Ship Modelers Association

The USS FRANKLIN was a ESSEX-class aircraft carrier that was 872 feet long, 93 feet wide and 27 feet 8 inches in depth with a 27,100 ton displacement. She was steel hulled with a wooden flight deck. She carried 85 aircraft, had 12 each 5” guns, 68 40mm anti-aircraft guns, with a geared turbine power plant generating 15,000 shp on 4 shafts with a top speed of 32.7 kts. She was built at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia in 1944. She was named for the Civil War Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, fought on November 30, 1864.

USS FRANKLIN entered service in June, 1944. Her first action was taking part in raids on the Bonin and Mariana Islands in support of American landings on Saipan and Quam, followed by raids on Japanese positions in the Western Pacific. During the invasion of the Philippines, on October 27, her planes helped sink ZUIHO, ZUIKAKU, and CHIYODA, three of the four Japanese carriers sunk at the Battle of Cape Engano. While patrolling off Samar on the 29th, USS FRANKLIN was struck by two kamikazes and lost 56 crew dead and 60 wounded. After repairs on the West Coast, in February 1945 she joined the U.S. Fleet off the island of Okinawa.

From there she sailed to a station off the Japanese home islands. On March 19th, while only 50 miles from Honshu, a lone airplane landed two bombs on USS FRANKLIN. The resulting explosions knocked out her engines and the ship was soon engulfed in flames. Thanks to highly effective damage control measures, though, she took a 13-degree list to starboard. Even so, the FRANKLIN’S crew managed to bring her under her own power to Pearl Harbor, never giving up on the ship despite the terrible damage. From there they sailed her to the West Coast. With emergency repairs done there, she then sailed for New York. During all of this, a particularly when the fires were initially being brought under control during the initial phase of the action, she lost 724 men killed and 265 wounded. This heroic effort by the crew of the USS FRANKLIN resulted ultimately in her men being presented with more medals and commendations than any other unit in the history of the U.S. Navy, including 2 Medals of Honor, 19 Navy Crosses, 22 Silver Stars, 115 Bronze Stars, and 234 letters of commendation. Franklin was undergoing repairs at New York when the war ended, and two years later she was put in the reserve fleet. Twelve years later she was reclassified as an auxiliary air transport (AVT-8.) Stricken from the U.S. Navy list in 1964, she was crapped at Norfolk in 1968.

There is a resin kit model of the USS FRANKLIN that is available on the internet from Totalnavy.com. It is their catalog number A 117 at 1/350 scale, which makes a pretty good model of a ship this large. The model of the USS FRANKLIN is based on the 1944 late war configuration. The kit maker is Trumpeter and the cost is $114.95 plus shipping, since the company is based in New York. I do not know of any other model of this ship that is available at this time.