USS Belleau Wood was a United States Navy light aircraft carrier active during World War II in the Pacific Theater from 1943 to 1945. The Independence class were ordered as light cruisers of the , but during construction, they were converted into light carriers owing to the need for additional vessels of that type during the war. The ship was originally named New Haven, but was renamed Belleau Wood after conversion work had begun, after the Battle of Belleau Wood of World War I.
Belleau Wood saw extensive action during World War II, participating in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaigns in late 1943 and early 1944, and the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign in mid-1944. There, she saw action at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where her aircraft contributed to the sinking of the Japanese carrier . She fought in the Philippines campaign later that year, and saw action at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Shortly thereafter, she was damaged by a . After repairs, she supported the invasion of Iwo Jima in March 1945 and operations against the Japanese Home Islands. After the war, she participated in Operation Magic Carpet missions before being placed in reserve in 1947.
The ship was loaned to the French in the 1950s and served in the First Indochina War. During this period, she was renamed Bois Belleau, the French equivalent of her original name. The ship was returned to the United States in 1960, but was not retained in US Navy service; she was instead broken up for scrap that same year.
Design
The of light carriers came about as a result of a decision made in 1942 to convert a number of light cruisers then under construction. At the time, senior leaders in the US Navy had concluded that no new fleet carriers would enter service before 1944, when the first s would be completed. Therefore, they hoped that converting ships already being built would provide reinforcements for the fleet's carrier force. Ironically, was completed in December 1942, two months before entered service.
Belleau Wood was long overall and had a beam of and a draft of . Her standard displacement amounted to and increased to at full load. Her superstructure consisted of a small island style conning tower on the starboard side of the flight deck. Her crew numbered 1569 officers and enlisted men.
The Independence-class carriers were powered by four General Electric steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Each boiler was vented through its own small funnel, each of which was placed on the starboard side, directly behind the island. Rated at , the turbines were intended to give a top speed of .
The ship's flight deck was long, and it was fitted with two elevators. She carried a total of thirty aircraft, divided into twelve fighters, nine dive bombers, and nine torpedo bombers. For self defense, Belleau Wood carried an anti-aircraft battery of twenty-four Bofors guns, which were carried in two quadruple and eight twin mounts, along with twenty-two Oerlikon autocannon, all in individual mounts. These guns were primarily distributed along the length of the flight deck, though the quad 40 mm guns were placed on the main deck, on either end of the flight deck.
Service history
United States Navy Construction and initial service
The keel for Belleau Wood was laid down on 11 August 1941 at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. She was originally ordered as a Cleveland-class cruiser under the name New Haven, which was to be designated with the hull number CL-76. Starting in January 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the first of several of the new cruisers to be converted into light carriers, and New Haven was among those selected for conversion on 10 February. On 31 March, the ship was renamed Belleau Wood, after the Battle of Belleau Wood, a major battle fought by the Marine Corps during World War I. She also received an updated hull number: CV-24. The third member of what was now the Independence class of light carriers, the ship was launched on 6 December 1942, and after completing fitting out work, the ship, now renamed Belleau Wood, was commissioned on 31 March 1943.
Beginning in late May, Belleau Wood got underway for initial training in Chesapeake Bay, before a brief stay at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. On 8 June, she sailed to begin her shakedown cruise in the West Indies. She stopped in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 13 June, and thereafter conducted various training exercises, including damage control practice, flight training, and tactical maneuvers in the Gulf of Paria. She sailed back to the United States in early July, arriving in Philadelphia on 3 July. There, she underwent repairs and modifications to correct issues identified during the shakedown; on 15 July, she also received a new hull number: CVL-24. On 21 July, she departed for the Pacific Ocean, passing through the Panama Canal on 26 July, before meeting her sister ship , the Essex-class carrier , and six escorts in Balboa, Panama. The ships then sailed together for Pearl Harbor on 28 July, arriving there on 9 August. The ship's crew spent the following two weeks preparing to join the operation to seize Baker Island.
Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign
Belleau Wood was assigned to Task Group (TG) 11.2, which also included Princeton and seven escorts. The ships sortied from Pearl Harbor on 25 August, bound for Baker Island, which they reached on 1 September. That day, fighters from Belleau Woods combat air patrol (CAP) intercepted and shot down a Japanese Kawanishi H8K flying boat. Over the following two weeks, Belleau Wood and Princeton covered ground forces on the island as they constructed an airfield that would be used to support the impending Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. The two light carriers rejoined Lexington in mid-September to carry out strikes on Japanese positions in the Gilbert Islands on 18 and 19 September, as part of the preparatory attacks before the Battle of Tarawa. Her CAP also shot down a Mitsubishi G4M bomber that attempted to attack the fleet. Belleau Wood then returned to Pearl Harbor on 23 September to rearm and refuel, before sailing again to launch a raid on Wake Island on 29 September. For this operation, Belleau Wood was transferred to Task Group 14.5, which included five other carriers. Belleau Wood was primarily occupied with maintaining CAP defense for the fleet, but her air group launched two raids on the island. Two of her Grumman F6F fighters were lost during the raids, one of which was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft guns, and the other crashed on attempting to land. Four deck crewmen were killed in the accident. The ships then returned to Pearl Harbor on 11 October.
The ship spent the next month training off Pearl Harbor as the fleet readied for the invasion of Tarawa and Makin. Belleau Wood, now part of Task Group 50.2, which included her sister and the fleet carrier , sortied on 10 November. The three carriers struck Makin on 19 November, the day before the invasion of Tarawa began, and they continued to support the fighting on the two islands until 26 November, when the last Japanese resistance was defeated. The following day, Belleau Wood and Enterprise were transferred to Task Group 50.3, which also included Essex. The ships of TG 50.3 and TG 50.1 were sent to raid the Marshall Islands, both to weaken Japanese air power in the area and to reconnoiter Kwajalein Atoll, which was the target of the next major amphibious operation in the campaign. Belleau Wood provided the CAP that defended the task group on 4 December, while the other two carriers struck Kwajalein and Wotje. That evening, in a Japanese counter-attack, a G4M bomber nearly hit Belleau Wood with a torpedo that passed some to starboard. Lexington, of TG 50.1, was hit by a torpedo in the attack, and the two groups covered the damaged carrier as she withdrew to Pearl Harbor for repairs.
The fleet conducted training operations off Pearl Harbor for the next five weeks, and the ships' crews replenished fuel and ammunition for the next major operation, which was codenamed Flintlock: the invasion of the Marshall Islands. The fleet left Pearl Harbor on 16 January 1944; for the operation, Belleau Wood had been transferred to Task Group 58.1, along with Enterprise and the carrier . The carriers began raids on Japanese airfields on the Kwajalein, Wotje, and the Maloelap Atolls on 29 January to suppress Japanese air power in the area before the invasion. As before, Belleau Wood was primarily occupied with maintaining the CAP for the rest of the task group, but she did launch one raid on Taroa Airfield on the island of Taroa, one of the constituent islands of Maleolap. During that attack, two of Belleau Woods fighters were shot down by anti-aircraft fire. The carriers then transitioned to providing direct support to the soldiers and marines fighting in the Battle of Kwajalein, during which another three of Belleau Woods planes were shot down.
Belleau Wood and the rest of her task group sailed to Majuro to refuel and replenish munitions and other supplies on 4 February. They then returned to Kwajalein to resume operations against the Japanese defenders. The bulk of the Fast Carrier Task Force, including Belleau Wood, sailed west on 12 February to launch Operation Hailstone, a major attack on the Japanese base in Truk. The raid was intended to cover the next amphibious assault in the campaign, the invasion of Eniwetok. Belleau Wood once again provided air defense for the task group, and on the afternoon of 16 February, one of her fighters shot down a Nakajima B5N torpedo bomber. Following another series of attacks the next day, the task group withdrew to the east to refuel. The carriers sailed back west to attack Japanese positions on Tinian and Saipan in the Mariana Islands; Belleau Wood covered the rest of the carriers as usual. On 22 February, a pair of G4M bombers slipped through the CAP aircraft and attempted to bomb Belleau Wood, but her anti-aircraft battery shot both planes down before they could hit the ship. In the same attack, a Kawasaki Ki-61 fighter attacked Essex, but as it attempted to withdraw, Belleau Wood'''s guns shot it down as well. Two Kawasaki Ki-48 light bombers were also shot down by Belleau Wood fighters.
Operations in New Guinea
The fast carrier task force withdrew back to Majuro on 26 February for another period of replenishment and repairs. Belleau Wood also took on replacement aircraft after her losses in the campaign. Task Group 58.1, which by then included only Belleau Wood and Enterprise and their escorts, sailed on 7 March for Espiritu Santo in the south Pacific, which they reached five days later. There, they joined an amphibious assault force that struck the island of Emirau on 20 March. The landing on Emirau went unopposed, permitting TG 58.1 to sail north to strike airfields in the western Caroline Islands and on New Guinea to suppress Japanese air power in the region as other forces landed in Humboldt Bay and Tanahmerah Bay in the Battle of Hollandia. The carriers then steamed north to hit the Carolines again; Belleau Woods aircraft targeted Palau on 30 March, and the next day, she launched raids on Yap, Ulithi, and Ngulu. That same day, her fighters shot down two G4M bombers. The ships withdrew on 1 April, and while leaving the area, Belleau Wood sent her fighters to raid Woleai, destroying seven Japanese aircraft on the ground in the process.