45-953: USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90) was the thirty-sixth of fifty Casablanca -class escort carriers built for the United States Navy during World War II . She was launched in March 1944, commissioned in April, and served as a transport carrier in the Pacific, as well as a replenishment carrier supporting the Allied bombardment of Tokyo and the Main Islands . Postwar, she participated in Operation Magic Carpet , before being decommissioned in August 1946, being mothballed in
90-423: A full load . She had a 257 ft (78 m) long hangar deck and 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
135-656: A lieutenant commander in the Medical Corps served as the first medical officer at the time of the commissioning. Upon being commissioned, Thetis Bay underwent a shakedown cruise down the West Coast to San Diego , California . Upon finishing, she was assigned to transport duty, and proceeded north towards San Pedro to take on a load of aircraft and passengers. She put out to sea on 5 June, stopped at Pearl Harbor on 11 June, and headed out, via Makin Island of
180-405: A crew of 860 and an embarked squadron of 50 to 56, the exigencies of wartime often necessitated the inflation of the crew count. Casablanca -class escort carriers were designed to carry 27 aircraft, but the hangar deck could accommodate more, which was often necessary during transport or especially training missions, due to the constant turnover of pilots and aircraft. Following her conversion into
225-431: A helicopter assault carrier, 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 22 ft 6 in (6.86 m). She displaced 7,800 long tons (7,900 t) standard and 11,000 long tons (11,000 t) with a full load, and could make 19.3 knots (35.7 km/h; 22.2 mph) at full speed. She had a designed complement of 900 crew and 938 troops,
270-424: A speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). Her compact size limited the length of the flight deck and necessitated 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 in (127 mm)/38 caliber dual-purpose gun was mounted on the stern. Anti-aircraft defense
315-513: A thousand people in Taiwan . Thus, Thetis Bay , which was serving with the Seventh Fleet at the time, was dispatched from Hong Kong on 12 August, proceeding to Taiwan to conduct relief operations. There, she used her 21 Marine Corps Sikorsky H-34s of Marine Helicopter Transport Squadron (Light) 261 (HMR(L)-261) to ferry aid and transport stranded civilians. She completed her mission on
360-574: A three-week overhaul. Finishing in August, she resumed transport duties on 11 August, delivering spare parts, replacement aircraft, and military passengers from the West Coast to bases in Hawaii and the Marshalls. After completing her first transport tour on 13 September, she made five more round-trip missions, spanning September 1944 to mid-April 1945, ferrying supplies from the United States to
405-484: A variety of destinations in the Pacific, ranging from Pearl Harbor to Finschhafen , New Guinea . During this period, Captain Benjamin Eugene Moore Jr. raised his flag over the ship on 21 January 1945. On 12 June, Thetis Bay steamed into Pearl Harbor carrying a load of aircraft, having departed from San Diego. There, she was assigned to become a replenishment carrier as a part of Task Group 50.8.4,
450-520: A variety of operations, including vertical envelopment exercises off of Luzon , the Philippines , throughout February 1958. On 28 May 1959, she was reclassified as a landing platform helicopter amphibious assault ship , and thus, received the hull symbol LPH-6 . In August 1959, severe flooding, starting on 7 August, exacerbated by Typhoon Billie , which had earlier struck in July, killed more than
495-783: 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 ,
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#1732779978648540-845: 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. Kaiser Shipyards Too Many Requests If you report this error to
585-451: 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
630-623: The Gilberts Islands and Majuro of the Marshall Islands , to Kwajalein . There, she took on the 50th Engineer Combat Battalion of the United States Army , which she deposited back at Pearl Harbor on 5 July. On 7 July, Thetis Bay got underway for Alameda ferrying 41 aircraft that required repairs. She steamed into port on 13 July, and after unloading her cargo, headed for Terminal Island , Los Angeles for
675-575: The Pacific Reserve Fleet . She was reactivated in July 1956, and converted to a helicopter transport carrier, serving in relief operations in Taiwan and Haiti . Ultimately, she was broken up in 1966, the last Casablanca -class hull to be scrapped. Thetis Bay was a Casablanca -class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carrier ever built, and was designed specifically to be rapidly mass-produced using prefabricated sections, in order to replace heavy early-war losses. By
720-856: The Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , for inactivation work, arriving there on 6 January. There, she was decommissioned, once again, joining the Philadelphia group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet . She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1964, and she was sold for scrapping in December 1964 to Peck Iron & Metal Co., Inc., headquartered at Portsmouth, Virginia . She
765-616: The Pacific. She cruised around the Pacific, making stops and returning U.S. servicemen back to the mainland. During one of her stops, Captain Allen Smith Jr. took over command of the vessel on 19 October. She completed her "Magic Carpet" duties, and was discharged in January 1946. Inactivation work was conducted in the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Bremerton , Washington . Upon
810-554: 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
855-862: 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 (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
900-690: The completion of that work, she was decommissioned and mothballed on 7 August 1946, joining the Tacoma group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet . In May 1955, Thetis Bay was withdrawn from the Pacific Reserve Fleet and towed to the San Francisco Naval Shipyard under project SCB 122 , where she began conversion into the Navy's first assault helicopter aircraft carrier. On 1 July, she was redesignated as such, receiving
945-796: 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
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#1732779978648990-448: The end of their production run, the time taken between laying down the hull and launching the ship had been cut down to nearly one month. 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 and 10,902 long tons (11,077 t) with
1035-578: The frontline carriers from 14 August to 8 September. As she began her replenishment mission, news broke of the Japanese surrender , and her replenishment aircraft were used to support the initial landings in the Occupation of Japan . Upon finishing her replenishment mission, Thetis Bay returned to the United States via Guam, arriving at Alameda on 7 September. There, she joined the "Magic Carpet" fleet, which repatriated U.S. servicemen from throughout
1080-600: The helicopters of Marine Corps Test Unit No. 1, based at Camp Pendleton , who demonstrated landing and take-off techniques on this novel type of ship. She then participated in amphibious training exercises off of the California coast, evaluating her planned complementary role, before deploying to the Far East on 10 July 1957. Having completed a short tour of duty, she returned to Long Beach on 11 December, where she resumed local operations. During 1958 and 1959, she conducted
1125-593: The hull symbol CVHA-1 . Ships of her type were expected to act as a complement to attack transports , providing them with vertical assault capabilities. She was recommissioned on 20 July 1956, with Captain Thomas Winfield South, II, in command. Her conversion was finally completed six weeks later on 1 September, with a portion of the aft section of her flight deck having been cut away. Thetis Bay then proceeded southwards towards her new home part, arriving at Long Beach on 20 September. There, she took on
1170-436: 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
1215-791: The mobile replenishment group supporting the frontline Fast Carrier Task Force . Replenishment escort carriers such as Thetis Bay enabled the frontline carriers to replace battle losses, and to stay at sea for longer durations of time. She first headed to Apra Harbor in Guam of the Mariana Islands , arriving on 25 June. Then, she headed westwards, making her first rendezvous with the fast carriers on 12 July, when she transferred 40 of her replenishment aircraft. She returned to Guam on 22 July to take on more aircraft, before she departed on 24 July, making another rendezvous on 31 July. She then replenished at Guam, before heading out once again, resupplying
1260-882: The next three years, Thetis Bay operated along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean . In October 1962, during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis , she proceeded into the naval "quarantine" area along with her helicopter contingent and a marine landing team, standing by for potential actions. In the spring of 1963, she ferried special aircraft required for President John F. Kennedy 's planned visit to West Germany to Hamburg . In September 1963, she headed to Haiti , which had been affected by Hurricane Flora . She anchored off Port-au-Prince and launched Marine helicopters carrying medical aid and food supplies. Thetis Bay left Norfolk on 5 January 1964, heading to
1305-462: The noon of 20 August, at which point the helicopters had delivered a total of 1,600,540 lb (725,990 kg) of aid. In addition, the helicopters had ferried 850 passengers throughout the operation. Thetis Bay , in May 1960, took part in a training night assault landing at Camp Pendleton. During the operation, her helicopters carried 1,300 troops and 30 t (30 long tons; 33 short tons) of cargo to
1350-495: The objective area. This practice operation represented the first large-scale night landing of ground forces by helicopters based on board a carrier. She deployed to the western Pacific for the spring of 1961, and upon completing her tour and returning to Long Beach, she was transferred to the United States Atlantic Fleet . She arrived at Norfolk , Virginia , her new home port, in early December 1961. For
1395-514: 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
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1440-675: 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
1485-599: 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 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
1530-576: 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
1575-401: 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
1620-558: 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
1665-587: 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
1710-528: 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 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
1755-487: 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
1800-586: Was armed with four twin 40 mm (1.6 in) anti-aircraft guns, and carried twenty helicopters. Her construction was awarded to Kaiser Shipbuilding Company , Vancouver, Washington , under a United States Maritime Commission contract, on 18 June 1942. The escort carrier was laid down on 22 December 1943 under the name Thetis Bay , located within Kuiu Island , as part of a tradition which named escort carriers after bays or sounds in Alaska. The bay itself
1845-669: Was named by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1928 after the United States Revenue Cutter Service cutter Thetis , which in turn was named after the sea nymph Thetis , the daughter of Nereus and the mother of Achilles in Greek mythology . She was laid down as MC hull 1127, the thirty-sixth of a series of fifty Casablanca -class escort carriers. She therefore received the classification symbol CVE-90 , indicating that she
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1890-519: Was proposed to be transferred to the Spanish Navy , but the Independence -class light aircraft carrier Cabot was sent in her place. She was ultimately broken up in 1966. Thetis Bay received one battle star for her World War II service. Her name plate is on display at Freedom Park , Omaha , Nebraska . Casablanca-class escort carrier The Casablanca -class escort carrier
1935-606: Was provided by eight Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) anti-aircraft guns in single mounts, as well as twelve Oerlikon 20 mm (0.79 in) cannons , which were mounted around the perimeter of the deck. By the end of the war, Casablanca -class carriers had been modified to carry thirty 20 mm (0.79 in) cannons, and the amount of Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) guns had been doubled to 16, by putting them into twin mounts. These modifications were in response to increasing casualties due to kamikaze attacks. Although Casablanca -class escort carriers were designed to function with
1980-608: Was the ninetieth escort carrier to be commissioned into the United States Navy . She was launched on 16 March 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Rico Botta, the wife of Captain Botta, the Assembly and Repair Officer overseeing Naval Air Station North Island ; transferred to the Navy and commissioned on 12 April 1944, with Captain Donald Edmund Wilcox in command. Notably, actress Claudette Colbert 's husband, Joel Pressman,
2025-508: 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
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