Lady Lex found
Billionaire Paul Allen reports that his crew has discovered the final resting place of USS Lexington, the lead ship in her class of aircraft carriers.
The Gray Lady was scuttled by US destroyers during the Battle of Coral Sea when Japanese planes attacked and ignited aircraft fuel aboard the carrier. USS Lexington had been on patrol during the attack on Pearl Harbor. From Wiki;
Lexington was at sea when the Pacific War began on 7 December 1941, ferrying fighter aircraft to Midway Island. Her mission was cancelled and she returned to Pearl Harbor a week later. After a few days, she was sent to create a diversion from the force en route to relieve the besieged Wake Island garrison by attacking Japanese installations in the Marshall Islands. The island was forced to surrender before the relief force got close enough, and the mission was cancelled. A planned attack on Wake Island in January 1942 had to be cancelled when a submarine sank the oiler required to supply the fuel for the return trip. Lexington was sent to the Coral Sea the following month to block any Japanese advances into the area. The ship was spotted by Japanese search aircraft while approaching Rabaul, New Britain, but her aircraft shot down most of the Japanese bombers that attacked her. Together with the carrier Yorktown, she successfully attacked Japanese shipping off the east coast of New Guinea in early March.
Lexington was briefly refitted in Pearl Harbor at the end of the month and rendezvoused with Yorktown in the Coral Sea in early May. A few days later the Japanese began Operation Mo, the invasion of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and the two American carriers attempted to stop the invasion forces. They sank the light aircraft carrier Sh?h? on 7 May during the Battle of the Coral Sea, but did not encounter the main Japanese force of the carriers Sh?kaku and Zuikaku until the next day. Aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown succeeded in badly damaging Sh?kaku, but the Japanese aircraft crippled Lexington. Vapors from leaking aviation gasoline tanks sparked a series of explosions and fires that could not be controlled, and Lexington had to be scuttled by an American destroyer during the evening of 8 May to prevent her capture.
From the US Navy Institute;
Billionaire-turned-explorer Paul Allen has discovered the missing wreck of the World War II carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) at the bottom of the Coral Sea.
The crew of his personal research ship R/V Petrel found the missing ship two miles below the surface and about 500 miles off the eastern coast of Australia, he announced on Monday.
“To pay tribute to the USS Lexington and the brave men that served on her is an honor,” Allen said in a statement.
“As Americans, all of us owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who served and who continue to serve our country for their courage, persistence and sacrifice.”
Category: Navy
Awesome find. The father of one of my high school friends was aboard at the time she was scuttled and had to abandon ship.
One of my nieces, age 8, recently took an interest in the history of Naval Aviation after finding some books full of pictures in my “history nerd” library. She found a photo of Lexington on fire and asked me about it. Having some spare time on my hands, I took it upon myself to do a web search to find every photo I could of the Battle of the Coral Sea for her, and there’s quite a few that don’t usually get published.
I also told her what I know of Lexington’s history, like how the ship’s first major operation was to hook up to the Tacoma power grid to provide electricity to the city for a month during a blackout in December of 1929. She ate that info right up.
A lot of men died aboard Lexington, but as tough as she was, she stayed afloat long enough to ensure that many more could get off safely. Good ship.
Robert Heinlein’s first assignment after graduating from Annapolis was Lexington.
Learned something new. Heinlein is one of my favorites. I rip out Starship Troopers about once a year for my Johnny Rico fix.
Good news.
Not all internet billionaires are left wing, libidiot, loons…
Thankfully…
Paul Allen is a pretty good guy. He steers clear of politics for the most part. He is a great owner of the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trailblazers. He also has a airplane museum at Paine Field in Everett WA called Warbirds. He has about every type of fighter aircraft that has ever been used in war. All of the planes are in working order. My father in law visits quite often and says it is awesome.
He also has a nice collection of tanks there as well.
Nice work sir! God bless the men who served and died on her.
Glad to know that she was found.
God rest her men well. They gave their all.
I’m glad she was found, now leave her, and her men alone.
If the Navy wishes to recover any specific artifacts such as the ship’s bell or leave a plaque, that’s cool. Otherwise, take only pictures, leave only wake, and don’t publish her coordinates.
Looking on some other sites running the story, I saw somebody suggest a recovery effort for some of her aircraft, which are in remarkably good condition—including the only intact TBD Devastators known to exist. Honestly, considering that most of the aircraft lie in the debris field outside the wreckage and wouldn’t require destroying or disturbing any part of the ship to get to them, I suppose I could get behind that. Of course they’ll never fly again, barring divine intervention, but I wouldn’t mind taking my kids to see some of Lady Lex’s warbirds in a museum. Not sure if anyone with the money to do it will care to foot the bill, but I kinda think it would be cool if they did, with the Navy’s permission.
Two miles down, probably will keep amateurs away from the wreck. We hope.
The fucking Red Chinese have been ravaging every wreck they can get their godless commie hands on lately for scrap metal. No surprise there, though, as they don’t even respect their own history, much less anyone else’s.
I think I remember that the Lexington was found a number of years ago. She was sitting upright on the bottom. A crew member lived across the street from me, Elmer Kruger, but never would us kids about the sinking.
Are you sure that wasn’t Yorktown? She was rediscovered by Bob Ballard around that time, and rests on a even keel.
TOW,
Thank you, you are correct. It was the Yorktown that I was thinking of.
Steve
“To pay tribute to the USS Lexington and the brave men that served on her is an honor,” Allen said in a statement.
“As Americans, all of us owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who served and who continue to serve our country for their courage, persistence and sacrifice.”
Damn right, Mr Allen, damn right.
Bless those brave men, their families and this great country where such citizens heed the call.
(It got a little dusty in here)
Amazing how they can locate these ships that are at great depths. I’m trying to track the Seabed Explorer that is searching for the missing MH370 flight but the vessel has not turned on it’s AIS since Feb.11th of this year so I do not know it’s location. I guess that they want to keep the vessel’s movements a secret.
It used to be fun to play WWII or military history trivia quizzes, but with the internet, EVERYTHING can be found within seconds.
Still, what the heck, I’ll throw a trivia question out and see how long it’ll take before the right answer comes back in.
USS LEXINGTON (CV-2) was the first U.S. carrier sunk in WWII. Which was the LAST U.S. carrier sunk in WWII?
Last fleet carrier: Hornet
Last carrier of any size: St. Lo and Gambier Bay
Wasn’t the St. Lo the carrier that Master Chief Billy Sunday swam up five decks to safety when she went under?
Held his breath for five minutes I heard.
Last U.S. carrier sunk in WWII was USS BISMARCK SEA (CVE-95), hit by two kamikazes in the Bonins while providing air support to the Iwo Jima invasion in Feb 1945, over 300 of her crew of 900 were KIA when CVE-95 went down.
As for the last fleet carrier sunk, it was USS PRINCETON (CVL-23), sunk by a Japanese dive bomber during the beginning phase of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in Oct 1944…
I stand corrected on the CVE. However, Princeton was an Independence-class light carrier (built on a Cleveland-class light cruiser hull), not a fleet carrier, hence the CVL. I therefore stand by my answer regarding Hornet being the last fleet carrier lost.
Also, Langley was sunk before Lexington, but had been converted to a seaplane tender.
The Langley was a training carrier. The USS Lexington CV-2 was our first true Fleet Carrier.
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USNA Plebe question, “What is the only commissioned ship in the Navy today that has water cooled hand rails?”
You have ten seconds, begin. (Stand down, Master Chief. Let’s see how they do)
*grin*
Can you imagine how many ships rest in the English channel? Just consider how many have sunk for several thousand years. Must be a literal graveyard of ships down there.
This was my father’s ship. He was a GM1C on the starboard aft 5″/25 AA guns, and got tore up pretty good while they were defending the ship. He got stretchered off to a destroyer not too long before they abandoned ship. He said when it finally sunk it was glowing red and sizzled as the water took it. About 220 crew went with it, among them most of the Marine Detachment, many of whom were killed on the port forward 5″/25 guns.
2 miles down….dayammmm
Respect for the dead and all that, but I’d sure like to have the bell and ratfuck the Officer’s mess for the silver set.
Recovery of the ship’s bell for respectful memorial display is cool. Same for certain other artifacts of the ship. Going through the crew’s personal lockers and taking their stuff is not. Tearing the wreck apart to get to something is not.
I wanna use the bell for nekkid twister matches.
Coed or all-girl?
Yes