Ship Modelers Association

This ship is a famous LEXINGTON class aircraft carrier that was built in 1927, pioneered many of the operational procedures for naval air operations and managed to survive throughout WWII while participating in many wartime operations.

Her vital statistics were: 888 feet in length, 105.5 feet in breadth and 130 feet depth, weighing in at 33,000 tons displacement. She had a compliment of 2,951 men, carried 81 aircraft, had 12 each 5 inch guns, 48 each 1.1 inch quad guns and 18 each 20 mm. She was built at the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, New Jersey in 1927.

She was originally laid down as a battle cruiser in 1921, her construction was changed by the Washington Naval Conference held that year that limited the tonnage of battleships and battlecruisers. As part of the agreement, the United States could convert two battlecruisers currently under construction to aircraft carriers. In the agreement the definition of an aircraft carrier was a ship built solely for carrying airplanes and armed with nothing larger than 8” guns.

Conversion was authorized in 1922, but she was not completed for nearly six years. The “SARA” differed from other aircraft carriers in that she and the “LADY LEX” had enclosed hangar decks. Her flight deck was constructed of steel with wooden planking. The “SARA” was one of the largest aircraft carriers built during the war, her size not being exceeded until after WWII. She was also fitted with 8” guns in addition to other changes over her lifetime.

On January 11, 1928, the first plane to land on SARATOGA’S flight deck was flown by her air officer, Marc A. Mitscher, who would go on to become a carrier task force commander during WWII. The same year she was assigned to the Pacific Fleet and through the 1930’s she participated in fleet exercises that helped develop and refine carrier strategy, tactics, and operations.

The SARATOGA was in San Diego when December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor happened. She sailed for Wake with Marine aircraft, calling at Pearl Harbor on December 22, one day before Wake Island fell. She then proceeded to rendezvous with LEXINGTON, but was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-16 just southwest of Oahu. She returned to the US to be repaired at Bremerton, Washington, where she had her 8” guns removed, then went back to Pearl Harbor, arriving there one day after the battle of Midway. She then proceeded to the South Pacific flying the flag of Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher in mid-July, and on August 7 her plans flew cover for the first Allied landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. The following Battle of the Solomons, on August 23rd, saw the SARATOGA’S planes sink the Japanese carrier RYUJO and damage the CHITOSE while SARATOGA herself went undetected. Even more important, the Japanese transports carrying reinforcements to Guadalcanal were recalled.

Unfortunately, on August 31 a Japanese submarine, I-26, again found the “SARA”, and she was left dead in the water. She was taken in tow by the USS MINNEAPOLIS until she could again proceed under her own power. She was repaired in Pearl Harbor and again proceeded to the Southwest Pacific where she remained through 1943, joined by the USS PRINCETON for the Bougainville landings on November 1, and staged a raid on the main Japanese base at Rabaul that resulted in heavy damage to six enemy cruisers and a destroyer. She took part in the invasion of the Gilbert Islands and then steamed for the West Coast for a much needed overhaul. She returned to the central Pacific in early 1944 and took part in the landings in the Marshall Islands. She then headed to the Indian Ocean to join Admiral Sir James Somerville’s Eastern Fleet. The force consisted of the British aircraft carrier HMS VICTORIOUS, four British battleships, the French battleship RICHELIEU, and the “SARA”. On April 15, 1944, the force launched and air raid on the Japanese held port of Sabang at the northwest tip of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, followed by a second raid on Surabaya. Both of these attacks caught the Japanese by surprise and resulted in heavy damage to the critical port facilities and oil depots.

The “SARA” then returned to Bremerton for repairs that lasted through the summer of 1944. At the same time, she started training pilots for night time carrier operations. She returned to the front lines in February of 1945 and flew raids against Tokyo and Yokohama. A few days after arriving, on the 21st of February, she was crashed by five kamikazes off Iwo Jima. The flight deck forward was destroyed, and she was hulled twice resulting in a loss of 123 members of her crew. She was able to return and be repaired, and by June she was ready to resume training operations off Hawaii.

She then established a record of carrying 29,204 troops home from the war area once the war was over, more than any other ship. She also held the record for the most carrier landings, with 98,549 since 1928. She was decommissioned after the war. In 1946 she was used as a target ship for Operation Crossroads, the nuclear weapons tests at Bikini Atoll. It was here that she sank on July 25th, 1946. She can still be seen today in the water off Bikini Atoll. She is a very popular diving venue.