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Bunker Hill

Country United States Ship Class Essex-class Aircraft Carrier Hull Number CV-17 Builder Name Bethlehem Fore River Shipyard Laid Down 15 Sep 1941 Launched 7 Dec 1942 Commissioned 24 May 1943 Decommissioned 9 Jan 1947 Displacement 27,100 tons standard; 36,380 tons full Length 872 feet Beam 147 feet Draft 28 feet Machinery Eight boilers, four Westinghouse geared steam turbines, four shafts Bunkerage 6,330t fuel oil; 240,000gal aviation fuel Power Output 150,000 SHP Speed 33 knots Range 20,000nm at 15 knots Crew 2600 Armament 4x twin 5in 38 cal guns, 4x5in 38 cal guns, 8x quad 40mm 56 cal guns, 46x20mm 78 cal guns Armor 2.5 to 4in belt, 1.5in hangar and protective decks, 4in bulkheads, 1.5in STS top and sides of pilot Aircraft 90-100 Elevator 3

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseUSS Bunker Hill was commissioned during WW2. She was sent to the Pacific Ocean, participating in the strike on Rabaul, New Britain on 11 Nov 1943 six months after her commissioning. She then took part in the Gilbert Islands invasion, an attack on Kavieng in New Ireland, the Marshall Islands invasion, the carrier raid on Truk in the Caroline Islands, the Mariana Islands invasion, and many raids on Japanese bases across the Pacific Ocean. On 6 Nov 1944, she entered a period of maintenance and repairs at Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington, United States, and did not return to combat until 24 Jan 1945. In Feb 1945, she launched aircraft to support the Iwo Jima invasion. Later that month, Bunker Hill's aircraft raided the Japanese home islands. In Apr 1945, she supported the Okinawa invasion, where her aircraft was involved in the sinking of the battleship Yamato.

ww2dbaseOn 11 May 1945, while off Okinawa, Bunker Hill was struck by two kamikaze special attack aircraft. The first was a Zero fighter, whose 250-kilogram bomb tore through the vessel and exploded in the sea before the aircraft struck the flight deck and started a fire. 30 seconds later, Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa (also flying a Zero fighter) repeated the same attack, dropping his 250-kilogram bomb, which ignited aviation fuel, before plunging into the flight deck near the control tower. The two kamikaze special attacks killed 373 men aboard USS Bunker Hill and wounded 264 more. Badly damaged, she limped back to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for repairs. When she re-emerged from the shipyard in Sep 1945, the war was already over. Her last active duty mission was Operation Magic Carpet in which she brought home troops from the Pacific.

ww2dbaseWhile being on the decommissioned reserve list, USS Bunker Hill was re-classified several times. In May 1959, her final re-classification named her an auxiliary aircraft landing training vessel (AVT). She was used as a stationary electronics test platform in the 1960s and early 1970s, and was sold for scrap in May 1973.

ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.

Last Major Revision: Oct 2006

Aircraft Carrier Bunker Hill (CV-17) Interactive Map

Bunker Hill Operational Timeline

Photographs

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