Key Points – The WWII-era Essex-class aircraft carriers were a pivotal development that served as a historic bridge to the modern carrier age. Some experts consider this one of the best classes ...

This Is Why No Essex-Class Aircraft Carriers Were Lost In World War II The Navy’s earlier carriers were limited in size due to the Washington Naval Treaty signed in 1922.

Perhaps no vessel embodies the U.S. Navy’s embrace of the aircraft carrier as the centerpiece of its strategy as the Essex -class carrier. Between 1943 and 1950, twenty-four of the thirty ...

Later classes such as the Essex and Independence class carriers demonstrated greater aircraft capacity, survivability, and resilience.

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), an Essex-class aircraft carrier, fought in battles across the Pacific Theater, including at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. It suffered heavy casualties during the invasion of ...

Laid down on December 1, 1941, and commissioned on August 16, 1943, the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Intrepid was one of 24 of its kind built during World War II. Having been launched so late ...

USS Oriskany (CVA-34), named after the 1777 Battle of Oriskany, was an Essex-class aircraft carrier that stood 872-feet long with a beam of 147.5 feet. The US Navy commissioned her in 1950 and ...

The Essex-class aircraft carrier, which saw combat in WWII and Vietnam, was the recovery vessel for the Apollo 11 and 12 missions.

Third Fleet’s forward base at Ulithi Atoll, the centerpiece of the image five Essex-class aircraft carriers anchored in a row stretching to the horizon.

A Navy flattop just arrived in Hawaii with an unusual cargo: a fleet of World War II-era warbirds. The Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex arrived in Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor — site of ...