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USS ''Hornet'' (CV-8), the seventh ship to carry the name ''Hornet'', was a of the United States Navy. During World War II in the Pacific Theater, she launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and participated in the Battle of Midway and the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai Raid. In the Solomon Islands campaign she was involved in the capture and defense of Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands where she was irreparably damaged and sunk by enemy destroyers. ''Hornet'' was in service for a year and six days and was the last US fleet carrier ever sunk by enemy fire. For these actions, she was awarded four service stars, a citation for the Doolittle Raid in 1995, and her Torpedo Squadron 8 received a Presidential Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism for the Battle of Midway. == Construction and Commissioning == ''Hornet'' had a length of at the waterline and overall. She had a beam of at the waterline, overall, with a draft of as designed and at full load. She displaced at standard load and at full load. She was designed for a ship's crew consisting of 86 officers and 1280 men and an air complement consisting of 141 officers and 710 men. She was powered by nine Babcock & Wilcox boilers providing steam at and to four Parsons Marine geared steam turbines each driving its own propeller. The turbines were designed to produce a total of giving her a range of at a speed of . She was designed to carry of fuel oil and of Avgas. Her designed speed was . During sea trials, she produced and reached . ''Hornet'' was equipped with eight dual purpose guns and 16 anti-aircraft guns in quad mounts (four guns operating together). Originally, she had 24 machine guns but these were replaced in January 1942 with 30 20-mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannon. In June 1942, following the battle of Midway, ''Hornet'' had a new CXAM radar installed atop her tripod mast, and her SC radar was relocated to her mainmast. An additional quad mount was added at her bow and her armament of 20 mm anti-aircraft guns was increased from 30 to 32 mounts. In addition, her athwartships hangar-deck aircraft catapult was removed. For armor, she had an armor belt of special treatment steel (STS) that was thick. The flight and hangar decks had no armor but the protective deck had of STS. Bulkheads had armor while the conning tower had 30-16 splinter pro armor on the sides with on top. The steering gear had protection on the sides with 60-16 on the deck. Her flight deck was and her hangar deck was and high. She had three aircraft elevators each with a lifting capacity of . She had two flight-deck and one hangar-deck hydraulic catapults and equipped with Mark IV Mod 3A arresting gear with a capability of and . She was designed to host a Carrier Air Group of 18 fighters, 18 bombers, 37 scout planes, 18 torpedo bombers, 6 Utility aircraft. ''Hornet'' was laid down on 25 September 1939 by Newport News Shipbuilding of Newport News, Virginia and was launched on 14 December 1940, sponsored by Annie Reid Knox, wife of Secretary of the Navy Frank M. Knox. She was commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk on 20 October 1941, with Captain Marc A. Mitscher 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 Hornet (CV-8)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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