Task Force 16 was one of the most storied task forces in the United States Navy, a major participant in a number of the most important battles of the Pacific War.
Task Force 16 with Enterprise (center left) and battleship South Dakota (distant background) under Japanese carrier air attack during the great Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942.
USS Wasp (CV-7) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier commissioned in 1940 and lost in action in 1942. She was the eighth ship named USSÂ Wasp, and the sole ship of a class built to use up the remaining tonnage allowed to the U.S. for aircraft carriers under the treaties of the time. As a reduced-size version of the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier hull, Wasp was more vulnerable than other United States aircraft carriers available at the opening of hostilities. Wasp was initially employed in the Atlantic campaign, where Axis naval forces were perceived as less capable of inflicting decisive damage. After supporting the occupation of Iceland in 1941, Wasp joined the British Home Fleet in April 1942 and twice ferried British fighter aircraft to Malta.
Wasp entering Hampton Roads
Wasp was the first carrier fitted with a deck-edge elevator.
P-40Bs aboard Wasp in October 1940
Wasp on 27 December 1940