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Near miss on Hornet at Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942
USS Hornet
CV-8
Yorktown Class Aircraft Carrier

One of three Yorktown class carriers (the others were Yorktown CV 5 and Enterprise CV 6), USS Hornet CV 8 had a short but illustrious history. Commissioned in late 1941 and rushed into service, she launched fifteen B-25 medium bombers in the famous Doolittle raid on Tokyo. This April 1942 mission, while largely symbolic, had a great effect on US morale. Shortly thereafter she was a participant at Midway, the pivotal naval battle of the pacific war. The end for Hornet came at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, October 26, 1942. Repeatedly bombed and torpedoed by Japanese carrier aircraft of the Guadalcanal Supporting Force, she was abandoned. To hasten her sinking the US destroyers Mustin and Anderson put an additional nine torpedoes and 300 5" rounds into Hornet. Aflame stem to stern, she still would not sink. The coup de grace was administered the next day by four torpedoes from the Japanese destroyers Makigumo and Akigumo.

The USS Hornet's Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) flew fifteen TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bombers at the Battle of Midway. These slow and vulnerable aircraft, already obsolete when the war started, lacked air cover when they encountered both Japanese fighters and withering naval AA fire. All fifteen were shot down. Twenty-nine of VT-8's thirty pilots and air crew were killed in action at Midway.

USS Hornet (CV 8)
Vital Statistics
Commissioned: 20 October 1941
Displacement: 23,507 tons (25,484 full load)
Length: 824' 9" oa, 770' wl, Beam: 83'3" wl, 109'6" extreme
Armament (1942): eight 5"/38 (8x1), sixteen 1.1" (4x4), 23 20mm
Performance: 32.5 knots maximum

Aircraft: 85 (various combinations of
Wildcat, Avenger, Dauntless, and Devastator)
Complement: 306 officers, 2,613 enlisted

Note that there were external differences between Hornet and her sister ships Yorktown and Enterprise.
Among other things, Hornet's flight deck was 16' longer and she was equipped
with the heavier MK 37 director, which necessitated a less prominent mast structure
than that of her sister ships.

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