Very much a bastard child, the eighth warship in United States service to carry the name Wasp was the result of Washington Naval Treaty limits on tonnage. After construction of the Yorktown (CV-5) and Enterprise (CV-6), the United States had only 14,700 tons remaining in its aircraft carrier tonnage allotment. Based on the 19,800-ton hull design of the Yorktown, but with compromises determined by the 5,100-ton difference, the Wasp was the best the Navy could get within treaty restrictions. Despite these shortcomings, during her all-too-brief life she proved instrumental in the early days of the Navy's war in the Atlantic.
Laid down in 1936 at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Massachusetts, she was launched three years later and commissioned on 25 April 1940 in South Boston with Captain John W. Reeves Jr. in command. Over the next several months, the Wasp, assigned to Carrier Division 3, Patrol Force, ranged from Boston to the Caribbean in training exercises for her crew and qualifying aviators. In the midst of this was a pioneering evolution that presaged the carrier's wartime experience: She served as the test bed in a comparison of take-off runs of similar Navy and Army aircraft. On 12 October 1940 off the Virginia Capes, she launched 24 Army Air Corps P-40s from the 8th Pursuit Group and 9 O-47As from the 2nd Observation Squadron. These were compared with launches of her own F4F Wildcats and utility Grumman J2F Ducks. This marked the first time that Army aircraft had taken off from a Navy carrier.
Over the next nine months, as the war tempo increased, the Wasp remained engaged in the Atlantic, conducting neutrality patrols. Early in 1941, the United States began making plans to occupy Iceland, ostensibly to enhance American security but in effect freeing up British forces that were badly needed elsewhere. On 7 July, the 6th Marine Regiment arrived there first, but reinforcement was necessary. For the men of the Wasp, the first indication that something was about to break occurred on 23 July when 32 pilots of the newly named Army Air Forces reported aboard for temporary duty. Things grew more interesting the next day as the ship's cranes began hoisting an unusual cargo: 30 Curtiss P-40Cs and three PT-17 trainers from the Army's 33rd Pursuit Squadron. Because there were few British aircraft to provide protective cover for the U.S. landings, the Americans had to provide their own, and the planes would need to remain in Iceland for future protection. That called for land planes, and the Wasp's previous experience made her a natural choice for getting the aircraft there.
Four days later the Wasp was at sea with the heavy cruiser Vincennes (CA-44) and accompanied by the destroyers O'Brien (DD-415) and Walke (DD-416) as plane guards. The carrier and her cohorts soon joined Task Force 16, which had the U.S. occupation troops embarked on three transports escorted by the battleship Mississippi (BB-41), two cruisers, and six destroyers. On the morning of 6 August, the Wasp and her task group parted company from TF 16 to begin air operations. With little drama, the Army fighters and trainers were soon airborne and winging their way toward Iceland. The carrier and her group turned for home, arriving in Norfolk a week later.
The Wasp remained in the Atlantic and began a fourth neutrality patrol at Hampton Roads later that month. She then operated from Newfoundland until mid-October as the Atlantic Fleet began convoy escort missions. While the carrier lay at anchor in Grassy Bay, Bermuda, on 7 December 1941 observing holiday routine, half a world away the Japanese surprised the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
With the exception of actually being at war, little changed in the ship's routine until March 1942, when she was assigned as an element of Task Force 39 to reinforce the Royal Navy Home Fleet. While the bulk of the force remained (as TF 99) to escort convoys to northern Russia, the Wasp was detached with a special mission at the behest of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Since the beginning of the year Malta had been under siege by the Germans and Italians, who had whittled down the island's defending aircraft to a pitiful few. Reinforcements were desperately needed. British carriers had made multiple runs transporting up to 16 Spitfires or Hurricanes at a time, but their numbers were too few to sustain the island against the Axis onslaught. What was needed was a carrier that could provide an influx of 50 or more fighters in one trip. With no such British flattops available, Churchill turned to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 1 April, requesting the loan of the Wasp. Roosevelt gave his permission two days later, and the carrier was dispatched to Glasgow, Scotland.
There, on 12-13 April, she unshipped her SB2U Vindicators and TBD Devastators to make room for 47 RAF MK V Spitfires. As many as possible were squeezed onto the hangar deck, while the Wasp's fighters remained on the flight deck. She sailed with her Force W escort—including the battlecruiser HMS Renown—in Operation Calendar on the 14th, and under the cover of darkness on the 19th, passed through the Strait of Gibraltar. At 0400 the next morning, the Wasp launched a protective air cover of 11 of her Wildcats as the Spitfires below deck warmed their engines. The RAF fighters were raised to the flight deck on the after elevator, taxied forward, and immediately took off. By one historian's accounting, all 58 aircraft—British and American—were launched within 61 minutes.
Despite their safe arrival at Malta after a 550-mile flight, the Germans destroyed half soon after landing before they could refuel and arm. The remainder were hampered by a lack of spare parts and maintenance personnel. Another group of fighters was needed. Stating his fear that Malta would be "pounded to bits," Churchill requested that Roosevelt allow the Wasp "another good sting." Roosevelt agreed.
On 3 May the carrier once again steamed south with 47 Spitfires and linked up with Force W. The dreadnought-turned-aircraft carrier HMS Eagle joined the formation off Gibraltar to add another 17 Spitfires for Malta. At 0630 on the 9th, Operation Bowery attempted a repeat of the earlier operation. It didn't start as well. One of the 11 protective Wildcats crashed on takeoff, as did the first of the Spitfires. The remaining 46 from the Wasp and the 17 from Eagle got off safely. One, flown by Pilot-Officer J. A. Smith, lost its auxiliary fuel tank and was unable to make the distance to the island fortress. Given the option of attempting a tailhookless landing on board the Wasp or ditching, he chose the former. After an aborted first attempt, he safely touched down on the second and stood on the brakes. The plane stopped just a few feet from the forward edge of the flight deck.
While this mission had an inauspicious start, its ending was anything but. Sixty Spitfires reached the island (two had collided) and were refueled and in the air as the enemy arrived. The Germans lost 37 aircraft while shooting down just three of the RAF fighters. The next day the Germans lost 60 more aircraft over Malta.
Her assignment completed, the Wasp returned to Scapa Flow on 15 May and reacquired her landed aircraft. In the interim she had received congratulations from the Prime Minister typical of his wit: "Who said a wasp couldn't sting twice?"
Exactly four months after returning to her Scottish base, the Wasp would be in her death throes on the other side of the world off the Solomon Islands, the victim of three torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-19.