Model Showing USS Franklin Battle Damage
In March of 2025, I attended the reunion of USS Franklin crew and family members at Patriots Point, South Carolina. The opening ceremonies were held on USS Yorktown (CV-10), a sister ship of Franklin’s. Yorktown is now a museum ship, and I highly recommend visiting her if you are in the vicinity. She had a long and distinguished career, starting in World War II and carrying on through the Cold War, Vietnam, and the US space program. She is also home to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s museum and offices.
Here is a brief video of a scale model of Franklin showing the 19 March 1945 battle damage to her flight deck. (No audio.) Not shown is damage to her 5-inch turrets or her island. Pardon my poor video skills. I was trying to take a video without bumping into other visitors. That turned out to be more challenging than I anticipated.
The damage to the flight deck was quite extensive and even more so on the hangar deck, where the two bombs exploded, immediately killing several hundred sailors.
Here’s a picture of her arriving in New York. This view is from the stern looking forward. You can see how torn up the flight deck was.
For a better understanding of the damage done to the ship, please read my blog post, Some Points From the USS Franklin CV-13 War Damage Report.
Did you arrive here via a search engine? I am the author of the forthcoming book Heroes By The Hundreds: The Story of the USS Franklin (CV-13). In addition to writing about the bravery of the crews that saved her, I will discuss the lessons we can learn in leadership and decision-making, and the changes the US Navy made because of those lessons.
Feel free to follow me on Facebook. There, I am M. Glenn Ross, Author. I also write a monthly newsletter, Glenn’s Action Report, about subjects I find interesting in my research. You can sign up for it below. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. Thanks for reading.
-Glenn
