USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)

USS Bunker Hill at sea in 1945
History
United States
Name	Bunker Hill
Namesake	Battle of Bunker Hill
Builder	Fore River Shipyard
Laid down	15 September 1941
Launched	7 December 1942
Commissioned	25 May 1943
Decommissioned	9 January 1947
Reclassified	CVA-17, 1 October 1952 CVS-17, 8 August 1953 AVT-9, May 1959
Stricken	2 November 1966
Fate	Scrapped, 1973
General characteristics
Class and type	Essex-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	27,100 long tons (27,500 t) (standard) 36,380 long tons (36,960 t) (full load)
Length	820 feet (249.9 m) (wl) 872 feet (265.8 m) (o/a)
Beam	93 ft (28.3 m)
Draft	34 ft 2 in (10.41 m)
Installed power	8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers 150,000 shp (110,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 × geared steam turbines 4 × screw propellers
Speed	33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Range	14,100 nmi (26,100 km; 16,200 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	2,600 officers and enlisted men
Armament	12 × 5 in (127 mm) DP guns 32 × 40 mm (1.6 in) AA guns 46 × 20 mm (0.8 in) AA guns
Armor	Waterline belt: 2.5–4 in (64–102 mm) Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm) Hangar deck: 2.5 in (64 mm) Bulkheads: 4 in (102 mm)
Aircraft carried	36 × Grumman F4F Wildcat 36 × Douglas SBD Dauntless 18 × Grumman TBF Avenger

USS Bunker Hill (CV/CVA/CVS-17, AVT-9) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was named for the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War. Commissioned in May 1943 and sent to the Pacific Theater of Operations, the ship participated in battles in the Southwest Pacific, Central Pacific and the drive toward Japan through Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and air raids on the Japanese homeland.

While covering the invasion of Okinawa, Bunker Hill was struck by two kamikazes in quick succession on 11 May 1945, setting the vessel on fire. Casualties exceeded 600, including 396 killed or missing, with 264 wounded.^[1][2] These were the second heaviest personnel losses suffered by any carrier to survive the war, after Franklin. After the attack, Bunker Hill returned to the U.S. mainland and was under repair when hostilities ended.

After the war, Bunker Hill was employed as a troop transport bringing American service members back from the Pacific, and was decommissioned in 1947. While in reserve the vessel was reclassified as an attack carrier (CVA), then an antisubmarine carrier (CVS) and finally an Auxiliary Aircraft Landing Training Ship (AVT), but was never modernized and never saw active service again. Bunker Hill and Franklin were the only Essex-class ships never recommissioned after World War II.^[3]

Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1966, Bunker Hill served as an electronics test platform for many years in San Diego Bay. An effort to save her as a museum ship in 1972 was unsuccessful and she was sold for scrap in 1973.