|
Following training in
Puget Sound, Matanikau steamed to San Diego on 25 July. After
embarking 191 military passengers and loading 56 planes, she
departed on 1 August on an extended shakedown and ferrying run to
the South Pacific. She touched at Espiritu Santo and Finschhafen,
reached Manus in the Admiralty Islands on 23 August, and after
discharging men and planes, she carried 112 sailors and 41 damaged
aircraft back to the west coast, arriving San Diego on 19 September.
Matanikau's run to the Admiralties and back marked her closest
advance to the sea war in the Pacific. On 14 October, she embarked
Composite Squadron 93 (VC-93) and began duty as qualification
carrier for naval and marine aviators. Operating along the west
coast out of San Diego, she trained hundreds of pilots during the
closing months of World War II. For more than 8 months, she
conducted flight training and qualification landings. From
January-June 1945, she qualified 1,332 aviators, and during these 6
months, pilots completed 12,762 landings on her flight deck. On 25
May alone, fighter and torpedo planes of Marine Air Groups CVS-454
and CVS-321 made 602 daylight landings, the greatest number on an
aircraft carrier in one day.[1]
Matanikau departed San Diego on 28 July and carried 65 planes and
158 troops to the Marshall Islands. Operating under Carrier
Transport Squadron, Pacific Fleet, she reached Roi Island, Kwajalein
on 10 August, then returned to Pearl Harbor on the 16th. On 31
August, she sailed for the western Pacific to support occupation
operations in Japan. As a unit of Task Force 4 (TF 4), she reached
Ominato, Honshū on 11 September. For the next 2 weeks, she supported
operations along the northern coast of Honshū, including landings by
the 8th Army at Aomori on 25 September. After steaming to Yokosuka,
she departed Tokyo Bay 30 September, touched at Guam and Pearl
Harbor, and arrived San Francisco 23 October.
Assigned to "Magic Carpet" duty from 3–19 November, Matanikau
steamed to Saipan, where she embarked more than 1,000 returning
veterans. Departing for the west coast on the 21st, she reached San
Pedro, California on 5 December. Six days later, she again sailed
for the Marianas. She arrived Guam on 27 December, embarked 795
troops of the 3rd Marine Division, and departed the next day for
China. Arriving Taku Forts on 3 January 1946, Matanikau debarked the
marines who were part of an American force supporting the Chinese
Nationalists in their struggle against the Communists for control of
China.
Matanikau sailed for the United States on 9 January and entered San
Diego harbor on the 29th. From 1-5 February, she steamed to Tacoma,
Washington, where she remained during the next 8 months in an
inactive status. She decommissioned on 11 October and entered the
Pacific Reserve Fleet. While berthed at Tacoma, Matanikau was
reclassified CVHE-101 on 15 June 1955, and again reclassified AKV-36
on 7 May 1959. Ordered disposed of in March 1960, Matanikau was
struck from the Navy list on 1 April 1960. She was sold to Jacq.
Pierot, Jr. & Sons of New York on 27 July 1960. |
