USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90)

The Thetis Bay around 1963
Overview
Keel laying	December 22, 1943
Launch	March 16, 1944
1. Period of service
Commissioning	April 12, 1944
Decommissioning	March 1, 1964
Whereabouts	Wrecked in 1964
Technical specifications
displacement	7,800 tons
length	156.13 meters
width	19.86 meters
Draft	6.86 meters
crew	860
drive	2 direct current steam engines ; 9,000 hp
speed	19 knots
Armament	1 × 127 mm gun 16 × 40 mm twins 20 × 20 mm MK

The USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90 / CVHA-1 / LPH-6) was asked in April 1944 in service escort carrier of the US Navy . The ship belonged to the Casablanca class and was in service during the Second World War before it was in the reserve fleet from 1946 . In 1956 it was put into service again as a helicopter carrier and from 1959 as an amphibious assault ship . In 1964, Thetis Bay was finally retired and scrapped in the same year.

history

Second World War

The Thetis Bay in August 1944

The Thetis Bay was on 22 December 1943 in the shipyard of the Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver (Washington) laid down on, ran on 16 March 1944 by launching and the only less than a month later the same year on April 12, under the command of Captain Donald E. Wilcox put into service.

After test drives off San Diego , the ship was used from June 1944 for the transport of planes and troops to Pearl Harbor , Makin , Majuro and Kwajalein . Subsequently, the Thetis Bay transported aircraft in need of repair to Alameda and was used from September 1945 to transport spare parts for aircraft after a stay in the shipyard. In addition, the ship made several round trips to various destinations such as Hawaii and New Guinea .

From July 1945, the Thetis Bay was part of Task Force 38, for which it was available as a supply ship and as an aircraft transporter between Guam and Apra Harbor . This mission lasted until September 1945. After the end of the war, the ship carried troops back to the United States as part of Operation Magic Carpet . The carrier's last deployment for the time being ended in January 1946. In August 1946, the Thetis Bay was retired and transferred to the reserve fleet in Bremerton .

reactivation

The Thetis Bay as a helicopter carrier (1956)

From May 1955 the ship was converted in the San Francisco Naval Shipyard for use as a helicopter carrier with the identification (CVHA-1) . The re-commissioning took place on July 20, 1956 under the command of Thomas W. South II. Home port was Long Beach (California) . After several training missions off the coast of California , Thetis Bay undertook a trip to the Far East from July to December 1957 before it was back in action off California.

Since 1959, the former carrier was listed as an amphibious assault ship with the identification (LPH-6) . In the following years Thetis Bay was used for exercises in the Atlantic and the Caribbean . In addition, she provided humanitarian aid in September 1963 after Hurricane Flora in Haiti . The ship's most important mission was in October 1962 as part of the US fleet standing by during the Cuban Missile Crisis .

On March 1, 1964, the 20-year-old Thetis Bay was finally retired and sold to the Peck Iron & Metal Company in Portsmouth (Virginia) for demolition in December of the same year . She received a Battle Star for her services during World War II .

Web links

Commons : USS Thetis Bay  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Entry to Thetis Bay as escort aircraft carrier on navsource.org (English)
• Entry on Thetis Bay as a helicopter carrier and amphibious assault ship on navsource.org (English)
• Entry on Thetis Bay on navysite.de (English)