page_title: USS Wasp (CV-18)
section_title: 1945
hierarchical_section_title: USS Wasp (CV-18) / Service history / World War II / 1945
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-18) at sea in the Western Pacific on 6 August 1945. Note the scoreboard painted on the carrier's island. On deck are various aircraft of Carrier Air Group 86 (CVG-86).
context_page_description: USS Wasp was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the ninth US Navy ship to bear the name, was originally named Oriskany, but was renamed while under construction in honor of the previous Wasp, which was sunk 15 September 1942. Wasp was commissioned in November 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning eight battle stars. Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier, and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier. In her second career, she operated mainly in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean. She played a prominent role in the manned space program, serving as the recovery ship for five missions: Gemini IV, Gemini VI, Gemini VII, Gemini IX, and Gemini XII. She was retired in 1972, and sold for scrap in 1973.
context_section_description: On the night after the initial landings on Luzon, 9 January 1945, Halsey took TF 38 into the South China Sea for a week's rampage in which his ships and planes took a heavy toll of Japanese shipping and aircraft before they retransited Luzon Strait on 16 January 1945 and returned to the Philippine Sea. Bad weather prevented Halsey's planes from going aloft for the next few days; but on 21 January 1945, they bombed Formosa, the Pescadores, and the Sakishimas. The following day, the aircraft returned to the Sakishimas and the Ryūkyūs for more bombing and reconnaissance. The overworked Fast Carrier Task Force then headed for Ulithi and entered that lagoon on 26th.
  While the flattops were catching their breath at Ulithi, Admiral Spruance relieved Halsey in command of the fleet, which was thereby transformed on 3–5th. The metamorphosis also entailed Mitscher's replacing McCain and Clark's resuming command of TG 58.1—still Wasp's task group.
  The next major operation dictated by Allied strategy was the capture of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands. Iwo was needed as a base for fighter planes to escort B-29 Superfortress bombers from the Marianas attacking the Japanese home islands, and as an emergency landing point for crippled planes. TF 58 sortied on 10 February, held rehearsals at Tinian, and then headed for Japan.
  Fighter planes took off from the carriers before dawn on 16 February to clear the skies of Japanese aircraft. They succeeded in this mission, but Wasp lost several of her fighters during the sweep. Bombing sorties, directed primarily at aircraft factories in Tokyo, followed, but clouds hid many of these plants, forcing some planes to drop their bombs on secondary targets. Bad weather, which also hampered Mitscher's fliers during raids the next morning, prompted him to cancel strikes scheduled for the afternoon and head the task force west.
  During the night, Mitscher turned the carriers toward the Volcano Islands to be on hand to provide air support for the Marines who would land on beaches of Iwo Jima on the morning of 19 February.
  For the next few days, planes from the American carriers continued to assist the Marines who were engaged in a bloody struggle to wrest the island from its fanatical defenders. On 23 February, Mitscher led his carriers back to Japan for more raids on Tokyo. Planes took off on the morning of 25 February, but when they reached Tokyo, they again found their targets obscured by clouds. Moreover, visibility was so bad the next day that raids on Nagoya were called off, and the carriers steamed south toward the Ryūkyūs to bomb and reconnoiter Okinawa, the next prize to be taken from the Japanese Empire. Planes left the carriers at dawn on 1 March, and throughout the day, they hammered and photographed the islands of the Ryūkyū group. Then, after a night bombardment by surface ships, TF 58 set a course for the Carolines and anchored in Ulithi lagoon on March 4th.
  Damaged as she was, Wasp recorded—from 17 to 23 March—what was often referred to as the busiest week in flattop history. In these seven days, Wasp accounted for 14 enemy planes in the air, destroyed six more on the ground, scored two 500 lb (230 kg) bomb hits on each of two Japanese carriers, dropped two 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs on a Japanese battleship, put one 1,000 lb bomb on another battleship, hit a heavy cruiser with three 500 lb  missiles, dropped another 1,000 lb bomb on a big cargo ship, and heavily strafed "and probably sank" a large Japanese submarine. During this week, Wasp was under almost continuous attack by shore-based aircraft, and experienced several close kamikaze attacks. The carrier's gunners fired more than 10,000 rounds at the determined Japanese attackers.
  In spite of valiant efforts of her gunners, on 19 March 1945, Wasp was hit with a 500-pound armor-piercing bomb. The bomb penetrated the flight deck and the armor-plated hangar deck, and exploded in the crew's galley. Many of her shipmates were having breakfast after being at general quarters all night. The blast disabled the number-four fire room. Around 102 crew
caption: USS Wasp on 6 August 1945
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