View of the flight deck of the USS Independence aircraft carrier (CVL-22) during an ocean storm.
USS Independence aircraft carrier – a series of US light aircraft carriers during the Second World War. Designed in 1941, when the United States experienced a shortage of ships of this class, and new heavy aircraft carriers of the Essex type, as expected, would be ready no earlier than 1944. To speed up the construction, it was decided to rebuild some of the Cleveland-class light cruisers into light aircraft carriers.
In total, in 1941-1943, nine ships of the USS Independence aircraft carrier type were built, which became the only series of light aircraft carriers in the United States that went into operation during WWII.
Despite the fact that the USS Independence type aircraft carriers were almost three times smaller than the heavy Essexes, they were actively used until the end of the war, with one of them, Princeton, sunk by Japanese carrier-based aircraft during the battle in Leyte Bay on October 24 1944 year.
Location: Pacific
Photo Time: October 04, 1944