Sangamon Class Escort Carrier, the biggest Jeep Converted.

[IronWolfV]

Hey guys, decided for 2 in 1 day(Promise a break afterwards!). Incase you missed it, here's CVE-1 USS Long Island.

http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/94573-adla-uss-long-island-cve-1-the-first-usn-baby-flat-top/

 

Anyways here's a look at the next ship in my Jeep Carrier look. Sangamon class CVE was the biggest escort carrier converted by the USN.  All 4 originally started live as Cimarron class oilers, but seeing the need for more escort carriers, as there were not enough to go around in early 1942, 4 of the oilers were taken in and converted for escort carrier duty. All 4 roughly took 6 months for conversion.  All of them launched and were used in conjunction for Operation Torch, the invasion of Africa.  Infact on Nov 11, 1942 USS Suwannee was reported as having the first CVE carrier kill of the war by sinking a French(Vachy) submarine that had sortied during the naval battle of Casablanca.

 

After that all 4 were split up, some doing ASW in the Atlantic, more heading for the pacific where the ships brought planes in and help flew CAP over Henderson field in early 43 before the USN declared victory over the island.  Then all 4 would be in multiple attacks across the pacific from Tarawa, to the Marshall Islands. Sangamon would actually be at Samar during the battle the other 3 near or around the Philippines during the battle of Leytey Gulf.

 

All 4 would survive the war and be reclassified as helocopter carriers, but all 4 would retired from from service and then sold for scrap by 1960. Well that's a brief history on the class, lets look at the specifics.

 

 Displacement: 11,400 tons standard, this is 400 tons heavier than the Independence.  Fully loaded though she weighed in at almost 25,000 tons, this puts her 6000 tons heavier than even Saipan. This could easily put her HP at 45,000.  One of the biggest at tier 6!

 

Size: 553 feet long, 114 feet wide at the widest.  This makes her about 100 feet shorter than Indy, but slightly wider.

 

Speed:  18 knots. This is the bad part. She's a converted oiler, so speed is just not her thing.

 

Armament:  Sangamon listed 2 127mm/51cal guns, 4x2(8) 40 mm Bofors, and 20x1 20mm Oerlikon guns.  compared to Independence, it's not too bad, but definitely lighter on the 40mm bofors and Saipain had DP 127/38s, but Sangamon does have more 20mm Oerlikons.

 

Plane compliment: 32 max. This is 2 more than Independence. So definitely in the tier 6 range.

 

Final thoughts. Well she's definitely tier 6 material. HP wise she's at tier 7, but she has roughly the same armaments, hangar capacity while being 100 feet smaller. This is due to her originally being an olier and having plenty of room during conversions.  She was also wide so her ship handling was excellent, though she was not a very swift ship at 18 knots.

 

Hope you all enjoyed the look!

 

[BladedPheonix]

never could understand why the USN didn't upgrade the engines on many of their conversion ships. must of been a time table thing.

[IronWolfV]

never could understand why the USN didn't upgrade the engines on many of their conversion ships. must of been a time table thing.

 

Would of had to almost rip the entire ship apart.

[mobryan]

never could understand why the USN didn't upgrade the engines on many of their conversion ships. must of been a time table thing.

 

 

Would of had to almost rip the entire ship apart.

 

And even then the hull forms would have been so inefficient at higher speeds that the circle of weight-power-fuel burn-weight-power-fuel would have quickly spiraled absurdly out of control.

 

Matt

[IronWolfV]

 

 

And even then the hull forms would have been so inefficient at higher speeds that the circle of weight-power-fuel burn-weight-power-fuel would have quickly spiraled absurdly out of control.

 

Matt

 

There is that too.