USS Independence (CVL-22)

USS Independence (CVL-22)

USS Independence in San Francisco Bay, 15 July 1943
History
United States
Name	Independence
Builder	New York Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down	1 May 1941
Launched	22 August 1942
Commissioned	14 January 1943
Decommissioned	28 August 1946
Fate	Target in nuclear weapons testing, 1946; scuttled 29 January 1951
General characteristics
Class and type	Independence-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	10,662 tons standard, 14,751 tons loaded
Length	623 ft (190 m)
Beam	71.5 ft (21.8 m) (waterline) 109.2 ft (33.3 m) (extreme)
Draft	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion	General Electric turbines, 4 shafts, 4 boilers; 100,000 shp
Speed	31 knots (57 km/h)
Range	13,000 nautical miles (24,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement	1,569 officers and men (inc. air group)
Armament	26 × Bofors 40 mm guns
Aircraft carried	original plan was 30; 9 dive bombers 9 torpedo-bombers 12 fighters; for most of war operated 33–34, 24–26 fighters and 8–9 torpedo bombers.

USS Independence (CVL-22) (also CV-22) was a United States Navy light aircraft carrier. The lead ship of her class, she served during World War II.

Converted from the hull of a Cleveland-class light cruiser, she was built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation and commissioned in January 1943. She took part in the attacks on Rabaul and Tarawa before being torpedoed by Japanese aircraft, necessitating repairs in San Francisco from January to July 1944.

After repairs, she launched many strikes against targets in Luzon and Okinawa. Independence was part of the carrier group that sank the remnants of the Japanese Mobile Fleet in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and several other Japanese ships in the Surigao Strait. Until the surrender of Japan, she was assigned to strike duties against targets in the Philippines and Japan. She finished her operational duty off the coast of Japan supporting occupation forces until being assigned to return American veterans back to the United States as part of Operation Magic Carpet.

Independence was later used as a target during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests. After being transported back to Pearl Harbor and San Francisco for study, she was later sunk near the Farallon Islands.