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USS ''Saratoga'' (CV-3) was a built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. ''Saratoga'' and her sister ship, , were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II. On more than one occasion these included successful surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She was one of three prewar US fleet aircraft carriers, along with and , to serve throughout World War II. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, ''Saratoga'' was the centerpiece of the unsuccessful American effort to relieve Wake Island and was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine a few weeks later. After lengthy repairs, the ship supported forces participating in the Guadalcanal Campaign and her aircraft sank the light carrier during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August 1942. She was again torpedoed the following month and returned to the Solomon Islands area after repairs were completed. In 1943, ''Saratoga'' supported Allied forces involved in the New Georgia Campaign and invasion of Bougainville in the northern Solomon Islands and her aircraft twice attacked the Japanese base at Rabaul in November. Early in 1944, her aircraft provided air support during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign before she was transferred to the Indian Ocean for several months to support the British Eastern Fleet as it attacked targets in Java and Sumatra. After a brief refit in mid-1944, the ship became a training ship for the rest of the year. In early 1945, ''Saratoga'' participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima as a dedicated night fighter carrier. Several days into the battle, she was badly damaged by kamikaze hits and was forced to return to the United States for repairs. While under repair, the ship, now increasingly obsolete, was permanently modified as a training carrier with some of her hangar deck converted into classrooms. ''Saratoga'' remained in this role for the rest of the war and was used to ferry troops back to the United States after the Japanese surrender in August. In mid-1946, the ship was a target for nuclear weapon tests during Operation Crossroads. She survived the first test with little damage, but was sunk by the second test. ==Design and construction== ''Saratoga'' was the fifth US Navy ship named after the 1777 Battle of Saratoga, an important victory during the Revolutionary War.〔''Saratoga'' V〕 She was originally authorized in 1916 as a , but construction was placed on hold so that higher-priority anti-submarine vessels and merchant ships, needed to ensure the safe passage of men and materiel to Europe during Germany's U-boat campaign, could be built. After the war the ship was extensively redesigned to incorporate improved boiler technology, anti-torpedo bulges, and a general increase in armor protection based on British wartime experiences.〔Friedman 1984, pp. 88, 91, 94, 97–99〕 Given the hull number of CC-3, ''Saratoga'' was laid down on 25 September 1920 by New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey.〔 In February 1922, before the Washington Naval Conference concluded, the ship's construction was suspended when she was 28 percent complete. She was ordered to be converted to an aircraft carrier with the hull number CV-3 on 1 July 1922.〔 Her displacement was reduced by a total of , achieved mainly by the elimination of her main armament of eight 16-inch (406 mm) guns in four twin gun turrets (including their heavy barbettes, armor, and other equipment).〔〔Friedman 1984, p. 471〕 The main armor belt was retained, although it was reduced in height to save weight.〔Stern, p. 82〕 The hull generally remained unaltered, as did the torpedo protection system, because they had already been built and it would have been too expensive to alter them.〔Stern, p. 28〕 The ship had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of at deep load. ''Saratoga'' had a standard displacement of , and at deep load. At that displacement, she had a metacentric height of .〔 Christened by Mrs. Curtis D. Wilbur, wife of the Secretary of the Navy, ''Saratoga'' was launched on 7 April 1925 and commissioned on 16 November 1927, under the command of Captain Harry E. Yarnell.〔 She was nicknamed by her crew ''Sister Sara'' and, later, ''Sara Maru''.〔Fry, p. 6〕 In 1942, the ship had a crew of 100 officers and 1,840 enlisted men, and an aviation group totaling 141 officers and 710 enlisted men.〔 By 1945, her crew totaled 3,373, including her aviation group.〔 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 Saratoga (CV-3)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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