The USS Yorktown was the pride of the U.S. Navy when first launched. The keel of the aircraft carrier BonHomme Richard was laid down December 1ne, 1941, six days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The vessel was renamed USS Yorktown (CV-10) in honor of the original carrier Yorktown (CV-5), the only US carrier lost the Battle of Midway in June 1942.  

USS Yorktown was commissioned in April 1943, she boasted a displacement of 27,000 tons. The ship´s crew numbered 380 officers, 3,088 enlisted personnel and 90 planes. Naval engineers were able to construct and launch this incredible vessel in under seventeen months, just in time for her to throw her weight around in the Pacific Theater. 

An Essex-class carrier, USS Yorktown, nicknamed “The Fighting Lady”, was extremely durable and effective in carrying out missions in several campaigns during World War II in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. The CV-10 conducted numerous airstrikes including the Marshall Islands, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Battle of the Philippine Sea, Formosa, and on the Japanese Mainland.

After war, she was placed in reserve from January 1947, until December 1952. Her deck was cantilevered in 1955 in order to accommodate newer aircraft. Her deck was cantilevered in 1955 in order to accommodate newer aircraft. In 1957, the vessel was again overhauled and reclassified as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) carrier and designated CVS-10. During deployment in the Pacific, she qualified for the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal on three occasions for her responses to the Communist Chinese shelling of Formosa, Quemoy, and Matsu. From 1965 until 1967, Yorktown´s main activity was in combat operations in Vietnam where she earned an additional five battle stars.

In 1968, she recovered NASA´s Apollo 8 capsule from the Pacific Ocean. In the late 1960s, she conducted exercises in the Atlantic Ocean participating in the major fleet exercise Operation Peacekeeper. The carrier was featured in the 1970 Japanese American produced film, Tora Tora Tora. Decommission that same year, she is now the honored main feature of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum. 

This video is incredible! Wargaming has managed to pack more information into fifteen minutes than most documentaries lasting an hour or more.