USS Fanshaw Bay (CVE-70) was a of the United States Navy. She was named after Fanshaw Bay, located within Cape Fanshaw, of the Alexander Archipelago in the Territory of Alaska. The cape was given its name by Charles Mitchell Thomas, who was mapping the area, in 1887. Built for service during World War II, the ship was launched in November 1943, and commissioned in December, and served in support of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, the Battle off Samar, and the Battle of Okinawa. Postwar, she participated in Operation Magic Carpet. She was decommissioned in August 1946, when she was mothballed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Ultimately, she was sold for scrapping in September 1959.
Design and description
Fanshaw Bay was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carriers ever built. Built to stem heavy losses during the Battle of the Atlantic, they came into service in late 1943, by which time the U-boat threat was already in retreat. Although some did see service in the Atlantic, the majority were utilized in the Pacific, ferrying aircraft, providing logistics support, and conducting close air support for the island-hopping campaigns. The Casablanca-class carriers were built on the standardized Type S4-S2-BB3 hull, a lengthened variant of the hull, and specifically designed to be mass-produced using welded prefabricated sections. This allowed them to be produced at unprecedented speeds: the final ship of her class, , was delivered to the Navy just 101 days after the laying of her keel.
Fanshaw Bay was long overall ( at the waterline), had a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced standard, which increased to with a full load. To carry out flight operations, the ship had a hangar deck and a flight deck. Her compact size necessitated the installation of an aircraft catapult at her bow, and there were two aircraft elevators to facilitate movement of aircraft between the flight and hangar deck: one each fore and aft.
She was powered by four Babcock & Wilcox Express D boilers that raised of steam at . The steam generated by these boilers fed two Skinner Unaflow reciprocating steam engines, delivering to two propeller shafts. This allowed her to reach speeds of , with a cruising range of at . For armament, one /38 caliber dual-purpose gun was mounted on the stern. Additional anti-aircraft defense was provided by eight Bofors anti-aircraft guns in single mounts and twelve Oerlikon cannons mounted around the perimeter of the deck. By 1945, Casablanca-class carriers had been modified to carry twenty Oerlikon cannons and sixteen Bofors guns; the doubling of the latter was accomplished by putting them into twin mounts. Sensors onboard consisted of a SG surface-search radar and a SK air-search radar.
Although Casablanca-class escort carriers were intended to function with a crew of 860 and an embarked squadron of 50 to 56, the exigencies of wartime often necessitated the inflation of the crew count. They were designed to operate with 27 aircraft, but the hangar deck could accommodate much more during transport or training missions.
During the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, the beginning of the Philippines campaign, and the Battle off Samar, she carried 16 FM-2 Wildcat fighters, and 12 TBM-1C Avenger torpedo bombers, for a total of 28 aircraft. However, during the Battle of Okinawa, she carried 24 FM-2 fighters and 6 TBM-3 torpedo bombers for a total of 30 aircraft.
Construction The escort carrier was laid down on 18 May 1943, under a Maritime Commission contract, MC hull 1107, by Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington. She was named Fanshaw Bay, as part of a tradition which named escort carriers after bays or sounds in Alaska. She was launched on 1 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Lorna V. Kenworthy, the wife of Captain Jesse L. Kenworthy Jr., who was the executive officer of the battleship during the Attack on Pearl Harbor. She was transferred to the United States Navy and commissioned on 9 December 1943, with Captain Douglass Pollock Johnson in command.
Service history
Upon being commissioned, Fanshaw Bay took on armaments at Port Townsend, Washington on 31 December, and proceeded on a shakedown cruise down the West Coast. During this period, she stopped at Port Angeles, Washington from 6 January 1944 to 8 January, along with another pause at San Francisco, California between 11 and 16 January, where she took on a load of aircraft. She was also assigned to become the flagship of Carrier Division 25, commanded by Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan. She departed from San Francisco on 16 January, ferrying her load to Gladstone, Queensland, arriving on 2 February. On her return trip, she touched at Brisbane from 8 to 12 February, and at Nouméa from 15 to 16 February.
Upon returning, she underwent maintenance and her crew underwent leave at San Diego from 4 March to 6 April. There, Fanshaw Bay received her aircraft contingent, originally intended to be Composite Squadron 4 (VC-4), but switched to Composite Squadron 68 (VC-68), which consisted of 16 FM-2 fighters and 10 TBM-1C torpedo bombers. She departed San Diego on 6 April, accompanied by the seaplane tender , making a stop at Pearl Harbor on 10 April, and arriving at Majuro on 20 April. En route, on 11 April, one of her torpedo bombers crashed in an accident, with its crew being rescued by Orca. Upon arriving at Majuro, she began conducting antisubmarine patrols, along with the destroyer escorts , , and . Ten days of patrols returned no contacts, and she retired to Pearl Harbor.
Mariana and Palau Islands campaign On 29 May, she sortied from Pearl Harbor, bound for Eniwetok Atoll, where she acted as the flagship of Task Group 52.14, which was assigned to support the upcoming Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. En route, two of her Wildcats were lost, and another was slightly damaged, through accidents. She began combat operations on 11 June, some west of Saipan, providing aerial reconnaissance, close air support, and antisubmarine patrols in support of the Battle of Saipan. On 15 June, at 17:15 in the late afternoon, the officers of Fanshaw Bay received a report of five Japanese aircraft proceeding towards her task group to her southwest. Fighters were scrambled, and the aircraft were intercepted away, harrying them as they quickly proceeded towards the carriers. Four of them were shot down, although a fifth aircraft was able to drop a torpedo aimed at Fanshaw Bay at 18:12. Fortunately for the carrier, the Japanese plane approaching from the starboard bow, perhaps disrupted by the anti-aircraft fire, dropped its torpedo at a slight turn. Therefore, Fanshaw Bay engaged in a hard right turn, easily dodging the torpedo. The Japanese aircraft was subsequently shot down at 18:15.
On 17 June, one of Fanshaw Bays torpedo bombers conducting antisubmarine patrols crashed shortly after takeoff, veering port into the sea. A large explosion was triggered, likely from the detonation of one of the bomber's depth charges, killing all three of its crew. Later that day, another torpedo bomber was lost, and although two of the crew were recovered, the radioman drowned with the aircraft. In the late afternoon, the task group detected about seventy Japanese aircraft approaching quickly from the southeast, out. Fighters were scrambled, and Fanshaw Bay launched fourteen Wildcats to supplement the thirty-two launched by the other escort carriers. Her fighters, intercepting the planes, shot down one. Nonetheless, the Japanese force penetrated the air screen, and made for the carriers. Early on in the attack, the Japanese planes focused on Fanshaw Bay and . Her anti-aircraft guns provided adept assistance, shooting down three planes, and damaging two more.
However, at 18:52, a Japanese bomber made a run for Fanshaw Bay, dropping a bomb (believed to be ) as it flew about above the carrier. The bomb penetrated into her aft aircraft elevator, punching through the wooden decking, and detonating within the hangar bay, some below the flight deck. Shrapnel was launched through the hangar, instantly killing eleven men of Repair Party 3, which had taken up position forward of the elevator. Munitions were stored on both sides of the elevator, and shrapnel sliced through three torpedoes, although they failed to detonate. Nonetheless, the blast had enough force to rupture a fire main, sever electrical cables, and to even eject depth charges from the bomb bays of the Avengers stored within the hangar deck. In addition, several fires were kindled, total steering control was lost, and the ship acquired a 3° list to the port.
Although the fires were quickly put under control by the crew, several of her aircraft were compelled to land on other carriers as a result of the blazes. In the action, three planes from her aircraft contingent were lost in the turmoil, albeit there were no fatalities. Rear Admiral Bogan was also compelled to transfer his flag to the destroyer in order to more effectively lead the fleet. The rest of Fanshaw Bays damage was not so easily resolved. Steering control was not regained until 3:55 in the morning of 18 June. Of even greater concern to the ship's officers was that of her list, with her stern sinking lower than design specifications. Originally, they believed that the ship's outer skin had been penetrated, letting seawater in. Further investigation revealed that the cause for the list came from the ruptured fire main, which the damage control teams struggled to plug. Bogan, continuously frustrated by the progress of damage control, later complained in a 1969 interview that Fanshaw Bay was "the worst ship [he’d] ever seen in any Navy" and that "the entire complement was incompetent." Regardless of opinions, Fanshaw Bay suffered 14 dead and 23 wounded from the attack.
On 18 June, at 11:30 in the morning, her dead were buried at sea in a ceremony. Fanshaw Bay retired from operations and proceeded to Pearl Harbor for a long period of repairs. Nonetheless, limited flight operations continued, with a fighter pilot perishing in an accident on 29 June.
Battle of Morotai Upon finishing her repairs, Fanshaw Bay continued acting as the flagship of Carrier Division 25, now under the command of Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague. After departing from Pearl Harbor, she arrived at Manus Island, of the Admiralty Islands. Fanshaw Bay, along with five other escort carriers and a screen of eight destroyer escorts, was assigned to Task Group 77.1, which would support the landings on Morotai. Notably, her aircraft contingent had been swapped, and she now hosted Composite Squadron 66 (VC-66). She departed Manus on 10 September, and she began air support operations on 15 September. On 17 September, two Avengers, one from Fanshaw Bay, collided while moving into formation on an antisubmarine patrol. Of the six men involved, only a single survivor was recovered by the submarine chaser . On 19 September, Fanshaw Bay lost another aircraft, with one of her Wildcats, diving on a Zero, missing and exploding on contact with the water. The carrier continued to hemorrhage aircraft, with an additional two fighters and a torpedo bomber crashing by 27 September.
On 3 October, the majority of the escort carriers had already retired, leaving only Fanshaw Bay and to continue operations. Fanshaw Bay was preparing to retire back to Manus during the night. At the time, her task group was operating to the north of the island, when the Japanese submarine fired a spread of torpedoes towards the escort carriers. The first indicator of a torpedo attack occurred when a torpedo was spotted passing to the front of St. Lo, and off the port beam of Fanshaw Bay. Before maneuvers could be conducted, a second torpedo detonated on the destroyer escort , killing thirteen, and wounding twenty-two. The destroyer screen commenced dropping depth charges, forcing Ro-41 away.
Battle off Samar