Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Brian James
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Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Casablanca Class Escort Carrier USS Kadashan Bay pictured at San Diego on June 17th 1944.
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ivorthediver
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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What was her claim to fame please Brian :?:

First I knew of her in any detail,.... although our No1 may have identified her in his excellent previous schedule of carriers / types :?:
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Brian James
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Casablanca Class Escort Carrier USS Thetis Bay pictured enroute to NAS Alameda,ferrying a deckload of war-weary aircraft on July 8th 1944. The aircraft visible on deck are eight Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boats, 18 Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters, and a Grumman J2F Duck amphibious biplane.
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ivorthediver
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Tad Cramped on deck Brian , but a very rare shot of the after event scene .
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designeraccd
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Wow! Talk about cramped parking; very interesting pic... :D Here she is later being a "taxi" for MARINES! First helo carrier for vertical landings. Note elevator at aft end of flight deck....DFO
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ivorthediver
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Very interesting shot Dennis , never seen that one before as far as I know :)
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Brian James
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Casablanca Class Escort Carrier USS Makin Island pictured as she enters floating drydock ABSD-6, at Guam,June 8th 1945.
Flying the pennant of Rear Admiral C. T. Durgin, Commander TG 77.4, Makin Island left Manus December 27th to rendezvous with the invasion force in Surigao Strait, Leyte. Sailing for Lingayen Gulf, January 3rd 1945, the Carrier was subjected to fierce, almost continuous enemy air attack during the passage to the assault beaches. Though sister Carrier Ommaney Bay was sunk and a number of other ships damaged, Makin Island arrived unscathed January 6th. For the next 11 days, she remained off the beachhead flying air support for the amphibious operation, then sailed for Ulithi.
Admiral Durgin flew his flag in Makin Island once more, during the invasion of Iwo Jima, off which she arrived February 16th 1945. Her planes made pre-invasion strikes and after the landings provided aerial fire support, essential to success in the hot action ashore, until March 8th. The Carrier Group again came under heavy Japanese kamikaze attacks, but Makin Island once more was not hit. After replenishing at Ulithi, she sailed for Okinawa, again as flagship.
From her arrival off Okinawa on March 25th, Makin Island remained on station for 67 days, flying constant fire support, supply, and reconnaissance missions for the ground forces. The ship’s aircraft, from Composite Squadrons 84 and 91 (VC-84 and -91), flew 2,258 combat sorties, recording over 8,000 hours of flying time. Relieved June st, she sailed for Guam, arriving June 5th.
She sailed again July 11th, to provide air cover for ships conducting Minesweeping and raiding operations in the East China Sea and to launch airstrikes against Japanese targets on the Chinese coast. On August 13th she anchored in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, and on September 9th proceeded to Wakanoura Wan, in southern Honshū, for Occupation Duty. Among her missions was providing air cover for the evacuation of Allied prisoners of war. She sailed for San Francisco October 18th, arrived November 5th, then voyaged to Shanghai to return troops (including the famous Flying Tigers) to the United States at Seattle December 30th.
Makin Island was decommissioned on April 19th 1946 at Puget Sound, was stricken from the Navy list on July 11th, and sold on January 1st 1947.
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Brian James
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Casablanca Class Escort Carrier USS Ommaney Bay pictured underway off Hawaii with elevators lowered showing of her Measure 33, Design 15A camouflage livery, July 1944.
Ommaney Bay, formerly MC hull 1116, was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract October 6th 1943 by Kaiser Company, Inc., Vancouver, Washington; launched December 29th 1943.After commissioning and fitting out at Astoria, Oregon, and conducting shakedown in Puget Sound, Ommaney Bay sailed March 19th from Oakland, California, with passengers and a cargo of supplies and aircraft for Brisbane, Australia. (While the ship is presumably named for Ommaney Bay in Alaska, note that Brisbane has a landmark and suburb called Mount Ommaney.) By April 27thshe had completed her mission and was back in San Diego, where she began a rigorous ten days of carrier qualification landings, drills and tests. Then, after minor alterations and repairs, the ship sailed June 10th for Pearl Harbor. Until August 12thshe trained air groups and squadrons there in the art of operating from "baby flattops", then she sailed to Tulagi to rehearse for the invasion of the Palau Islands. From September 11th until the beginning of October Ommaney Bay stood off Peleliu and Anguar Islands and provided air cover for the fleet and close support strikes for the forces ashore.
Ommaney Bay sailed to Manus Island to renew her depleted stock of fuel and ammunition, then joined Rear Admiral Felix Stump's 'Taffy 2' (TU 77.4.2) for the invasion of Leyte. At the beginning of the Battle off Samar on October 25th, the Escort Carriers began launching air strikes in an effort to cripple as many of the approaching enemy force as possible. In the ensuing battle aircraft from Ommaney Bay contributed to the sinking of one Japanese Cruiser and helped to damage a number of other warships. Ommaney Bay launched some six strikes that day, and helped to turn threatened defeat into victory.
The Carrier spent the month of November at Manus and Kossol Passage for availability and replenishment, then, from December 12th to December 17th, operated in the Mindanao and Sulu Seas in support of operations on the Island of Mindoro. On the 15th, a day of heavy enemy air attacks, she splashed an enemy bomber as it dived for the ship from the port bow. On December 19th she returned to Kossol Passage to prepare for the landings in Lingayen Gulf.
Ommaney Bay left on New Year's Day 1945 and transited Surigao Strait two days later. The next afternoon,January 4th 1945, while in the Sulu Sea, a twin-engine Japanese suicide plane penetrated the screen undetected and made for Ommaney Bay.The plane nicked her island then crashed into her flight deck on the forward starboard side. Two bombs were released; one of them penetrated the flight deck and detonated below, setting off a series of explosions among the fully gassed planes on the forward third of the hangar deck. The second bomb passed through the hangar deck, ruptured the fire main on the second deck, and exploded near the starboard side.
Water pressure forward was lost immediately, along with power and bridge communications. Men struggling with the terrific blazes on the hangar deck soon had to abandon it because of the heavy black smoke from the burning planes and exploding .50 caliber ammunition. Escorts could not lend their power to the fight because of the exploding ammunition and intense heat from the fires. By 17:50 the entire topside area had become untenable, and the stored torpedo warheads threatened to go off at any time. The order to abandon ship was given.
At 19:45 the carrier was sunk by a torpedo from the destroyer Burns. A total of 95 Navy men were lost, including two killed from an assisting Destroyer when torpedo warheads on the carrier's hangar deck finally went off while they were picking up survivors from the water in their motor whaleboat.
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Brian James
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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Casablanca Class Escort Carrier USS Anzio pictured during a typhoon east of the Philippines,December 17th 1944.
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Brian James
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Re: Escort Carriers: Casablanca Class

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The effects of Hurricane Carol cause a dockyard crane to topple onto Casablanca Class Escort Carrier USS Nehenta Bay at Bethlehem Shipyards,Boston in 1954.
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