Independence-class aircraft carrier


The Independence-class aircraft carriers were a class of light carriers built for the United States Navy that served during World War II.

Development

Adapted from the design for the light cruisers, this class of ship resulted from the interest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in naval air power. With war looming, the former Assistant Secretary of the Navy noted no new fleet aircraft carriers were expected to be completed before 1944. He proposed to convert some of the many cruisers then under construction to carriers. Studies of cruiser-size aircraft carriers had shown the type had serious limitations, and on 13 October 1941, the General Board of the United States Navy replied that such a conversion showed too many compromises to be effective.
Undeterred, President Roosevelt ordered another study. On 25 October 1941, the Navy's Bureau of Ships reported that aircraft carriers converted from cruiser hulls would be of lesser capability, but available much sooner. After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the need for more carriers became urgent. The Navy accelerated construction of the 34,000-ton s, but these large ships could not be finished quickly. The Cleveland-class light cruisers then under construction were adopted for this purpose.
Plans developed for this conversion showed much more promise than expected. Nine light cruisers were reordered as carriers in the first half of 1942. The Independence-class design had a relatively short and narrow flight deck and hangar, with a small island superstructure. The hangar, flight deck, and island represented a significant increase in the ship's topside weight. To compensate for this, blisters were added to the original cruiser hull, which increased the original beam by. Ships of this class carried a small air group – only about 30 aircraft. This was originally set to consist of nine fighters, nine scout bombers, and nine torpedo bombers, but later revised to about two dozen fighters and nine torpedo bombers.
These were limited-capability ships, whose principal virtue was near-term availability. Their limited size made for seakeeping difficulties in the many typhoons of the Pacific, and their small flight decks led to a high aircraft accident rate. However, being based on a light cruiser, they were fast ships, much faster than the s. The cruiser hull and engineering allowed them the speed necessary to operate with the main fleet carrier task groups. Their names followed the US Navy's policy of naming aircraft carriers after historic navy ships or historic battles.

Service

Completed in the course of 1943, and coming into service with the first eight of the Essex-class carriers, the nine Independence-class ships made up a vital component of the Fast Carrier Task Force, which carried the Navy's offensive through the central and western Pacific from November 1943 through August 1945. Eight of these carriers participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, which effectively ended Japan's carrier air power. The light carriers provided 40 percent of the Fast Carrier Task Force's fighters and 36 percent of the torpedo bombers. The protection on these carriers was modest, and munitions often had to be stowed at the hangar level, a factor that contributed greatly to the loss of Princeton in October 1944.

Ships in class

The nine ships of the Independence class were all converted from Cleveland-class light cruisers building at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation shipyard, Camden, New Jersey. Initially classified as "aircraft carriers", all were re-designated "small aircraft carriers" on 15 July 1943 while four ships were still under construction.
Ship NameHull No.BuilderLaid DownLaunchedCommissionedDecommissionedFate

CVL-22New York Shipbuilding Corporation1 May 194122 August 194214 January 194328 August 1946Used as target in Operation Crossroads, 1946
Scuttled off San Francisco, 1951

CVL-23New York Shipbuilding Corporation2 June 194118 October 194225 February 1943Scuttled following air attack, 24 October 1944

CVL-24New York Shipbuilding Corporation11 August 19416 December 194231 March 194313 January 1947Transferred to France as Bois Belleau, 1953

CVL-25New York Shipbuilding Corporation17 November 194117 January 194328 May 194313 January 1947Broken up at Portland, 1960

CVL-26New York Shipbuilding Corporation29 December 194128 February 194317 June 194311 February 1947Broken up at Philadelphia, 1971

CVL-26New York Shipbuilding Corporation29 December 194128 February 194315 September 195016 January 1956Broken up at Philadelphia, 1971

CVL-27New York Shipbuilding Corporation11 April 194222 May 194331 August 194311 February 1947Transferred to France as, 1951

CVL-28New York Shipbuilding Corporation16 March 19424 April 194324 July 194311 February 1947Transferred to Spain as, 1967

CVL-28New York Shipbuilding Corporation16 March 19424 April 194327 October 194821 January 1955Transferred to Spain as, 1967

CVL-29New York Shipbuilding Corporation31 August 19421 August 194317 November 194311 February 1947Broken up at San Francisco, 1961

CVL-29New York Shipbuilding Corporation31 August 19421 August 194313 May 19509 April 1954Broken up at San Francisco, 1961

CVL-30New York Shipbuilding Corporation26 October 194226 September 194315 November 19431 March 1947Broken up at Los Angeles, 1971

There was little margin for growth, as the ships' post-war careers showed. Independence was expended as an atomic bomb target, and the rest were laid up in 1947. Five returned to service in 1948–53, two with the French Navy. Two were used as training carriers, while Bataan saw Korean War combat duty with Marine Corps air groups. She and Cabot received anti-submarine warfare modernizations in the early 1950s, emerging with two funnels instead of the original four. All but the French ships were decommissioned in 1954–56 and were reclassified as aircraft transports in 1959. Cabot got a new lease on life in 1967, when she became the Spanish Navy's carrier Dédalo, serving until 1989. Despite efforts to preserve her, Cabot was scrapped at Brownsville in 1999–2003. Preservation efforts continued until the hull was half scrapped.