USS Ranger (CV-4)

USS Ranger (CV-4) was an interwar United States Navy aircraft carrier, the only ship of its class. As a Treaty ship, Ranger was the first U.S. vessel to be designed and built from the keel up as a carrier. She was relatively small, just 730 ft long and under 15000 LT, closer in size and displacement to the first US carrier—USS Langley (CV-1)—than later ships. An island superstructure was not included in the original design, but was added after completion.

Deemed too slow for use with the Pacific Fleet's carrier task forces against Japan, she spent most of World War II in the Atlantic Ocean, where the German fleet, the Kriegsmarine, was a weaker opponent. Ranger saw combat in that theater and provided air support for Operation Torch. In October 1943, she fought in Operation Leader, air attacks on German shipping off Norway. She was sold for scrap in 1947.

Design and development
Work began in 1925 on the design of a fourth aircraft carrier for the US Navy, as a follow-on to the small USS Langley (CV-1), converted from a collier, and the large USS Lexington (CV-2) and USS Saratoga (CV-3), which were in the process of being converted from incomplete battlecruisers. Carrier number four was the Navy's first opportunity to design a ship built as an aircraft carrier. Preliminary design work occurred before extensive operation of the preceding three. Having limited experience to draw on, key characteristics of the design were derived from wargaming experience at the U.S. Naval War College. During design and construction many alterations would occur as a result of increasing experience with Langley, Lexington, and Saratoga.

The major limitation constraining any design was the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. After Lexington and Saratoga, there were 69000 LT remaining for construction of aircraft carriers. This resulted in modeling for three 23,000 long ton carriers, four 17,250 ton carriers, and five 13,800 ton carriers. Of the three sizes, the smaller 13,800 was selected because the five hulls would have the largest aggregate aircraft capacity. Wargames had indicated that severe attrition to airframes and hulls would occur in any war. The college's solution was to maximize the number of aircraft and hulls allowable under the treaty.

Initially, Ranger was designed as a flush-decker, like Langley, with nothing extending above the flight deck. Keeping the flightdeck clear of obstacles complicated the arrangement of machinery. The smoke from her six boilers was vented up six small stacks, with three on each side of the aft hangar. The stacks were hinged and were rotated to a position parallel with the hangar deck during flight operations. The unusual stack arrangement is a carry-over from her flush-deck design. When an island was added midway through construction, rebuilding the uptakes into the island was rejected as too costly. The further aft the boilers were placed, the further aft the stacks could be too, dispersing smoke over less of the deck. Concerns about smoke dispersion impacted propulsion design. Size of the plant influenced both the placement of the boilers and the amount of smoke generated. A moderate 53,000shp power plant could be placed further aft than a 100,000shp plant without affecting trim. The smaller plant also produced fewer gasses than a 100,000shp plant. Due to space limits, the carrier was equipped with geared turbines.

Nearly her entire upper deck was devoted to the hangar. The large height and open girders of the flight deck structure allowed for stowage of spare fuselages. The hangar deck was semi-open and had large roll-up metal curtain doors which could be closed in bad weather. The open hangar was adopted to allow the installation of two catapults on the hangar deck for the launching of observation aircraft. The catapults were dropped to save cost. Ranger also incorporated a gallery deck between the flight deck and hangar deck.

The flight deck was a light superstructure sheathed in wood. Designed as a weight-saving measure, the light wood deck was found to be easily repairable. Three elevators were provided to move aircraft between the flight deck and hangar deck. Outriggers at the edge of the flight deck provided extra stowage for aircraft on deck. The carrier operated 76 aircraft as constructed; equal to Lexington with half the displacement.

The carrier was one of the first U.S. Navy ships mounted with light automatic weapons to defend against dive-bombing attacks, and was initially armed with forty .50 cal machine guns. Complementing the machine guns were eight dual-purpose 5-inch (127 mm)/25 caliber guns controlled by two Mark 33 directors. The machine guns were arrayed along the gallery and the 5-inch guns arrayed with one at each corner of the gallery, two at the bow, and two on the fantail.

Construction, refit, and modernization
Authorized by Congress on 13 February 1929, the U.S. Navy opened bids for the construction of the aircraft carrier on 3 September 1930. Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company outbid Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation and New York Shipbuilding Company for the contract. In November, Newport News Shipbuilding received the contract to build her. The contract price was 15.2 million dollars. On 10 December, the name Ranger was assigned to the planned aircraft carrier.

Ranger was laid down on 26 September 1931 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia, and launched on 25 February 1933, sponsored by Lou Henry Hoover, First Lady of the United States. Late in construction the design was modified to include an island, increasing her displacement to 14,500 tons. Commencing trials on 1 May 1934, Ranger made 30.35 kn and generated 58,700 shp. She was commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 4 June 1934, with Captain Arthur L. Bristol in command.

To save money, Ranger was initially designed and commissioned without torpedo stowage or a torpedo bomber squadron. Wasp was designed and commissioned to match. On 17 October 1941 approval was given to install torpedo stowage during the next overhaul in conjunction with the activation of a torpedo squadron. On 10 January 1942 Torpedo Squadron 4 (VT-4) was activated on ''Ranger. ''

Across the years many alterations were made to her armament. The first change was to consolidate the 5-in gun battery by pairing the four main deck guns with the four gallery deck guns. The anti-aircraft armament received a major upgrade when six 1.1-in quadruple mounts were installed; the 1.1-in battery replaced a battery of 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber guns installed months before as placeholders. In March 1942, the .50 cal machine guns were exchanged for much more capable Oerlikon 20mm cannons. Similarly, the 1.1-in battery was swapped with quadruple Bofors 40mm guns in December 1942. Ranger's ultimate armament was six 40mm quadruple mounts and forty-six 20mm mounts.

On 13 December 1943, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King had approved an extensive modernization. Since Ranger's commissioning, the size of carrier aircraft had grown enormously. Her flight deck supports were no longer capable of supporting the weight of a complete, modern air group. Other aircraft operating improvements were contemplated. The aft elevator was to be enlarged, the amidship elevator was to be replaced with a deck-edge elevator, and two flight deck catapults were to be installed. Weight and protection issues were to be solved by blistering the hull. Armament was to be increased with six additional 40mm quadruple mounts. Admiral King favored having the conversions done, but the Bureau of Ships insisted that allocating the manpower and resources required to accomplish this would considerably delay the completion of new aircraft carriers under construction. The full project was indefinitely postponed on 5 April 1944 after the third, increasing estimate. After arriving at New York Harbor on 16 May, Ranger entered the Norfolk Navy Yard to have her flight deck strengthened, new aircraft catapults installed, and radar equipment updated. This provided her with the capability of night fighter-interceptor training.

Inter-war period
Ranger conducted her initial flight operations off the Virginia Capes on 21 June 1934 and departed Norfolk on 17 August for a shakedown training cruise that took her to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo. She returned to Norfolk on 4 October for operations off the Virginia Capes and two stints in dry dock for post trial repairs until 1 April 1935, when she sailed for the Pacific. Transiting the Panama Canal on 7 April, she arrived in San Diego on 15 April. For nearly four years, she participated in fleet problems reaching to Hawaii, the first-ever carrier cold weather test trials in Alaska, and in western seaboard operations that took her as far south as Callao, Peru, and as far north as Seattle, Washington. On 4 January 1939, she departed San Diego for winter fleet operations in the Caribbean based at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. She then steamed north to Norfolk, arriving on 20 April.

Ranger cruised along the eastern seaboard out of Norfolk and into the Caribbean Sea. In the fall of 1939, she commenced Neutrality Patrol operations, operating out of Bermuda along the trade routes of the middle Atlantic and up the eastern seaboard up to NS Argentia, Newfoundland.

In December 1940, Ranger 's VF-4 became one of the first units to receive the newer Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats.

1942
In December 1941, she was returning to Norfolk from an ocean patrol extending to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Arriving in Norfolk on 8 December, she sailed on 21 December for patrol in the South Atlantic. She then entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs on 21 March 1942. Ranger was one of 14 ships to receive the early RCA CXAM-1 radar.

Ranger served as flagship of Rear Admiral Arthur B. Cook, Commander, Carriers, Atlantic Fleet until 6 April 1942, when he was relieved by Rear Admiral Ernest D. McWhorter, who also broke his flag in Ranger.

On 15 April 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill cabled President Franklin Delano Roosevelt requesting North Carolina and Ranger reinforce the British Eastern Fleet in the wake of the Indian Ocean Raid. The day before in response to advance notice of the reinforcement request routed through General George Marshall, who was then visiting London, Admiral Ernest King had already definitely stated that Ranger and any other major fleet unit could not be made available for the Indian Ocean. He stated the only manner at all in which the Navy could assist was by using Ranger to ferry the pursuit planes necessary to bring the 10th Air Force up to full operational strength. King's draft response to Churchill's insistence displayed a lack of tact. Roosevelt supported King, but toned down King's draft by playing up Ranger's faults to steer the British towards accepting the ferry mission.

Steaming to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, Ranger loaded 68 Curtiss P-40Es and put to sea on 22 April, launching the Army planes on 10 May to land at Accra, on the Gold Coast of Africa (Ghana). The P-40s were a general reinforcement for the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers (soon to be redesignated as the Army Air Forces' 23rd Fighter Group) in China, to replenish their losses as well as forming a second unit, the 51st Fighter Group. Although no difficulties were encountered in flying off Ranger's deck, errors in crossing Africa led to the loss of 10 or so en route. Upon return to Quonset Point on 28 May, she made a patrol to Argentia, Newfoundland.

After Rommel's victories in May and June, most notably the fall of Tobruk during the Battle of Gazala, the United States agreed to commit to the North African theater a total of nine combat groups, of which seven groups were to be in operation by the end of 1942. Ranger's contribution to the establishment of the Ninth Air Force was to ferry another 72 Army P-40s. This time she ferried a complete combat unit, 57th Fighter Group, which she launched off the coast of Africa for Accra on 19 July. Lessons learned from the previous ferry mission resulted in negligible losses, for which the 57th received commendations. The Group was operational with the Desert Air Force in time to participate in the Second Battle of El Alamein.

After calling at Trinidad, she returned to Norfolk for local battle practice until 1 October, then based her training at Bermuda, in the company of four new Sangamon-class escort carriers, ships converted from oil tankers to increase U.S. air power in the Atlantic Ocean.

As the largest carrier in the Atlantic Fleet, Ranger led the task force that comprised herself and the four escort carriers. These provided air superiority during the amphibious invasion of Vichy-ruled French Morocco. On 8 November 1942, Allied landings in French North Africa (Operation Torch) began. Vichy French government forces attacked the Allied forces in defense of the neutrality of French Morocco, in what became known as the Naval Battle of Casablanca.

It was still dark at 06:15 that day, when Ranger—stationed 30 mi northwest of Casablanca—began launching her aircraft to support the landings made at three points on the Atlantic coast of North Africa (Operation Torch). Nine of her Wildcat fighters attacked the Rabat and Rabat-Sale aerodromes, headquarters of the French air forces in Morocco. Without loss to themselves, they destroyed seven planes at one field, and 14 bombers at the other. Another flight destroyed seven planes on the Port Lyautey field. Some of Ranger's planes strafed four French destroyers in Casablanca Harbor, while others strafed and bombed nearby shore batteries.

The Vichy French battleship FRENCH BATTLESHIP Jean Bart opened fire with the four 15 in guns of her one operational turret on U.S. warships covering the landings. She was hit and moderately damaged by Ranger's dive bombers, then silenced by the fifth hit from the 16 in guns of the American battleship USS Massachusetts (BB-59), which jammed the rotating mechanism of the one working turret.

Jean Bart's 15 in turret was quickly repaired. On 10 November, Jean Bart opened fire again, and almost hit the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31), the Task Force 34 flagship. In retaliation, bombers from Ranger inflicted severe damage on Jean Bart with two heavy bombs hitting the bow and the stern, causing the French battleship to sink into the harbor mud with decks awash. In addition to damaging and sinking Jean Bart, Ranger's attack aircraft scored two direct bomb hits on the French destroyer leader FRENCH DESTROYER Albatros, completely wrecking her forward half and causing 300 casualties. They also attacked the French cruiser FRENCH CRUISER Primauguet as she sortied from Casablanca Harbor and dropped depth charges within killing range of two submarines. Ranger's planes also knocked out coastal defense and anti-aircraft batteries, destroyed more than 70 enemy aircraft on the ground, and shot down 15 aircraft in aerial combat. It was estimated that 21 enemy light tanks were immobilized and some 86 military vehicles destroyed – most of them troop-carrying trucks. Ranger had launched 496 combat sorties in the three-day operation, with 16 planes lost or damaged beyond repair.

Casablanca capitulated to the American forces on 11 November. Ranger departed from the Moroccan coast on 12 November, returning to Hampton Roads on 24 November and Norfolk on 14 December 1942.

On 2 December 1942, Ranger was again requested for in a cable from Churchill to Roosevelt, this time in connection to American misfortunes. The loss of Hornet in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands kicked off a confused series of messages seeking British carrier reinforcement in the Pacific. To meet the request, Churchill offered both Illustrious and Victorious in exchange for Ranger replacing Victorious in the Home Fleet. King accepted one carrier but retained Ranger to use in the Atlantic or the Pacific at his discretion.

1943


Following training in Chesapeake Bay, Ranger underwent an overhaul at the Norfolk Navy Yard from 16 December 1942 to 7 February 1943. By December 33 Fighter Group had taken heavy losses in Tunisia and needed reinforcement. Responding to Eisenhower's request, Ranger departed Norfolk on 8 January with the 325th Fighter Group aboard for delivery to Casablanca. She repeated the mission with another load, 75 P-40L fighters of the Army Air Forces' 58th Fighter Group to Africa, arriving at Casablanca on 23 February.

On 25 April 1943, German radio announced "Achtung! Achtung! We are proud to announce that a German submarine has sunk the United States aircraft carrier Ranger in the North Atlantic!" Following this broadcast, German news releases reported that Commander Otto von Bülow of the U-boat GS U-404, personally decorated by Adolf Hitler with Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross, had "in addition to torpedoing four steamers, caught and sank the American aircraft carrier Ranger."

The US Navy, concerned about the impact of the German announcement on families of Ranger crewmen, issued a denial of the German claim. In the radio broadcast dated 15 February 1944, Captain Gordon Rowe, Commanding Officer of USS Ranger, stated:

The story that we were sunk was a coward's trick—spreading anxiety and fear among the innocent.... The next day we issued a denial and ... on October 4 we spread panic and chaos in the Norwegian shipping lanes. Only one thing we regret. We kept looking for the Tirpitz but either she wouldn't or couldn't come out.... Meanwhile, the Ranger, still very much afloat, is doing her job.

She patrolled and trained pilots along the New England coast steaming as far north as Halifax, Nova Scotia. Departing from Halifax on 11 August, she joined the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland, on 19 August, with which she patrolled the approaches to the British Isles.



Ranger departed from Scapa Flow with the Home Fleet on 2 October to attack German shipping in Norwegian waters (Operation Leader). The objective of the force was the northern Norwegian port of Bodø. The task force reached launch position off Vestfjorden before dawn on 4 October completely undetected. At 06:18, Ranger launched 20 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers and an escort of eight Wildcats. One division of dive bombers attacked the freighter La Plata, while the rest continued north to attack a German ship convoy. The bombers severely damaged a tanker and a smaller troop transport. They also sank two of four small German merchant ships in the Bodø roadstead.

A second attack group from Ranger—consisting of 10 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers and six Wildcats—destroyed a German freighter and a small coastal ship, and bombed a troop-laden transport. Three of the aircraft were lost to anti-aircraft fire. On the afternoon of 4 October, Ranger was located by three German aircraft; her combat air patrol shot down two of the enemy planes and chased away the third.

Ranger returned to Scapa Flow on 6 October. She patrolled with the British 2nd Battle Squadron in waters extending northwestward to Iceland, and then she departed from Hvalfjord on 26 November, arriving at Boston on 3 December.

1944–1945
On 3 January 1944, Ranger became a training carrier out of Quonset Point, Rhode Island. This duty was interrupted on 20 April when she steamed to Staten Island, New York, to take on 76 Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters—together with Army, Navy, and French Navy personnel—for transportation to Casablanca. Steaming out on 24 April for her fifth and final transatlantic ferry mission, she arrived at Casablanca on 4 May. The new aircraft were exchanged with damaged U.S. Army aircraft marked for repair in the U.S., while military passengers were embarked for the return to New York City. After New York City, she moved to Norfolk for refit on 19 May 1944.

On 11 July, she departed from Norfolk and headed for Panama. She transited the Panama Canal five days later, embarked several hundred U.S. Army passengers at Balboa, Panama, then sailed to San Diego, arriving there on 25 July. After embarking the men and aircraft of Night Fighting Squadron 102 and nearly 1,000 U.S. Marines, Ranger steamed for Hawaiian waters on 28 July, reaching Pearl Harbor on 3 August. During the next three months, Ranger conducted night carrier flight training operations out of Pearl Harbor.

Ranger departed from Pearl Harbor on 13 October to train new naval pilots for combat duty. Operating out of San Diego under the Commander, Fleet Air, Alameda, California, Ranger continued training air groups and squadrons along the California coast throughout the remainder of the war. Ranger was the only pre-war U.S. carrier never to have engaged Japanese forces in battle.

Post war
Departing San Diego on 30 September 1945, she embarked civilian and military passengers at Balboa and then steamed for New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving on 18 October. Following Navy Day celebrations there, she sailed on 30 October for brief operations at Pensacola, Florida, as a training carrier, later relieved in that role by USS Saipan (CVL-48). After calling at Norfolk, she entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 19 November for overhaul. She remained on the eastern seaboard until decommissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard on 18 October 1946. Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 October, she was sold for scrap to Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania, on 31 January 1947.

Awards
Ranger was awarded two Service stars and various ribbons/awards: