Carrier at War, USS Ranger’s Night Orders and Operation Leader
Carrier at War, USS Ranger’s Night Orders and Operation Leader
By David G. Thomas
This volume offers a rare and authoritative record of the wartime operations of the USS Ranger (CV-4) — America’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier – and the only U.S. flattop to conduct a carrier airstrike inside the Arctic Circle during World War II. Drawing from never published official records produced during the war, it brings together an operational history of the ship, a complete transcription of the combat action report from OPERATION LEADER, a unique collection of archival photographs, and, most notably, the ship’s original 1943-44 Night Orders logbook.
The USS Ranger was commissioned in 1934, marking a turning point in naval architecture and carrier design. Unlike earlier carriers that had been converted from battle cruisers or other hulls, the Ranger was the first vessel designed from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. Though too small for service in the Pacific’s vast fleet operations, she played a crucial role in the Atlantic theater-escorting convoys, ferrying aircraft, training aviators, and hunting German U-boats.
The Ranger’s most significant combat engagement was OPERATION LEADER – a bold and complex air raid against German shipping targets in occupied Norway on October 4, 1943. Conducted under cold weather conditions and navigational constraints due to the imminent danger of attack by German planes and U-boats, the mission marked the only American carrier air strike on Northern Europe. Included here is the full, unabridged combat action report, compiled aboard the Ranger by her intelligence officers. Based on pilot debriefings and flight logs, the report documents squadron launches, targets engaged, bomb loads, enemy resistance, and pilot outcomes in precise operational language.
The volume is further enriched by 71 rarely seen photographs of the Ranger and her aircraft. These images provide vivid context to the ship’s layout, personnel, and the working conditions on board during her combat deployment – including spectacular photos of the Ranger herself, the various planes she carried, and aircraft taking off, landing, and crashing on her flight deck.
Finally, and most unusually, this book includes a facsimile and transcription of the Captain’s Night Orders logbook maintained by Captain Gordon Rowe aboard the Ranger during 1943-44. These nightly instructions to the Officer of the Deck document the ship’s position, speed, course, tactical posture, and escort dispositions. As such, it provides an invaluable, unfiltered window into the coordination and complexity of maintaining carrier readiness and fleet security in wartime seas.
Taken together, the components of this volume offer a rare synthesis of firsthand combat records, visual documentation, and original primary sources.
71 photos, 246 pages
Paperback: 978-1952580253
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