USS Essex (CV-9): Backbone of the Pacific Fleet

In USS Essex (CV-9): Backbone of the Pacific Fleet, Stephen Carrington tells the story of the aircraft carrier that became one of the central instruments of American naval power during the Second World War. From the tense aftermath of Pearl Harbor to the vast carrier offensives that carried the war across the Pacific, USS Essex emerged as far more than a single warship. She became part of a new form of naval warfare built upon industrial strength, naval aviation, radar technology, logistics, and the coordinated power of the Fast Carrier Task Force. Drawing on wartime operational records, naval reports, combat accounts, technical development history, and the broader evolution of carrier doctrine, Carrington follows Essex from her construction in the shipyards of Newport News through the brutal realities of the Pacific War. He explores the engineering and strategic thinking behind the Essex-class design, the immense industrial effort that produced America's wartime carrier fleet, and the operational system that allowed carriers to project overwhelming force across thousands of miles of ocean. From the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf to the kamikaze battles around Okinawa and the final strikes against the Japanese homeland, Essex helped define the mature form of carrier warfare that reshaped naval history forever. More than the story of a single carrier, this book examines the transformation of maritime warfare in the twentieth century. Powerful, adaptable, and built for sustained operations across the largest ocean on earth, USS Essex became a symbol of the industrial and operational might that carried the United States Navy from the darkest days of 1942 to victory in the Pacific and into the opening years of the Cold War.

Pagina's: 162, Paperback, Independently published