The fourth Ticonderoga (CV-14) was laid down as Hancock on 1 February 1943 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; renamed Ticonderoga on 1 May 1943, launched on 7 February 1944, sponsoredby Miss Stephanie Sarah Pell, and commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yardon 8 May 1944, Capt. Dixie Kiefer in command.

Ticonderoga remained at Norfolk for almost two months outfitting and embarking Air Group 80. On 26 June, the carrier shaped a course for theBritish West Indies. She conducted air operations and drills en route andreached Port of Spain, Trinidad, on the 30th. For the next 15 days, Ticonderoga trained intensively to weld her air group and crew into an efficient wartimeteam. She departed the West Indies on 16 July and headed back to Norfolk where she arrived on the 22d. Eight days later, the carrier headed for Panama.She transited the canal an 4 September and steamed up the coast to San Diegothe following day. On the 13th, the carrier moored at San Diego where sheloaded provisions, fuel, aviation gas, and an additional 77 planes, as well as the Marine Corps aviation and defense units that went with them. On the19th she sailed for Hawaii where she arrived five days later.

Ticonderoga remained at Pearl Harbor for almost a month. She and Carina(AK-74) conducted experiments in the underway transfer of aviation bombs from cargo ship to aircraft carrier. Following those tests, she conductedair operations-day and night landing and antiaircraft defense drills-until18 October when she exited Pearl Harbor and headed for the western Pacific.After a brief stop at Eniwetok, Ticonderoga arrived at Ulithi Atoll in theWestern Carolines on the 29th. There she embarked Rear Admiral A. W. Radford,Commander, Carrier Division 6, and joined Task Force (TF) 38 as a unit ofRear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman's Task Group (TG) 38.3.

The carrier sortied from Ulithi with TF 38 on 2 November. She joinedthe other carriers as they resumed their extended air cover for the ground forces capturing Leyte. She launched her first air strike on the morningof the 5th. The planes of her air group spent the next two days pummeling enemy shipping near Luzon and air installations on that island. Her planes bombed and strafed the airfields at Zablan Mandaluyong, and Pasig. They also joined those of other carriers in sending the heavy cruiser Nachi toa watery resting place. In addition, Ticonderoga pilots claimed six Japaneseaircraft shot down and one destroyed on the ground, as well as 23 others damaged.

Around 1600 on the 5th, the enemy retaliated by sending up a flock of planes piloted by members of the suicide corps dubbed kamikaze, or "DivineWind," in honor of the typhoon that had destroyed a Chinese invasionfleet four centuries previously. Two of the suicide planes succeeded inslipping through the American combat air patrol and antiaircraft fire tocrash Lexington (CV-16). Ticonderoga emerged from that airborne banzai chargeunscathed and claimed a tally of two splashes. On 6 November, the warshiplaunched two fighter sweeps and two bombing strikes against the Luzon airfieldsand enemy shipping in the vicinity. Her airmen returned later that day claimingthe destruction of 36 Japanese aircraft and attacks on six enemy ships inManila Bay. After recovering her planes, the carrier retired to the eastfor a fueling rendezvous.

She refueled and received replacement planes on the 7th and then headedback to continue pounding enemy forces in the Philippines. Early on themorning of 11 November, her planes combined with others of TF 38 to attacka Japanese reinforcement convoy, just as it was preparing to enter OrmocBay from the Camotes Sea. Together, the planes accounted for all the enemytransports and four of the seven escorting destroyers. On the 12th and 13th,Ticonderoga and her sisters launched strikes at Luzon airfields and docksand shipping around Manila. This raid tallied an impressive score: light cruiser Kiso, four destroyers, and seven merchant ships. At the conclusionof the raid, TF 38 retired eastward for a refueling breather. Ticonderogaand the rest of TG 38.3, however continued east to Ulithi where they arrivedon the 17th to replenish, refuel, and rearm.

On 22 November, the aircraft carrier departed Ulithi once more and steamedback toward the Philippines. Three days later, she launched air strikeson central Luzon and adjacent waters. Her pilots finished off the heavycruiser Kumano, damaged in the Battle off Samar. Later, they attacked anenemy convoy about 15 miles southwest of Kumano's not-so-safe haven in DasolBay. Of this convoy, cruiser Yasoshima, a merchantman, and three landingships went to the bottom Ticonderoga's air group rounded out their day ofdestruction with an aerial rampage which cost the Japanese 15 planes shotdown and 11 destroyed on the ground.

While her air group busily pounded the Japanese, Ticonderoga's ship'scompany also made their presence felt. Just after noon, a torpedo launchedby an enemy plane broached in Langley's (CVL-27) wake to announce the approach of an air raid. Ticonderoga's gunners raced to their battle stations asthe raiders made both conventional and suicide attacks on the task groupHer sister ship Essex (CV-9) erupted in flames when one of the kamikazes crashed into her. When a second suicide plane tried to finish off the stricken carrier, Ticonderoga's gunners joined those firing from other ships in cuttinghis approach abruptly short. That afternoon, while damage control partiesdressed Essex's wounds, Ticonderoga extended her hospitality to that damagedcarrier's homeless airmen as well as to Intrepid (CV-11) pilots in similar straits. The following day, TF 38 retired to the east.

TF 38 stood out of Ulithi again on 11 December and headed for the Philippines.Ticonderoga arrived at the launch point early in the afternoon of the 13thand sent her planes aloft to blanket Japanese airbases on Luzon while Armyplanes took care of those in the central Philippines. For three days, Ticonderoga airmen and their comrades wreaked havoc with a storm of destructionon enemy airfields. She withdrew on the 16th with the rest of TF 38 in search of a fueling rendezvous. While attempting to find calmer waters in which to refuel, TF 38 steamed directly through a violent, but unheralded, typhoon.Though the storm cost Admiral Halsey's force three~destroyers and over 800lives, Ticonderoga and the other carriers managed to ride it out with aminimum of damage. Having survived the tempest's fury, Ticonderoga returnedto Ulithi on Christmas Eve.

Repairs occasioned by the' typhoon kept TF 38 in the anchorage almostuntil the end of the month. The carriers did not return to sea until 30December 1944 when they steamed north to hit Formosa and Luzon in preparation for the landings on the latter island at Lingayen Gulf. Severe weather limitedthe Formosa strikes on 3 and 4 January 1945 and, in all likelihood obviatedthe need for them. The warships fueled at sea on the 6th. Despite rough weather on the 6th, the strikes on Luzon airfieldswere carried out. That day, Ticonderoga's airmen and their colleagues ofthe other air groups increased their score by another 32 enemy planes. The 7th brought more strikes on Luzon installations. After a fueling rendezvouson the 8th, Ticonderoga sped north at night to get into position to blanket Japanese airfields in the Ryukyus during the Lingayen assault the following morning. However, foul weather, the bugaboo of TF 38 during the winter of1944 and 1945, forced TG 38.3 to abandon the strikes on the Ryukyu airfields and join TG 38.2 in pounding Formosa.

During the night of 9 and 10 January, TF 38 steamed boldly through theLuzon Strait and then headed generally southwest, diagonally across theSouth China Sea. Ticonderoga provided combat air patrol coverage on the11th and helped to bring down four enemy planes which attempted to snoop the formation. Otherwise, the carriers and their consorts proceeded unmolestedto a point some 160 to 200 miles off the coast of Indochina. There, on the12th, they launched their approximately 850 planes and made a series of antishipping sweeps during which they sank a whopping 44 ships, totaling over 130,000 tons. After recovering planes in the late afternoon, the carriers moved off to the northeast. Heavy weather hindered fueling operations onthe 13th and 14th, and air searches failed to turn up any tempting targets.On the 15th, fighters swept Japanese airfields on the Chinese coast whilethe flattops headed for a position from which to strike Hong Kong. The following morning, they launched antishipping bombing raids and fighter sweeps of air installations. Weather prevented air operations on the 17th and again made fueling difficult. It worsened the next day and stopped replenishmentoperations altogether, so that they were not finally concluded until the19th. The force then shaped a course generally northward to retransit Luzon Strait via Balintang Channel.

The three task groups of TF 38 completed their transit during the nightof 20 and 21 January. The next morning, their planes hit airfields on Formosa,m the Pescadores, and at Sakishima Gunto. The good flying weather broughtmixed blessings. While it allowed American flight operations to continuethrough the day, it also brought new gusts of the "Divine Wind."Just alter noon, a single-engined Japanese plane scored a hit on Langleywith a glide-bombing attack. Seconds later, a kamikaze swooped out of theclouds and plunged toward Ticonderoga. He crashed through her flight deckabreast of the No. 2 5-inch mount, and his bomb exploded just above herhangar deck. Several planes stowed nearby erupted into flames. Death and destruction abounded, but the ship's company fought valiantly to save thethreatened carrier. Capt. Kiefer conned his ship smartly. First, he changedcourse to keep the wind from fanning the blaze. Then, he ordered magazinesand other compartments flooded to prevent further explosions and to correct a 10-degree starboard list. Finally, he instructed the damage control partyto continue flooding compartments on Ticonderoga's port side. That operation induced a 10-degree port list which neatly dumped the fire overboard! Fire fighters and plane handlers completed the job by dousing the flames and jettisoningburning aircraft.

Wounded denizens of the deep often attract predators. Ticonderoga wasno exception. The other kamikazes pounced on her like a school of sharksin a feeding frenzy. Her antiaircraft gunners struck back with desperate,but methodical, ferocity and quickly swatted three of her tormentors intothe sea. A fourth plane slipped through her barrage and smashed into thecarrier's starboard side near the island. His bomb set more planes on fire,riddled her flight deck and injured or killed another 100 sailors-includingCapt. Kiefer. Yet, Ticonderoga's crew refused to submit. Spared furtherattacks, they brought her fires completely under control not long after 1400; and Ticonderoga retired painfully.

The stricken carrier arrived at Ulithi on 24 January but remained thereonly long enough to move her wounded to hospital ship Samaritan (AH-10),to transfer her air group to Gancock (CV-19), and to embark passengers boundfor home. Ticonderoga cleared the lagoon on 28 January and headed for theUnited States. The warship stopped briefly at Pearl Harbor en route to thePuget Sound Navy Yard where she arrived on 15 February.

Her repairs were completed on 20 April, and she cleared Puget Sound thefollowing day for the Alameda Naval Air Station. After embarking passengersand aircraft bound for Hawaii, the carrier headed for Pearl Harbor whereshe arrived on 1 May. The next day, Air Group 87 came on board and, forthe next week, trained in preparation for the carrier's return to combat.Ticonderoga stood out of Pearl Harbor and shaped a course for the western Pacific. En route to Ulithi, she launched her planes for what amounted to training strikes on Japanese-held Taroa in the Marshalls. On 22 May, thewarship arrived in Ulithi and rejoined the Fast Carrier Task Force as anelement of Rear Admiral Radford's TG 58.4.

Two days after her arrival, Ticonderoga sortied from Ulithi with TF 58and headed north to spend the last weeks of the war in Japanese home waters.Three days out, Admiral Halsey relieved Admiral Spruance, the 5th Fleetreverted back to 3d Fleet, and TF 58 became TF 38 again for the duration.On 2 and 3 June, Ticonderoga fighters struck at airfields on Kyushu in aneffort to neutralize the remnants of Japanese air power-particularly theKamikaze Corps-and to relieve the pressure on American forces at Okinawa.During the following two days, Ticonderoga rode out her second typhoon inless than six months and emerged relatively unscathed. She provided combat air patrol cover for the 6 June refueling rendezvous, and four of her fightersintercepted and destroyed three Okinawa bound kamikazes. That evening, shesteamed off at high speed with TG 38.4 to conduct a fighter sweep of airfields on southern Kyushu on the 8th. Ticonderoga's planes then joined in the aerial bombardment of Minami Daito Shima and Kita Daito Shima before the carrier headed for Leyte where she arrived on the 13th.

During the two-week rest and replenishment period she enjoyed at Leyte,Ticonderoga changed task organizations from TG 38.4 to Rear Admiral GeraldF. Bogan's TG 38.3. On 1 July, she departed Leyte with TF 38 and headednorth to resume raids on Japan. Two days later, a damaged reduction gearforced her into Apra Harbor, Guam, for repairs. She remained there untilthe 19th when she steamed off to rejoin TF 38 and resume her role in thewar against Japan. On the 24th, her planes joined those of other fast carriersin striking ships in the Inland Sea and airfields at Nagoya, Osaka, andMiko. During those raids, TF 38 planes found the sad remnants of the once-mighty Japanese Fleet and bagged battleships Ise, Hyuga, and Haruna as well asan escort carrier, Kaigo, and two heavy cruisers. On 28 July, her aircraftdirected their efforts toward the Kure Naval Base, where they pounded an aircraft carrier, three cruisers, a destroyer, and a submarine. She shiftedher attention to the industrial area of central Honshu on the 30th, thento northern Honshu and Hokkaido on 9 and 10 August. The latter attacks thoroughly destroyed the marshaling area for a planned airborne suicide raid on theB-29 bases in the Marianas. On the 13th and 14th, her planes returned tothe Tokyo area and helped to subject the Japanese capital to another severe drubbing.

The two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and9th, respectively, convinced the Japanese of the futility of continued resistance.On the morning of 15 August, Ticonderoga launched another strike against Tokyo. During or just after that attack, word reached TF 38 to the effectthat Japan had capitulated.

USS Ticonderoga Association. Click Here!