United States WWII Micronauts: CV-2 Lexington

World War II Micronauts are 1:2400 (1”=200’) scale miniature metal waterline models of the warships of the world’s navies during WWII. These precision metal castings will amaze you with their detail and accuracy including turrets and gun mounts, deck hatching, cranes, catapults, etc. So if you have an interest in the sea and the weapons, battles or histories of the great warships of the 20th & 21st centuries, then you’ll want to get started on your fleet right away. Micronauts are the perfect warship models for collectors and new wargaming admirals alike.

USS Lexington (CV-2), nicknamed "Lady Lex", was an early aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy. She was the lead ship of the Lexington class; her only sister ship, Saratoga, was commissioned a month earlier. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which essentially terminated all new battleship and battlecruiser construction. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. Lexington received two battle stars for her World War II service. She was officially struck from the naval register on 24 June 1942.

In June 1942, shortly after the Navy's public acknowledgment of the sinking, workers at the Quincy shipyard, where the ship had been built twenty-one years earlier, cabled Navy Secretary Frank Knox and proposed a change in the name of one of the new Essex-class fleet carriers currently under construction there to Lexington (from Cabot). Knox agreed to the proposal and the carrier was renamed as the fifth Lexington on 16 June 1942. On 17 February 1943, her successor was formally commissioned as USS Lexington (CV-16), later nicknamed the "Gray Lady", which served as the flagship of Task Force 58 (TF 58) during the Battle of the Philippine Sea and remained in service until 1991.