31-713: USS Roi (CVE-103) was a Casablanca -class escort carrier of the United States Navy . She was named after the Battle of Roi , in which the United States captured the island of Roi-Namur . Built for service during World War II , the ship was launched in June 1944, commissioned in July, and acted as a transport and as a replenishment carrier. During the latter months of the war, she provided aircraft and supplies to
62-426: A 477 ft (145 m) long flight deck . She was powered with two Skinner Unaflow reciprocating steam engines, which drove two shafts, providing 9,000 horsepower (6,700 kW), thus enabling her to make 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). The ship had a cruising range of 10,240 nautical miles (18,960 km; 11,780 mi) at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). Her compact size necessitated
93-454: 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. The Casablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case
124-783: 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 HMS Dreadnought ,
155-841: The Ruler class (the RN's Batch I Bogues were the Attacker class). All ships of the Casablanca class were built in Vancouver , Washington, by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company . The following ships of the class were constructed. pps. 1 & 2 – "Kaiser Company, Inc. – Vancouver", BuShips QQ files, NARA, College Park, MD. - "The Ships We Build", Kaiser Company, Inc., n.d., c. immediate post-war, 1945. Ship sponsor Too Many Requests If you report this error to
186-451: 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. 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
217-684: The Fast Carrier Task Force , continuing until the end of the war. Postwar, she participated in Operation Magic Carpet . She was decommissioned in May 1946, and she was sold for scrapping in December. Roi was a Casablanca -class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carrier ever built, and designed specifically to be mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy early war losses in
248-487: 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 3,000-foot (910 m) outfitting dock along with
279-680: The Occupation of Japan . Following the end of the war, Roi joined the Operation Magic Carpet fleet, which repatriated U.S. servicemen from around the Pacific. She conducted several Magic Carpet runs throughout 1945 until she was released from the fleet. She then reported to Bremerton, Washington , where she was deactivated and decommissioned on 9 May 1946. She was struck from the Navy list on 21 May, and sold on 31 December to Zidell Machinery & Supply of Portland, Oregon for scrapping . Roi
310-554: The Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf. Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima . 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. 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
341-481: The early engagements of the Pacific War . Standardized with her sister ships , she was 512 ft 3 in (156.13 m) long overall , had a beam of 65 ft 2 in (19.86 m), and a draft of 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m). She displaced 8,188 long tons (8,319 t ) standard , 10,902 long tons (11,077 t) with a full load . She had a 257 ft (78 m) long hangar deck and
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#1732780472737372-744: 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 their aircraft joined by aircraft from Taffy 1 and 2 comprised additional Casablanca -class carriers, 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
403-533: The fast carriers on 12 July, 16 July, and 20 July. After exhausting her replacement aircraft, she stopped at Guam on 21 July to replenish. She departed on 27 July, with a full load of 61 aircraft, and conducted rendezvous again with the fast carriers on 14 August. Shortly afterwards, while she was at sea, the Japanese surrender was announced. She then joined the main contingent of the Third Fleet , in support of
434-644: The fast carriers to operate at sea for a sustained period of time without having to return to port to replenish. After loading 61 replenishment aircraft, she sailed for Guam, where she joined Task Force 30.8, the replenishment escort carrier task group. She rendezvoused with the Fast Carrier Task Force (Task Group 38) on designated days, in order to replace losses sustained in operations against mainland Japan. She began operations on 4 July 1945, along with fellow escort carriers Admiralty Islands , Hollandia , and Thetis Bay . She rendezvoused with
465-477: The installment of an aircraft catapult at her bow, and there were two aircraft elevators to facilitate movement of aircraft between the flight and hangar deck: one each fore and aft. One 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber dual-purpose gun was mounted on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by 8 Bofors 40-millimeter (1.6 in) anti-aircraft guns in single mounts, as well as 12 Oerlikon 20-millimeter (0.79 in) cannons , which were mounted around
496-436: The larger Essex and Independence -class aircraft carriers , none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels. 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
527-724: 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 (CVE-63) and Coral Sea (CVE-57), lost their battle names mid-career to new Midway -class aircraft carriers , becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike
558-514: 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 Myōkō -class cruiser with two hits. In addition, the gun crew on USS 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 Chōkai ' s own torpedoes – on
589-675: The only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow. 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: 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
620-435: The perimeter of the deck. By the end of the war, Casablanca -class carriers had been modified to carry thirty 20-mm cannons, and the amount of 40-mm guns had been doubled to sixteen, by putting them into twin mounts. These modifications were in response to increasing casualties due to kamikaze attacks. Casablanca -class escort carriers were designed to carry 27 aircraft, but the hangar deck could accommodate more. Because Roi
651-511: 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 Bogue class . Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor, protection
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#1732780472737682-401: The starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser. White Plains ' s gun crew claimed to have put all six 5-inch rounds into Chōkai from a range of 11,700 yards (10,700 m), 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
713-558: 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 and Kalinin Bay , became
744-587: 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, USS 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 Bogue -class escort carriers were transferred instead as
775-948: Was launched on 2 June 1944; sponsored by Mrs. William Sinton; transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned on 6 July 1944, with Captain Percy Haverly Lyon in command. Upon being commissioned, Roi underwent a shakedown cruise down the West Coast to San Diego . She then underwent several transport missions, first departing from San Diego on 13 August, carrying a load of 287 passengers and 71 aircraft bound for Manus Island and Espiritu Santo . She returned to port on 27 September, and conducted another transport run to Manus on 21 October. On 2 December, she made another transport run, making stops at Guam and Eniwetok . After completing her mission, she arrived at Alameda, California for overhaul. After overhaul
806-470: Was awarded one battle star for her World War II service. Casablanca-class escort carrier 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
837-476: Was completed, she made two more round-trip transport missions to bases in the Marshalls and Mariana Islands. She then headed for Pearl Harbor , where she underwent training operations. There, she was also assigned to become a replenishment carrier supporting the frontline Fast Carrier Task Force , providing replacement aircraft, supplies, and fuel for the fleet carriers. The replenishment carrier fleet enabled
868-549: 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
899-483: Was never utilized in a combat operation, she usually operated with about 60 aircraft on board, the maximum carrying capacity at which take-offs would still be possible. Her construction was awarded to Kaiser Shipbuilding Company , Vancouver, Washington under a Maritime Commission contract, on 18 June 1942, under the name Alava Bay , as part of a tradition which named escort carriers after bays or sounds in Alaska. She
930-413: Was renamed Roi , after the capture of the island Roi-Namur during the Battle of Kwajalein , as part of a new naval policy which named subsequent Casablanca -class carriers after naval or land engagements. The escort carrier was laid down on 3 March 1944, MC hull 1140, the forty-ninth of a series of fifty Casablanca -class escort carriers. She therefore received the classification symbol CVE-103 . She
961-508: Was when USS 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 USS Pillsbury boarded 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