USSGuadalcanal, 1944
Class overview
Name	Casablanca class
Preceded by	Sangamon class
Succeeded by	Commencement Bay class
Subclasses	S4-S2-BB3
In commission	1943–1964
Planned	50
Completed	50
Lost	5
Retired	45
General characteristics
Type	Escort carrier
Displacement	8,188long tons (8,319 t)(standard) 10,902 long tons (11,077 t)(full load)
Length	512 ft 3 in (156.13 m) (oa) 490 ft (150 m) (wl) 474 ft (144 m) (fd)
Beam	65 ft 2 in (19.86 m) 108 ft (33 m) (extreme width)
Draft	20 ft 9 in (6.32 m) (max)
Installed power	4 ×Babcock & Wilcox boilers 9,000 shp (6,700 kW)
Propulsion	2 ×Skinner Unaflowreciprocating steam engines 2 ×screws
Speed	19knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Range	10,240 nmi (18,960 km; 11,780 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	Total: 910–916 officers and men Embarked Squadron: 50–56 Ship's Crew: 860
Sensors & processing systems	SC radar
Armament	As designed: 1 ×5 in (127 mm)/38 caldual-purpose gun 8 ×40 mm (1.57 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 12 ×20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons Varied, ultimate armament: 1 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal gun 8 × twin 40 mm (1.57 in) Bofors anti-aircraft guns 30 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons
Aircraft carried	27 aircraft
Aviation facilities	1 ×catapult 2 ×elevators

TheCasablanca-class escort carrier was a series ofescort carriers constructed for theUnited States Navy duringWorld 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 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.^[1][2]

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 theBogue 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 the ships were limited to smaller and lighter aircraft such as theGrumman F4F Wildcat. Thehull numbers were assigned consecutively, fromCVE-55Casablanca toCVE-104Munda.^[3]

Casablanca-class carriers were built by theKaiser Shipbuilding Company'sVancouver Yard on theColumbia River inVancouver, Washington. The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to constructLiberty ships, but exigencies of war soon saw the yard buildingLST 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.^[4][5]

TheCasablanca class initially continued the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, in this case the numerous inlets of theAlexander Archipelago that form the southeast coastline ofAlaska, 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) andCoral Sea (CVE-57), lost their battle names mid-career to newMidway-class aircraft carriers, becomingUSS St. Lo andUSS Anzio respectively. Unlike the largerEssex andIndependence-class aircraft carriers, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels.^[6]

AlthoughEssex-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 newfleet carriers could be expected until 1944.^[7] Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships (Liberty ships) from more than 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 thePresident's advisers. TheAllies 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 foramphibious operations, and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air-strike missions. Unlike most other large warships sinceHMS Dreadnought, theCasablanca-class ships were equipped withuniflowreciprocating engines instead ofsteam turbines. This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear-cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war.^[8]

Although designated as convoy escort carriers, theCasablanca class was far more frequently used 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.

Their finest hour came in theBattle off Samar, whenTaffy 3, a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of threedestroyers and fourdestroyer 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 additionalCasablanca-class carriers, machine guns, torpedoes,depth charges, high-explosive bombs, and their own5-inch/38-caliber guns. Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols, they lacked 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 andKalinin Bay, became 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 andKalinin Bay damaged aMyōkō-classcruiser with two hits. In addition, the gun crew onUSS White Plains may have struck thecruiserChōkai, with up to six 5-inch shells. One of these rounds may even have caused a large secondary explosion – probably from one ofChōkai's owntorpedoes – on the starboard side that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser.White Plains's gun crew claimed to have put all six 5-inch rounds intoChōkai 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 ofChōkai to bomb damage from an air attack.^[9]

Another noteworthy achievement of theCasablanca class was whenUSS Guadalcanal, under command of CaptainDaniel V. Gallery, participated in the first capture-at-sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since theWar of 1812 when a crew of volunteers fromUSS Pillsbury boardedU-505 after Gallery'sGuadalcanal-centered hunter-killer group forced it to the surface with depth charges.Guadalcanal also earned the distinction of being the only aircraft carrier in history to conduct flight operations with a captured enemy vessel in tow.^[10][11]

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-builtCasablanca class:

• CVE-56Liscome Bay

Sunk 24 November 1943. Submarine torpedo launched from IJNI-175 SW off Butaritari (Makin).

• CVE-73Gambier Bay

Sunk 25 October 1944. Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar.

• CVE-63St. Lo (ex-Midway ex-Chapin Bay)

Sunk 25 October 1944.Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf.

• CVE-79Ommaney Bay

Sunk 4 January 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf.

• CVE-95Bismarck Sea

Sunk 21 February 1945. Kamikaze aerial attack offIwo Jima.

• CVE-96Anguilla Bay renamedUSSSalamaua

Damaged atLingayen 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 ashelicopter escort carriers (CVHE and T-CVHE) or utility carriers (CVU and T-CVU) after 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.^[12]

Originally, half of their number were to be transferred to theRoyal Navy underLend-Lease, but instead they were retained in the US Navy and the Batch IIBogue-class escort carriers were transferred instead as theRuler class (the RN's Batch IBogues were theAttacker class).^[13][14]

All ships of theCasablanca class were built inVancouver, Washington, at theKaiser Shipbuilding Company'sVancouver Shipyard. The following ships of the class were constructed.^[15]

• List of ship classes of World War II

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.

• [1] Listing of ships at Hazegray.org

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCasablanca class aircraft carriers.

• The Battle Off Samar – Taffy III at Leyte Gulf website by Robert Jon Cox

• Escort aircraft carrier classes
• Casablanca-class escort carriers
• World War II escort aircraft carriers of the United States
• Vancouver, Washington
• S4-S2-BB3 ships

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2023
• Commons category link is on Wikidata