HMS Chaser
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History | |
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United States | |
Name: | USS Breton |
Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
Laid down: | 28 June 1941 |
Launched: | 15 February 1943 |
Fate: | Transferred to Royal Navy |
United Kingdom | |
Name: | HMS Chaser |
Commissioned: | 9 April 1943 |
Decommissioned: | 12 May 1946 |
Struck: | 1946 |
Fate: | Sold as a merchant ship; destroyed in 1972 or 1973 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: |
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Displacement: | 14,400 tons |
Length: | 491 ft 6 in (149.81 m) |
Beam: | 105 ft (32 m) |
Draught: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
Propulsion: | Steam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW) |
Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h) |
Complement: | 646 officers and enlisted |
Armament: | |
Aircraft carried: | 28 aircraft |
Service record | |
Operations: | Battle of the Atlantic, Arctic convoys (1943-45) |
Victories: | Sank U-472, U-366, U-973 (1944) |
The USS Breton (CVE-10) (originally AVG-10 then later ACV-10) was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier that served during World War II as the British Attacker-class escort carrier HMS Chaser (D32).
She was laid down on 28 June 1941 under Maritime Commission contract at Pascagoula, Mississippi by Ingalls Shipbuilding. The ship was commissioned by the United States Navy on 9 April 1943 and simultaneously transferred via the Lend-Lease program to the United Kingdom. That same day, the ship was renamed HMS Chaser and commissioned by the Royal Navy. Chaser was assigned to convoy escort on Arctic routes, assisting in the sinking of U-472 on 4 March 1944 and U-366 and U-973 in the next two days.
The carrier was returned to United States' custody 12 May 1946 and sold into merchant service 20 December 1946 as Aagtekerk. The ship was renamed E Yung in 1967.
The ship had a serious fire in #2 hold on 3 December 1972 and was scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan soon thereafter.
There were eight Attacker class escort carriers in service with the Royal Navy during the Second World War. They were built between 1941 and 1942 by Ingalls Shipbuilding and Western Pipe & Steel shipyards in the United States, both building four ships each.