USS Liscome Bay

USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56), underway, 20 September 1943, with a load of SBD Dauntlesses, TBF Avengers and F4F Wildcats.
History
Name:	Liscome Bay
Namesake:	bay off the eastern coast of Dall Island
Awarded:	Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington
Yard number:	302
Laid down:	9 December 1942
Launched:	19 April 1943
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Ben Moreell
Commissioned:	7 August 1943
Reclassified:	CVE, 15 July 1943
Identification:	Hull symbol: ACV-56 CVE-55
Fate:	Lost in action, 24 November 1943
General characteristics
Class and type:	Casablanca-class escort carrier
Displacement:	7,800 long tons (7,900 t) (standard) 10,902 long tons (11,077 t) (full load)
Length:	498 feet (152 m) oa 490 feet (150 m) wl
Beam:	65 ft 2 in (19.86 m) 108 ft (33 m) (extreme width)
Draft:	22 ft 4 in (6.81 m) (max)
Installed power:	4 × 250 psi (1,700 kPa) steam boilers 9,000 shp (6,700 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × 5-cylinder reciprocating Skinner Unaflow engines 2 × screws
Speed:	19 kn (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
Armament:	As designed: 1 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal dual purpose gun 8 × 40 mm (1.57 in) Bofors guns 12 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannonss Varied, ultimate armament: 1 × 5"/38 cal gun 8 × twin 40mm Bofors guns 30 × Oerlikon cannons
Aircraft carried:	27 aircraft
Aviation facilities:	catapult 2 × elevators
Service record
Part of:	United States Pacific Fleet (1943)
Commanders:	Captain I.D. Wiltsie
Operations:	Gilbert Islands operation Tarawa and Makin Islands (20 November–24 November 1943)

USS Liscome Bay (ACV/CVE-56), a Casablanca-class escort carrier during World War II, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Liscome Bay in Dall Island in the Alexander Archipelago of Alaska. She was lost to a submarine attack during Operation Galvanic, with a catastrophic loss of life, on 24 November 1943.

Liscome Bay was laid down on 9 December 1942, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull 1093, by Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington; she was launched on 19 April 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Ben Moreell, wife of the Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Yards & Docks; she was named Liscome Bay on 28 June 1943, and assigned the hull classification symbol CVE-56 on 15 July 1943: she was acquired by the Navy and commissioned on 7 August 1943, Captain Irving D. Wiltsie in command.

After training operations along the West Coast, Liscome Bay departed from San Diego, California, on 21 October 1943, arriving at Pearl Harbor one week later. Once additional drills and operational exercises were completed, the escort carrier set off on what was to be her first and last battle mission. As a member of Carrier Division 24 (CarDiv 24), she departed from Pearl Harbor on 10 November, attached to TF 52, Northern Attack Force, under Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner, bound for the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.