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USS SUWANNEE (CVE-27)
USS
Suwannee was originally an oiler AO-33. She was laid
down in June 1938 at Kearny, New Jersey, by the
Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. AO-33 was
operated by Keystone Tankship Corporation until
acquired by the United States Navy in June 1941;
renamed Suwannee (AO-33); and commissioned on 16
July 1941.
After
operating for six months as an oiler with the Atlantic
Fleet, Suwannee was redesignated AVG-27 and then
decommissioned on 21 February for conversion to a
Sangamon-class escort carrier. In August, she was
redesignated an auxiliary carrier, ACV-27, and was
recommissioned on 24 September 1942.
USS Suwannee had an impressive record.
During
the Naval Battle of Casablanca from 8–11 November
1943, Suwannee sent up 255 air sorties and lost only
five planes, three in combat and two to operational
problems.
On 11
November, off Fedhala Roads, her anti-submarine patrol
sank one of the three French submarines which sortied
from Casablanca on the day of the assault. She was
the first escort carrier to score against the enemy
undersea menace, and she helped to prove the
usefulness of her type in anti-submarine warfare.
The Suwannee aircraft carrier arrived off Saipan in
mid-June 1944. For the next one and a half months, she
supported the invasion of the Marianas, participating in
the campaigns against Saipan and Guam. On 19 June, as
the Battle of the Philippine Sea began to unfold, Suwannee was
one of the first ships to draw enemy blood when one of
her planes flying combat air patrol attacked and sank
the Japanese submarine I-184.
In October, the carrier provide air support for
the landings at Leyte Gulf. Her planes began strikes on
enemy installations in the Visayas until 25 October. She
provided air support for the assault forces with
antisubmarine and combat air patrols and strikes against
Japanese installations ashore.
On 24–25
October 1944, the Japanese launched a major surface
offensive from three directions to contest the landings
at Leyte Gulf. While Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa's Mobile
Force sailed south from Japan and drew the bulk of
Admiral William Halsey's 3d Fleet off to the north,
Admiral Shima's 2nd Striking Force, along with
Admiral Shoji Nishimura's Force, attempted to force the Surigao
Strait from the south. This drew Admiral Jesse B.
Oldendorf's Bombardment Group south to meet that threat
in the Battle of Surigao Strait. With Admiral
Oldendorf's old battleships fighting in Surigao Strait
and Halsey's 3rd Fleet scurrying north, Suwannee, with
the other 15 escort carriers and
22 destroyers and destroyer escorts, formed the only
Allied naval force operating off Leyte Gulf when Vice
Admiral Takeo Kurita's 1st Striking Force sneaked
through the unguarded San Bernardino Strait into
the Philippine Sea.
At 07:40 on the 25th, "Taffy 1" was jumped by land-based
planes from Davao in the first deliberate suicide attack
of the war. The first one crashed into Santee; and, 30
seconds later, Suwannee splashed a kamikaze during his
run on Petrof Bay. Her gunners soon shot down another
enemy plane, then bore down on a third circling in the
clouds at about 8,000 ft (2,400 m). They hit the enemy,
but he rolled over, dove at Suwannee and crashed into
her at 08:04 about 40 ft forward of the after elevator,
opening a 10 ft hole in her flight deck. The plane's
bomb compounded the fracture when it exploded between
the flight and hangar decks, tearing a 25 ft gash in the
latter and causing a number of casualties.
Within two hours,
her flight deck was sufficiently repaired to resume air
operations. Suwanee's group fought off two more air
attacks before 13:00; then steamed in a northeasterly
direction to join Taffy 3 and launch futile searches for
Kurita's rapidly retiring force.
Just
after noon on 26 October, another group
of kamikazes jumped Taffy 1. A Zero crashed into Suwanee's
flight deck at 1240 and careened into a torpedo
bomber which had just been recovered. The two planes
erupted upon contact as did nine other planes on her
flight deck. The resulting fire burned for several
hours, but was finally brought under control. The
casualties for 25–26 October were 107 dead and 160
wounded.
After repair at Pearl Harbor, she arrived off Okinawa on
1 April. she settled down to a routine of pounding
the kamikaze bases at Sakishima Gunto. For the major
portion of the next 77 days, her planes continued to
deny the enemy the use of those air bases.
On 2 October, USS Suwannee Captain Charles C. McDonald
and Rear Admiral William Sample, who headed COMCARDIV 22
on board Suwannee took off in a Martin PBM Mariner to
maintain their flight qualifications and never returned.
They were declared dead on 4 October. They and the seven
members of the flight crew were discovered in the
wreckage of the aircraft on 19 November 1948.
In
1947, the carrier was placed out of commission. USS
Suwannee remained in reserve at Boston for the next 12
years. She was re-designated an escort helicopter
aircraft carrier, CVHE-27, on 12 June 1955. Her name was
struck from the Navy List in March 1959. She was finally
scrapped in Bilbao, Spain, in June 1962.
This
primarily wood model of the USS
Suwannee is 46"
long (1/144
scale.) Will be completed soon.
Learn more about the
Suwannee here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Suwannee_(CVE-27)
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