page_title: USS Curtiss (AV-4)
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: USS Curtiss (AV-4) / Service history / World War II
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy seaplane tender USS Curtiss (AV-4) burning after a Japanese Aichi D3A1 Val dive bomber crashed on her during the Pearl Harbor attacl.
context_page_description: USS Curtiss (AV-4) was a seaplane tender of the United States Navy. The ship was launched on 20 April 1940 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey, sponsored by Mrs H. S. Wheeler, and commissioned on 15 November 1940, with Commander S. P. Ginder as her first commanding officer.
context_section_description: Curtiss operated out of Norfolk and in the Caribbean for training and in fleet exercises through the spring of 1941 and was one of 14 ships to receive the early RCA CXAM-1 radar. On 26 May, she got underway for Pearl Harbor from which she served as local guard ship as well as tending two patrol bomber squadrons. From 15 October-9 November, she sailed to Wake Island carrying air-crew and cargo to reinforce the garrison.
  When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Curtiss got underway quickly and fired at the attacking Japanese aircraft. At 08:36, she sighted a periscope of a Japanese Midget Submarine and opened fire. A torpedo from this submarine missed the Curtiss, running over and into a dock at Pearl City. Four minutes later, the same submarine surfaced and was further damaged by gunfire before diving again, after which the destroyer Monaghan sank the submarine with a ram and depth charge attack.
  At 09:05, Curtiss hit a Japanese plane which then crashed into her No. 1 crane causing casualties and starting a fire. Three minutes later, she was attacked by a dive bomber and bomb from this plane struck Curtiss in the vicinity of her damaged crane and exploded below decks, setting the hangar, main decks and No. 4 handling room on fire.  The damaged aircraft crashed off her port beam. With 19 dead and many wounded, Curtiss' crew managed to extinguished the fire and commence emergency repairs.
  On 28 December, she was underway for San Diego for more permanent repairs and replacement of the damaged crane with 20 mm (0.79 in) anti-aircraft cannon. Her repairs were completed in just four days, she was back in Pearl Harbor on 13 January 1942 to begin ferrying men and supplies to bases at Samoa, Suva, and Nouméa until June.
  Departing Pearl Harbor on 2 June 1942, Curtiss served as flagship for Commander, Naval Air, South Pacific, at Nouméa from 16 June-4 August, then served as seaplane tender, flagship, repair and supply ship for destroyers and small craft engaged in the Solomons operation from Espiritu Santo until 9 July 1943. After overhaul at San Francisco, she arrived at Funafuti, Ellice Islands, 7 November to serve as flagship for Commander Air, Central Pacific, based at Funafuti until 29 December 1943, then at Tarawa (31 December 1943 – 8 March 1944), Kwajalein (10 March-26 June), Eniwetok (27 June-9 August), Saipan (12 August 1944 – 1 January 1945), and Guam (2 January-7 February).
  After repairs at San Francisco, Curtiss sailed to Okinawa, arriving on 22 May 1945 to serve as flagship for Commander, Fleet Air Wing 1. On 21 June, a kamikaze and its bomb ripped two holes in her hull and detonated on the third deck, killing 35 and wounding 21 of her crew. Damage control kept her afloat and four days later she was underway for an overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard.
caption: Curtiss burning at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941.
exif: {}