Posted on 12/09/2021 6:23:25 PM PST by Jacquerie
While armed services often crave “gold-plated” weapon systems, Kaiser’s cheap jeep carriers showed how simple, affordable and numerous platforms well-suited to operational requirements can prove to be of greater value.
The Casablanca class’ finest hour came in the Battle of Samar, when sixteen CVEs and their escorts covering the amphibious landing at Leyte Gulf single-handedly took on a Japanese battlefleet consisting of four battleships and nineteen cruisers and destroyers. In a frantic few hours, the carriers’ combined air wings and self-sacrificing destroyer escorts managed to sink three cruisers and persuade Admiral Takeo Kurita to withdraw.
“Mass-production” isn’t a term one usually associates with ships as large and valuable as aircraft carriers. But that’s precisely what industrialist Henry Kaiser proposed to the U.S. Navy in 1942: dozens of carriers churned out in a matter of months using assembly-line techniques.
Following the Pearl Harbor raid, it was evident that carriers would rule the seas—but forthcoming Essex-class fleet carriers were years away from entering service. Kaiser was already assembling large “Liberty Ship” transports in just six weeks on average, and he promised to launch small escort carriers in just three months using interchangeable-part production techniques.
But the Navy initially spurned Kaiser’s offer. The “jeep carriers” would have only two-thirds the 30-knot maximum speed of fleet carriers, and carry roughly one-third the number of aircraft. But Kaiser reached over the heads of the Navy to President Franklin Roosevelt, who may have been more attuned to the political sensitivities of the war.
German submarines were then inflicting unsustainable losses on vital transatlantic convoys—particularly while traversing the “mid-Atlantic gap” which lay just outside the patrol radius of patrol planes based in North America and the United Kingdom. Land-based bombers like the Fw 200 Condor also exacted a toll.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Great post. I had no past knowledge of this. Wow.
Jeep carriers FTW!
Also, Taffy 3 ping!
On top of the 24 Essex carriers, 9 Independence class light carriers, 19 Commencement Bay class escort carriers and 45 Bogue class escort carriers.
Make ‘em cheap.
Stack ‘em deep.
L
Thanks for posting this. It was a good read for me, as my father served on a Casablanca class aircraft carrier in the Atlantic. According to the article, 50 of these ships were built!
But, wow. ‘The National Interest’ sure is polluted with ads. I guess that’s the price you pay for getting a free article..
My dad was on a destroyer during the battle of Leyte Gulf. Just curious, how did they come up with the name Casablanca for the type of carriers? Was it because of the movie?
A weapon’s system that you are not prepared to risk losing is not useful in war.
I worry our multi-billion carriers would be like the Yamato or the German battleship fleet in WWI. Confined to port for the whole war because they were not expendable.
Which destroyer?
The carriers also had a 5” main gun, same as the gun on a modern destroyer, but with a shorter barrel than used now.
I was thinking along those same lines. In WW II the Germans had great tanks. But they were expensive, and complicated. The US and Soviet tanks were simpler and cheaper, and so were much easier to mass-produce. Allied quantity beat Axis quality.
It seems that the US has gone over to the old German model. Produce only a few high-quality, expensive toys. Better not lose even one of those toys.
“A weapon’s system that you are not prepared to risk losing is not useful in war.”
Precisely. I’d rather have 300 “good enough” aircraft carriers than 30 “perfect” ones. In 1944 Detroit was delivering over 1,000 tanks a month. They weren’t perfect. God knows the brave men who crewed them would testify to that. But sheer numbers overwhelmed the enemy.
Same thing with bomber planes, fighter planes, rifles, pistols, grenades, ammunition, food, medical supplies, socks, uniforms, boots, you name it. There’s something to be said for that.
As much as I hate quoting that monster Stalin he was right about this “Quantity has a quality all its own.”
We need to bring some of that mindset back to our military procurement.
L
Excerpt:
The U.S. escort carrier USS Anzio (CVE-57) rolling heavily while trying to maintain course and speed during a typhoon east of the Philippines, 17 December 1944. Note the casual attitude of the deck crew. A Grumman TBF (or TBM) Avenger is visible on the left, a Grumman F4F (or FM) Wildcat is tied to far end of the deck.
Told it before but struck up a conversation with an older gentleman sitting by himself at the local bar when i still lived in Minneapolis. Mentioned he served in WWII in the Navy and I asked which ship and almost spit out my drink when he said the Samuel B Roberts.
Dudley Moylan had his ship sunk out from under him and lived to tell the story. Got to spend time with him from time to time at that same bar just visiting. Was an honor to spend time with him.
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is a great book on the background of the CVE’s, DE’s and DD’s that won that Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Maybe reading the article would answer that question...
Perhaps you could actually READ the article.
I did the 2.7143 seconds of research for you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Battle_of_Casablanca
Now it’s the Chinese that could crank out ships like that and not us...
Please stop. You don’t understand modern naval warfare.
The name of the first ship ordered in a class of ships becomes the class name.
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