[12] The carrier was one of the first U.S. Navy ships mounted with light automatic weapons to defend against dive-bombing attacks, and was initially armed with forty .50 cal machine guns.

[citation needed] Authorized by Congress on 13 February 1929, the U.S. Navy opened bids for the construction of the aircraft carrier on 3 September 1930.

Admiral King favored having the conversions done, but the Bureau of Ships insisted that allocating the manpower and resources required to accomplish this would considerably delay the completion of new aircraft carriers under construction.

[23] After arriving at New York Harbor on 16 May, Ranger entered the Norfolk Navy Yard to have her flight deck strengthened, new aircraft catapults installed, and radar equipment updated.

[25] Ranger conducted her initial flight operations off the Virginia Capes on 21 June 1934[26] and departed Norfolk on 17 August[27] for a shakedown training cruise that took her to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo.

[26] She returned to Norfolk on 4 October[28] for operations off the Virginia Capes and two stints in dry dock for post trial repairs[29] until 1 April 1935,[30] when she sailed for the Pacific.

[30] For nearly four years, she participated in fleet problems reaching to Hawaii,[31] the first-ever carrier cold weather test trials in Alaska,[32] and in western seaboard operations that took her as far south as Callao, Peru,[33] and as far north as Seattle, Washington.

[37] In December 1941, she was returning to Norfolk from an ocean patrol extending to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

[42] On 15 April 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill cabled President Franklin Delano Roosevelt requesting North Carolina and Ranger reinforce the British Eastern Fleet in the wake of the Indian Ocean Raid.

The day before in response to advance notice of the reinforcement request routed through General George Marshall, who was then visiting London, Admiral Ernest King had already definitely stated that Ranger and any other major fleet unit could not be made available for the Indian Ocean.

He stated the only manner at all in which the Navy could assist was by using Ranger to ferry the pursuit planes necessary to bring the 10th Air Force up to full operational strength.

[43] Steaming to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, Ranger loaded 68 Curtiss P-40Es and put to sea on 22 April, launching the Army planes on 10 May to land at Accra, on the Gold Coast of Africa (Ghana).

[47] After calling at Trinidad,[48] she returned to Norfolk for local battle practice until 1 October, then based her training at Bermuda,[49] in the company of four new Sangamon-class escort carriers, ships converted from oil tankers to increase U.S. air power in the Atlantic Ocean.

[50] It was still dark at 06:15 that day, when Ranger—stationed 30 mi (48 km) northwest of Casablanca—began launching her aircraft to support the landings made at three points on the Atlantic coast of North Africa (Operation Torch).

[2][52] The Vichy French battleship Jean Bart opened fire with the four 15 in (381 mm) guns of her one operational turret on U.S. warships covering the landings.

In retaliation, bombers from Ranger inflicted severe damage on Jean Bart with two heavy bombs hitting the bow and the stern, causing the French battleship to sink into the harbor mud with decks awash.

[53][54] In addition to damaging and sinking Jean Bart, Ranger's attack aircraft scored two direct bomb hits on the French destroyer leader Albatros, completely wrecking her forward half and causing 300 casualties.

They also attacked the French cruiser Primauguet as she sortied from Casablanca Harbor and dropped depth charges within killing range of two submarines.

The loss of Hornet in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands kicked off a confused series of messages seeking British carrier reinforcement in the Pacific.

We are proud to announce that a German submarine has sunk the United States aircraft carrier Ranger in the North Atlantic!"

Following this broadcast, German news releases reported that Commander Otto von Bülow of the U-boat U-404, personally decorated by Adolf Hitler with Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross, had "in addition to torpedoing four steamers, caught and sank the American aircraft carrier Ranger.

In the radio broadcast dated 15 February 1944, Captain Gordon Rowe, Commanding Officer of USS Ranger, stated: The story that we were sunk was a coward's trick—spreading anxiety and fear among the innocent....

[64] Ranger departed from Scapa Flow with the Home Fleet on 2 October to attack German shipping in Norwegian waters (Operation Leader).

[66] A second attack group from Ranger—consisting of 10 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers and six Wildcats—destroyed a German freighter and a small coastal ship, and bombed a troop-laden transport.

On the afternoon of 4 October, Ranger was located by three German aircraft; her combat air patrol shot down two of the enemy planes and chased away the third.

[67] She patrolled with the British 2nd Battle Squadron in waters extending northwestward to Iceland,[68] and then she departed from Hvalfjord on 26 November,[68] arriving at Boston on 3 December.

[71] After embarking the men and aircraft of Night Fighting Squadron 102 and nearly 1,000 U.S. Marines, Ranger steamed for Hawaiian waters on 28 July, reaching Pearl Harbor on 3 August.

Departing San Diego on 30 September 1945,[73] she embarked civilian and military passengers at Balboa[73] and then steamed for New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving on 18 October.

Following Navy Day celebrations there, she sailed on 30 October[73] for brief operations at Pensacola, Florida, as a training carrier, later relieved in that role by Saipan.

[75] Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 October,[76] she was sold for scrap to Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania, on 31 January 1947.