Aircraft Carrier

CV 17 / CVA 17 / CVS 17  -  USS Bunker Hill

 

 

cva cvs 17 uss bunker hill insignia crest patch badge essex class aircraft carrier us navy

cva cvs 17 uss bunker hill essex class aircraft carrier us navy bethlehem shipbuilding fore river quincy massachusetts

Type, Class:

 

Aircraft Carrier; Essex - class

in service as CV 17, CVA 17, CVS 17 and finally AVT 9

Builder:

 

Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, USA

STATUS:

 

Awarded:

Laid down: September 15, 1941

Launched: December 7, 1942

Commissioned: May 24, 1943 (as CV 17)

Decommissioned: January 9, 1947

in reserve / mothballed

redesignated CVA 17 on October 1, 1952

redesignated CVS 17 on August 8, 1953

redesignated AVT 9 in May 1959

Struck: November 1, 1966

Fate: sold for scrap in 1973; scrapped

Homeport:

 

-

Namesake:

 

Battle of Bunker Hill, American Revolutionary War - June 17, 1775

Ship’s Motto:

 

 

Technical Data:

(Measures, Propulsion,

Armament, Aviation, etc.)

 

see: INFO > Essex class Aircraft Carrier

History:

 

! for ship history go to the bottom of this page !

 

Deployments:

 

no post WWII deployments!

 

ship images

 

cv-17 uss bunker hill essex class aircraft carrier kamikaze attacks 1945

under Kamikaze attacks - May 1945

 

cv 17 uss bunker hill

under Kamikaze attacks - 1945

 

March 1945

 

cv-17 uss bunker hill

undated

 

1944

 

cv-17 uss bunker hill essex class aircraft carrier us navy

launching - 1942

 

photos: US National Naval Aviation Museum, US Naval History & Heritage Command, US National Archive

 

 

USS Bunker Hill (CV 17 / CVA 17 / CVS 17 / AVT 9):

USS Bunker Hill was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the second U.S. Navy ship to bear the name, was named for the Battle of Bunker Hill. Bunker Hill was commissioned in May 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific War, earning eleven battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. She was badly damaged on May 11, 1945 shortly after 10:00 a.m. by Japanese kamikaze attacks, with the loss of approximately 600 of her crew, becoming one of the most heavily damaged carriers to survive the war. She was struck by two kamikaze planes who were able to evade the carrier radar by following returning U.S. planes from other carriers in the strike force, and thus remained undetected. Bunker Hill had not yet launched her planes, and they were sitting on the flight deck fully loaded with fuel and munitions when the kamikazes hit, thus causing extensive damage and creating horrendous fires. She suffered over 600 casualties which included over 300 deaths. Many of the crew below deck lost their lives due to the flaming gasoline and toxic fumes from the fires which were sucked into the ventilation systems and pumped below deck. The order to abandon ship was given when the carrier started to list eleven degrees to her port side because of the weight of all of the water which had been needed to extinguish the fires that had drained into the decks below, but a small skeleton crew volunteered to stay aboard to try to save her. They were successful in their efforts.

After the attack she limped first to Subic Bay in the Philippines for immediate repairs to stabilise her, and then returned to the U.S. mainland. She was decommissioned in 1947. While in reserve she was reclassified as an attack carrier (CVA), then an antisubmarine carrier (CVS), and finally an Auxiliary Aircraft Landing Training Ship (AVT), but was never modernized and never saw active service again. Bunker Hill and Franklin were the only Essex-class ships never recommissioned after World War II.

Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1966, she served as an electronics test platform for many years in San Diego bay, and was sold for scrap in 1973. An effort to save her as a museum ship in 1972 was unsuccessful.


History:

Bunker Hill was laid down on 15 September 1941 at the Bethlehem Steel Company, Quincy, Massachusetts, and launched on 7 December 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Donald Boynton. She was commissioned on 24 May 1943, with Captain J. J. Ballentine in command.


World War II

1943-44


Reporting to the U.S. Pacific Fleet in the autumn of 1943, Bunker Hill participated in carrier operations during: the crucial carrier air raid on the major Imperial Japanese Navy base at Rabaul, along with USS Essex and USS Independence on 11 November 1943; Gilbert Islands operation, including support of the landings on Tarawa Atoll (13 November – 8 December); the air raids on Kavieng in support of the amphibious landings in the Bismarck Archipelago (25 December 1943, 1 January, and 4 January 1944); air raids in the Marshall Islands (29 January – 8 February); the huge carrier air raids on Truk Atoll (17–18 February), during which eight I.J.N. warships were sunk; air raids on the Marianas Islands (Guam, Saipan, and Tinian) (23 February); air raids on Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai in the Palau Islands (30 March – 1 April); raids in support of the U.S. Army landings around Hollandia (21–28 April); air raids on Truk, Satawan, and Ponape in the Caroline Islands (29 April – 1 May); combat operations in the Marianas in support of the amphibious landings on Saipan and Guam (12 June – 10 August), including the titanic Battle of the Philippine Sea, just west of the Marianas.

On 19 June 1944, during the opening phases of the landings in the Marianas, Bunker Hill was damaged when the explosion of a Japanese aerial bomb scattered shrapnel fragments across the decks and the sides of the aircraft carrier. Two sailors were killed, and about 80 more were wounded. Bunker Hill continued to fight, with her antiaircraft fire shooting down a few IJN warplanes.

During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, about 476 Japanese warplanes were destroyed, nearly all of them shot down by Navy F6F Hellcat fighter planes, such as those carried by Bunker Hill

During September, Bunker Hill carried out air raids in the Western Caroline Islands, and then she and her task force steamed a to the north to launch air raids on Luzon, Formosa, and Okinawa, through early November.

On 6 November 1944, Bunker Hill steamed eastward from the forward area, and she was taken to the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, for a period of major overhaul/upkeep work and weaponry upgrades, as all warships must undergo periodically. She departed from the Port of Bremerton on 24 January 1945, and then she steamed westward back into the combat area in the Western Pacific.


1945

During the remaining months of World War II, Bunker Hill fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima; the 5th Fleet raids against Honshū and the Nansei Shoto (15 February – 4 March); and the 5th and 3rd Fleet raids in support of the Battle of Okinawa. On 7 April 1945, Bunker Hill‍ '​s planes took part in an attack by the Fast Carrier Task Force of the Pacific Fleet on Imperial Japanese Navy forces in the East China Sea. The superbattleship Yamato, one light cruiser, and four destroyers were sunk during this Operation Ten-Go, as it was called by the Japanese Navy.

On the morning of 11 May 1945, while supporting the invasion of Okinawa, Bunker Hill was struck and severely damaged by two Japanese kamikaze planes. An A6M Zero fighter plane piloted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Seizō Yasunori emerged from low cloud cover, dove toward the flight deck and dropped a 550-pound (250 kilogram) bomb that penetrated the flight deck and exited from the side of the ship at gallery deck level before exploding in the ocean. The Zero next crashed onto the carrier's flight deck, destroying parked warplanes full of aviation fuel and ammunition, causing a large fire. The remains of the Zero went over the deck and dropped into the sea. Then, a short 30 seconds later, a second Zero, piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, plunged into its suicide dive. The Zero went through the antiaircraft fire, dropped a 550-pound bomb, and then crashed into the flight deck near the carrier's "island", as kamikazes were trained to aim for the island superstructure. The bomb penetrated the flight deck and exploded. Gasoline fires flamed up and several explosions took place. Bunker Hill lost a total of 346 sailors and airmen killed, 43 more missing (and never found), and 264 wounded. She was heavily damaged and was sent to the Bremerton Naval Shipyard for repairs. She was still in the shipyard when the war ended in mid-August 1945.


Post-war

In September 1945, Bunker Hill reported for duty with the Operation Magic Carpet fleet, returning veterans from the Pacific. She remained on this duty as a unit of TG 16.12 until January 1946, when she was ordered to Bremerton for deactivation. She was decommissioned into reserve on 9 January 1947.

While she was laid up in mothballs, she was reclassified three times, becoming CVA-17 in October 1951, CVS-17 in August 1953, and AVT-9 in May 1959, with the latter designation indicating that any future commissioned operations would be as an "Auxiliary Aircraft Landing Training Ship". As all Essex-class carriers survived the war, Bunker Hill was surplus to the needs of the navy. She and Franklin, which also had sustained severe damage from an aerial attack, were the only aircraft carriers in the Essex-class that did not experience any active duty after the end of World War II, despite their being repaired. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in November 1966, Bunker Hill was used as a stationary electronics test platform at the Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, during the 1960s and early 1970s.

Bunker Hill was sold for scrapping in May 1973.

Bunker Hill received the Presidential Unit Citation for the period 11 November 1943 to 11 May 1945. In addition, she received 11 battle stars for her World War II service.

 

source: wikipedia

 

- - -

 

another history:

 

Bunker Hill (CV-17) was launched 7 December 1942 by Bethlehem Steel Co., Quincy, Mass.; sponsored by Mrs. Donald Boynton; and commissioned 24 May 1943, Captain J. J. Ballentine in command.

Reporting to the Pacific in the fall of 1943 Bunker Hill participated in carrier operations during the Rabaul strike (11 November 1943); Gilbert Islands operation, including support of the landings on Tarawa (13 November-8 December); the Kavieng strikes in support of the Bismarck Archipelago operation (25 December 1943, 1 and 4 January 1944); Marshall Islands operation (29 January-8 February); strikes against Truk (17-18 February), during which eight Japanese combatant vessels were sunk; Marianas raid (23 February); Palau-Yap-Ulithi-Woleai raids (30 March-1 April); Truk-Satawan-Ponape raids (29 April-1 May); Hollandia operation (21-28 April); and Marianas operation (12 June-10 August), including the Battle of the Philippine Sea. On 19 June 1944, during the opening phases of the battle, Bunker Hill was damaged when an enemy near miss scattered shrapnel fragments across the ship. Two men were killed and over 80 were wounded. Bunker Hill continued to do battle and her planes aided in sinking one Japanese carrier and destroying a part of the 476 Japanese aircraft that were downed. During September she participated in the Western Caroline Islands operation and then launched strikes at Okinawa, Luzon, and Formosa until November.

On 6 November Bunker Hill retired from the forward area and steamed to Bremerton, Wash., for a period of yard availability. Repairs completed, she departed the west coast 24 January 1945 and returned to the war front. During the remaining months of World War II Bunker Hill participated in the Iwo Jima operation and the 5th Fleet raids against Honshu and the Nasei Shoto (15 February-4 March); and the 5th and 3d Fleet raids in support of the Okinawa operation. On 7 April 1945 Bunker Hill's planes took part in a fast carrier task force attack on a Japanese naval force in the East China Sea. The enemy battleship Yamato, one cruiser, and four destroyers were sunk.

On the morning of 11 May 1945, while supporting the Okinawa invasion, Bunker Hill was hit and severely damaged by two suicide planes. Gasoline fires flamed up and several expolisions took place. The ship suffered the loss of 346 men killed, 43 missing, and 264 wounded. Although badly crippled she managed to return to Bremerton via Pearl Harbor.

In September Bunker Hill reported for duty with the "Magic Carpet" fleet. She remained on this duty as a unit of TG 16.12 returning veterans from the Pacific until January 1946 when she was ordered to Bremerton for inactivation. She was placed out of commission in reserve there 9 January 1947.

Bunker Hill received the Presidential Unit Citation for the period 11 November 1943 to 11 May 1945. In addition, she received 11 battle stars for her World War II service.

Bunker Hill's designation was changed from CV-17 to CVA-17 on 1 October 1952 and from CVA-17 to CVS-17 on 8 August 1953. She was struck from the Navy listing on 1 November 1966 and retained as a moored electronic test ship at San Diego, Calif., until November 1972 and then scrapped in 1973.


source: US Naval History & Heritage Command

 

Battle of Bunker Hill 1775:

 

The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after the adjacent Bunker Hill, which was peripherally involved in the battle, and was the original objective of both the colonial and British troops, though the vast majority of combat took place on Breed's Hill.

On June 13, 1775, the leaders of the colonial forces besieging Boston learned that the British were planning to send troops out from the city to fortify the unoccupied hills surrounding the city, giving them control of Boston Harbour. In response, 1,200 colonial troops under the command of William Prescott stealthily occupied Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill. The colonists constructed a strong redoubt on Breed's Hill, as well as smaller fortified lines across the Charlestown Peninsula.

When the British were alerted to the presence of colonial forces on the Peninsula, they mounted an attack against them. After two assaults on the colonial positions were repulsed with significant British casualties, the third and final attack carried the redoubt after the defenders ran out of ammunition. The colonists retreated to Cambridge over Bunker Hill, leaving the British in control of the Peninsula.

While the result was a victory for the British, the massive losses they encumbered discouraged them from any further sorties against the siege lines; 226 men were killed with over 800 wounded, including a large number of officers. The battle at the time was considered to be a colonial defeat; however, the losses suffered by the British troops gave encouragement to the colonies, demonstrating that inexperienced militiamen were able to stand up to regular army troops in a pitched battle.

 

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