|
The U.S.S. Wasp was the only aircraft carrier of her class, an improved version of the earlier Ranger, smaller and slower than the Yorktown class. Her size was a result of the limited tonnage available to the U.S. navy for aircraft carriers in accordance with the naval treaties then in effect among the big naval powers. This proved to be unfortunate, as Wasp was never as effective in combat operations as her bigger sisters.
Following commissioning in 1940, Wasp conducted shakedown and trials in the Caribbean, qualifying her new air group, which included a young Lieutenant (jg) David McCambell, who would later become the navy’s top scoring ace in World War II. Wasp also qualified a Marine air group and was then assigned to Carrier Division 3 in October at Norfolk, Virginia, conducting tests in launching Army aircraft from a carrier soon after. Throughout 1940, Wasp honed her air groups and gunners in battle exercises and training, operating with other units of the carrier division. During a heavy storm in March 1941, Wasp lookouts reported red flares arcing into the night sky. The ship’s captain, J. W. “Blackjack” Reeves immediately took the conn, and Wasp maneuvered on her engines in heavy seas, rescuing the eight-man crew of the lumber schooner George E. Klinck, a skillful bit of ship handling with a 20,000 ton aircraft carrier.
Throughout 1941, as war raged in Europe, Wasp and her escorts patrolled the Atlantic Neutrality Zones and conducted realistic war training. In August, Wasp delivered Army aircraft to Iceland and was almost constantly at sea on patrol duties and flight training until December. Wasp was anchored in Grassy Bay, Bermuda on December 7, 1941. She operated primarily on the east coast and Caribbean in the early months of the war, colliding with destroyer Stack in bad weather on January 14. Both ships were repaired. Wasp joined the British Home Fleet for operations in northern waters to protect convoys and twice delivered British Spitfires to the island of Malta.
Following the Battle of Midway and the loss of carrier Yorktown, Wasp transferred to the Pacific, arriving in the south Pacific in July of 1942 after her engineers performed a miracle underway repair job on Wasp’s starboard high-pressure turbine. Along with Saratoga and Enterprise, Wasp supported the invasion of Guadalcanal in August, her air groups helping to fend off the constant Japanese air attacks aimed at destroying the Marine foothold on the island. Missing the Battle of the Eastern Solomons because she was refueling, Wasp later operated with a task force escorting a re-supply convoy to Guadalcanal. On the 16th of September, 1942, Wasp was hit by three torpedoes from Japanese submarine I-19. Uncontrollable fires and explosions followed, and Wasp was quickly abandoned and sunk, with 193 crew killed and 366 wounded. (DBoyer 2007)
|
