80 years ago today, 2 December 1944, in an ode to the ’27 Yankees. Third Fleet fast carriers anchored in Ulithi Atoll, Carolines, in a brief lull before the start of the Mindoro landings in the Philippines.
NHHC Catalog #: 80-G-294150. Copyright Owner: National Archives
Ships are (L to R): USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), and USS Hancock (CV-19). A destroyer escort and LCI are passing by. Planes in the foreground on board USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) are F6F-5 Hellcats of VF-80 with a TBM-3 Avenger of VT-80 making a cameo on the far right.
One of Tico’s F6F-5P Photocats got a great profile shot of the group on 8 December, with a sixth sister, Lexington, joining the line-up. The much better known 80-G-294129:
U.S. Third Fleet. Caption: Aircraft carriers and other ships at anchor at Ulithi Atoll, on 8 December 1944. Carriers in line are (from the front): USS Wasp (CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-10), USS Hornet (CV-12), and USS Hancock (CV-19); USS Ticonderoga (CV-14); USS Lexington (CV-16) is in the left background. Note camouflage schemes used with Wasp, Yorktown, and Ticonderoga all clad in camouflage Measure 33, Design 10a. Photographed from a Ticonderoga plane. 80-G-294129
Of note, none of these six Essex class carriers were in commission during the Pearl Harbor attack just three years prior. Indeed, Hancock and Ticonderoga had only joined the fleet six months before these images were snapped.
It’s worth remembering that when Nagumo’s carriers closed in on Oahu on the early morning of 7 December 1941, the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet only had three carriers to its name.
A sleeping giant, indeed.