The ''Sangamon'' class were a group of four escort aircraft carriers of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

that served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Overview

These ships were originally oilers, launched in 1939 for civilian use. They were acquired and commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1940–1941. Due to the shortage of MARAD type C3 ships for conversion to desperately needed escort carriers, it was decided in early 1942 to convert four oilers to escort carriers. The conversion took around six months. Sangamon class CVE drawings

These ships were the largest escort carrier conversions built for the U.S. Navy. The late-war s were about as large, but were built as carriers from keel up. Being built as

T3 tanker The T3 tanker, or T3, are a class of seaworthy large tanker ships produced in the United States and used to transport fuel oil, gasoline or diesel before and during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The T3 tanker classif ...

oilers, the machinery space was located aft, resulting in the placing of the smokestacks on both sides aft of the flight deck. They were excellent examples of the type, roomy and tough with a large flight deck and good stability on even high seas. The ''Sangamon''s could operate about 30 aircraft, and were the only escort carriers to operate

dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...

s. The ''Sangamon'' class were all renamed for rivers following the contemporary U.S. Navy practice for oilers when taken into naval service and retained those names following their conversions to carriers.

Service history

From late 1942 until the end of the war the ships saw active duty in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and Pacific Campaigns. Three of the class were damaged by Japanese

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

attacks at the

Battle of Leyte Gulf The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...

, but all survived the war. In the Pacific, the carriers often operated together as Carrier Division 22. The ships were withdrawn from active service shortly after the end of the war. Some of them were kept in reserve and reclassified as helicopter escort carriers (CVHE). All had been sold or scrapped by the early 1960s.Paul H. Silverstone: ''US Warships since 1945.'' Ian Allan, London 1986, p. 23.

Ships

Notes

References

* * {{WWII US ships Escort aircraft carrier classes Sangamon-class escort carriers Sangamon-class escort carriers

Overview

Service history

Ships

See also

Notes

References