The Ship That Held the Line: The U.S.S. Hornet and the First Year of the Pacific War

336 Pages·51.611 MB·English

by  Lisle A. Rose

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The USS Hornet and the First Year of the Pacific War
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Lisle A. Rose
Despite the undisputedsignificanceofthe USS
Hornet'swartimeexperience in the Pacific, until
now there has never been a serious study of
this aircraft carrier's remarkable career. This
book tells how the Hornet was molded into a
deadlyweaponofwar,howtheshipwasfought
and ultimately lost, and what it was like to live
and fight aboard her at a time when the fate of
the United States depended on the Navy's
minute carrier fleet.
Through the experience of this key ship
and the eyes of her crew and the aviators who
flew from her deck, Lisle Rose recreates the
first desperateyearof thewarin the Pacific. As
one of the few fleet aircraft carriers in the
world, the Hornet and her contemporaries in
the U.S. andJapanese navies shaped the brief
golden age of carrier warfare and defined car-
rier doctrine down to this day.
Rose reminds us that the Doolittle Raid,
launchedfrom the Hornet'sdeck, not onlyinau-
gurated America's Pacific counteroffensixc but
transformed the aircraft carrier into one of
the world's prime strategic weapon systems.
Emphasizing the continuing interest in the
Hornet's operational history, the author con-
tends that the fate of the carrier's air group at
Midwayremainsoneof thegreatcontroversies
in modern naval history, and the ship's impor-
tance in helping to hold theJapanese jugger-
naut at bay during the most critical period of
the Pacific war is incontestable. Rose lets the
readersee things thewaythe men ofthe Hornet
did, and, at the same lime, succeeds in placing
their experiences in a broad historical context.
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The Ship That Held the Line
The That
Ship
Lisle A. Rose
Naval Institute Press
I
.
Held
the Line
The
U.S.S. Hornet and the
First Year of the Pacific War
Annapolis, Maryland
h
—
© 1995 by Lisle A, Rose
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be reproduced
without written permission from the publisher.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rose, Lisle Abbott, 1936-
The ship that held the line : the USS Hornet and the first year of
the Pacific War / Lisle A. Rose,
p. m.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55750-729-5 (acid-free paper)
I. Hornet (Aircraft carrier : CVS) 2. World—War, 1939-1945
Naval operations, American. 3. Shipwrecks Pacific Ocean.
I. Title.
PN774.H6R67 1995
940.54'5973—dc20 95-8693
©
Printedin the UnitedStates ofAmerica on acid-fieepaper
02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 98765432
First printing
All photos courtesy ofthe U.S. Naval Institute's
photographic library.
Contents
Introduction
vu
Chapter i. Birth
I
Chapter 2. Shakedown
Chapterj. Preparing
35
Chapter 4. The Raid
48
Chapterj. Sea Duty
77
Chapter 6. Mysteries at Midway
97
Chapter 7. Interregnum
156
Chapter 8. Harm's Way
172
Chapterg. Alone
196
Chapter 10. Death
219
Epilogue
271
Notes
279
Bibliography
295
301