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Photo # 80-G-212798:  USS San Jacinto underway off the east coast, 23 January 1944

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30, later AVT-5), 1944-1971

USS San Jacinto, an 11,000-ton Independence class small aircraft carrier built at Camden, New Jersey, was begun as the light cruiser Newark (CL-100). Converted to a carrier before launching, she was commissioned in December 1943. After a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, San Jacinto joined the Pacific Fleet in time to take part in the June 1944 Marianas operation and in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Over the summer, her planes struck targets in the Palaus, the Bonins and the Carolines. During October 1944, San Jacinto participated in raids on Okinawa, Formosa and the Philippines and in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Following that great naval battle, she was part of the task groups that continued the Western Pacific offensive with attacks on targets in the Philippines, Formosa and around the South China Sea.

In February and March 1945, San Jacinto's planes raided the Japanese Home Islands on two occasions and assisted with the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Remaining off the latter island over much of the next three months, she battled suicide planes and helped destroy the final Japanese surface warship attack of the Pacific War. San Jacinto again struck targets in Japan during July and operated in the area through the last days of the Second World War.

San Jacinto returned to the United States in mid-September 1945. Generally inactive thereafter, she was decommissioned at San Diego, California, in March 1947. While laid up in the Reserve Fleet in May 1959, the carrier was reclassified as an aircraft transport and given the new hull number AVT-5. Following over two decades in "mothballs", USS San Jacinto was sold for scrapping in December 1971.

This page features selected views of USS San Jacinto (CVL-30).

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 43506

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)


Off the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, on 17 January 1944.
She is painted in camouflage Measure 33, Design 7a.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 580 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-212798

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)


Underway off the U.S. east coast (position 36 55'N, 75 07'W) on 23 January 1944, with an SNJ training plane parked on her flight deck.
Photographed from a Squadron ZP-14 blimp.
The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 33, Design 7A.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 590 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-212799

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)


Underway off the U.S. east coast (position 36 55'N, 75 07'W) on 23 January 1944, with an SNJ training plane parked on her flight deck.
Photographed from a Squadron ZP-14 blimp.
Note destroyer steaming astern of the carrier.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 113KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-238786

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)
-- right foreground

Steaming in formation with USS Lexington (CV-16) and a DD-348 class destroyer, during pre-invasion operations in the Marianas area, 13 June 1944.
Both carriers belonged to Task Group 58.3.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-238772

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)


Lieutenant Commander Albert B. Cahn gives the "Take-off" signal to a TBM-1C "Avenger" of Torpedo Squadron 51, during exercises on 16 May 1944.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-238783

TBM-1C "Avenger"
,
of Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51)

Takes off from USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) for a raid on Guam, 28 June 1944.
The catapult operator is at right.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-284859

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)


Rolling heavily and pitching in rough seas, while en route to raid Okinawa with Task Force 58, 6 October 1944.
TBM "Avenger" torpedo planes of Torpedo Squadron 51 are parked at right, with landing gear well-lashed to the deck.
Note "palisade" wind-break in elevated position across the flight deck, forward of the planes.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-284708

Battle off Cape Engaño, 25 October 1944


Arming a Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51) TBM torpedo bomber on USS San Jacinto (CVL-30), 25 October 1944. Probably taken before the squadron's planes attacked the Japanese carrier force.
Torpedo is a Mark 13, fitted with wooden water-entry shrouds around its nose and tail.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 540 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-284707

Battle off Cape Engaño, 25 October 1944


Pilots of Torpedo Squadron 51 return to USS San Jacinto (CVL-30) after attacking the Japanese carrier force on 25 October 1944.
One of VT-51's TBM torpedo planes is in the background.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-265727

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)

and
Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51)

Portrait montage of squadron officers of VT-51 and senior officers of its parent carrier, USS San Jacinto, circa mid-1944.
The ship's Commanding Officer, Captain Harold M. Martin, is seen in the upper left.
Officer second from right, second row from bottom, is George H.W. Bush, who was President of the United States from 1989 to 1993.
For identifications of all those present, see Photo # 80-G-265727 (complete caption).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 120KB; 740 x 625 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-44590

USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)


Sliding down the building ways at the New York Shipbuilding Corp. yard, Camden, New Jersey, after she was christened by Mrs. Jesse H. Jones, 26 September 1943.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 123KB; 580 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 27 September 2000
Minor addition made 7 May 2002