Wreck of USS Princeton (CVL-23)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, aircraft carrier, United States Navy

Laid down at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in June 1941 as the Cleveland Class Light Cruiser Tallahassee (CL-61), USS Princeton came into being in February 1942 when her still-incomplete hull was ordered reconstructed as an Independence Class Light Carrier to help stem the heavy Carrier losses suffered in the early days of the Second World War against the Japanese Empire. Formally redesignated as CVL-23 and renamed Princeton in March 1942, she commissioned into US Navy service at Philadelphia in February 1943 and promptly stood out for service with the US Pacific Fleet.

Arriving at Pearl Harbor in August 1943, the Princeton and her crew immediately joined the Allied effort to drive the Japanese forces from the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, seeing combat at Makin and Tarawa before detaching to conduct airstrikes on Bougainville and the Japanese Navy base at Rabaul through the end of 1943, after which she returned stateside for a period of repairs and overhaul. Returning to the fray in mid-January 1944, Princeton once again made for the Marshall Islands where her aircraft struck at Kwajalein, Majuro, Eniwetok and Engebi through March before Carrier and crew moved onward to the Caroline Islands and struck at the Palaus, Woleai and Yap. After a brief detachment to support the Hollandia Invasion on New Guinea in late April, Princeton shaped a course back for Pearl Harbor, with her aircrews raiding Truk and Ponape en route. Following a brief repair, refit and replenishment period in Hawaii, the Princeton and her crew returned to action off the Marianas Islands, conducting airstrikes on Guam, Rota, Tinian, Pagan and Saipan through mid-June before the arrival of a large Japanese Carrier force brought ship and crew face-to-face with their counterparts in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

In what would become known to the Allies as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”, Princeton’s airwing contributed 30 aerial victories over enemy aircraft while her gunners downed four more in the sound defeat of the once-elite Imperial Japanese Navy Air Arm, allowing the successful invasion of the Marianas Islands. Switching her focus to the Philippine Islands, the Princeton began her role in the liberation of the former American colony on September 9th by launching airstrikes against Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon into late September before she retired to Ulithi Atoll to prepare and provision for the upcoming American Invasion. Attached to Task Group 38.3 and tasked with providing air cover to the landing beaches at Dulag and San Pedro Bay on Leyte, the Princeton sent her airwing aloft on October 20th to strike Japanese airfields as American forces went ashore, and as she cruised off Leyte her gunners settled in for the inevitable Japanese air attack to materialize. After three days of near-constant flight operations in support of ground forces, Princeton’s crew prepared for more of the same as daylight broke on the 24th of October, but shortly after dawn radar screens picked up several high-flying enemy aircraft in the distance which were assumed to be recon aircraft. Assuming their location was betrayed, the Princeton and her escorts closed ranks and prepared for the enemy to arrive in force, however shortly before 1000hrs only a few Japanese aircraft in small groups had materialized. With few enemy aircraft in the area, Princeton’s hangar crews were preparing to send a fresh group of aircraft topside for a combat air patrol when a single Japanese D4Y “Judy” suddenly materialized out of the could cover and streaked towards the ship, catching her crew by largely surprise and releasing its bomb straight onto the Carrier’s flight deck.

Striking Princeton’s unarmored flight deck between her aircraft elevators and plunging straight into her hangar, the Japanese bomb detonated upon impact with the hangar deck and totally destroyed several fully-fueled and armed aircraft, causing heavy casualties and starting several large fires. Within moments ammunition detonations began to rock the ship as bombs and rockets began to cook off, holing both the hangar and flight deck, starting more fires and exposing more of the Carrier’s internal spaces to pools of burning aviation gasoline. As damage control teams made their way into Princeton’s hangar deck to fight the enormous fire, they were greeted with hundreds of machine gun rounds cooking off in all directions, forcing many to seek sheltered positions. Princeton’s Captain attempted to steer his ship to keep the fires aft, but after an hour the out of control fires forced the ship to a halt as the headwind created by the ships motion only served to fuel the fires consuming the latter half of the vessel. The Destroyer USS Irwin (DD-794) and Light Cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-62) both came alongside to assist in firefighting efforts aboard the Princeton but the presence of Japanese aircraft and concerns over Submarine threats soon saw the Irwin detached and the Birmingham and her crew assuming all assistance efforts for the next four hours.

By 1500hrs many of the worst fires in Princeton’s hangar deck had been extinguished, allowing damage control and medical teams to attempt shoring up efforts across the seriously damaged ship. Volunteer damage control teams from the Birmingham were sent aboard to assist with these efforts, while many topside crew aboard the Birmingham set about damage control for their own ship, which was receiving damage from being directly alongside and rubbing against the Carrier in the open seas. Efforts to contain and extinguish a stubborn fire deep below the Princeton’s after decks continued until the flames or heat from the fires proved too much for torpedoes stored in their magazine aboard the Carrier, which detonated en masse at 1524hrs and caused an explosion which killed almost every man located in Princeton’s Stern, Hangar and rear Flight Deck and swept the Birmingham’s crew-filled superstructure and deck with a shrapnel-filled blast wave.

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, all was bedlam. Birmingham, which had taken serious damage from the blast and had nearly half her crew wiped out by death or injury, slowly drifted away from the shattered hulk of the Princeton, which was once again on fire and suffering ammunition detonations. The order to abandon ship was passed at 1600hrs as the fires once again grew out of control, and despite the obvious threat of another heavy-order detonation aboard the ship, the USS Irwin again closed alongside and began removing the majority of Princeton’s 1,361 survivors before withdrawing at 1706hrs and leaving the ship abandoned. Ordered to dispatch the Carrier with torpedoes, the Irwin’s crowded decks and topside damage from her earlier firefighting efforts left her incapable of delivering the scuttling blow, so she was duly relieved by the Light Cruiser USS Reno (CL-96) at 1746hrs, which sent a full spread into the battered Carrier’s hull. At 1749hrs the Princeton was rocked by yet another enormous explosion as her forward munitions magazines detonated, sending a fireball over 2000ft into the air and all but splitting the ship in half. Rapidly flooding and rolling onto her side, USS Princeton sank bow-first at this location at 1750hrs on October 24th, 1944, taking 108 of her crew with her.

For her actions during the Second World War, USS Princeton received nine Battle Stars

www.navsource.org/archives/02/23.htm