Casablanca-class escort carrier

[Robert9670]

I decided to make a thread dedicated to the Casablanca - class escort carriers, since I didn't see one already.  Anyway, the Casablanca - class was a class of escort aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy during World War II.  They were also the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built.  A total of 50 ships were laid down, launched, and commissioned within the space of less than 2 years, November 3, 1942 - July 8, 1944.  This was nearly one third of the 151 aircraft carriers built by the United States during the war.  While larger and more famous aircraft carriers were preserved as museums, none of the Casablanca - class carriers survive today, despite the number of ships built for this class.  Five of the ships were lost to enemy action during World War II, and the remainder were scrapped after the war.

 

The Casablanca - class was the first class to be designed from the keel up as an escort carrier, and they had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions.  Also, the flight deck for the Casablanca - class ships was larger than that on the Bogue - class.  But unlike larger aircraft carriers, which had more extensive armor, the Casablanca - class had only splinter plating as protection.  However, the small size of the Casablanca - class carriers made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes.  But the fighter aircraft usually carried by these ships consisted mainly of smaller and lighter models such as the Wildcat.  The Casablanca - class was able to carry a total of 28 aircraft.

 

The Casablanca - class carriers were built by Kaiser Company Inc.'s Shipbuilding Division, Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.  The ships were assigned hull numbers from CVE-55 (Casablanca) to CVE-104 (Munda).  While the 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 that no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944.  As a result, Kaiser proposed to build a fleet of 50 small carriers in the space of less than 2 years.  However, the Navy refused to approve the construction of the Kaiser-built carriers until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisors.  The Allies desperately needed new aircraft carriers to replace carriers that were lost early in the war.  Kaiser was able to produce the ships rapidly as they had planned, and the resistance to the value of these ships disappeared as they proved they were useful in defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive airstrike missions.

 

While designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca - class were used far more often 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.  Perhaps the finest hour of the Casablanca - class escort carriers was during the Battle off Samar on October 25, 1944.  Taffy 3, a small task unit, came under attack by the powerful Japanese Center Force, which included the largest battleship ever built, Yamato.  Taffy 3's ships included 6 Casablanca - class escort carriers, 3 destroyers, and 4 destroyer escorts.  As the destroyers and destroyer escorts turned to attack the enemy, the carriers accelerated to flank speed and turned away from the Japanese ships under the cover of rain squalls and smokescreens laid by the destroyers and destroyer escorts.  But the Japanese ships continued to close in on the carriers, and USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) soon began taking hits which reduced her speed, until finally she was dead in the water.  Gambier Bay sank at 9:07, and the majority of her nearly 800 survivors were rescued two days later.  Another famous achievement of the Casablanca - class carriers was the capture of the German submarine U-505 by USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), which was the first capture-at-sea of a foreign warship since the War of 1812.

 

The Casablanca - class used uniflow reciprocating engines instead of turbine engines for propulsion.  While this was done because of bottlenecks in the gear-cutting industry, it greatly limited the usefulness of these ships after the war.  Some ships were retained as aircraft transports, where their lack of speed was not a major drawback.  While most ships of this class were deactivated and placed in reserve, later to be stricken in 1958-59 and scrapped in 1959-61, some ships were reactivated as helicopter escort carriers (CVHE and T-CVHE) or utility carriers (CVU and T-CVU).  One ship, USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90), was even converted into a amphibious assault ship (LPH-6), but was scrapped in 1964.

 

Originally, half of their number were planned to be transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease, but the Casablanca - class escort carriers were retained by the US Navy and the Batch II Bogue - class escort carriers were transferred instead as the Ruler - class.  My opinion of the Casablanca - class is that they were good ships for their time, and that they deserve more attention than they usually get.

 

USS Casablanca (CVE-55), the lead ship of her class

 

Class overview

 

Name:  Casablanca

 

Preceded by:  Charger - class escort carrier

 

Succeeded by:  Commencement Bay - class escort carrier

 

Planned:  50

 

Completed:  50

 

Lost:  5

 

Retired:  45

 

Preserved:  0

 

General characteristics

 

Class & type:  Escort aircraft carrier

 

Displacement:  7,900 tons

10,902 tons full load

 

Length:  512.3 ft (156.1 m) overall

 

Beam:  65.2 ft (19.9 m)

 

Draft:  22.5 ft (6.9 m)

 

Propulsion:  Propulsion for the Casablanca - class escort carriers was provided by 2 five-cylinder reciprocating Skinner Uniflow steam engines and 4 x 285 psi (1,970 kPa) boilers along with 2 shafts, providing 9,000 shp (6,700 kW)

 

Speed and Range:  Casablanca - class escort carriers had a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h) and a range of 10,240 nm at 15 knots

 

Complement:  Ship's company:  860 officers and men

   Embarked squadron:  50 to 56 officers

   Total complement:  910 to 916 officers and men

 

Armament:  Armament for the Casablanca - class escort carriers consisted of 1 5 inch/38 cal gun, 16 40mm Bofors guns mounted in 8 twin mounts, and 20 20mm Oerlikon cannons

 

Aircraft carried:  The Casablanca - class could carry a total of 28 aircraft

 

Sources used:  Wikipedia, http://www.bosamar.com/pages/home, http://www.globalsec...ship/cve-55.htm

[Robert9670]

The five ships of the Casablanca - class lost during World War II

 

USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56)

 

USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73)

 

USS Midway/St. Lo (CVE-63)

 

USS Ommaney Bay (CVE-79)

 

USS Bismarck Sea (CVE-95)

[Robert9670]

A model of USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) on display at the USS Midway museum

[Wake_Island]

[Robert9670]

USS Coral Sea/Anzio (CVE-57)

 

Anzio rolling in heavy seas

[Robert9670]

I also have to say we haven't seen too many threads about aircraft carriers, covering either individual ships or an entire class.  My opinion is that I hope this thread will correct that.  I'll probably cover one of the Casablanca - class carriers in another thread sometime later.

[Robert9670]

USS Kitkun Bay (CVE-71)

[PrincessTerrik]

nice! +1 that battle you were talking about, Leyte Gulf with Taffy 3, I'm actually currently reading about in The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, but they failed to mention that the escort carriers were Casablanca-class. . .I was actually under the impression that they were converted merchant cruisers

[anonym_s4TCbLNuhWyC]

PrincessTerrik, on 24 March 2013 - 01:22 AM, said:

nice! +1 that battle you were talking about, Leyte Gulf with Taffy 3, I'm actually currently reading about in The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, but they failed to mention that the escort carriers were Casablanca-class. . .I was actually under the impression that they were converted merchant cruisers

All hail the Princess xD
Opinion on carriers-Cute small carriers i would love to drive one in WoWs

[Robert9670]

PrincessTerrik, on 24 March 2013 - 01:22 AM, said:

nice! +1 that battle you were talking about, Leyte Gulf with Taffy 3, I'm actually currently reading about in The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, but they failed to mention that the escort carriers were Casablanca-class. . .I was actually under the impression that they were converted merchant cruisers

Actually, they were built from the keel up as escort carriers, rather than being conversions.

[Azumazi]

Man looking at Anzio rolling in those sea's reminds me way too much of the heavy sea's we saw near Okinawa, god did I hate that crap. Oh guess what Azu, you're a rescue swimmer, so we're going to go train with the Coast Guard today and do some swimming...in 20 foot swells, but don't forget it's suppose to be windy tomorrow so expect some night training for the new guys!

 

I will say though that being on a modern carrier, you didn't notice it much, those poor escorts I bet got tossed like the DD's do during a big storm.

[anonym_s4TCbLNuhWyC]

Azumazi, on 24 March 2013 - 01:45 AM, said:

Man looking at Anzio rolling in those sea's reminds me way too much of the heavy sea's we saw near Okinawa, god did I hate that crap. Oh guess what Azu, you're a rescue swimmer, so we're going to go train with the Coast Guard today and do some swimming...in 20 foot swells, but don't forget it's suppose to be windy tomorrow so expect some night training for the new guys!

I will say though that being on a modern carrier, you didn't notice it much, those poor escorts I bet got tossed like the DD's do during a big storm.

Yes...I would vomit so much on does carriers in a storm..I wonder how it is on a Iowa class Battleship (how bad the rocking is in a big storm)

[Azumazi]

Oh dude, I had a buddy who was in the Navy post some pictures to me in an email of the mess all the puke left after a huge storm with literally over 100 men throwing up all over the deck that it was so bad they restricted everyone to quarters and had MRE's issued out for food, but no one ate them since it was literally a puke session. He said it took them a week to get rid of the smell. It was LHA-1 USS Tarawa that this happened on, man I'm so glad I wasn't on that thing, and it wasn't a small ship so that gives you an idea of how bad it was rocking in the storm. It was bad enough that 3 Marines were seriously injured due to falling and hitting their heads.

[Robert9670]

USS Kalinin Bay (CVE-68)

[Robert9670]

USS Attu (CVE-102) after weathering a typhoon. Several aircraft are in disarray on deck

[Azumazi]

Robert9670, on 24 March 2013 - 01:59 AM, said:

USS Attu (CVE-102) after weathering a typhoon. Several aircraft are in disarray on deck

Aircraft in disarray? The damn hull looks warped!

[Robert9670]

USS Savo Island (CVE-78) underway in May 1944

 

Savo Island photographed from the waterline, with her flight deck full of aircraft

[IotaOmicron]

Robert9670, on 23 March 2013 - 08:28 PM, said:

I decided to make a thread dedicated to the Casablanca - class escort carriers, since I didn't see one already.  Anyway, the Casablanca - class was a class of escort aircraft carriers built for the United States Navy during World War II.  They were also the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built.  A total of 50 ships were laid down, launched, and commissioned within the space of less than 2 years, November 3, 1942 - July 8, 1944.  This was nearly one third of the 151 aircraft carriers built by the United States during the war.  While larger and more famous aircraft carriers were preserved as museums, none of the Casablanca - class carriers survive today, despite the number of ships built for this class.  Five of the ships were lost to enemy action during World War II, and the remainder were scrapped after the war.

The Casablanca - class was the first class to be designed from the keel up as an escort carrier, and they had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions.  Also, the flight deck for the Casablanca - class ships was larger than that on the Bogue - class.  But unlike larger aircraft carriers, which had more extensive armor, the Casablanca - class had only splinter plating as protection.  However, the small size of the Casablanca - class carriers made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes.  But the fighter aircraft usually carried by these ships consisted mainly of smaller and lighter models such as the Wildcat.  The Casablanca - class was able to carry a total of 28 aircraft.

The Casablanca - class carriers were built by Kaiser Company Inc.'s Shipbuilding Division, Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.  The ships were assigned hull numbers from CVE-55 (Casablanca) to CVE-104 (Munda).  While the 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 that no new fleet carriers could be expected until 1944.  As a result, Kaiser proposed to build a fleet of 50 small carriers in the space of less than 2 years.  However, the Navy refused to approve the construction of the Kaiser-built carriers until Kaiser went directly to the President's advisors.  The Allies desperately needed new aircraft carriers to replace carriers that were lost early in the war.  Kaiser was able to produce the ships rapidly as they had planned, and the resistance to the value of these ships disappeared as they proved they were useful in defending convoys, providing air support for amphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive airstrike missions.

While designated as convoy escort carriers, the Casablanca - class were used far more often 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.  Perhaps the finest hour of the Casablanca - class escort carriers was during the Battle off Samar on October 25, 1944.  Taffy 3, a small task unit, came under attack by the powerful Japanese Center Force, which included the largest battleship ever built, Yamato.  Taffy 3's ships included 6 Casablanca - class escort carriers, 3 destroyers, and 4 destroyer escorts.  As the destroyers and destroyer escorts turned to attack the enemy, the carriers accelerated to flank speed and turned away from the Japanese ships under the cover of rain squalls and smokescreens laid by the destroyers and destroyer escorts.  But the Japanese ships continued to close in on the carriers, and USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) soon began taking hits which reduced her speed, until finally she was dead in the water.  Gambier Bay sank at 9:07, and the majority of her nearly 800 survivors were rescued two days later.  Another famous achievement of the Casablanca - class carriers was the capture of the German submarine U-505 by USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), which was the first capture-at-sea of a foreign warship since the War of 1812.

The Casablanca - class used uniflow reciprocating engines instead of turbine engines for propulsion.  While this was done because of bottlenecks in the gear-cutting industry, it greatly limited the usefulness of these ships after the war.  Some ships were retained as aircraft transports, where their lack of speed was not a major drawback.  While most ships of this class were deactivated and placed in reserve, later to be stricken in 1958-59 and scrapped in 1959-61, some ships were reactivated as helicopter escort carriers (CVHE and T-CVHE) or utility carriers (CVU and T-CVU).  One ship, USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90), was even converted into a amphibious assault ship (LPH-6), but was scrapped in 1964.

Originally, half of their number were planned to be transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease, but the Casablanca - class escort carriers were retained by the US Navy and the Batch II Bogue - class escort carriers were transferred instead as the Ruler - class.  My opinion of the Casablanca - class is that they were good ships for their time, and that they deserve more attention than they usually get.

USS Casablanca (CVE-55), the lead ship of her class


Class overview

Name:  Casablanca

Preceded by:  Charger - class escort carrier

Succeeded by:  Commencement Bay - class escort carrier

Planned:  50

Completed:  50

Lost:  5

Retired:  45

Preserved:  0

General characteristics

Class & type:  Escort aircraft carrier

Displacement:  7,900 tons
10,902 tons full load

Length:  512.3 ft (156.1 m) overall

Beam:  65.2 ft (19.9 m)

Draft:  22.5 ft (6.9 m)

Propulsion:  Propulsion for the Casablanca - class escort carriers was provided by 2 five-cylinder reciprocating Skinner Uniflow steam engines and 4 x 285 psi (1,970 kPa) boilers along with 2 shafts, providing 9,000 shp (6,700 kW)

Speed and Range:  Casablanca - class escort carriers had a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h) and a range of 10,240 nm at 15 knots

Complement:  Ship's company:  860 officers and men
   Embarked squadron:  50 to 56 officers
   Total complement:  910 to 916 officers and men

Armament:  Armament for the Casablanca - class escort carriers consisted of 1 5 inch/38 cal gun, 16 40mm Bofors guns mounted in 8 twin mounts, and 20 20mm Oerlikon cannons

Aircraft carried:  The Casablanca - class could carry a total of 28 aircraft

Sources used:  Wikipedia, http://www.bosamar.com/pages/home, http://www.globalsec...ship/cve-55.htm

nice wikipedia copy + paste  :trollface:

+1 anyway lols i wouldnt have looked it up

[Robert9670]

IotaOmicron, on 24 March 2013 - 03:59 AM, said:

nice wikipedia copy + paste  :trollface:

+1 anyway lols i wouldnt have looked it up

Look more closely, it's not exactly a copy word for word.  And I didn't just copy and paste it here, I typed it up.

[ravenwolf68]

If you do one on the individual carriers of the Casablanca's, you should start with the Canal first. :medal:  Then do the ladies of Taffy 3.