USS Princeton

<p><b>An in-depth history of the US Navy''s light aircraft carrier the USS <i>Princeton</i> and its operational exploits in the Pacific Theater of World War II.</b><br><br>This new history of the life and loss of the USS <i>Princeton</i> tells the story of one of the new class of aircraft carrier that proved essential to the US Navy''s victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific War. Starting life as the light cruiser <i>Tallahassee</i> before being converted to a light carrier as part of the plan to ramp up the strength of US naval air power, USS <i>Princeton</i> (CVL-23) joined the Pacific fleet in August 1943 and was immediately put to work as the United States was assembling new ships and crews for the Central Pacific campaign where the ship played a key role in conducting multiple strikes against the Japanese bastion at Rabaul. <i>Princeton</i> then joined Task Force 58, the Fast Carrier Task Force, and took part in the invasion of the Philippines, where the ship was lo