October 27, 1942 the USS Hornet CV-8 was sunk following her engagement in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. The Hornet, a 20,000 ton Yorktown class aircraft carrier, was launched Dec.14, 1940 and commissioned Oct.20, 1941. Hornet was on her sea trials in the Atlantic when the war broke out. Her first mission was to be the Doolittle raid.

On Apr.18, 1942, 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers took off from the Hornet, under the command of Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle. The mission was to bomb the Japanese homeland. The raiders managed to bomb Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Kobe. This was an almost suicidal mission as all the bomber crews knew it was a one way mission. After bombing Japan the idea was to take the planes to China and turn them over to Chiang Kai-shek to help the Chinese in their battle against Japan. The raid only caused minor physical damage but caused the Japanese to rethink their military strategy. After all this attack happened only 4 months after the U.S. fleet had been destroyed at Pearl Harbor. The Japanese were now forced to keep more ships and planes closer to the home islands.

After the Doolittle raid, Hornet returned to Pearl, but on Apr.30, 1942 she headed out to join Yorktown and Lexington in the Battle of the Coral Sea. The battle was over before she arrived so she returned to Pearl once again. She sailed on May 28, 1942 for Midway. Hornet sustained no damage in the battle, and her planes had aided in the sinking of the destroyer Mikuma and damaged at least 2 others. However all 15 TBD devastator dive bombers of VT-8 were shot down, only one of the 30 crew on those planes survived, Ens. George Gay, he was the only American to witness the destruction of the Japanese carriers. He was immortalized in the movie Midway.

After Midway Hornet returned to Pearl and on Aug.17,1942 she left Pearl on her last mission. She sailed for the Solomons to guard the approaches to Guadalcanal. And on Oct.26 the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands took place. Hornet's planes attacked and severely damaged the carrier Shokaku and the cruiser Chikuma. At the same time Hornet was under attack by dive bombers and torpedo planes. In a short time bombs had hit the flight deck and hangers, 2 torpedoes had hit the starboard side and she was hit by 2 Kamikaze aircraft. She was dead in the water, on fire and listing 12 degrees. The cruiser Northampton attempted to take her in tow, but this failed. After learning that a large Japanese force was approaching from the North, Admiral Kinkaid ordered the Hornet to be scuttled. The crew was removed and Capt. Mason was the last man to leave the ship. The destroyers Mustin and Anderson torpedoed the Hornet and when that did not work they fired over 400 5" shells at her. Still she would not go down, but time was up and she was left to the Japanese. The Japanese destroyers Makigumo and Akigumo finished her off early in the morning of Oct.27, 1942. Hornet had a crew of over 2900, of these 111 never came home. The USS Hornet was stricken from the Navy list on Jan.13,1943.

© 2005 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com

USS Hornet CV-8 under attack