Posted on 03/06/2018 6:11:05 AM PST by George - the Other
The wreck of a US aircraft carrier that was sunk during World War Two has been found off the coast of Australia.
The USS Lexington was found 3km (2 miles) underwater in the Coral Sea, about 800km off Australia's east coast.
The ship was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought with Japan from 4-8 May 1942. More than 200 crew members died in the fighting.
The US Navy confirmed the ship had been discovered by a search team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
BFL
The ship is a tomb. I say let it be.
Your grandfather's ships got smaller as the war progressed - 888 feet, 43,000 tons for Lady Lex, 500 feet, 10,000 tons for the card.
The Card has an interesting history too. After a very successful career as a U-Boat killer during WWII she was decommissioned in 1946 but unlike most escort carriers she was re-activated in 1958 and went on to serve as a helicopter ferry in the Vietnam war. She was sitting peacefully at a pier in Saigon in 1964 when a North Vietnamese frogman planted an explosive charge that blew a big hole in her side. She settled in shallow water but was raised and returned to service, finally being decommissioned for the last time in 1970.
It took you 14 years to figure that out?
That is more interesting, than what you just noticed.
OOPs,
Ignore that. I somehow posted that comment to the wrong thread.
To my Armor & Army ping list, a special Navy ping to spread the news of the discovery of the wreck of the USS Lexington, CV-2.
The two aircraft in the video and/or still shots are a TBD-1 Devastator torpedo plane and a F4F-3 Wildcat fighter. The missing section behind the cockpit is where the fighter’s life raft was stored.
Here is a link to her history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(CV-2)
It could outgun anything in the US Navy today (8 8” guns and 12 5” guns. It would class out as a heavy cruiser even without the big guns it was originally designed to carry.
And the original American carriers, like the Langley, were built on collier hulls.
The Blue Ghost, USS Lexington (CV-16), is still around and at Corpus Christi if anyone wants to see her.
Thanks for the ping.
OOPS, Never mind. You are correct, sir.
CV-16 Lexington was renamed after the original lost in the Coral Sea.
For some reason, I thought the original Lex was a Cruiser.
My dad was on the Yorktown when she was hit in the Coral Sea. Stayed on her till she went down at Midway. Spent the rest of the war on USS West Virginia BB 48.
She sank in the Coral Sea. She was found in the Coral Sea. Where else did they expected it to turn up, in the Caribbean?
Worth a visit - it's in great shape.
"We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog."
Bill Murray, "Stripes"
Could have, given the Bermuda Triangle and all. Of course, the Triangle is well north of the Caribbean, but still....
Since it was actually sunk by the USS Phelps after many ships helped rescue her crewmen, the location wasn’t really unknown.
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