USS Langley (CV-1)

USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter (AC-3), and also the U.S. Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers CV-2 and CV-3. Langley was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion, to a seaplane tender, Langley fought in World War II. On 27 February 1942, she was attacked by dive bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.

Service history

Collier

President William H. Taft attended the ceremony when Jupiter's keel was laid down on 18 October 1911 at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. She was launched on 14 August 1912 sponsored by Mrs. Thomas F. Ruhm; and commissioned on 7 April 1913 under Commander Joseph M. Reeves. Her sister ships were Cyclops, which disappeared without a trace in World War I, Proteus, and Nereus, which disappeared on the same route as Cyclops in World War II.

USS Langley

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USS Hammann (DE-131)

USS Hammann (DE-131) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.

She was named after Charles Hazeltine Hammann who was awarded the Medal of Honor, when, as a pilot of a seaplane 21 August 1918, off the coast of Italy, he dived down and landed next to a downed fellow pilot, brought him aboard, and although his plane was not designed for the double load, brought him to safety amid constant danger of attack by Austrian planes.

Hammann was laid down 10 July 1942 as Langley, renamed Hammann 1 August 1942, launched by Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas, 13 December 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Lilliam Rhode, sister of Charles Hammann; and commissioned 17 May 1943, Lieutenant Commander B. D. deKay in command.

World War II North Atlantic operations

Hammann departed 5 June for Bermuda and shakedown operations, returning to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6 July. From there the ship sailed to Norfolk, Virginia, and on 13 July began the first of her many transatlantic convoy voyages. Her first four passages to Casablanca, Morocco, covered the period 13 July 1943 to 10 March 1944. During this period she screened convoys in company with escort carriers. She made several attacks on submarine contacts, but recorded no kills.

USS Langley (CVL-27)

USS Langley (CVL-27) was an 11,000-ton Independence-class light aircraft carrier that served the United States Navy from 1943 to 1947, and French Navy as the La Fayette from 1951 to 1963. Named for Samuel Pierpont Langley, American scientist and aviation pioneer, Langley received nine battle stars for World War II service. CVL-27 carried on the name and tradition of USS Langley (CV-1)(and was assigned hull classification symbol AV-3 on 11 April), the first US Navy aircraft carrier, which had been sunk on 27 Feb 1942.

Career

Langley was built at Camden, New Jersey. She was originally ordered as the light cruiser USS Fargo (CL-85), but by the time her keel was laid in April 1942, she had been redesigned as an aircraft carrier, using the original cruiser hull and machinery. Commissioned in August 1943, Langley went to the Pacific late in the year and entered combat in World War II during the Marshall Islands operation in January–February 1944. During the next four months, her planes attacked Japanese positions in the central Pacific and western New Guinea. In June 1944, she took part in the assault on the Marianas and in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.