USS Ranger (CV-4) in 1944. US Navy Photo
The ship was another of the lucky few early aircraft carriers to survive World War II. Launched in 1933, she was the first carrier built from the keel up instead of converted from another type of hull. She weighed 14,500 tons and was 769 feet long, and could carry up to 86 P-40 planes. In 1942, she helped launch the Allies’ North Africa campaign from the coast of Morocco, and later attacked German shipping vessels near Norway. For her efforts, she was sold to Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. for scrap in January 1947.
USS
Ranger (CV-4) was the first ship of the
to be designed and built from the
up as an
.
Ranger was a relatively small ship, closer in size and displacement to the first US carrier—
—than later ships. An island
was not included in the original design, but was added after completion. Of the eight pre-war US aircraft carriers CV-1 through CV-8,
Ranger was one of only three to survive World War II, the others being
and
. Deemed too slow for use with the
's carrier task forces, the ship spent most of the war in the Atlantic Ocean.
Name: USS Ranger
Ordered: 1 November 1930
Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.
Laid down: 26 September 1931
Launched: 25 February 1933
Sponsored by: Lou Henry Hoover (the wife of the President of the United States)[3]
Commissioned: 4 June 1934
Decommissioned: 18 October 1946
Struck: 29 October 1946
Honors and
awards: American Defense Service Medal ("A" device)
American Campaign Medal
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (2 stars)
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Fate: Acquired for scrap for $259K on 31 January 1947
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