Shangri La (CV 38) - Naval Cruise Book

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U.S.S. Shangri-La Launched February 24, 1944. Sponsor, Mrs. J. H. Doolittle. Honor guest, James Hilton, author of Lost Horizon was laid in the Norfolk Navy Yard - the twelfth of twenty-four Essex-class carriers. For thirteen months skilled workmen labored around the clock, shaping and forming the huge steel hull sections to be secured to the garboard and sheer strakesg fitting heavy steel traverse bulkheads to divide the long hull into compartments for machinery, storerooms, water tanks, fuel tanks, ammunition magazines, liv- ing compartments, and voids. Deck after deck, and month after month, the Shangri-La took shape. Into those machinery spaces went eight boilers developing 150,000 horsepower, capa- ble of driving her 33,000 tons through the water at 32 knots. Miles of electrical 5

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S 1 1 1 1 f 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 1 1 740 miles away. The raid, though only a token of things to come, served to bolster American morale as the United States and her Allies commenced the long journey to victory over a road made treacherous by twenty-three years of neglect and appeasement-a road where the bridges of isolationism, hasty dis- armament, politics, and labor disputes threatened permanent repair. Returning to Pearl Harbor, the Hornet crew heard the late President Roose- velt in one of his Ufireside chats relate the story of the raid on Japan from the mythical Shangri-La air base. Por the Hornet, there was more work. A strong Japanese fleet was reported at sea, steaming north and east, for an apparent attack on Midway and the Hawaiian Islands. Sighted June 3rd by a Navy PBY Catalina flying patrol 700 miles from Midway, the enemy force was attacked throughout the day by high-level Flying Fortresses. At nightfall Navy Catalinas commenced successful mast-high tor- pedo runs on the attacking fleet. Enemy search planes spotted American carriers the following morning and quicklycommunicated the news to Admiral Yamamoto aboard the huge, treaty- breaker battleship Yamato. The enemy commander ordered hiscarrier planes rearmed with torpedoes, canceling scheduled Midway bombing raids and turned to give battle to the outnumbered American forces. Caught with their torpedoes and planes down, the Japanese were hit almost immediately, suffering such losses that they were unable to gain the initiative. ' The Homet's Torpedo Squadron Eight led the carrier :flyers inlan unsup- ported attack on the enemy' flat-tops and their battleship-cruiser escort. As the sole survivor of the fifteen torpedo plane crews, Ensign Gay witnessed the balance of the battle from a liferaft in the waters of the Paciflc. Planes from the Yorktown and Entez'pz'is.e joined forces with Navy and Marine flyers from Midway's airstrips to continue strikes through the balance of the day. Deleted from the Jap Navy on June 4, 1942, the carrier Akagi C26,900- ton ex-battle cruiserj, the Kaga Cbattleship converted into carrier in 1928j, and the 10,050-ton carrier Soryu, hit by Enterprise planes and finished off by the submarine Nautilus. Also hit was the Sorytfs sister, the Hiryu, which sank the following morning. The cruiser Mikuma, 14,000-ton heavyweight from the Mitsubishi Yards at Nagasaki, succumbed from damages on June 6th, while sister Mogamz' escaped with heavy damage to go down under air attack off Mindanao, October 26, 1944. Their ranks thinned by the loss of the Yorktown and destroyer Hamman, the American task force returned to Pearl Harbor--the Hornet to fight one more great battle before the warheads of her consort's torpedoes ended her death agonies after Santa Cruz COctober 26, 19425. The Ho-met had scarcely been stricken from the Navy Register before a new namesake Cex-Kearsage, keel laid August 3, 1942j began to take shape on the ways at Newport News. On January 15, 1943, the keel was laid for the Shangri-La, named for the Ho-rne't's alter ego. So it is today that two carriers share the same proud heritage, - The Shangri-La was ordered August 7, 1942, in the midst of a nationwide bond-selling drive to make the Shan-gri-La myth a reality. The Bureau of Per- sonnel received a record number of requests for duty aboard even before her keel -fe-1-i F ly lfig 2.i 'EEZ up lf .,4, 'it iz. if S Q is 1? ls , 1 1 1 I 4 I 1 1 1 4 G J .4 7. re 5

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Captam James D Barnet chats wzth Mrs James H Doolittle wiring and intricate machinery were installed and her hull reached the height of a four story building as she was readied for her call to duty. Amid a cheering crowd of nearly 100 OOO the Shangri-La slid gracefully down the builder s ways on February 24 1944 Speaking over a worldwide to the new craft as the carrier tasted salt water for the first time. Prom February to September the precommissiomng detail of the Shangri-La arrived to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of this immense steel city. For in effect she was a Clty of more than two thousand population with her own power light and heating plant a cobbler tailor and barbor shop. Her radio network, Mrs. J. H. Doolittle, wife of General Doolittle, bid Godspeed