Co-founder of Microsoft used his richfag power to find the wreck of the U.S.S. Lexington, a U.S. aircraft carrier that was lost during World War II.
She participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea alongside the U.S.S. Yorktown (later lost in the Battle of Midway) in fending off a Japanese offensive to capture Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
Aircraft from the Lexington and Yorktown engaged the Japanese fleet and sank the light carrier Shōhō on May 7th, and the fleet carrier Shōkaku was heavily damaged the next day. Attacks from Japanese aircraft inflicted significant damage to the U.S.S. Lexington that day, and when vapors from leaking aviation gasoline tanks ignited on the flight deck, it cascaded into a series of fires and explosions that could not be controlled. Surviving crewmembers were evacuated and the carrier was scuttled by a U.S. destroyer on the 8th of May.
216 crewmen were killed and 2,735 were evacuated.
The "Lady Lex" was sunk with 35 aircraft on board, 11 of which have been found so far. The Douglas TBD-1 Devastator, the Douglas SBD Dauntless, and the Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat are a part of that aircraft compliment to have been discovered.
There were two. The first Lexington, the one that sunk, was a battlecruiser converted to an aircraft carrier. You can still see its guns in the picture. The second Lexington was a purpose built aircraft carrier that was named in honor of the first sunk ship.
Yea, CV-16 was an Essex-class carrier. CV-2 was a Lexington-class. Pretty neat that they were able to convert a cruiser into a carrier. Helps that the planes were somewhat smaller than what we use nowadays.
I like how we clearly remember a name said in passing in a B-rate movie from 30 years ago, but I can't for the life of me remember the name of a person I just met…
Gabriel Russell
What happens to the skeletons/bodies in these wrecks? Do they just get eaten by fish or are there still skeletons down there?
Landon Ortiz
Well it depends, for a decent amount of those guys there probably wasn't much left, bombs and torpedoes tend to do that. The evacuation of the ship took a good hour and a half iirc but I don't know if they bothered to recover bodies or not. There were probably at least a few dozen men trapped in flooded compartments, dead or not that were never recovered. There's nothing left of them, fish and whatever else ate them to nothing including the skeletons within a few weeks. Usually wrecks like this one are declared grave sites so no diving or anything like that although it's not like a human can dive that deep anyways
Leo Hernandez
Battlecruiser, not cruiser. Lexington was the heaviest carrier in the world up until around 1943.
Aaron Gomez
They swim to the shore for revenge
Nolan Reyes
Are you going by standard or deep load? Deep loading is often used for only irregular transits or purposeful raids. Since Lexington was refueled in preparation for a battle from the 25th of April onward, what did you expect? US Navy ship design emphasized armor and range, not necessarily speed. Wouldn't Saratoga displaced more as she incrementally received upgrades during her many, many trips back to Pearl Harbor and Stateside in 1942? If you are only going by standard load, the Akagi displaced "officially" 500 tons more, but with all the creative accounting by all the parties to the London Treaty, who knows what is right or not.
Jordan Gomez
Those are probably the most intact Devastators in the world.
Eli Rogers
Stop masturbating Jew.
Thomas Cruz
They can't even rust properly
Brandon Collins
Quit washing laamas, muzzie.
Lincoln Cruz
What are the chances of them being recovered, and could they be put into working order? I mean, if they can dig a P-38 out of a freakin' glacier and get it airworthy again, this should be nothing.
Gavin Johnson
Two miles down is a long way to go for one of the least beloved planes to ever fly under a US flag.
Logan Adams
Nobody will expect being torpedo'd by one. Its the perfect plan.
Cooper Morgan
The devastator wasn't a bad plane. The torpedo it carried was. Even then, they did sink a jap carrier early in the war. I think their failure at midway was more due to not having fighter cover combined with the shit torpedoes that had to be dropped at a low speed and only had a 10% chance of arming and sailing (if that's what you call what torpedoes do) correctly. Honestly I think a more detested plane flown by us would be the F-104 (which did nothing wrong ether.) While the plane actually deserving such a title should have been the F4F wildcat. just kidding its actually the F35
Jayden Nguyen
The Mk-13 was shit but the Devastator was still designed in 1934.
John Gonzalez
They still man their stations, hopelessly trying to resurface the ship so they may begin a Crusade of Vengence against Nippon.
Asher Howard
What was so bad about it apart from its piss poor straight line speed? The F2A was worse in almost every respect against the A6M2.
Connor Lee
Well it would be a great tax break for Paul.
Jacob Lee
wasn't the drop speed dangerously close to its stall speed?
