Carrier Division Eleven was a seagoing division (2-4 large ships) of the United States Navy. It was established in August 1944 at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

to focus on night carrier operations. Rear Admiral Matthias B. Gardner was appointed to command the division, which consisted of and . On 21 July 1943, Admiral Arthur W. Radford was given command of Carrier Division Eleven, which consisted of the new ''Essex''-class carrier as well as the light carriers USS ''Independence'' and . These carriers remained at Pearl Harbor through August, training and refining their operations. Radford got his first operational experience on 1 September 1943, covering a foray to Baker and

Howland Island Howland Island () is an uninhabited coral island located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an unorganized, unincorporated ter ...

s as part of Task Force 11 under Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee. Radford commanded ''Princeton'', and four destroyers to act as a covering force for Lee's Marines, who built an airfield on the islands. After this successful operation, and at the direction of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Task Force 11 was joined by Task Force 15, with ''Lexington'', under Rear Admiral Charles A. Pownall. The two task forces then steamed for

Tarawa Atoll Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati
'' fighter aircraft, dive bombers, and torpedo planes to work over the Japanese defenses. Next, Radford and his carriers took part in an air attack and cruiser bombardment of

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of T ...

on 5 to 6 October 1943. He shifted his flag to ''Lexington'' for the operation, which took two days. Though the effects on Japanese positions were not known, Radford and other leaders considered the operations useful for readying troops for the many major battles to come in the Central Pacific. The ''Saratoga'' departed San Francisco two days later and arrived in Pearl Harbor on 24 September 1944. The ship was assigned to Carrier Division 11 which was tasked to train

night fighter A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time after the Second World War) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used i ...

pilots and to develop night tactics and doctrine. Rear Admiral Matthias Gardner made ''Saratoga'' his flagship on 10 October. Four days later, the ship was accidentally rammed by her

plane guard A plane guard is a warship (commonly a destroyer or frigate) or helicopter tasked to recover the aircrew of planes or helicopters which ditch or crash in the water during aircraft carrier flight operations. Ships For ships, the plane guard is po ...

destroyer , gashing the port side of her hull. Operations were immediately cancelled and she returned to port for temporary repairs. Permanent repairs were made during a brief refit during the first week of November.

Carrier qualification Modern United States Navy aircraft carrier air operations include the operation of fixed-wing and rotary aircraft on and around an aircraft carrier for performance of combat or noncombat missions. The flight operations are highly evolved, bas ...

and other training continued through most of January 1945.

References

Sources

* * * {{cite book , first=Norman , last=Polmar , title=Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events, Volume II: 1946-2006 , year=2008 , isbn=978-1574886658 , page=449 Aircraft carrier divisions of the United States Navy