CV-7 USS Wasp

Construction Data

Highlights of Ship's Service History

Authorised by an Act of Congress as a replacement for CV-1 USS Langley, while remaining within the tonnage limits of the Washington Treaty.

Bethlehem Shipbuilding, Quincy, Massachusetts

Sponsored by the wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Charles Edison.

Army Quartermaster Base, South Boston, Massachusetts, Captain John W. Reeves, Jr., commanding.
Shakedown cruise to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. During this period, Wasp conducted numerous carrier qualifications for Navy and Marine pilots. Among these was Lieutenant (jg) David T. McCampbell, who would later become the highest-scoring WWII Navy pilot.
Post-shakedown repairs at Boston.
Final sea trials and repairs.
Routine operations and training out of Norfolk, Virginia and Guantanamo Bay.

Embarking two dozen Army P-40 fighters, Wasp conducts tests of the capabilities of the Army aircraft to launch from a carrier deck.
In heavy weather off Cape Hatteras, Wasp rescues the eight crewmen of the foundering lumber schooner George E. Klinck.
Minor repairs and modifications to turbines, watertight integrity and gun mount splinter shields at Norfolk Navy Yard.
Routine patrols between Norfolk and the Caribbean.
Wasp embarks personnel and aircraft of the Army Air Force's 33d Pursuit Squadron and ferrys them to Iceland in support of the landing of the American occupying force. After launching the aircraft, Wasp returns to Norfolk.
Neutrality patrols in the Atlantic, operating from the Caribbean to Iceland.
At anchor in Grassy Bay, Bermuda.
Routine overhaul at Norfolk Navy Yard.

War patrols in the northwest Atlantic, between Norfolk and Newfoundland.
Operating under conditions of limited visibility, Wasp accidently rams DD-406 USS Stack, holing Stack's hull and flooding a fireroom. There are no casualties, and Stack proceeds under her own power to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repair.
Attached to Task Force 39, Wasp sails for Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands to reinforce the British Home Fleet, arriving 3 April.
Wasp moves to Greenock, Scotland, to load 47 Supermarine Spitfire MkV fighters. On 14 April, escorted by a mixed British-American force, Wasp sails with orders to deliver the aircraft to the embattled British garrison on the island of Malta, in the Mediterranean. Wasp launches the "Spits" without incident on 20 April, then returns to England. Axis intelligence, however, had tracked the delivery; air raids destroyed many of the Spitfires on the ground at Malta.
Wasp loads a second group of Spitfires and, accompanied by the British carrier HMS Eagle, heads back to Malta. On 9 May, both ships launch their aircraft. This time, however, the launch is marred by two accidents. The first aircraft launched by Wasp, flown by Sergeant-Pilot Herrington, loses power immediately after takeoff and plunges into the sea; both pilot and plane are lost. Another aircraft loses it's auxiliary fuel tank while climbing out. Unable to reach Malta, Sergeant-Pilot Smith faces two choices - ditch in the water or attempt to land back aboard Wasp. Smith decides to try to return to Wasp. Despite the fact that his aircraft is not equipped to land on a carrier (no tail hook), Smith manages to land on Wasp's flight deck and stops his aircraft within fifteen feet of the bow. Both Wasp and Eagle then return to the British Isles.
Wasp is relieved of duty with the Home Fleet and ordered to return to the Norfolk Navy Yard for repair before being transferred to the Pacific Fleet to help make up for the loss of CV-2 USS Lexington at Coral Sea and the temporary loss of CV-3 USS Saratoga to repairs after a torpedo attack. Wasp and her escorts depart Norfolk on 6 June, pass through the Panama Canal on the 10th, and arrive in San Diego on the 19th.
After embarking and qualifying her air group, Wasp sails in convoy for the Tonga Islands, arriving 18 July. En route, Wasp suffers an engineering casualty in her starboard high-pressure turbine. Normally a dockyard task, Wasp's engineers manage to perform primary repairs while underway, finishing the job after the ship anchors in Nukualofa Harbor.
Wasp practices day and night operations with her new air group in preparation for her support role in the invasion of the island of Guadalcanal, along with the carriers CV-3 USS Saratoga and CV-6 USS Enterprise.
Wasp launches her first strike against Japanese targets on Guadalcanal. Her F4F fighters destroy 15 flying boats and seven floatplane fighters on the ground; her SBD dive bombers blast several antiaircraft and shore battery sites. A second attack, mounted by her TBF torpedo bombers in response to a request by the landing forces, silences enemy resistance in the area around Hill 281. Of the three formations, only one aircraft fails to return to Wasp; Ensign Reeves, in an SBD, ran low on fuel and was forced to land aboard Enterprise.
This day found Wasp providing air cover for the invasion force. During the day, the aircraft encountered their first airborne opposition, facing both Japanese fighters and bombers. Several enemy aircraft are shot down, without loss to the Wasp's air group. Having successfully attained the objectives of the landing, the carriers and their escorts are withdrawn from the Solomons late in the evening. Wasp spends the next month on patrol and convoy escort for units headed to Guadalcanal.
Wasp and CV-8 USS Hornet escort transports carrying the 7th Marine Regiment to Guadalcanal. Early in the afternoon, after launching a fresh Combat Air Patrol and recovering the earlier CAP, a lookout spots three torpedoes coming in from starboard. Wasp immediately begins evasive action, but it is too late. Two of the three torpedoes, fired by the Japanes submarine I-19, strike the Wasp on the starboard side in the vicinity of her avgas fuel tanks and ammunition magazines. Almost immediately, massive explosions engulf the forward part of the ship. Also, oil and gasoline leaking from ruptured tanks catches fire on the water around the ship. Captain Forrest Sherman slows to ten knots and attempts to maneuver to keep the fire from spreading, but to no avail. Spreading fire had caused the evacuation of the ship's Central Station - her damage-control command post - and explosions had broken fire mains. At 1520, Capt. Sherman reluctantly orders "Abandon ship". The ship's crew responds in an orderly fashion, first evacuating the wounded by raft or rubber boat, then the able-bodied going overboard by lifeline or by jumping. Captain Sherman is the last to leave the ship at 1600. With 1,946 survivors aboard her escorts, Wasp continues to drift and burn; four more violent explosions occur just before nightfall. DD-486 USS Lansdowne is detailed to scuttle the ship by torpedo. She fires five "fish" into Wasp, which stubbornly refuses to sink. Surrounded by burning gasoline and oil, Wasp remains afloat until 2100, when she finally sinks by the bow.

Notes

World War II citations: 2 Battle Stars
Name continued by LHD-1 USS Wasp, the lead ship of the latest class of amphibious assault ships.

Sources
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - U. S. Naval Historical Center Wikipedia Online Library of Selected Images - U. S. Naval Historical Center NavSource: Photographic History of the U.S. Navy Haze Gray & Underway

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