Casablanca class escort carrier
Encyclopedia
The Casablanca class escort aircraft carrier
s were the greatest number of not only escort carriers, but also any size aircraft carrier ever built to a like-design by any nation at any time. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years - 3 November 1942 through 8 July 1944. These were nearly one third of the 151 carriers built in the United States during the war. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of many more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survives today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped.
The first class to be designed from keel up as an escort carrier, the Casablanca class had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Bogue class
. Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating.
Casablanca class carriers were built by Kaiser Company, Inc.'s Shipbuilding Division
, Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River
in Vancouver, Washington
. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty Ship
s, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then Escort Aircraft Carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and an enormous 3,000 foot outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, but combat fighters were usually smaller and lighter models such as the Wildcat
. The hull number
s were assigned consecutively, from CVE-55 (Casablanca) to CVE-104 (Munda).
Production Time and Navy Refusal (Needs Editing)
Sources have reported that prior to December, 1941 the time to complete a Fleet Carrier was over 2 years, and based on navy projections from 1941, no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. (Note that the construction time for the Essex carriers was dramatically reduced after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.)
Kaiser had reduced the construction time of cargo ships (Liberty Ships) from 1+ years to less than 90 days, and he went to the USN and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than 2 years. The US Naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships. However, Kaiser went directly to the President's advisors, and the escort carriers were ordered. Note that at this point in WWII the US was in desperate need of carriers, and at one point early in the war had a single operational carrier in the Pacific. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and any resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness, not only in defending convoys and consolidating into groups for island landings, but by allowing the US to have a very diverse and widespread air presence across the pacific, and also in freeing up the Fleet Carriers for use in major strategic actions.
, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of 4 destroyer
s and 3 destroyer escort
s gave battle against the Japanese main 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, depth charges, high-explosive bombs, and their own 5" 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"/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their numbers, 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 Myoko class cruiser with two hits. Recent evidence suggests that six 5" shells fired from the USS White Plains
struck the heavy cruiser IJN Chokai. One of the rounds impacted amidships on the starboard side, causing a larger secondary explosion (probably from one of the Chokais own torpedoes) that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew put all six 5" rounds into the Chokai from a range of 11,700 yards, near the maximum effective range for the 5"/38 gun.
Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when USS Guadalcanal
under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery
, made the first capture-at-sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812
, by capturing U-505.
Of the eleven U.S. aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers. Of those six escort carriers lost, five were of the Kaiser-built Casablanca class. The Casablanca class carriers lost during World War II were:
Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I-175 SW off Butaritari (Makin).
Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar
.
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze
aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf.
Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima
.
Unlike most other warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow
reciprocating engine
s instead of turbine engines. This was done in view of bottlenecks in the gear-cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. 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, , was heavily modified into an amphibious assault ship (LPH-6), but was scrapped in 1964.
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 Bogue class escort carriers
were transferred instead as the Ruler class (the RN's Batch I Bogues were the Attacker class).
Escort aircraft carrier
The escort aircraft carrier or escort carrier, also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the USN or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the British Royal Navy , the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, and the...
s were the greatest number of not only escort carriers, but also any size aircraft carrier ever built to a like-design by any nation at any time. Fifty were laid down, launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years - 3 November 1942 through 8 July 1944. These were nearly one third of the 151 carriers built in the United States during the war. Despite their numbers, and the preservation of many more famous and larger carriers as museums, none of these modest ships survives today. Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped.
The first class to be designed from keel up as an escort carrier, the Casablanca class had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions. It also had a larger flight deck than the Bogue class
Bogue class escort carrier
The Bogue-class were a group of escort carriers built in the United States for service with the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy during World War II....
. Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection was limited to splinter plating.
Casablanca class carriers were built by Kaiser Company, Inc.'s Shipbuilding Division
Kaiser Shipyards
The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located mostly on the U.S. west coast during World War II. They were owned by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, a creation of American industrialist Henry J...
, Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
in Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty Ship
Liberty ship
Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...
s, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then Escort Aircraft Carriers all before the end of the yard's first year in operation. The yard had twelve building ways and an enormous 3,000 foot outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships. Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes, but combat fighters were usually smaller and lighter models such as the Wildcat
F4F Wildcat
The Grumman F4F Wildcat was an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that began service with both the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy in 1940...
. The hull number
Hull number
Hull number is a serial identification number given to a boat or ship. A lower number implies an older vessel. The precise usage varies by country and type....
s were assigned consecutively, from CVE-55 (Casablanca) to CVE-104 (Munda).
Production Time and Navy Refusal (Needs Editing)
Sources have reported that prior to December, 1941 the time to complete a Fleet Carrier was over 2 years, and based on navy projections from 1941, no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944. (Note that the construction time for the Essex carriers was dramatically reduced after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.)
Kaiser had reduced the construction time of cargo ships (Liberty Ships) from 1+ years to less than 90 days, and he went to the USN and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than 2 years. The US Naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser built ships. However, Kaiser went directly to the President's advisors, and the escort carriers were ordered. Note that at this point in WWII the US was in desperate need of carriers, and at one point early in the war had a single operational carrier in the Pacific. Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and any resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness, not only in defending convoys and consolidating into groups for island landings, but by allowing the US to have a very diverse and widespread air presence across the pacific, and also in freeing up the Fleet Carriers for use in major strategic actions.
Service
Although designated as escort carriers, the Casablanca class was far more frequently used in fleet operations, where their light wings of fighters and bombers could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. These ships finest hour came in the Battle off SamarBattle off Samar
The Battle off Samar was the centermost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines on 25 October 1944...
, when Taffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of 4 destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
s and 3 destroyer escort
Destroyer escort
A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...
s gave battle against the Japanese main 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, depth charges, high-explosive bombs, and their own 5" 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"/38 cal gun mounted aft, yet two of their numbers, St. Lo (ex-Midway)
USS St. Lo (CVE-63)
USS St. Lo was a of the United States Navy during World War II. On 25 October 1944, St. Lo became the first major warship to sink as the result of a kamikaze attack. The attack occurred during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.St...
and Kalinin Bay
USS Kalinin Bay (CVE-68)
USS Kalinin Bay was an Casablanca class escort carrier of the United States Navy.She originally designated an AVG, was classified ACV-68 on 20 August 1942; laid down under a Maritime Commission contract 26 April 1943 by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Co., Inc., Vancouver, Washington; reclassified CVE-68...
, 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 Myoko class cruiser with two hits. Recent evidence suggests that six 5" shells fired from the USS White Plains
USS White Plains (CVE-66)
USS White Plains was an Casablanca class escort carrier of the United States Navy.She was laid down on 11 February 1943 at Vancouver, Washington, by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Inc., under a Maritime Commission contract as Elbour Bay ; renamed White Plains on 3 April 1943; redesignated...
struck the heavy cruiser IJN Chokai. One of the rounds impacted amidships on the starboard side, causing a larger secondary explosion (probably from one of the Chokais own torpedoes) that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. The White Plains gun crew put all six 5" rounds into the Chokai from a range of 11,700 yards, near the maximum effective range for the 5"/38 gun.
Another noteworthy achievement of the Casablanca class was when USS Guadalcanal
USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60)
USS Guadalcanal was a Casablanca class escort carrier of the United States Navy. She was the first ship to carry her name.She was converted from a Maritime Commission hull by Kaiser Co., Inc., of Vancouver, Washington...
under command of Captain Daniel V. Gallery
Daniel V. Gallery
Rear Admiral Daniel Vincent Gallery was an officer in the United States Navy who saw extensive action during World War II. He fought in the Second Battle of the Atlantic, his most notable achievement was the capture of the German submarine U-505, on June 4, 1944...
, made the first capture-at-sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, by capturing U-505.
Of the eleven U.S. aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II, six were escort carriers. Of those six escort carriers lost, five were of the Kaiser-built Casablanca class. The Casablanca class carriers lost during World War II were:
- 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
Battle off Samar
The Battle off Samar was the centermost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines on 25 October 1944...
.
- CVE-63 St. Lo (ex-Midway)
Sunk 25 October 1944. Kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
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
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...
.
Unlike most other warships since , the Casablanca class ships were equipped with uniflow
Uniflow steam engine
The uniflow type of steam engine uses steam that flows in one direction only in each half of the cylinder. Thermal efficiency is increased in the compound and multiple expansion types of steam engine by separating expansion into steps in separate cylinders; in the uniflow design, thermal efficiency...
reciprocating engine
Reciprocating engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of all types...
s instead of turbine engines. This was done in view of bottlenecks in the gear-cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. 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, , was heavily modified into an amphibious assault ship (LPH-6), but was scrapped in 1964.
Originally, half of their number were to be transferred to the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
under Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
, but instead they were retained in the US Navy and the Batch II Bogue class escort carriers
Bogue class escort carrier
The Bogue-class were a group of escort carriers built in the United States for service with the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy during World War II....
were transferred instead as the Ruler class (the RN's Batch I Bogues were the Attacker class).
Ships in class
| Ships in Class | |
|---|---|
By hull number
| By name
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