On February 21, 1945, while supporting the US invasion of Iwo Jima in the Pacific, the US aircraft carrier USS Saratoga CV-3 was struck by 3 Japanese suicide planes known as Kamikaze. Not only did Saratoga survive those devastating hits, she was also hit by 5 aerial bombs, and suffered extensive damage, 123 men dead and 192 wounded. Thirty-six of her 70 aircraft were destroyed, and the battle was not yet over!
Digging Deeper
Only 2 hours later, the Japanese returned for another attack on the stricken ship, and Saratoga was hit again, and again refused to go down. Not only did the big ship not sink, the highly trained and courageous damage control parties put out the fires and the carrier was able to recover 6 of her planes that had been flying during the attack. Saratoga was sent back to Bremerton, Washington, for repairs, and ended the war as a training carrier.
