Essex-class aircraft carrier

The Essex class is a retired class of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy. The 20th century's most numerous class of capital ship, the class consisted of 24 vessels which came in "short-hull" and "long-hull" versions. Thirty-two ships were ordered, but as World War II wound down, six were canceled before they were laid down and another two after construction had begun. Fourteen saw combat during World War II; none were lost to enemy action, although a few sustained crippling damage due to aerial attacks. Essex-class carriers were the backbone of the U.S. Navy from mid-1943 through the Korean War, and, with the three Midway-class carriers added just after the war, continued to be the heart of U.S. naval strength until supercarriers joined the fleet starting in the mid-1950s. Most of the carriers were rebuilt, some more thoroughly than others, with less heavily modified examples serving in anti-submarine roles and more heavily updated ones, able to handle moderate-sized jets, seeing service in the Vietnam War, with Lexington the last to be retired, being decommissioned as a training carrier in 1991. Of the 24 ships in the class, four – Yorktown, Hornet, Lexington, and Intrepid – have been preserved as museum ships.

Sources ↗ Wikipedia