy airfields and installations on Saipan. On March 8, the carrier rendezvoused with the rest of TF 58. On March 30 and 31, she launched air strikes on Japanese installations located in the Palau Islands, and on April 1, her pilots attacked installations on the island of Woleai.

  On April 12, she began launching raids in support of General Douglas MacArthur’s assault on the Hollandia area. On April 22 and 23, they shifted to the landing areas at Hollandia themselves and began providing direct support for the assault troops. After those attacks, she left the New Guinea coast for another raid on Truk lagoon. Yorktown entered Majuro lagoon again on June 3 and began preparations for her next major amphibious support operation—the assault on the Marianas.

  On June 6, the aircraft carrier left out of Majuro with Task Force 58 and set a course for the Mariana Islands. After five days, she reached the launch point and began sending planes in preparation for the invasion of Saipan. Yorktown’s aircrews concentrated primarily on airfields located on Guam. Those raids continued until June 13, when Yorktown, with two of the task groups of Task Force 58, moved north to hit targets in the Bonin Islands. That movement resulted in a one-day raid on June 16 before the two task groups headed back to the Marianas to join in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

  On June 18, Task Force 58 reunited and waited for the approaching Japanese fleet and its aircraft.

  On the morning of June 19, Yorktown aircraft began strikes on Japanese air bases on Guam. During the first day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Yorktown aircraft destroyed thirty-seven enemy planes and dropped twenty-one tons of bombs on the Guam air bases.

  On the morning of June 20, USS Yorktown (CV-10) headed west with TF 58 while scout planes searched for the fleeing enemy task force. Contact was made, and Yorktown launched a forty-plane strike between 1623 (4:23 p.m.) and 1643 (4:43 p.m.). At about 1840 (6:40 p.m.), her planes found Japanese Admiral Ozawa’s force and began a twenty-minute attack during which they went after the carrier Zuikaku. They succeeded in scoring some hits but failed to sink that carrier. They also attacked several other ships in the Japanese force.

  On June 21, the carrier joined Task Force 58 in pursuing the enemy but gave up that evening when air searches failed to locate the Japanese. Yorktown returned to the Marianas area and resumed attacks on Pagan Island on June 22 and 23. On June 24, she launched another series of attacks on Iwo Jima. On June 25, she laid in a course for Eniwetok and arrived there two days later. On July 3 and 4, she conducted a series of attacks on Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima. On July 6, she resumed strikes in the Marianas and continued them for the next seventeen days. On July 23, she headed off to the west for a series of raids on Yap, Ulithi and the Palaus. She carried out those attacks on July 25 and arrived back in the Marianas on July 29.

  On November 7, the aircraft carrier changed operational control to TG 38.1 and, for the next two weeks, launched attacks on targets in the Philippines in support of the Leyte invasion. She rendezvoused with the other carriers on December 13 and began launching attacks on the island of Luzon in preparation for the invasion of that island.

  After surviving the attacks against the Japanese, Task Force 38 encountered a typhoon that, ironically, sank three destroyers: Spence, Hull and Monaghan. Yorktown participated in rescue operations for the survivors.

  On January 3, 1945, Yorktown participated in attacks on the island of Formosa and continued with various targets for the next week. On January 10, Yorktown and the rest of Task Force 38 entered the South China Sea to begin a series of raids on Japan’s inner defenses. On January 12, Task Force 38 pilots racked up an exceptional score: forty-four enemy ships. On January 15, raids were launched on Formosa and Canton in China. Yorktown participated in a raid on Formosa on January 21 and another on Okinawa on January 22 before clearing the area for Ulithi.

  On the morning of February 16, the carrier began launching strikes on the Tokyo area of Honsh. On February 17, she repeated those strikes before heading toward the Bonins. Her pilots bombed and strafed installations on Chichi Jima on February 18. The amphibious landings on Iwo Jima took place on February 19, and Yorktown aircraft began support missions over the island from February 20 through February 23. On February 25, she attacked airfields in the vicinity of Tokyo. On February 26, Yorktown air-crewmen conducted a single sweep of installations on Kysh.

  On March 18, she began launching strikes on airfields on Kysh, Honsh and Shikoku. At about 0800 (8:00 a.m.), a twin-engine bomber attacked her from her port side. The ship opened fire almost immediately. The plane began to burn but continued its run, passing over USS Yorktown’s bow and splashing in the water on her starboard side. Just seven minutes later, another enemy aircraft tried a similar assault but also went down. That afternoon, three dive bombers launched attacks on the carrier. The first two failed in their attacks. The third succeeded and was able to bomb the signal bridge. The bomb passed through the first deck and exploded near the ship’s hull. It punched two large holes through her side, killing five men and wounding another twenty-six. USS Yorktown’s antiaircraft gunners brought the aircraft down.

  March consisted of several additional raids. On March 29, the carrier sent out two raids and one photographic reconnaissance mission over Kysh. That afternoon, at about 1410 (2:10 p.m.), a single enemy aircraft made an apparent Kamikaze attack on the Yorktown. The antiaircraft guns brought her down, and the plane passed over the ship and crashed in the ocean port side.

  On March 30, Yorktown and the other carriers of her task group began to concentrate solely on the island of Okinawa. For two days, they pounded the island. On April 1, the amphibious assault troops stormed ashore, and for the next six weeks, Yorktown sent her planes to the island to provide support for the troops. On April 7, when it was discovered that a Japanese task force and the Japanese battleship Yamato were traveling south for one last desperate offensive, Yorktown and the other carriers quickly launched strikes to attack the Yamato. Pilots made several torpedo hits on Yamato just before the battleship exploded and sank. At least three five-hundred-pound bombs also hit the cruiser Yahagi and h
elped to sink it.

  On April 11, Yorktown came under air attack again. Yorktown’s antiaircraft gunners brought down the single plane. Sporadic air attacks continued until her May 11 departure from the Rykys, but Yorktown sustained no additional damage from the enemy aircraft. Out of the attacking planes, the Yorktown antiaircraft battery managed to down another.

  On May 28, the carrier resumed air support missions over Okinawa. In June, she moved off with Task Force 38 to resume strikes on the Japanese homeland. On June 3, her aircraft made four different sweeps of airfields. The following day, she returned to Okinawa for a day of additional support missions before leaving the area to evade a typhoon. On June 6–7, she again resumed strikes on Okinawa. She sent her pilots back to the Kysh airfields and, on June 9, launched them on the first of two days of raids on Minami Daito Shima.

  By July 10, she was off the coast of Japan launching air strikes on the Tokyo area of Honsh. On July 29–30, she shifted targets back to the Tokyo area before another typhoon took her out of action until the beginning of the first week in August. On August 8–9, the carrier launched her planes at northern Honsh and southern Hokkaido. On August 10, she sent them back to Tokyo.

  On August 13, the USS Yorktown (CV-10) attacked Tokyo for the last time. Two days later, on August 15, Japan agreed to capitulate surrender.

  From August 16–23, Yorktown and the other carriers of Task Force 58 remained in the waters to the east of Japan, awaiting instructions. She began providing air cover for the occupying forces in Japan on August 25 and continued to do so until mid-September. After the formal surrender of the Japanese force that took place on board the battleship Missouri on September 2, 1945, the aircraft carrier began air-dropping supplies to Allied prisoners of war still living in their prison camps. On September 16, Yorktown entered Tokyo Bay with TG 38.1.

  For her accomplishments against the Japanese forces, she received eleven battle stars and the Presidentil Unit Citation during World War II.

  On January 9, 1947, Yorktown was placed out of commission and was berthed with the Bremerton Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet. USS Yorktown (CV-10) remained in reserve for almost five years. In June 1952, she was ordered reactivated, and work began on her at Puget Sound. On December 15, 1952, she was placed in commission, in reserve, at Bremerton. On February 20, 1953, Yorktown was placed in full commission as an attack carrier (CVA), with Captain William M. Nation in command. The aircraft carrier conducted normal operations along the West Coast through most of the summer of 1953. On August 11, she joined TF 77 in the Sea of Japan. The Korean War armistice had been signed two months earlier, and therefore the carrier participated in training operations and not combat missions. She served with TF 77 until February 18, 1954.

  After a brief repair period at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Yorktown departed to serve as a production platform for the filming of the documentary film Jet Carrier, which was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award.

  In January 1955, she was called upon to help cover the evacuation of Nationalist Chinese from the Tachen Islands located near the communist-controlled mainland. On March 21, 1955, she was placed in commission, and in reserve, at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard where she was scheduled to receive extensive modifications. The most significant of these modifications was an angled Flight Deck, which was necessary to increase her jet aircraft launching capability. She completed her conversion by that fall and on October 14, 1955, was removed from reserve status and placed back in full commission.

  In the 1950s, the Yorktown’s Flight Deck was angled to accommodate jets such as this. Courtesy of KOP.

  After re-commissioning, the carrier resumed normal operations along the West Coast until mid-March 1956. On March 19, 1956, she departed from San Francisco Bay on her way to her third tour of duty with the Seventh Fleet since her reactivation three years earlier. The warship performed operations with the Seventh Fleet for the next five months, conducting operations in the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the South China Sea. She also made port at places such as Sasebo, Manila, Subic Bay and Buckner Bay at Okinawa. On September 7, the aircraft carrier departed out of Yokosuka. For the remainder of 1956 through March 1957, she continued to perform tours of duty and operations until April 25 when she joined TF 77 as part of a task force. Those operations lasted three months. On August 13, the warship departed Yokosuka, made a brief pause at Pearl Harbor and arrived in Alameda, California, on August 25, 1957.

  On September 1, 1957, her home port was changed from Alameda to Long Beach, California, where she was reclassified as an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft carrier. She was given the new U.S. Naval designation CVS-10. On September 23, she departed Alameda and, four days later, entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for overhaul and for the new modifications necessary to transform her into an ASW carrier. Those repairs, overhauls and modifications kept her in the shipyard until the beginning of February 1958. After those modifications were completed, she arrived at the naval ammunition depot at Bangor, Washington. After departing Washington on February 7, she entered Long Beach five days later. For the next eight months, Yorktown conducted normal operations along the West Coast.

  On November 1, 1958, she departed San Diego to return to the western Pacific. After a stop at Pearl Harbor from November 8–17, Yorktown continued her western voyage and arrived in Yokosuka on November 25. During that deployment, the newly modified aircraft carrier qualified for the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal on three separate occasions. The first time came on December 31, 1958, and January 1, 1959, when she participated in an American show of strength. This was conducted in response to the communist Chinese shelling of the offshore islands Quemoy and Matsu. These islands were occupied and held by Nationalist Chinese forces.

  During January 1959, she also joined a group of contingency forces off Vietnam. This was during internal disorders within Vietnam caused by communist guerrillas in the southern portion of that country. That month she earned the expeditionary medal for her service in the Taiwan Strait. The remainder of the deployment, except for another return visit to Vietnam’s waters late in March, consisted of normal training evolutions and routine port visits. She concluded that tour of duty at San Diego on May 21, and the carrier resumed normal operations along the West Coast for the remainder of 1959.

  In March, April, May and June 1960, Yorktown earned additional stars for her Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for duty in Vietnamese waters. She returned to the West Coast late in the summer and, late in September, began a four-month overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

  Yorktown emerged from the shipyard in January 1961 and returned to Long Beach, where she conducted refresher training and then resumed normal West Coast operations until late July. On July 29, the aircraft carrier departed Long Beach, and that tour of duty in the Far East consisted of a normal schedule of anti-air and antisubmarine warfare exercises, as well as the usual port visits. She concluded that deployment at Long Beach on March 2, 1962.

  Throughout the summer and into the fall, normal West Coast operations occupied her time. On October 26, the carrier departed Long Beach and set a course for the Far East. During that deployment, she served as flagship for Carrier Division 19. She participated in several anti-submarine (ASW) and antiaircraft (AAW) exercises, and this also included the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) ASW exercise known as Operation Sea Serpent. SEATO was an international organization of defense created to stop the further spread of communism into Southeast Asia. The deployment lasted until June 6, 1963.

  Yorktown arrived back in her home port on June 18 and resumed normal operations for the remainder of the year as well as most of 1964. On October 22, she again set out for a tour of duty with the Seventh Fleet. A period of operations in the Hawaiian Islands delayed her arrival in Japan until December 3.

  Yorktown had her first real involvement in the Vietnam War in 1964 and 1965. In February, March and April, she conducted a series of special operations in the South China Sea in waters ne
ar Vietnam. She concluded her tour of duty in the Far East on May 7, 1965, when she departed Yokosuka to return to the United States. The carrier arrived in Long Beach on May 17.

  After seven months of normal operations out of Long Beach, she got underway for the western Pacific again on January 5, 1966. For the remainder of her active career, Yorktown’s involvement in combat operations in Vietnam dominated her activities. She arrived in Yokosuka on February 17 and joined TF 77 at Yankee Station. Over the next five months, the aircraft carrier spent three extended tours of duty with TF 77 providing ASW and sea-air rescue services. She also participated in several ASW exercises, including the SEATO exercise, Operation Sea Imp. The warship concluded her last tour of duty on Yankee Station in July. She resumed normal operations for the remainder of the year and during the first two months of 1967.

  The Vietnam-era Naval Support exhibit at Patriots Point. Courtesy of KOP.

  When Yorktown arrived back in Long Beach on July 5, she entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard that same day for almost three months of repairs. She completed repairs on September 30 and resumed normal operations. Late in November and early in December 1968, she served as a production platform for the filming of another movie, Tora! Tora! Tora! This movie recreated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Also in December 1968, she served as one of the recovery ships for the Apollo 8 space deployment.

  On January 2, 1969, after a two-week stop in Long Beach, she joined the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. On February 28, the aircraft carrier arrived in her new home port of Norfolk, Virginia. She conducted operations along the East Coast and in the West Indies until late summer. On September 2, Yorktown participated in the major fleet exercise Operation Peacekeeper. During the exercise, she provided ASW and Search and Rescue (SAR) support for the task force. The exercise ended on September 23, and Yorktown began a series of visits to northern European ports. After visiting ports at Brest, France and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Yorktown departed for a series of hunter/killer ASW exercises from October 18 to November 11, after which she resumed her itinerary of port visits on November 11. She reentered Norfolk on December 11, 1969.