USS Yorktown (CV-5) During Builder's Trials

USS Yorktown (CV-5) during preliminary standardization trials off Rockland, Maine. The third Yorktown (CV-5) was laid down on May 21, 1934 at Newport News, Va., by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. Sponsored by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, she was launched on April 4, 1936. She commissioned at the Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Virginia, on September 30, 1937, Capt. Ernest D. McWhorter in command. After fitting out, the aircraft carrier trained in Hampton Roads and in the southern drill grounds off the Virginia capes into January of 1938, conducting carrier qualifications for her newly embarked air group. After shakedown in the Caribbean, she worked with USS Enterprise (CV-6) developing carrier tactics. She was based at San Diego until the Pacific Fleet moved to Hawaii. Yorktown operated out of Pearl Harbor through April 1941. Reporting to the Atlantic, she served in four neutrality patrols that were marked with increasing tension, then armed conflict with the German Kriegsmarine (Navy). On October 30, 1941, Yorktown's escorts engaged a German submarine with depth charges; the same day USS Reuben James was sunk by U-562. On December 7, she was birthed at Norfolk when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She fought in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, where she was damaged. Unprecedented yard work returned hert o combat in three days. At the Battle of Midway, she took two torpedoes and three bombs on June 4, 1942; IJN submarine I-168 torpedoed her and her escort USS Hammann (DD-412) on June 6. Yorktown rolled over and sank the next day.