Yorktown's First Action?  A German Submarine's Target!

Yorktown's first action occurred in the summer of 1943 when she was near Cuba on the way to the Pacific via the Panama Canal. It was in the vicinity of what was then referred to as "Torpedo Alley" (where German submarines congregated to prey upon Allied shipping.)

As John Barton Sgt. USMC, of Yorktown's Marine Detachment remembers the Yorktown suddenly made a sharp turn to starboard (right), apparently to avoid a torpedo that passed before her bow. Three destroyers escorting Yorktown then congregated several yards to the port (left) side and began dropping depth charges to try to sink the enemy sub. It never was learned whether they were successful.

Sergeant John Barton of Newport,
far right, standing, and four of
his buddies in the marine detachment
of the carrier Yorktown relax during
a party on Espiritu Santoa in the
New Hebrides Island chain (just below
the Solomon Islands) in early 1944.

Says Bernard Hartz brendanhartz@aol.com, son of Bernard R. Hartz (1923-1992) MUS 2nd Class who served on the USS Yorktown from  1943-1945 the story of the U-boat encounter in the Atlantic near the canal zone is accurate. Dad recalled the crew being called to GQ, and hearing chatter about depth charges and torpedo wakes, and shortly afterwards, hearing the word that a U-boat's periscope had been sighted . Immediately afterwards, the Yorktown started to move at flank speed, and make several careening turns. The inclinometers read their max. list of 24 degrees during these maneuvers, and the ship started to settle back to an even keel before the inclinometers budged. A bar of steel rolling off of a shelf in the machine shop didn't help anybody's nerves . A day or two later, a U-boat was believed to have been sunk in the area. Are all Yorktown plank owners eligible for an Atlantic Service Medal? Yorktown skipper "Jocko" Clark related this action in his autobiography, "Carrier Admiral" which was published in the mid-1960's.

By the way, for a short time after commissioning, all personnel doing "watch" duty (Dad included) were required to patrol armed with a .45 caliber in a holster. Generally, this was quite a cumbersome nuisance; the weight and bulk created many bumps, bruises and noise when going down narrow hatches and passages. Finally, some senior officer concluded that a U.S. aircraft carrier with 3000 navy personnel aboard was an unlikely target for an enemy boarding party.