Untitled Document
Lexington Aircraft Carrier
The powerful maritime nations, such as Great Britain, Japan, the US and others, were paying considerable attention to the development of the naval weaponry, including aircraft carriers. As a class carriers were included in the inventory towards the end of WWI. At that time both aircraft and aircraft carriers were far from being perfect, but the shrewdest specialists saw the great war potential in marine career aviation. Therefore, in the US and other countries various attempts were made to form the ultimate image of a carrier and to find its place among the naval weaponry. Moreover, as in Japan the US after signing the Washington Treaty was in possession of several hulls of half-built battleships. Two of those, Lexington and Saratoga, were later transformed into aircraft carriers.
The Americans designed the basic features of a carrier for those ships. They were characterized with an island structure shifted to the right side, a high exhaust pipe, and a full decks. The ships were extremely popular in the navy, and were nicknamed “Lady Lex” and “Lady Sara”. They were the biggest, fastest, and largest turboelectric combat ships in the world, as well as the longest vessels with the largest exhaust pipe and the most spacious aircraft hangar. However, this can well be explained by their heritage from the period as battleships, than by engineers’ intention.
At first, the fate favoured the carriers: during the Pearl-Harbor assault Lexington left for Midway with the dozen SB2U Marine Corps’ bombers, and “Saratoga” was stationed at San-Diego. “Lady Lex” and “Lady Sara” distinguished themselves during the war as well, not all their records being flattering for the American navy. Lexington became the first American carrier to be destroyed. That happened during the battle in the Coral Sea on May 7, 1942. Saratoga was twice struck by submarine torpedoes, and twice arrived one day late for a battle, including the battle at Midway. But afterwards “Lady Sara” completely restored her reputation by crushing the Japanese ships both in the open sea and in harbors.
Lexington Aircraft Carrier in the "Pacific Storm"
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