USS Ranger (CV-4)

Ranger conducted her initial flight operations off the Virginia Capes on 21 June 1934[25] and departed Norfolk on 17 August[26] for a shakedown training cruise that took her to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo.[25] She returned to Norfolk on 4 October[27] for operations off the Virginia Capes and two stints in dry dock for post trial repairs[28] until 1 April 1935,[29] when she sailed for the Pacific. Transiting the Panama Canal on 7 April,[29] she arrived in San Diego on 15 April.[29] For nearly four years, she participated in fleet problems reaching to Hawaii,[30] the first-ever carrier cold weather test trials in Alaska,[31] and in western seaboard operations that took her as far south as Callao, Peru,[32] and as far north as Seattle, Washington. On 4 January 1939, she departed San Diego for winter fleet operations in the Caribbean based at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.[33] She then steamed north to Norfolk, arriving on 20 April.[34]

Ranger cruised along the eastern seaboard out of Norfolk and into the Caribbean Sea. In the fall of 1939, she commenced Neutrality Patrol operations,[35] operating out of Bermuda along the trade routes of the middle Atlantic and up the eastern seaboard up to NS Argentia, Newfoundland.[2]

In December 1940, Ranger's VF-4 became one of the first units to receive the newer Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats.[36]

In December 1941, she was returning to Norfolk from an ocean patrol extending to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.[37] Arriving in Norfolk on 8 December,[38] she sailed on 21 December for patrol in the South Atlantic. She then entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs on 21 March 1942.[39] Ranger was one of 14 ships to receive the early RCA CXAM-1 radar.[40]

Ranger served as flagship of Rear Admiral Arthur B. Cook, Commander, Carriers, Atlantic Fleet—until 6 April 1942, when he was relieved by Rear Admiral Ernest D. McWhorter, who also broke his flag in Ranger.[41]

On 15 April 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill cabled President Franklin Delano Roosevelt requesting North Carolina and Ranger reinforce the Eastern Fleet in the wake of the Indian Ocean Raid. The day before in response to advance notice of the reinforcement request routed through General George Marshall, who was then visiting London, Admiral Ernest King had already definitely stated that Ranger and any other major fleet unit could not be made available for the Indian Ocean. He stated the only manner at all in which the Navy could assist was by using Ranger to ferry the pursuit planes necessary to bring the 10th Air Force up to full operational strength. King's draft response to Churchill's insistence displayed a lack of tact. Roosevelt supported King, but toned down King's draft by playing up Ranger's faults to steer the British towards accepting the ferry mission.[42]

Steaming to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, Ranger loaded 68 Curtiss P-40Es and put to sea on 22 April, launching the Army planes on 10 May to land at Accra, on the Gold Coast of Africa (Ghana).[43] The P-40s were a general reinforcement for the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers (soon to be redesignated as the Army Air Forces' 23rd Fighter Group) in China, to replenish their losses as well as forming a second unit, the 51st Fighter Group.[44] Although no difficulties were encountered in flying off Ranger's deck, errors in crossing Africa led to the loss of 10 or so en route.[45] Upon return to Quonset Point on 28 May, she made a patrol to Argentia, Newfoundland.

After Rommel's victories in May and June, most notably the fall of Tobruk during the Battle of Gazala, the United States agreed to commit to the North African theater a total of nine combat groups, of which seven groups were to be in operation by the end of 1942. Ranger's contribution to the establishment of the Ninth Air Force was to ferry another 72 Army P-40s. This time she ferried a complete combat unit, 57th Fighter Group, which she launched off the coast of Africa for Accra on 19 July. Lessons learned from the previous ferry mission resulted in negligible losses, for which the 57th received commendations. The Group was operational with the Desert Air Force in time to participate in the Second Battle of El Alamein.[46]

After calling at Trinidad,[47] she returned to Norfolk for local battle practice until 1 October, then based her training at Bermuda,[48] in the company of four new Sangamon-class escort carriers, ships converted from oil tankers to increase U.S. air power in the Atlantic Ocean.[2]

Aircraft on Ranger's deck during Operation Torch

As the largest carrier in the Atlantic Fleet, Ranger led the task force that comprised herself and the four escort carriers. These provided air superiority during the amphibious invasion of Vichy-ruled French Morocco. On 8 November 1942, Allied landings in French North Africa (Operation Torch) began. Vichy French government forces attacked the Allied forces in defense of the neutrality of French Morocco, in what became known as the Naval Battle of Casablanca.[49]

It was still dark at 06:15 that day, when Ranger—stationed 30 mi (48 km) northwest of Casablanca—began launching her aircraft to support the landings made at three points on the Atlantic coast of North Africa (Operation Torch).[50] Nine of her Wildcat fighters attacked the Rabat and Rabat-Sale aerodromes, headquarters of the French air forces in Morocco. Without loss to themselves, they destroyed seven planes at one field, and 14 bombers at the other. Another flight destroyed seven planes on the Port Lyautey field. Some of Ranger's planes strafed four French destroyers in Casablanca Harbor, while others strafed and bombed nearby shore batteries.[2][51]

French battleship Jean Bart attacked by planes from Ranger

The Vichy French battleship Jean Bart opened fire with the four 15 in (381 mm) guns of her one operational turret on U.S. warships covering the landings. She was hit and moderately damaged by Ranger's dive bombers, then silenced by the fifth hit from the 16 in (406 mm) guns of the American battleship Massachusetts, which jammed the rotating mechanism of the one working turret.

Jean Bart's 15 in turret was quickly repaired. On 10 November, Jean Bart opened fire again, and almost hit the heavy cruiser Augusta, the Task Force 34 flagship. In retaliation, bombers from Ranger inflicted severe damage on Jean Bart with two heavy bombs hitting the bow and the stern, causing the French battleship to sink into the harbor mud with decks awash.[52][53] In addition to damaging and sinking Jean Bart, Ranger's attack aircraft scored two direct bomb hits on the French destroyer leader Albatros, completely wrecking her forward half and causing 300 casualties. They also attacked the French cruiser Primauguet as she sortied from Casablanca Harbor and dropped depth charges within killing range of two submarines. Ranger's planes also knocked out coastal defense and anti-aircraft batteries, destroyed more than 70 enemy aircraft on the ground, and shot down 15 aircraft in aerial combat. It was estimated that 21 enemy light tanks were immobilized and some 86 military vehicles destroyed – most of them troop-carrying trucks. Ranger had launched 496 combat sorties in the three-day operation, with 16 planes lost or damaged beyond repair.[2]

Casablanca capitulated to the American forces on 11 November.[54] Ranger departed from the Moroccan coast on 12 November,[55] returning to Hampton Roads on 24 November and Norfolk on 14 December 1942.[56]

On 2 December 1942, Ranger was again requested for in a cable from Churchill to Roosevelt, this time in connection to American misfortunes. The loss of Hornet in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands kicked off a confused series of messages seeking British carrier reinforcement in the Pacific. To meet the request, Churchill offered both Illustrious and Victorious in exchange for Ranger replacing Victorious in the Home Fleet. King accepted one carrier but retained Ranger to use in the Atlantic or the Pacific at his discretion.[57]

Memorial for pilots lost in battle in 1943, Fagervika, Norway

Following training in Chesapeake Bay, Ranger underwent an overhaul at the Norfolk Navy Yard from 16 December 1942 – 7 February 1943. By December 33 Fighter Group had taken heavy losses in Tunisia and needed reinforcement. Responding to Eisenhower's request, Ranger departed Norfolk on 8 January with the 325th Fighter Group aboard for delivery to Casablanca.[58] She repeated the mission with another load, 75 P-40L fighters of the Army Air Forces' 58th Fighter Group to Africa, arriving at Casablanca on 23 February.[59]

On 25 April 1943, German radio announced "Achtung! Achtung! We are proud to announce that a German submarine has sunk the United States aircraft carrier Ranger in the North Atlantic!" Following this broadcast, German news releases reported that Commander Otto von Bülow of the U-boat U-404, personally decorated by Adolf Hitler with Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross, had "in addition to torpedoing four steamers, caught and sank the American aircraft carrier Ranger."

The US Navy, concerned about the impact of the German announcement on families of Ranger crewmen, issued a denial of the German claim. In the radio broadcast dated 15 February 1944, Captain Gordon Rowe, Commanding Officer of USS Ranger, stated:

The story that we were sunk was a coward's trick—spreading anxiety and fear among the innocent.... The next day we issued a denial and ... on October 4 we spread panic and chaos in the Norwegian shipping lanes. Only one thing we regret. We kept looking for the Tirpitz but either she wouldn't or couldn't come out.... Meanwhile, the Ranger, still very much afloat, is doing her job.[60]

She patrolled and trained pilots along the New England coast steaming as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia.[61] Departing from Halifax on 11 August,[62] she joined the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland, on 19 August, with which she patrolled the approaches to the British Isles.[62]

The freighter La Plata being attacked off Bodø

Ranger departed from Scapa Flow with the Home Fleet on 2 October to attack German shipping in Norwegian waters (Operation Leader).[63] The objective of the force was the northern Norwegian port of Bodø.[63] The task force reached launch position off Vestfjorden before dawn on 4 October[63] completely undetected. At 06:18, Ranger launched 20 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers and an escort of eight Wildcats. One division of dive bombers attacked the 8,000-gross register ton (GRT) freighter La Plata, while the rest continued north to attack a German ship convoy. The bombers severely damaged a 10,000 GRT tanker and a smaller troop transport. They also sank two of four small German merchant ships in the Bodø roadstead.[64]

A second attack group from Ranger—consisting of 10 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers and six Wildcats—destroyed a German freighter and a small coastal ship, and bombed a troop-laden transport. Three of the aircraft were lost to anti-aircraft fire. On the afternoon of 4 October, Ranger was located by three German aircraft; her combat air patrol shot down two of the enemy planes and chased away the third.[64]

Ranger returned to Scapa Flow on 6 October.[65] She patrolled with the British 2nd Battle Squadron in waters extending northwestward to Iceland,[66] and then she departed from Hvalfjord on 26 November,[66] arriving at Boston on 3 December.[66]

On 3 January 1944, Ranger became a training carrier out of Quonset Point, Rhode Island. This duty was interrupted on 20 April when she steamed to Staten Island, New York, to take on 76 Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters—together with Army, Navy, and French Navy personnel—for transportation to Casablanca.[67] Steaming out on 24 April for her fifth and final transatlantic ferry mission, she arrived at Casablanca on 4 May.[68] The new aircraft were exchanged with damaged U.S. Army aircraft marked for repair in the U.S., while military passengers were embarked for the return to New York City.[2] After New York City, she moved to Norfolk for refit on 19 May 1944.

Ranger passing through the Panama Canal in 1945

On 11 July, she departed from Norfolk and headed for Panama. She transited the Panama Canal five days later, embarked several hundred U.S. Army passengers at Balboa, Panama,[24] then sailed to San Diego, arriving there on 25 July.[69] After embarking the men and aircraft of Night Fighting Squadron 102 and nearly 1,000 U.S. Marines, Ranger steamed for Hawaiian waters on 28 July, reaching Pearl Harbor on 3 August.[69] During the next three months, Ranger conducted night carrier flight training operations out of Pearl Harbor.[69]

Ranger departed from Pearl Harbor on 13 October[70] to train new naval pilots for combat duty. Operating out of San Diego under the Commander, Fleet Air, Alameda, California, Ranger continued training air groups and squadrons along the California coast throughout the remainder of the war.[2] Ranger was the only pre-war U.S. carrier never to have engaged Japanese forces in battle.

Departing San Diego on 30 September 1945,[71] she embarked civilian and military passengers at Balboa[71] and then steamed for New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving on 18 October. Following Navy Day celebrations there, she sailed on 30 October[71] for brief operations at Pensacola, Florida, as a training carrier, later relieved in that role by Saipan.[72] After calling at Norfolk, she entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 19 November for overhaul. She remained on the eastern seaboard until decommissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 18 October 1946.[73] Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 October,[74] she was sold for scrap to Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania, on 31 January 1947.[74]