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USS ''Bunker Hill'' (CV/CVA/CVS-17, AVT-9) was one of 24 s built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the second U.S. Navy ship to bear the name, was named for the Battle of Bunker Hill. ''Bunker Hill'' was commissioned in May 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific War, earning eleven battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. She was badly damaged on May 11, 1945 shortly after 10:00 a.m. by Japanese ''kamikaze'' attacks, with the loss of approximately 600 of her crew, becoming one of the most heavily damaged carriers to survive the war. She was struck by two kamikaze planes which were able to evade the carrier radar by following returning U.S. planes from other carriers in the strike force, and thus remained undetected. ''Bunker Hill'' had not yet launched her planes, and they were sitting on the flight deck fully loaded with fuel and munitions when the kamikazes hit, thus causing extensive damage and creating horrendous fires. She suffered over 600 casualties which included over 300 deaths. Many of the crew below deck lost their lives due to the flaming gasoline and toxic fumes from the fires which were sucked into the ventilation systems and pumped below deck.〔Friedman, p. 156〕 The order to abandon ship was given when the carrier started to list eleven degrees to her port side because of the weight of all of the water which had been needed to extinguish the fires that had drained into the decks below, but a small skeleton crew volunteered to stay aboard to try to save her. They were successful in their efforts. After the attack she limped first to Subic Bay in the Philippines for immediate repairs to stabilise her, and then returned to the U.S. mainland. She was decommissioned in 1947. While in reserve she was reclassified as an attack carrier (CVA), then an antisubmarine carrier (CVS), and finally an Auxiliary Aircraft Landing Training Ship (AVT), but was never modernized and never saw active service again. ''Bunker Hill'' and were the only ships never recommissioned after World War II.〔 Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1966, she served as an electronics test platform for many years in San Diego bay, and was sold for scrap in 1973. An effort to save her as a museum ship in 1972 was unsuccessful. ==Construction and commissioning== ''Bunker Hill'' was laid down on 15 September 1941 at the Bethlehem Steel Company, Quincy, Massachusetts, and launched on 7 December 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Donald Boynton. She was commissioned on 24 May 1943, with Captain J. J. Ballentine in command. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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