Введение
Авианосцы класса "Касабланка" - серия эскортных авианосцев, построенных для ВМС США во время Второй мировой войны. Это самый многочисленный класс авианосцев, когда-либо построенный. Пятьдесят кораблей были заложены, спущены на воду и введены в строй менее чем за два года – с 3 ноября 1942 года по 8 июля 1944 года. Несмотря на их количество и сохранение более известных и крупных авианосцев в качестве музеев, ни один из этих скромных кораблей не сохранился до наших дней. Пять были потеряны в ходе боевых действий во время Второй мировой войны, остальные были разобраны на металлолом. "Касабланка" стал первым классом, спроектированным с киля как эскортный авианосец. Он имел более просторную и полезную ангарную палубу, чем предыдущие переоборудования. В отличие от крупных авианосцев, обладавших мощной броней, защита ограничивалась противоосколочным покрытием. Их небольшой размер делал их удобными для транспортировки собранных самолетов различных типов, включая переброску многих моделей, не способных действовать с их палуб. Однако авиация, базировавшаяся на этих кораблях, ограничивалась небольшими и легкими самолетами, такими как Grumman F4F Wildcat. Бортовые номера присваивались последовательно, от CVE 55 "Касабланка" до CVE 104 "Мунда". Авианосцы класса "Касабланка" строились на верфи Kaiser Shipbuilding Company в Ванкувере, штат Вашингтон, на реке Колумбия. Верфь была специально построена в 1942 году для строительства транспортных судов типа "Либерти", но военная необходимость вскоре заставила ее строить десантные корабли LST и затем эскортные авианосцы, еще до конца первого года работы. На верфи было двенадцать стапелей и 914-метровая оборудованная доковая база, а также уникальный дополнительный стапель, первоначально предназначенный для установки сборных надстроек на суда типа "Либерти". Их относительно небольшой размер и массовое производство привели к тому, что экипажи называли их "джип-авианосцами" или "Кайзер-джипами" с разной степенью симпатии.
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Наименование
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Класс "Касабланка" изначально продолжил политику ВМС США по наименованию эскортных авианосцев в честь заливов и проливов, в данном случае многочисленных бухт Александровского архипелага, формирующих юго-восточное побережье Аляски, хотя несколько из них впоследствии были переименованы в честь сражений, продолжая традицию ВМС США по наименованию авианосцев в честь битв. Корабли, названные в честь островов, морей, проливов или городов, на самом деле увековечивали сражения, произошедшие в этих местах. Несколько кораблей получили новые названия, связанные со сражениями, еще во время строительства, а два из них ("Мидуэй" и "Корал Си") потеряли свои имена сражений в середине службы, став USS St. Lo и USS Anzio соответственно. В отличие от более крупных авианосцев, ни один из них не был назван в честь исторических военно-морских кораблей.
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Время производства и отказ ВМС
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Хотя авианосцы класса "Эссекс" строились в течение 20 месяцев или меньше, прогнозы 1941 года, основанные на среднем предвоенном периоде строительства в 38 месяцев, предполагали, что новые авианосцы флота не ожидаются до 1944 года. Kaiser сократил время строительства грузовых судов (типа "Либерти") с более чем года до менее чем 90 дней и предложил построить флот из 50 небольших авианосцев менее чем за два года. Военно-морские власти США отказались одобрить строительство кораблей Kaiser до тех пор, пока Kaiser не обратился непосредственно к советникам президента. Союзники отчаянно нуждались в авианосцах для замены потерь в начале войны. Kaiser быстро построил небольшие авианосцы, как и планировалось, и сопротивление их ценности быстро исчезло, поскольку они доказали свою полезность в защите конвоев, обеспечении воздушной поддержки десантных операций и позволении авианосцам флота сосредоточиться на наступательных воздушных ударах. В отличие от большинства других крупных военных кораблей, начиная с 1945 года, корабли класса "Касабланка" были оснащены однопроточными возвратно-поршневыми двигателями вместо паровых турбин. Это было сделано из-за проблем в производстве зубчатых колес, но значительно ограничило их полезность после войны.
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Служба
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Хотя они были классифицированы как эскортные авианосцы конвоев, авианосцы класса "Касабланка" гораздо чаще использовались в крупных флотских десантных операциях, где скорость была менее важна, а их небольшие авиагруппы могли объединиться, чтобы обеспечить эффективность гораздо более крупного корабля. Их звездный час настал в битве у Самара, когда Taffy 3, оперативное соединение, состоящее из шести этих кораблей и их прикрытия из трех эсминцев и четырех эскортных эсминцев, вступило в бой с основным ударным соединением японского флота ("Центральной группой"). Их отчаянная оборона не только сохранила большую часть своих кораблей, но и заставила отступить массивную японскую силу, используя только пулеметы, торпеды, глубинные бомбы, осколочно-фугасные бомбы и свои 127-мм орудия. Предназначенные для поддержки сухопутных войск и борьбы с подводными лодками, они не имели торпед и бронебойных бомб для самостоятельной борьбы с надводным флотом. Taffy 3 должен был быть защищен Третьим флотом адмирала Хэлси с авианосцами и линкорами. Но Третий флот покинул район, чтобы преследовать отвлекающий авианосный флот, непреднамеренно оставив Taffy 3 единственной силой между массивным японским флотом и незащищенными десантными войсками в заливе Лейте. Легковооруженные корабли имели только одно 127-мм орудие, установленное в корме, но два из них, St. Lo (бывший "Мидуэй") и Kalinin Bay, стали единственными американскими авианосцами, когда-либо поразившими вражеский военный корабль огнем своих орудий. St. Lo поразил японский эсминец одним снарядом, а Kalinin Bay повредил крейсер двумя попаданиями. Кроме того, орудийный расчет White Plains, возможно, поразил крейсер "Чокай" до шестью 127-мм снарядами. Один из этих снарядов, возможно, вызвал мощный вторичный взрыв – вероятно, от одной из торпед "Чокая" – на правом борту, который оказался фатальным для тяжелого крейсера. Экипаж White Plains заявил, что выпустил все шесть 127-мм снарядов в "Чокай" с расстояния около 20 000 метров, почти на предельной эффективной дальности 127-мм орудия. Однако японские источники утверждают, что гибель "Чокая" была вызвана повреждениями от воздушной атаки. Другим заметным достижением класса "Касабланка" стало участие "Гуадалканала" под командованием капитана Дэниела В. Галлери в первом захвате в море иностранного военного корабля ВМС США со времен войны 1812 года, когда группа добровольцев с "Пилсбери" захватила немецкую подводную лодку U-505 после того, как группа охотников-убийц "Гуадалканала" заставила ее всплыть с помощью глубинных бомб. "Гуадалканал" также получил отличие единственного в истории авианосца, проводившего полеты с захваченным вражеским кораблем на буксире.
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Заметные инциденты
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Из одиннадцати американских авианосцев всех типов, потерянных во время Второй мировой войны, шесть были эскортными авианосцами, пять из которых были построены Kaiser и принадлежали к классу "Касабланка":
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
CVE 56 "Лиском Бэй"
Потоплен 24 ноября 1943 года. Торпеда с японской подводной лодки I-175 к юго-западу от Бутаритари (Макин).
CVE 73 "Гамбьер Бэй"
Потоплен 25 октября 1944 года. Интенсивный огонь с японской Центральной группировки во время битвы у Самара.
CVE 63 "Сент-Ло" (бывший "Мидуэй", бывший "Чапин Бэй")
Потоплен 25 октября 1944 года. Атака камикадзе во время битвы в заливе Лейте.
CVE 79 "Оммани Бэй"
Потоплен 4 января 1945 года. Атака камикадзе в море Сулу по пути в залив Лингаен.
CVE 95 "Бисмарк Си"
Потоплен 21 февраля 1945 года. Атака камикадзе у Иводзимы.
CVE 96 "Ангуила Бэй", переименован в USS "Саламуа"
Поврежден в заливе Лингаен 6 января 1945 года после атаки камикадзе с двумя 250-килограммовыми бомбами, попавшими в его полетную палубу. Был отремонтирован и возвращен в строй.
Aircraft carrier class of the US Navy
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
The Casablanca class escort carrier was a series of escort carriers constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. They are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years – 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survive today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped. Casablanca was the first class designed from keel up as an escort carrier. It had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, including ferrying many aircraft types that were unable to operate from their decks. However, aircraft that were operational on the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The hull numbers were assigned consecutively, from CVE 55 Casablanca to CVE 104 Munda. Casablanca class carriers were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company's Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then escort carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and a 3000 feet (914 m) outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their relatively small size and mass production origins led their crews to refer to them as "jeep carriers" or "Kaiser Jeeps" with varying degrees of affection. Naming
The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of the Alexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline of Alaska, though several were subsequently renamed to carry on the US Navy's tradition of naming aircraft carriers after battles. Those ships that appear to be named after islands, seas, straits or cities actually commemorated battles fought at those locations. Several had their original "Bay" names changed to battle names while under construction, and two of them (Midway and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid career to new s, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger and s, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. Production time and Navy refusal
Although Essex class aircraft carriers were completed in 20 months or less, 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 month average pre war construction period estimated no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than a year to less than 90 days, and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than two years. The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisers. The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air strike missions. Unlike most other large warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of steam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Service
Although designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations, where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of three destroyers and four destroyer escorts gave battle against the Japanese main battle force ("Center Force"). Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships, but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns, torpedoes, depth charges, high explosive bombs, and their own 5 inch/38 caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked the torpedoes and armor piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone. Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet with carriers and battleships. But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet, inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf. The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 inch/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their number, St. Lo (ex Midway) and Kalinin Bay, became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns. St. Lo hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and Kalinin Bay damaged a with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on White Plains may have struck the cruiser Chōkai, with up to six 5 inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one of Chōkais own torpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew claimed to have put all six 5 inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of , near the maximum effective range for the 5 inch/38 gun. However, Japanese sources attributed the loss of Chōkai to bomb damage from an air attack. Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when Guadalcanal, under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture at sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 when a crew of volunteers from Pillsbury boarded German submarine U 505 after Gallery's Guadalcanal centered hunter killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges. Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. Notable incidents
Of the eleven United States aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers, five of which were of the Kaiser built Casablanca class:
CVE 56 Liscome Bay
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I 175 SW off Butaritari (Makin). CVE 73 Gambier Bay
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar. CVE 63 St. Lo (ex Midway ex Chapin Bay)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf. CVE 79 Ommaney Bay
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. CVE 95 Bismarck Sea
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima. CVE 96 Anguilla Bay renamed USS Salamaua
Damaged at Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945 after kamikaze with two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs hit her flight deck. She was repaired and put back in service.
Послевоенные годы
Некоторые корабли были оставлены в эксплуатации после войны в качестве авиационных транспортов, где их невысокая скорость не являлась существенным недостатком. Некоторые из них были вновь введены в строй как вертолетные эскортные авианосцы (CVHE и T CVHE) или универсальные авианосцы (CVU и T CVU) после войны, но большинство были выведены из состава флота и поставлены на хранение после её окончания, списаны в 1958–1959 годах и утилизированы в 1959–1961 годах. Один корабль, "Тетис-Бей", был значительно переоборудован в десантный корабль (LPH 6), но был утилизирован в 1966 году. Изначально предполагалось передать половину этих кораблей Королевскому флоту по программе ленд-лиза, но вместо этого они остались в составе ВМС США, а вместо них были переданы авианосцы типа "Attacker" (британские авианосцы типа "Bogue" относились к серии I).
Some ships were retained postwar as aircraft transports, where their lack of speed was not a major drawback. Some units were reactivated as helicopter escort carriers (CVHE and T CVHE) or utility carriers (CVU and T CVU) after the war, but most were deactivated and placed in reserve once the war ended, stricken in 1958 9 and scrapped in 1959–61. One ship, Thetis Bay, was heavily modified into an amphibious assault ship (LPH 6), but was scrapped in 1966. Originally, half of their number were to be transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend Lease, but instead they were retained in the US Navy and the Batch II s were transferred instead as the (the RN's Batch I Bogues were the Attacker class).
Корабли класса
Все корабли класса "Касабланка" были построены в Ванкувере, штат Вашингтон, компанией Kaiser Shipbuilding Company. Были построены следующие корабли класса. + Список кораблей эскорт-класса "Касабланка" Наименование корабля Номер корпуса Построена Спущена на воду Введена в строй Выведена из состава Судьба Casablanca (ex Ameer, ex Alazon Bay) CVE 55 73 ноября 1942 5 апреля 1943 8 июля 1943 10 июня 1946 Продана на слом, 23 апреля 1947 Liscome Bay CVE 56 8 12 декабря 1942 19 апреля 1943 7 августа 1943 24 ноября 1943 Потоплена торпедой, 24 ноября 1943 Anzio (ex Alikula Bay, ex Coral Sea) CVE 57 9 12 декабря 1942 1 мая 1943 27 августа 1943 5 августа 1946 Списана, 1 марта 1959, продана на слом, 24 ноября 1959 Corregidor (ex Auguilla Bay) CVE 58 10 17 декабря 1942 12 мая 1943 31 августа 1943 30 июля 1946 Продана на слом, 28 апреля 1959 19 мая 1951 4 сентября 1958 Mission Bay CVE 59 11 28 декабря 1942 26 мая 1943 13 сентября 1943 21 февраля 1947 Продана на слом, 30 апреля 1959 Guadalcanal (ex Astrolabe Bay) CVE 60 12 5 января 1943 5 июня 1943 25 сентября 1943 15 июля 1946 Списана, 27 мая 1958, продана на слом, 2 сентября 1959 Manila Bay (ex Bucareli Bay) CVE 61 11 5 января 1943 10 июля 1943 5 октября 1943 31 июля 1946 Списана, 27 мая 1958, продана на слом, 2 сентября 1959 Natoma Bay CVE 62 2 17 января 1943 20 июля 1943 14 октября 1943 20 мая 1946 Списана, 1 сентября 1958, продана на слом, 30 июля 1959 St. Lo (ex Chapin Bay, ex Midway) CVE 63 3 23 января 1943 17 августа 1943 23 октября 1943 25 октября 1944 Потоплена самолетом-камикадзе, 25 октября 1944, во время битвы за Лейтеский залив Tripoli (ex Didrickson Bay) CVE 64 4 1 февраля 1943 13 июля 1943 31 октября 1943 22 мая 1946 Списана, 1 февраля 1959, продана на слом, январь 1960 5 января 1952 25 ноября 1958 Wake Island (ex Dolomi Bay) CVE 65 5 6 февраля 1943 15 сентября 1943 7 ноября 1943 5 апреля 1946 Списана, 17 апреля 1946, продана на слом, 19 апреля 1946 White Plains (ex Elbour Bay) CVE 66 6 11 февраля 1943 27 сентября 1943 15 ноября 1943 10 июля 1946 Списана, 1 июля 1958, продана на слом, 29 июля 1958 Solomons (ex Emperor, ex Nassuk Bay) CVE 67 7 19 марта 1943 6 октября 1943 21 ноября 1943 5 июня 1946 Продана на слом, 22 декабря 1946 Kalinin Bay CVE 68 8 26 апреля 1943 15 октября 1943 27 ноября 1943 15 мая 1946 Продана на слом, 8 декабря 1946 Kasaan Bay CVE 69 9 11 мая 1943 24 октября 1943 4 декабря 1943 5 июня 1946 Продана на слом, 2 февраля 1960 Fanshaw Bay CVE 70 10 18 мая 1943 1 ноября 1943 9 декабря 1943 14 августа 1946 Списана, 1 марта 1959, продана на слом, 2 февраля 1960 Kitkun Bay CVE 71 11 18 июня 1943 8 ноября 1943 15 декабря 1943 19 апреля 1946 Продана на слом, 18 ноября 1946 Tulagi (ex Fortazela Bay) CVE 72 12 27 июня 1943 15 ноября 1943 21 декабря 1943 30 апреля 1946 Списана, 8 мая 1946 Gambier Bay CVE 73 1 10 июля 1943 22 ноября 1943 28 декабря 1943 27 ноября 1944 Потоплена, 25 октября 1944, в битве у Самара Nehenta Bay CVE 74 2 20 июля 1943 28 ноября 1943 3 января 1944 15 мая 1946 Списана 1 апреля 1960, продана на слом, 29 июня 1960 Hoggatt Bay CVE 75 3 17 августа 1943 4 декабря 1943 11 января 1944 20 июля 1946 Списана 1 апреля 1960, продана на слом, 31 марта 1960 Kadashan Bay CVE 76 4 2 сентября 1943 11 декабря 1943 18 января 1944 14 июня 1946 Списана 1 августа 1959, продана на слом, февраль 1960 Marcus Island (ex Kanalku Bay) CVE 77 5 15 сентября 1943 16 ноября 1943 26 января 1944 12 декабря 1946 Продана на слом, 29 февраля 1960 Savo Island (ex Kaita Bay) CVE 78 6 27 сентября 1943 22 декабря 1943 3 февраля 1944 12 декабря 1946 Списана 1 сентября 1959, продана на слом, 29 февраля 1960 Ommaney Bay CVE 79 7 6 октября 1943 29 декабря 1943 11 февраля 1944 4 января 1945 Повреждена самолетом-камикадзе и затоплена, 4 января 1945 Petrof Bay CVE 80 8 15 октября 1943 5 января 1944 18 февраля 1944 31 июля 1955 Списана 27 июня 1958, продана на слом, 30 июля 1959 Rudyerd Bay CVE 81 9 24 октября 1943 12 января 1944 25 февраля 1944 11 июня 1946 Списана 1 августа 1959, продана на слом, январь 1960 Saginaw Bay CVE 82 10 1 ноября 1943 19 января 1944 2 марта 1944 19 июня 1946 Списана 1 марта 1959, продана на слом, 27 ноября 1959 Sargent Bay CVE 83 11 18 ноября 1943 31 января 1944 9 марта 1944 23 июня 1946 Списана 27 июня 1958, продана на слом, июль 1959 Shamrock Bay CVE 84 12 15 ноября 1943 4 февраля 1944 15 марта 1944 6 июля 1946 Списана 27 июня 1958, продана на слом, май 1958 Shipley Bay CVE 85 12 22 ноября 1943 12 февраля 1944 21 марта 1944 28 июня 1946 Списана 1 марта 1959, продана на слом, 2 октября 1959 Sitkoh Bay CVE 86 2 23 ноября 1943 19 февраля 1944 28 марта 1944 30 ноября 1946 Списана 1 апреля 1960, продана на слом, 30 августа 1960 29 июля 1950 27 июля 1954 Steamer Bay CVE 87 3 4 декабря 1943 26 февраля 1944 4 апреля 1944 4 февраля 1946 Списана 1 марта 1959, продана на слом, 29 августа 1959 Cape Esperance (ex Tananek Bay) CVE 88 4 11 декабря 1943 3 марта 1944 9 апреля 1944 22 августа 1946 Продана на слом, 14 мая 1959 5 августа 1950 15 января 1959 Takanis Bay CVE 89 5 16 декабря 1943 10 марта 1944 15 апреля 1944 18 июня 1946 Списана 1 марта 1959, продана на слом, 29 июня 1960 Thetis Bay CVE 90 6 22 декабря 1943 16 марта 1944 12 апреля 1944 7 августа 1946 Списана 1 августа 1959, продана на слом, декабрь 1964 20 июля 1956 1 марта 1964 Makassar Strait CVE 91 7 29 декабря 1943 22 марта 1944 27 апреля 1944 9 августа 1946 Списана 1 сентября 1958, использована как мишень, апрель 1961 Windham Bay CVE 92 8 5 января 1944 29 марта 1944 3 мая 1944 23 августа 1946 Списана 1 февраля 1959, продана на слом, 31 декабря 1960 28 октября 1950 15 января 1959 Makin Island CVE 93 9 12 января 1944 5 апреля 1944 9 мая 1944 19 апреля 1946 Списана 11 июля 1946, продана на слом, 1 января 1947 Lunga Point (ex Alazon Bay) CVE 94 10 19 января 1944 11 апреля 1944 14 мая 1944 24 октября 1946 Списана 1 апреля 1960, продана на слом, 3 августа 1960 Bismarck Sea (ex Alikula Bay) CVE 95 11 31 января 1944 17 апреля 1944 20 мая 1944 30 марта 1945 Потоплена в битве за Иводзиму, 21 февраля 1945 Salamaua (ex Anguilla Bay) CVE 96 12 4 февраля 1944 22 апреля 1944 26 мая 1944 9 мая 1946 Списана 21 мая 1946, продана на слом, 18 ноября 1946 Hollandia (ex Astrolabe Bay) CVE 97 1 12 февраля 1944 28 апреля 1944 1 июня 1944 17 января 1947 Списана 1 апреля 1960, продана на слом, 31 декабря 1960 Kwajalein (ex Bucareli Bay) CVE 98 2 19 февраля 1944 4 мая 1944 7 июня 1944 16 августа 1946 Списана 1 апреля 1960, продана на слом Admiralty Islands (ex Chaplin Bay) CVE 99 3 26 февраля 1944 10 мая 1944 13 июня 1944 24 апреля 1946 Списана 8 мая 1946, продана на слом, 2 января 1947 Bougainville CVE 100 4 3 марта 1944 16 мая 1944 18 июня 1944 3 ноября 1946 Списана 1 мая 1960, продана на слом, 29 августа 1960 Matanikau (ex Dolomi Bay) CVE 101 5 10 марта 1944 22 мая 1944 24 июня 1944 11 октября 1946 Списана 1 апреля 1960, продана на слом, 27 июля 1960 Attu (ex Elbour Bay) CVE 102 6 16 марта 1944 27 мая 1944 30 июня 1944 8 июня 1946 Списана 3 июля 1946, продана на слом, 3 января 1947 Roi (ex Alava Bay) CVE 103 7 22 марта 1944 2 июня 1944 6 июля 1944 9 мая 1946 Списана 21 мая 1946, продана на слом, 31 декабря 1946 Munda (ex Tonowek Bay) CVE 104 8 29 марта 1944 27 мая 1944 8 июля 1944 24 апреля 1946 Списана 1 сентября 1958, продана на слом, 17 июня 1960
All ships of the Casablanca class were built in Vancouver, Washington, by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company. The following ships of the class were constructed. + List of Casablanca class escort carriers Ship name Hull no. (Hull number) Building Way Laid down Launched Commissioned Decommissioned Fate Casablanca (ex Ameer, ex Alazon Bay) CVE 55 73 November 19425 April 19438 July 194310 June 1946Sold for scrapping, 23 April 1947 Liscome Bay CVE 56 812 December 194219 April 19437 August 194324 November 1943Torpedoed and sunk by , 24 November 1943 Anzio (ex Alikula Bay, ex Coral Sea) CVE 57 912 December 19421 May 194327 August 19435 August 1946Struck, 1 March 1959, sold for scrapping, 24 November 1959 Corregidor (ex Auguilla Bay) CVE 58 10 17 December 1942 12 May 1943 31 August 1943 30 July 1946 Sold for scrapping, 28 April 1959 19 May 1951 4 September 1958 Mission Bay CVE 59 1128 December 194226 May 194313 September 194321 February 1947Sold for scrapping, 30 April 1959 Guadalcanal (ex Astrolabe Bay) CVE 60 125 January 19435 June 194325 September 194315 July 1946Struck, 27 May 1958, sold for scrapping, 2 September 1959 Manila Bay (ex Bucareli Bay) CVE 61 115 January 194310 July 19435 October 194331 July 1946Struck, 27 May 1958, sold for scrapping, 2 September 1959 Natoma Bay CVE 62 217 January 194320 July 194314 October 194320 May 1946Struck, 1 September 1958, sold for scrapping, 30 July 1959 St. Lo (ex Chapin Bay, ex Midway) CVE 63 323 January 194317 August 194323 October 194325 October 1944Sunk by kamikaze aircraft, 25 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Tripoli (ex Didrickson Bay) CVE 64 4 1 February 1943 13 July 1943 31 October 1943 22 May 1946 Struck, 1 February 1959, sold for scrapping, January 1960 5 January 1952 25 November 1958 Wake Island (ex Dolomi Bay) CVE 65 56 February 194315 September 19437 November 19435 April 1946Struck, 17 April 1946, sold for scrapping, 19 April 1946 White Plains (ex Elbour Bay) CVE 66 611 February 194327 September 194315 November 194310 July 1946Struck, 1 July 1958, sold for scrapping, 29 July 1958 Solomons (ex Emperor, ex Nassuk Bay) CVE 67 719 March 19436 October 194321 November 19435 June 1946Sold for scrapping, 22 December 1946 Kalinin Bay CVE 68 826 April 194315 October 194327 November 194315 May 1946Sold for scrapping, 8 December 1946 Kasaan Bay CVE 69 911 May 194324 October 19434 December 19435 June 1946Sold for scrapping, 2 February 1960 Fanshaw Bay CVE 70 1018 May 19431 November 19439 December 194314 August 1946Struck, 1 March 1959, sold for scrapping, 2 February 1960 Kitkun Bay CVE 71 1118 June 19438 November 194315 December 194319 April 1946Sold for scrapping, 18 November 1946 Tulagi (ex Fortazela Bay) CVE 72 127 June 194315 November 194321 December 194330 April 1946Struck, 8 May 1946 Gambier Bay CVE 73 110 July 194322 November 194328 December 194327 November 1944Sunk, 25 October 1944, in the Battle off Samar Nehenta Bay CVE 74 220 July 194328 November 19433 January 194415 May 1946Struck 1 April 1960, sold for scrapping, 29 June 1960 Hoggatt Bay CVE 75 317 August 19434 December 194311 January 194420 July 1946Struck 1 April 1960, sold for scrapping, 31 March 1960 Kadashan Bay CVE 76 42 September 194311 December 194318 January 194414 June 1946Struck 1 August 1959, sold for scrapping, February 1960 Marcus Island (ex Kanalku Bay) CVE 77 515 September 194316 November 194326 January 194412 December 1946Sold for scrapping, 29 February 1960 Savo Island (ex Kaita Bay) CVE 78 627 September 194322 December 19433 February 194412 December 1946Struck 1 September 1959, sold for scrapping, 29 February 1960 Ommaney Bay CVE 79 76 October 194329 December 194311 February 19444 January 1945Damaged by kamikaze aircraft and scuttled, 4 January 1945 Petrof Bay CVE 80 815 October 19435 January 194418 February 194431 July 1955Struck 27 June 1958, sold for scrapping, 30 July 1959 Rudyerd Bay CVE 81 924 October 194312 January 194425 February 194411 June 1946Struck 1 August 1959, sold for scrapping, January 1960 Saginaw Bay CVE 82 101 November 194319 January 19442 March 194419 June 1946Struck 1 March 1959, sold for scrapping, 27 November 1959 Sargent Bay CVE 83 118 November 194331 January 19449 March 194423 June 1946Struck 27 June 1958, sold for scrapping, July 1959 Shamrock Bay CVE 84 1215 November 19434 February 194415 March 19446 July 1946Struck 27 June 1958, sold for scrapping, May 1958 Shipley Bay CVE 85 122 November 194312 February 194421 March 194428 June 1946Struck 1 March 1959, sold for scrapping, 2 October 1959 Sitkoh Bay CVE 86 2 23 November 1943 19 February 1944 28 March 1944 30 November 1946 Struck 1 April 1960, sold for scrapping, 30 August 1960 29 July 1950 27 July 1954 Steamer Bay CVE 87 34 December 194326 February 19444 April 19444 February 1946Struck 1 March 1959, sold for scrapping, 29 August 1959 Cape Esperance (ex Tananek Bay) CVE 88 4 11 December 1943 3 March 1944 9 April 1944 22 August 1946 Sold for scrapping, 14 May 1959 5 August 1950 15 January 1959 Takanis Bay CVE 89 5 16 December 1943 10 March 1944 15 April 1944 18 June 1946 Struck 1 March 1959, sold for scrapping, 29 June 1960 Thetis Bay CVE 90 6 22 December 1943 16 March 1944 12 April 1944 7 August 1946 Struck 1 August 1959, sold for scrapping, December 1964 20 July 1956 1 March 1964 Makassar Strait CVE 91 729 December 194322 March 194427 April 19449 August 1946Struck 1 September 1958, grounded and used as a target, April 1961 Windham Bay CVE 92 8 5 January 1944 29 March 1944 3 May 1944 23 August 1946 Struck 1 February 1959, sold for scrapping, 31 December 1960 28 October 1950 15 January 1959 Makin Island CVE 93 912 January 19445 April 19449 May 194419 April 1946Struck 11 July 1946, sold for scrapping, 1 January 1947 Lunga Point (ex Alazon Bay) CVE 94 1019 January 194411 April 194414 May 194424 October 1946Struck 1 April 1960, sold for scrapping, 3 August 1960 Bismarck Sea (ex Alikula Bay) CVE 95 1131 January 194417 April 194420 May 194430 March 1945Sunk during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 21 February 1945 Salamaua (ex Anguilla Bay) CVE 96 124 February 194422 April 194426 May 19449 May 1946Struck 21 May 1946, sold for scrapping, 18 November 1946 Hollandia (ex Astrolabe Bay) CVE 97 112 February 194428 April 19441 June 194417 January 1947Struck 1 April 1960, sold for scrapping, 31 December 1960 Kwajalein (ex Bucareli Bay) CVE 98 219 February 19444 May 19447 June 194416 August 1946Struck 1 April 1960, sold for scrapping Admiralty Islands (ex Chaplin Bay) CVE 99 326 February 194410 May 194413 June 194424 April 1946Struck 8 May 1946, sold for scrapping, 2 January 1947 Bougainville CVE 100 43 March 194416 May 194418 June 19443 November 1946Struck 1 May 1960, sold for scrapping, 29 August 1960 Matanikau (ex Dolomi Bay) CVE 101 510 March 194422 May 194424 June 194411 October 1946Struck 1 April 1960, sold for scrapping, 27 July 1960 Attu (ex Elbour Bay) CVE 102 616 March 194427 May 194430 June 19448 June 1946Struck 3 July 1946, sold for scrapping, 3 January 1947 Roi (ex Alava Bay) CVE 103 722 March 19442 June 19446 July 19449 May 1946Struck 21 May 1946, sold for scrapping, 31 December 1946 Munda (ex Tonowek Bay) CVE 104 829 March 194427 May 19448 July 194424 April 1946Struck 1 September 1958, sold for scrapping, 17 June 1960