USS Card (CVE-11)
,_1944.jpg) USS Card 1944 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Keel laying | October 27, 1941 |
| Launch | February 27, 1942 |
| 1. Period of service |
.svg){kind=small}
|
| Commissioning | November 8, 1942 |
| Decommissioning | March 10, 1970 |
| Removed from ship register | September 15, 1970 |
| Whereabouts | Scrapped in 1971 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
|
| length |
151.2 m |
| width |
|
| height |
|
| Draft |
7.9 m |
| crew |
890 |
| drive |
2 water tube boilers, 1 steam turbine, 1 screw, 8550 WPS |
| speed |
19 kn |
| Range |
26,300 nm at 15 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Planes |
up to 28 |
The USS Card (AVG-11 / ACV-11 / CVE-11 / CVHE-11 / CVU-11 / T-CVU-11 / T-AKV-40) was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier of the United States Navy and stood from In service with the US Navy from 1942 to 1946 and from 1958 to 1970.
technology
The card was 141.7 meters long and 21.2 meters wide at the waterline. The overall length was 151.2 meters, the maximum width of the flight deck 34 meters. With a draft of 7.9 meters, the girder had an empty displacement of 7800 tons , the operational displacement was 15,400 ts.
Two water tube boilers with an operating pressure of 19.65 bar generated the steam for a single geared turbine , which delivered its output of 8,500 shaft horsepower to a single propeller . The maximum speed was 18 knots , with the 2,413 tons of fuel on board a range of 26,300 nautical miles at 15 knots and 22,500 nautical miles at 17 knots was achieved.
The armament of the Card originally consisted of two 127 mm guns on both sides at the rear, these were supplemented by 40 mm and 20 mm guns over the course of the service life . From 1943 ten 40-mm twins and 26 20-mm individual guns were used for anti-aircraft defense. The card was equipped with SG and SC radar right from the start .
Up to 28 aircraft could be carried on board, but during the missions there were rarely more than 21 aircraft on board, mostly of the F4F Wildcat and TBF Avenger types .
history
Construction and commissioning
The USS Card was originally laid down as a Type C3 freighter on October 27, 1941 at Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding as "hull # 178" of the Maritime Commission . The ship was acquired by the US Navy during construction and converted into an escort aircraft carrier. The USS Card was named after Card Sound, a southern extension of Biscayne Bay south of Miami . On February 21, 1942 the ship was christened by Mrs. John Perry, then the card , classified as AVG-11 (Aircraft Escort Vessel), was launched. On August 20, the reclassification to "Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier" (ACV-11) took place, on November 8, the carrier was put into service under the command of Captain James B. Sykes.
_in_Hampton_Roads,_March_1943.jpg)
On January 18, 1943, the carrier left San Diego , crossed the Panama Canal, and entered Hampton Roads , Virginia on February 1 . After a few weeks of exercises in the sea area in front of Chesapeake Bay , the card moved to New York, where the anti-aircraft guns were installed in the New York Navy Yard .
1943
On May 14, the escort carrier ran together with the destroyers Woolsey , Ludlow and Bristol from New York to Casablanca . In Casablanca, the Card and its escorts, along with nine other escort ships, took over the security of the UGS-8A convoy , which consisted of 78 ships and 12 LSTs . The convoy left Casablanca on June 9 and was reinforced in Gibraltar by 51 more freighters and ten more escorts. This made UGS-8A the largest convoy of World War II at the time. About the British West Indies , the returned card back to Norfolk, where she arrived on 5 July. Ten days later she was then reclassified as an "Escort Carrier" (CVE).
As the flagship of Task Group 21:14, the USS Card left Norfolk on July 27th along with the destroyers Barry , Borie and Goff . During the mission, which lasted until September 10, the U-Jagdverband was very successful, four German submarines fell victim to aircraft (Avenger / Wildcat) of the USS Card: U 117 on August 7, U 644 on August 9, U 525 on August 11th and U 847 on August 27th. The second mission of Task Group 21:14 lasted from September 25th to November 9th. On October 4th, Card planes spotted four German U-boats bunkering at sea, two boats, U 460 and U 422, were sunk. Nine days later, U 402 was sighted and sunk by an Avenger der Card . On October 31, U 584 fell victim to the carrier's aircraft. The fifth sinking during the mission was achieved on November 1st by the destroyer Borie , which rammed and sank U 405 after a short battle. The destroyer was so badly damaged that it had to be abandoned.
The ships of Task Group 21:14 were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation on November 11th for their achievements during the second mission . The USS Card was the first escort to receive this award.
_1943.jpg)
On November 24th, the Task Group 22:14 ran around the USS Card , consisting of the destroyers USS Leary , Schenck and Decatur , in the North Atlantic. On December 23, the association came across a German wolf pack , and within five hours twelve submarines were located. The USS Schenck was able to sink the German submarine U 645 , but the destroyer Leary fell victim to a combined attack by three submarines and sank with 97 crew members. Since the Schenck was busy rescuing the survivors, the Card , only secured by the destroyer Decatur , avoided the German U-boats all night long. On January 2, 1944, the association ran again in Norfolk.
1944
From March to May the Card acted as an aircraft transporter between Norfolk and Casablanca, on May 17th it went to the dock for overhaul. After the work was completed on June 4, the porter ran to Quonset Point , Rhode Island , where it conducted pilot training.
On June 21, the Card returned to Norfolk, where it formed the flagship of the new Task Group 10/22. Together with the five destroyers escort Thomas , Bostwick , Breeman , Baker and Bronstein , the carrier left Hampton Roads on June 25th. On July 5, the USS Thomas and the USS Baker were able to sink the submarine U 233 . 29 survivors, including the commander, Lieutenant Captain Hans Steen, were brought aboard the USS Card . The following day, Lieutenant Steen was buried at sea, he had died of his injuries. The remaining prisoners were brought ashore in Boston.
On September 18, the Card left Norfolk as the flagship of Task Group 22.2 to track down 9 German submarines off the Azores together with the British Escort Group. A submarine was attacked on October 12, but the sinking could not be confirmed. From December 1 to January 22, 1945, another mission with the Task Group 22.2 followed.
1945/46
On January 23, 1945, the USS Card was docked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for overhaul by February 7. The porter then transported Navy and Army personnel to Liverpool , and on March 12 the porter returned to Norfolk and went back to the dock. From March 21 to May 24, the Card was stationed at Quonset Point, where it was used as a training aircraft carrier. On May 25, she returned to Norfolk, from where she transported personnel and aircraft to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in late June . After crossing the Panama Canal, it was used as a transport between the US west coast and Hawaii and Guam . On August 14, it returned to San Diego, and between August 21 and December 16, the card was in use as part of Operation Magic Carpet and transported US soldiers from Hawaii and the Western Pacific back to the States. On January 7, 1946, the Card Alameda left for the US east coast, where it was decommissioned on May 13, 1946 in Norfolk and assigned to the reserve fleet.
The USS Card received three Battle Stars for its anti-submarine missions in the Atlantic .
Second term of service
On June 12, 1955, the USS Card was classified as an "Escort Helicopter Aircraft Carrier" (CVHE-11). On May 16, 1958, the Card, now with a civilian crew, was put back into service for the Military Sea Transportation Service . Equipped with cranes and unarmed, she was used as an aircraft transporter and cargo ship. Their classification changed several times in the following period: "Utility Aircraft Carrier" (T-CVU-11) on July 1, 1958, "Cargo Ship and Aircraft Ferry" (T-AKV-40) on May 7, 1959.
When the Vietnam War broke out, the USNS Card was chartered by the US Navy to transport troops, supplies and aircraft from the United States to the Far East.
In the early morning of May 2, 1964, a North Vietnamese combat diver placed an explosive charge on the hull of the USNS Card , which at that time was at the pier in Saigon . The explosion tore a hole in the hull of the ship, the engine rooms overflowed and the card sank in the water of the harbor about six meters deep. 17 days later, the leak was sealed and the water was pumped out, then the former escort carrier was towed by naval tugs to the United States Naval Base Subic Bay in the Philippines . The card came to Yokosuka on July 11th for further repairs . On December 11, 1964, the card was put back into service.
Whereabouts
The USNS Card was decommissioned for the last time on March 10, 1970, and its name was removed from the Navy's shipping registers on September 15. In 1971 it was sold to Port Westward , Oregon for scrapping .
Web links
- USS Card Association (Engl.)
- History of the card in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (Engl.)
- Pictures of the card at navsource.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Terzibaschitsch: aircraft carrier of the US Navy. Escort aircraft carrier Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7637-6200-0 . P. 214f
- ↑ a b Terzibaschitsch: aircraft carrier of the US Navy. Escort aircraft carrier Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7637-6200-0 . P. 48
- ↑ USS Leary (DD-158) in DANFS , as of February 6, 2009