Light Carrier USS Langley (Independence-class)

USS Langley (Independence-class)

Country	United States
Ship Class	Independence-class Light Carrier
Builder	New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, United States
Laid Down	11 Apr 1942
Launched	22 May 1943
Commissioned	31 Aug 1943
Decommissioned	11 Feb 1947
Displacement	11000 tons full
Length	623 feet
Beam	109 feet
Draft	26 feet
Machinery	General Electric geared turbines with four screws
Power Output	100000 SHP
Speed	31 knots
Crew	1569
Armament	24x40mm guns, 22x20mm anti-aircraft guns
Armor	5in belt, 2in deck, 0.5in conning tower
Aircraft	45
Transferred to France	8 Jan 1951
Transferred Back to US	20 Mar 1963

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

Named after the first United States Navy carrier which was sunk near the start of the Pacific War, the second USS Langley, CVL-27, was commissioned into service in Aug 1943. She had originally been ordered as a light cruiser, but she was reordered as a light carrier in Mar 1942 and was renamed Langley in Nov 1942. She joined the war starting in early 1944 and saw action in the Marshall Islands, New Guinea, Mariana Islands, Palau Islands, Taiwan, Ryukyu Islands, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and other locations as the Japanese front lines slowly fell back toward the Japanese home islands. She returned to the United States for a scheduled overhaul in Jun 1945, and while en route back to the front, Japan announced its intention to surrender. After transporting Pacific War veterans back to the United States in Oct 1945, she conducted a similar mission with European War veterans between Nov 1945 and Jan 1946. She was inactivated at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States in 1946 and was decommissioned, also at Philadelphia, in the following year.

In 1951, Langley was transferred to the French Navy under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program where she would be renamed La Fayette (R96). Based out of Toulon, France, she made several journeys to the Far East with American-built WW2-era propeller carrier aircraft, seeing action in Indochina. She also saw service in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean, where she participated in the 1956 Suez Crisis and assisted survivors of the earthquake of 1960 at Agadir, Morocco, among other missions. La Fayette was returned to the United States in Mar 1963 after logging 350,000 nautical miles, and was sold for scrap at Baltimore, Maryland, United States in 1964.

Source: Wikipedia

USS Langley (Independence-class) Operational Timeline

31 Mar 1942	Light cruiser Fargo, previously ordered but not yet laid down, was reordered by the US Navy as a carrier to be named Crown Point.
11 Apr 1942	The keel of carrier Crown Point was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey, United States.
13 Nov 1942	Carrier Crown Point, still under construction at Camden, New Jersey, United States, was renamed Langley.
22 May 1943	Carrier Langley was launched at Camden, New Jersey, United States.
15 Jul 1943	Carrier Langley was reclassified as a light carrier.
31 Aug 1943	USS Langley was commissioned into service.
11 Feb 1947	USS Langley was decommissioned from service at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
8 Jan 1951	US light carrier Langley was transferred to France.
2 Jun 1951	Light carrier La Fayette (R96) was commissioned into service.
20 Mar 1963	French light carrier La Fayette was transferred to the United States.