Casablanca class carrier

USS Guadalcanal, 1944
Class overview
Name:	Casablanca class
Preceded by:	Sangamon class
Succeeded by:	Commencement Bay class
Subclasses:	S4-S2-BB3
Planned:	50
Completed:	50
Lost:	5
Retired:	45
General characteristics
Type:	Escort carrier
Displacement:	7,800 tons 10,902 tons full load
Length:	512.3 ft (156.1 m) overall
Beam:	65.2 ft (19.9 m) Extreme width: 108.1 ft (32.9 m)
Draft:	22.5 ft (6.9 m)
Propulsion:	Two (2) five-cylinder reciprocating Skinner Unaflow steam engines Four (4) × 285 psi (1,970 kPa) boilers, 2 shafts, 9,000 shp (6,700 kW)
Speed:	20 knots (23 mph 37 km/h)
Range:	10,240 nmi (18,960 km; 11,780 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	Ship's Company: 860 officers and men Embarked Squadron: 50 to 56 officers and men Total Complement: 910 to 916 officers and men.
Armament:	1 × 5-inch/38 caliber gun 16 × 40 mm Bofors guns (8 × 2) 20 × 20 mm Oerlikon cannons
Aircraft carried:	28

The Casablanca-class escort carriers 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. These were nearly one third of the 151 carriers built in the United States during the war. 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 the remainder were scrapped.

Casablanca was the first class to be 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, but fighters 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 Kaiser Company, Inc.'s Shipbuilding Division, 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 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 an enormous 3,000 foot 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 the US Navy's policy of naming escort carriers after bays and sounds, though several carried 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 and Coral Sea) lost their battle names mid-career to new Midway-class carriers, becoming USS St. Lo and USS Anzio respectively. Unlike the larger Essex and Independence-class carriers, none were named to commemorate historical naval vessels.

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Wikipedia