|
The Independence-class light fleet carriers were a World War II expedient, designed to get aircraft carriers into the Pacific fighting as soon as possible while the bigger and more complex Essex-class fleet carriers were under construction. These ships were built by converting the existing hulls of Cleveland-class light cruisers, which saved considerable construction time. The U.S.S. Independence was originally laid down as the light cruiser Amsterdam, but was converted on the ways, along with eight other cruisers. Smaller and carrying fewer aircraft, the Independence-class ships were still fast and effective fighting ships. Only one of the class, Princeton, would be lost.
Independence conducted her flight trials and shakedown in the Caribbean, but with a war on she was soon in San Francisco in July and operating in Hawaiian waters shortly thereafter, training up for combat operations. On September 1, 1943 Independence made her combat debut in strikes against Marcus Island with the new carriers Essex and Yorktown. Destroying most of the island’s installations, this strike tested the effectiveness of the new combination of fast aircraft carriers in a task force formation. In October, Independence struck Wake Island. With carrier Saratoga later the same month, Independence attacked Rabaul, severely damaging several Japanese cruisers and other ships in the harbor. Operating in the Gilberts in November 1943, Independence shot down six aircraft but took one torpedo in the starboard quarter, causing serious damage. Repaired in San Francisco, Independence returned to Pearl Harbor in July of 1944 and began training for night carrier operations. In September, Independence was operating in the night combat role for the invasion of Palau, followed by attacks in the Philippines in preparation for the invasion of those islands. Part of the massive Task Force 38 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Independence participated in most of the air strikes directed at the Japanese fleet units. Her aircraft contributed to the sinking of the Japanese battleship Musashi, largest battleship in the world at the time, and disabled a heavy cruiser.
Independence was with the fast carrier task forces until almost war’s end, participating in attacks against Luzon, in the South China Sea, Formosa (Taiwan), Indo-China and China through January of 1945 when Independence was withdrawn and sent for overhaul and modernization at Pearl Harbor. Independence returned to combat for the Okinawa invasion in April and the series of fast carrier task force strikes against Japan proper, hunting down and sinking the remnants of the once mighty Imperial Japanese Navy in their home waters. When the war ended, Independence remained in the Tokyo area covering the landing of the occupation troops in Japan. Independence was selected as one of the ships to be used as a target for the 1946 Bikini atomic tests. Surviving both tests, the highly radioactive hulk was sunk in 1951. (DBoyer 2007)
|
