Figure 4: USS Shangri-La
(CVA-38) in the mid-1950s
with Point Loma, California, in background. Courtesy
of Pete Kocourek . Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Shangri-La
(CVA-38) at sea,
launching F9F "Cougar" fighters, 10 January 1956. Note steam rising
from her port catapult. Photographed by B.W. Kortge. Official US Navy
Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on
photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS Shangri-La
(CVS-38) cruises toward
Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, on 11 February 1970. Official US Navy
Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after
the fictitious Himalayan kingdom described by author James Hilton in his novel Lost Horizon, the 27,100-ton USS Shangri-La (CV-38) was a Ticonderoga class aircraft carrier built
by the Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia, and was commissioned on 15 January
1943. Colonel James Doolittle led the famous B-25 raid on Tokyo on 18 April
1942, which was flown from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). After the raid when
President Franklin Roosevelt was asked by reporters where the American planes
had come from, he replied, “Shangri-La.” This name actually honors Hornet, which launched the Tokyo raiders
and which was subsequently lost in the Battle of Santa Cruz Island on 27
October 1942. The carrier Shangri-La
was approximately 888 feet long and 93 feet wide, had a top speed of 32 knots,
and had a crew of 3,448 officers and men. The ship was heavily armed with 12
5-inch guns, 44 40-mm guns, and 60 20-mm guns, and could carry roughly 80
aircraft, depending on the type and size of the planes.
After
completing her shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, Shangri-La steamed to the Pacific in early 1945 to join the war
against Japan. On 24 April, the ship joined Task Group 58.4 and the next day
her aircraft launched their first strike against the Japanese. The target was
Okino Daito Jima, a group of islands several hundred miles southeast of
Okinawa. Shangri-La’s planes
successfully destroyed radar and radio installations there and upon their
recovery the task group sailed for Okinawa. Once there, Shangri-La provided combat air patrols for the task group and close
air support for Army troops on Okinawa.
For the next
four months, Shangri-La’s aircraft
attacked the Japanese home islands. During much of that time, she served as
flagship to Task Forces 38 and 58. On 2 and 3 June 1945, Shangri-La’s task force launched air strikes against Kyushu, the
southernmost of the major Japanese Islands. On 14 and 15 July, the carrier’s
planes pounded the Japanese home islands of Honshu and Hokkaido and, on 18
July, they attacked Tokyo, bombing the battleship Nagato that was anchored nearby. On 24 July, the ship’s aircraft
attacked enemy shipping near Kure, Japan, and on 28 July attacked and damaged
the cruiser Oyoda and the battleship Haruna, the latter so badly that she had
to be beached to prevent her from sinking in deep water. Shangri-La’s planes attacked Tokyo once again on 30 July, causing
much damage.
On 9 August
1945, Shangri-La sent her planes to
bomb Honshu and Hokkaido once again. The next day, they raided Tokyo and
central Honshu. After steaming away from the Japanese coastline on 11 and 12
August to avoid a typhoon, Shangri-La’s
aircraft hit Tokyo again on 13 August. Two days later, her planes returned and
struck airfields around Tokyo. Soon after that raid, Japan announced its
surrender and the American fleet was ordered to cease hostilities. From 23
August to16 September, Shangri-La’s
aircraft flew missions of mercy, air-dropping supplies to Allied prisoners of
war in Japan.
After Japan’s
surrender, Shangri-La remained in the
western Pacific until October 1945. The carrier was active in 1946 and into
1947, participating in the Operation “Crossroads” atomic bomb tests and
completing a cruise to Australia. The ship was decommissioned and placed in the
Reserve Fleet at San Francisco, California, on 7 November 1947.
Shangri-La was re-commissioned on 10 May 1951
and served with the Atlantic Fleet until 14 November 1952, when she was
decommissioned once again, but this time to be fully modernized and overhauled.
The ship was sent to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington, and over the
next two years Shangri-La was
transformed into a modern carrier. At a cost of approximately $7 million (a
large sum in those days), Shangri-La
was given an angled flight deck, a fully
enclosed bow, a new and enlarged island, and twin steam catapults; her aircraft
elevators and arresting gear were overhauled; and new electronic equipment was
installed. All of these changes greatly altered the appearance of the ship and Shangri-La was re-classified CVA-38. The
ship was commissioned for the third time on 10 January 1955 and spent the next
five years in the Pacific, making several cruises with the US Seventh Fleet in
the Far East.
Shangri-La was transferred to the Atlantic in
March 1960 and began a series of deployments to the Mediterranean Sea early in
the next year, alternating with US Second Fleet service closer to the United
States. Shangri-La was re-classified
CVS-38 in June 1969, in preparation for her new role as an anti-submarine
warfare carrier. But she continued to carry an attack air group for her final
overseas deployment. During this voyage (which began in March 1970), Shangri-La steamed across the south
Atlantic, into the Indian Ocean, and went on to participate in combat
operations in the South China Sea near Vietnam. For seven months, Shangri-La launched combat sorties from
Yankee Station off the coast of Vietnam. The carrier returned to the east coast
of the United States in December 1970 and was decommissioned for the last time
on 30 July 1971. Shangri-La was
placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but was
stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1982 and was sold for scrapping
in August 1988. The ship was part of the fleet for 44 years and received two
battle stars for her service in World War II and three battle stars for her
service in the Vietnam War.
