USS Intrepid Former Crewmembers WebSite
... for those who served with pride and dedication
 
   
USS Intrepid/NAVAIR HISTORY
                                 The Story, History and Facts of the WWII Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Intrepid CV11 and of Naval Aviation
USS Intrepid Operations History
 

Sept-Dec 1943: Trials and work-up prior to sailing for the Pacific via the Panama Canal.

 

10 Jan 1944: Arrived Pearl Harbor to join TF58 (Task Force 58), becoming part of TG58.2 (Task Group 58.2) which also included the carriers Essex and Cabot.

 

29 Jan-3 Feb 1944: TF58 provided support for landing on Kwajalein Atoll (31 Jan) by attacking Japanese bases in Marshall Islands.  Intrepid with TG58.2 operating against Roi.

 

17 Feb 1944: In preparation for landing on Eniwetok, TF58 launched air strikes against Truk.  That evening Intrepid was hit in the stern during a Japanese torpedo bomber attack.  Her steering wrecked, she retired to Majuro, under the escort of Cabot, 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers, where temporary repairs were carried out.

 

26 Feb 1944: Drydocked at Pearl Harbor for repairs.

 

Mar-June 1944: Refit at San Francisco.

 

June-Aug 1944: At Pearl Harbor for training and work-up.

 

Aug 1944: Joined TG38.2 (of TF38) which also included the carriers Bunker Hill, Cabot and Independence.

 

28 Aug 1944: TF38 sailed from Eniwetok to carry out air strikes on Japanese bases in support of landings in Morotai and Palau.

 

6-7 Sept 1944: TG38.2 attacks on Palau.

 

9-10 Sept 1944: TG38.2 attacks on Mindanao.

 

12-14 Sept 1944: TG38.2 attacks on Visayan (Philippines).

 

6 Oct 1944: TG38.2, now joined by carrier Hancock, sailed from Ultihi for operations off Formosa and Luzon.

 

10 Oct 1944: Air strikes carried out against Japanese bases on Anami-O-Shima, Okinawa and Sakishima Gunto.

 

12-13 Oct 1944: Air strikes carried out against Japanese bases on Formosa.

 

15 Oct 1944: TF38 retired to prepare for assault on Philippines.

 

18 Oct 1944: Air strikes against targets in Luzon

 

20 Oct 1944: TG38.2 provided air cover and strikes against Visayan Islands in support of Leyte landings.

 

23 Oct 1944: TG38.2 took up position east of San Bernardino Strait to defend landing area against Japanese surface force approaching from west.

 

24 Oct 1944: Battle of Sibuyan Sea.  One of Intrepid's a/c was the 1st to locate Admiral Kurita's Central Force at dawn.  Subsequently the 1st air strike, from Intrepid and Cabot, achieved 1 torpedo hit on the cruiser Myoko and 1 torpedo and 1 bomb hit on the battleship Musashi.  The 2nd wave, from the same ships, achieved a further torpedo hit and 4 bomb hits on Musashi.  Intrepid did not contribute to the next strikes but in the final attack her a/c together with those of Cabot, Enterpirse, Essex and Franklin achieved several torpedo and bomb hits on Musashi which subsequently sank.  The remainder of the Japanese force turned about and retired.

 

25 Oct 1944: Battle of Gape Engano. Together with the other carriers of TF38 contributed to the destruction of the Japanese Northern (feint) attack force, in which the carriers Zuiho, Chitose, Chiyoda and Zuikaku were sunk.

 

28 Oct 1944: Returned tp providing air strikes for Leyte landing area.

 

29 Oct 1944: Intrepid hit by kamikaze-damage slight but 10 killed and 6 wounded.

 

30 Oct 1944:TF38 retired to Ulithi

 

2 Nov 1944: TG38.2 arrived Utithi but quickly recalled for operations against Luzon.

 

5-25 Nov 1944: Air strikes against Luzon insterspersed with replenishment at sea.

 

25 Nov 1944: Intrepid hit by 2 kamikazes, 1 abreast aft end of bridge, 1 slightly further aft.  Bomb from 2nd detonated in the gallery deck starting fires which were extinguished 2 hrs later.  Casualties were 69 dead and 35 injured...the ship was seriously damaged, and unable to continue flight operations.

 

27 Nov 1944: Intrepid arrived Ulithi and subsequently sailed for Pearl Harbor on route for the West Coast for refit and repair.

 

Jan-Feb 1945: Refit at San Francisco.

 

13 Mar 1945: Arrived Ulithi to join TG58.4 (TF58) which also included the carriers Yorktown, Langley and Independence.

 

14 Mar 1945: TF58 sailed from Ulithi for operations against Japanese mainland.

 

18 Mar 1945: Intrepid near-missed by kamikaze which caused minor fires.

 

18-19 Mar 1945: Air strikes against Kyushu, Kure and bases in the Inland Sea.

 

23-25 Mar 1945: Air strikes against Okinawa in preparation for landings (1 April).

 

8-16 April 1945: Maintaining cycle of air strike/replenishment while covering Okinawa beachhead.

 

16 Apr 1945: Intrepid hit by kamikaze and seriously damaged-hangar set on fire but extinguished, casualties 8 killed and 21 wounded.  She was able to recover her a/c but had to retire to Ulithi for temporary repairs prior to sailing to the West Coast via Pearl Harbor for refit.

 

May-July 1945: Refit and repair at San Francisco.

 

July 1945: Intrepid joined TG38.2 which also included the carriers Randolph, Antietam And Cabot.

 

6 Aug 1945: Airstrike against Wake.

 

25 Aug 1945: TF38 provided air cover for police duty over Japanese mainland and surrounding waters.

 

5 Sept-11 Oct 1945: Intrepid with Antietam and Cabot (TF72) provided air cover for reoccupation of Korea.

 

11 Oct 1945: Intrepid relieved by carrier Boxer and sailed home; 1946: Operating in home waters.

 

22 Mar 1947: Placed in reserve.

 

Feb 1952: Reactivated for modernisation under SCB-27C.

 

Oct 1954: Recommissioned.

 

1954-56: East Coast and Mediterranean.

 

1956-May 1957: Modernisation under SCB0125.

 

1957-1965: East Coast and Mediterranean.

 

1962: Reclassified as anti-submarine carrier (CVS).

 

Apr-Oct 1965: FRAM II modernisation at New York, NY.

 

1966-1968: Based on East Coast with 3 periods of duty off Vietnam-6 months in 1966 and 3 1/2 months each in 1967 and 1968.

 

1968-1974: East Coast and Mediterranean.

 

Mar 1974: Decommissioned and place in reserve.

 

1978: Plans were set in train to preserve the Intrepid as an aerospace in Naval Museum at New York...these plans are not (1982) well under way....We Now Know The Rest of the Story!

 

U.S. NAVY HISTORY
Birth of the United States Navy


  On Friday, October 13, 1775, meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress voted to fit out 2 sailing vessels, armed with 10 carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of 80, and to send them out on a cruise of 3 months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America. This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the navy.
 
  To understand the momentous significance of the decision to send 2 armed vessels to sea under the authority of the Continental Congress, we need to review the strategic situation in which it was made and to consider the political struggle that lay behind it.
 
  Americans first took up arms in the spring of 1775 not to sever their relationship with the king, but to defend their rights within the British Empire. By the autumn of 1775, the British N. American colonies from Maine to Georgia were in open rebellion. Royal governments had been thrust out of many colonial capitals and revolutionary governments put in their places. The Continental Congress had assumed some of the responsibilities of a central government for the colonies, created a Continental Army, issued paper money for the support of the troops, and formed a committee to negotiate with foreign countries. Continental forces captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and launched an invasion of Canada.
 
  In October 1775 the British held superiority at sea, from which they threatened to stop up the colonies' trade and to wreak destruction on seaside settlements. In response a few of the states had commissioned small fleets of their own for defense of local waters. Congress had not yet authorized privateering. Some in Congress worried about pushing the armed struggle too far, hoping that reconciliation with the mother country was still possible.
 
  Yet, a small coterie of men in Congress had been advocating a Continental Navy from the outset of armed hostilities. Foremost among these men was John Adams, of Massachusetts. For months, he and a few others had been agitating in Congress for the establishment of an American fleet. They argued that a fleet would defend the seacoast towns, protect vital trade, retaliate against British raiders, and make it possible to seek out among neutral nations of the world the arms and stores that would make resistance possible.
 
  Still, the establishment of a navy seemed too bold a move for some of the timid men in Congress. Some southerners agreed that a fleet would protect and secure the trade of New England but denied that it would that of the southern colonies. Most of the delegates did not consider the break with England as final and feared that a navy implied sovereignty and independence. Others thought a navy a hasty and foolish challenge to the mightiest fleet the world had seen. The most the pro-navy men could do was to get Congress to urge each colony to fit out armed vessels for the protection of their coasts and harbors.
 
   Then, on 3 October, Rhode Island's delegates laid before Congress a bold resolution for the building and equipping of an American fleet, as soon as possible. When the motion came to the floor for debate, Samuel Chase, of Maryland, attacked it, saying it was "the maddest Idea in the World to think of building an American Fleet." Even pro-navy members found the proposal too vague. It lacked specifics and no one could tell how much it would cost.
 
   If Congress was yet unwilling to embrace the idea of establishing a navy as a permanent measure, it could be tempted by short-term opportunities. Fortuitously, on 5 October, Congress received intelligence of 2 English brigs, unarmed and without convoy, laden with munitions, leaving England bound for Quebec. Congress immediately appointed a committee to consider how to take advantage of this opportunity. Its members were all New Englanders and all ardent supporters of a navy. They recommended first that the governments of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut be asked to dispatch armed vessels to lay in wait to intercept the munitions ships; next they outlined a plan for the equipping by Congress of 2 armed vessels to cruise to the eastward to intercept any ships bearing supplies to the British army. Congress let this plan lie on the table until 13 October, when another fortuitous event occurred in favor of the naval movement. A letter from General Washington was read in Congress in which he reported that he had taken under his command, at Continental expense, 3 schooners to cruise off Massachusetts to intercept enemy supply ships. The commander in chief had preempted members of Congress reluctant to take the first step of fitting out warships under Continental authority. Since they already had armed vessels cruising in their name, it was not such a big step to approve 2 more. The committee's proposal, now appearing eminently reasonable to the reluctant members, was adopted.
 
   The Continental Navy grew into an important force. Within a few days, Congress established a Naval Committee charged with equipping a fleet. This committee directed the purchasing, outfitting, manning, and operations of the 1st ships of the new navy, drafted subsequent naval legislation, and prepared rules and regulations to govern the Continental Navy's conduct and internal administration.
 
   Over the course of the War of Independence, the Continental Navy sent to sea more than 50 armed vessels of various types. The navy's squadrons and cruisers seized enemy supplies and carried correspondence and diplomats to Europe, returning with needed munitions. They took nearly 200 British vessels as prizes, some off the British Isles themselves, contributing to the demoralization of the enemy and forcing the British to divert warships to protect convoys and trade routes. In addition, the navy provoked diplomatic crises that helped bring France into the war against Great Britain. The Continental Navy began the proud tradition carried on today by our United States Navy, and whose birthday we celebrate each year in October.
 

                                        Source: The Naval Historical Center Web Site                                       

 

Top of Page           Return

USS Intrepid/NAVAIR HISTORY