Task Force 11

Task Force 11 (TF 11 or alternately Commander Task Force 11, CTF 11) is a designation that has been used by the United States armed forces for two separate units.

Task Force 11
TF 11's Saratoga (foreground) conducts aircraft operations with Task Force 16's Enterprise in the South Pacific in August 1942.
Active	At least 1941–45, 2001–?
Country	United States
Allegiance	Allies of World War II
Branch	United States Navy
Engagements	Action off Bougainville Battle of the Coral Sea Battle of the Eastern Solomons Marshall Islands Campaign
Commanders
Notable commanders	Aubrey Fitch Frank Jack Fletcher

World War II

During World War II, Task Force 11 was a United States Navy aircraft carrier task force in the Pacific theater. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Destroyer Squadron 1 was attached to the task force, which was under the command of Vice Admiral Wilson Brown, made up of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) and the heavy cruisers USS Indianapolis (CA-35), USS Chicago (CA-29), and USS Portland (CA-33). On 14 December 1941, after delays due to bad weather, the task force cleared Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as a diversion for an expedition under Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher in the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) to relieve Wake Island.

Originally formed around Lexington, TF 11 then was formed around her sister ship Saratoga until Saratoga was torpedoed and disabled by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-6 on 11 January 1942. It then was formed around Lexington again for the Battle of the Coral Sea in which Lexington was sunk in early May 1942, then again around Saratoga after her repairs were completed.

TF 11 – as part of Task Force 61 along with Task Force 16 – was involved in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in late August 1942, but Saratoga was again crippled by a submarine, and the task force shrank to just the carrier and some destroyers.

In September 1943, TF 11 was reorganized around the light aircraft carriers USS Princeton (CVL-23) and USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) under Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee and supported landings on Baker Island and Howland Island. In early 1944, its task groups TG 11.1 and 11.2, now consisting of escort carriers, supported operations in the Marshall Islands.

War on Terrorism

Task Force 11 was also the first designation given to the United States special operations forces composite grouping which has pursued terrorist high-value targets in Afghanistan and Iraq since October 2001. The grouping has been redesignated multiple times to avoid information leakages. Task Force 11 (seemingly in reference to 11 September) was only the first title used. It also used the title 'Task Force Sword' at the same time.

Initially it operated under the United States Joint Special Operations Command in Afghanistan searching for senior Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. The unit included elements from Canada's JTF2 as well. JSOC frequently changed the name of the task force, and it has been designated Task Force 6-26, Task Force 121, and Task Force 145 with one of its most recently recorded names being Task Force 88.

References

The first US team to enter the Tora Bora mountain range

Further reading

• Smith, Jamie (2015). "19". Gray Work: Confessions of a Paramilitary Spy. New York: Harper Collins/WmMorrow. ISBN 978-0062271693.
• Lundstrom, John B. (2006). Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-475-2.
• Lundstrom, John B. (2005). First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942 (New ed.). Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-472-8.
• Lundstrom, John B. (2005). The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway (New ed.). Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-471-X.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (2001) [1958]. The Rising Sun in the Pacific 1931 – April 1942, vol. 3 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Castle Books. ISBN 0-7858-1304-7.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (2001) [1949]. Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions, May 1942 – August 1942, vol. 4 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Champaign, Illinois, US: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06995-1.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (1958). The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942 – February 1943, vol. 5 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-58305-7.
• Stille, Mark (2007). USN Carriers vs IJN Carriers: The Pacific 1942. New York: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-248-6.