Hobby Master Archive

USS Yorktown (CV-5) Named after a town in Virginia, where the climactic battle of the American Revolution was fought in the autumn of 1781. Two previous US warships had borne this name. USS Yorktown, a 19,800 ton aircraft carrier built at Newport News, Virginia, was commissioned on 30 September 1937. Operating in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas until April 1939, she then spent the next two years in the Pacific. In May 1941 Yorktown returned to the Atlantic, patrolling actively during the troubled months preceding the outbreak of war between the United States and the Axis powers. Once again returning to the Pacific, she saw action in the Marshalls-Gilbert Islands, “Battle of the Coral Sea” where Yorktown first became badly damaged May 8 1942. Heroic efforts by dry dock personnel at Pearl Harbor repaired Yorktown in time for the Battle of Midway. During the “Battle of Midway” she was badly mauled at 1200 and 1445 on June 4 1942 by torpedoes and bombs. She was abandoned and taken in tow on the June 5th in an effort to once again return “The Fighting Lady” to Pearl for repairs. But this wasn’t to be, she was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-168 on the 6th and sunk by slow flooding just after sunrise on the June 7 1942.