Tuesday, February 12, 2013

USS Shangri-La (CV-38, CVA-38, CVS-38)

Figure 1:  USS Shangri-La (CV-38) is christened by Mrs. James H. Doolittle, during launching ceremonies at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, 24 February 1944. Colonel James Doolittle commanded 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 where the American planes had come from, he replied, “Shangri-La.” Rear Admiral Felix X. Gygax, the Navy Yard commandant, is in the foreground holding a microphone close to the sponsor's champagne bottle as it smashes into the new carrier's bow. Courtesy of James Russell. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 2:  USS Shangri-La (CV-38) comes alongside USS Attu (CVE-102) to transfer personnel and supplies, 3 September 1945. Attu's cruise book claims that this was the first side-by-side underway replenishment by two aircraft carriers. Collection of Captain Hays R. Browning, USNR. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 3:  USS Shangri-La (CV-38) underway in the Pacific with her crew paraded on the flight deck, 17 August 1946. Note use of the letter "Z" on the flight deck instead of her hull number (38). Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.


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 6:  USS Shangri-La (CVA-38) underway at sea off Mayport, Florida, with Carrier Air Group Ten (CAG-10) embarked, August 1960. Aircraft parked on the forward flight deck include F8U and F4D fighters, A4D and AD attack planes. Photographed by PH1 R.A. Moulder. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
 
Figure 7:  USS Shangri-La (CVA-38) in the Mediterranean Sea on her fourth Mediterranean cruise and ninth overseas deployment, February 15 to September 20, 1965. The Air Wing embarked was CVW-10, tail code "AK." Official US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 8:  Vought F-8C "Crusader" jet fighter (Bureau No. 146956, possibly after conversion to a F-8K) in flight over USS Shangri-La (CVA-38) in December 1968. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. 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.  
 
Figure 10: 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.  
 
Figure 11:  Lieutenant (Junior Grade) William Belden ejects from his Douglas A-4E "Skyhawk" attack aircraft (Bureau No. 150117) as it rolls into USS Shangri-La's port catwalk after suffering a brake failure following recovery, 2 July 1970. Belden ejected safely and was rescued by Shangri-La's helicopter. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
 
Figure 12:  USS Shangri-La (CVS-38) during her last voyage to New Zealand, November 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.