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Casablanca Class Escort Carrier
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They were built by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company in Vancouver, Washington on the Columbia River .

The Hull Number s are consecutive, from CVE-55 (''Casablanca'') to CVE-104 (''Munda''). Although designated as escort carriers, the ''Casablanca'' class was far more frequently used in fleet operations, where their light wings of fighters and bombers could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship. The shining moment of the class came in the Battle Of Leyte Gulf , when a task force composed of these ships and a group of Destroyer Escorts gave battle against the Japanese main force and succeeded in turning them back.

Unlike virtually every other warship since HMS ''Dreadnought'', the ''Casablanca'' class ships were equipped with Reciprocating Engine s instead of Turbine Engine s. This was done in view of bottlenecks in the gear-cutting industry, but greatly limited their usefulness after the war. Some ships were retained postwar as aircraft transports, where their lack of speed was not a major drawback. Some units were reactivated as helicopter escort carriers (CVHE and T-CVHE) or utility carriers (CVU and T-CVU) after the war, but most were scrapped without further service once the war ended. One ship, USS ''Thetis Bay'', was heavily modified into an amphibious assault ship (LPH-6).

Originally, half of their number were to be transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease, but instead they were retained in the US Navy and the Batch II ''Bogue''-class Escort Carriers were transferred instead as the HMS Ameer class (the RN's Batch I Bogues were the HMS Attacker class).




















General Characteristics
Displacement:7,800 tons
Length:512.3 ft (156 m) overall
Beam:65.2 ft (19.9 m)
Extreme Width:108.1 ft (33 m)
Draft:22.5 ft (6.9 m)
Powerplant:Reciprocating (VTE) engines, 4 285 psi boilers, 2 shafts, 9000 shp
Speed:20 knots
Complement:860 officers and men
Armament:1 x 5-inch gun
Aircraft:28
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