CVE Jeep Carriers to cover the black hole mid Atlantic

Excuse me if this topic has been covered. The area in the mid Atlantic called the black hole out of range for land based aircraft to hunt U boats. The CVEs carried about 20 or so aircraft and provided air coverage in this area to hunt U boats. CVE USS QUADALCANAL attacked U 505 which surfaced damaged and was taken over by US NAVY sailors before the GERMANS could scuttle it. The U 505 is at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

 

I have been to the Museum of Science and Industry when it was mounted in a cradle outside. Since then they made a small dry dock and put the U 505 in it with supports,etc.

 

Was there a topic question here?

Jeep carrier - goofy name.
The Allies were far to slow in getting CVEs into action.

 

That's an interesting observation. Care to expand on it a bit? In particular what sore of time line do you think could have been met?

 

Given some of the other nicknames, such as, "Combustible, Vulnerable, Expendable" and "Kaiser Coffins". Well...

 

One reason for the delay in deploying CVEs by the RN was the shortage of carrier aircraft at then start of the war.

The RN pioneer the idea with HMS Audacity. The MAC ships provided anti submarine aircraft for the convoys themselves. These were merchantmen operated by by the merchant navy + the third largest carrier fleet in the world by the number of hulls.

 

I have read in different ww2 books that called the CVEs jeep carriers emphasizing how much smaller they were compared to CV 18 WASP and CVL 28

Cabot. My uncle Jack Cunningham served on CVE 100 in the Pacific during WW2.

 

A CVE's size was the source of another CVE sobriquet, the "baby carrier."

AFAIK, the "Jeep carrier" had nothing to do with it's size, but for the CVEs versatility in doing all of the less glamorous, but never-the-less important, duties, such as: Aircraft transport, antisubmarine escort, training carrier, close air support, etc. Thus freeing the larger fleet carriers and light carriers to focus exclusively on fighting the Japanese.

 

Indeed, some 20 to 25 CVEs were employed at any one time in the mundane tasks as simply transporting replacement aircraft and aviators out to the operating task groups and returning duds and replaced personnel to the rear, for aircraft, depot level overhaul or strike survey, and personnel for reforming of squadrons to prepare to re-deploy.

 

While my uncle Jack was on CVE 100 in the Pacific they came along side CVL 28 CABOT. Another uncle Donald Cunningham was on CVL 28.

The two brothers managed to communicate using a signal man.

 

Just found a good article on the subject of "baby flattops" being used against uboats, but it does not explain the origin of the term "jeep carrier". It includes some background on the origin of the CVE type:

The U.S. Navy’s escort-carrier program got its start in December 1940. On the 13th of that month, Rear Admiral William F. Halsey, the U.S. Fleet’s commander, Aircraft, Battle Force, sent a letter to Chief of Naval Operations Harold R. Stark expressing his concern that the entry of the United States into the European war would require all six of the Fleet’s aircraft carriers to be deployed immediately. This, in turn, would severely restrict both the training of naval aviators and the service’s ability to transport Army and Navy aircraft to overseas bases. To overcome these handicaps, Halsey recommended the procurement of “suitable merchant vessels and their earliest conversion to auxiliary aircraft carriers.”

​Much more about CVE's and their use against uboats:
http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2013-11/navys-escort-carrier-offensive

edit: Following that article, after the footnotes, is an excerpt from “Report Escort of Convoy ON-184,” USS Bogue (CVE-9), 29 May 1943, which contains a tutorial on how to sink submarines using the TBF. Good read.

 

This thread revived a distant memory of a John Wayne character inventing both the concept of escort carriers and the term "jeep carrier"...

Found it: The Wings of Eagles, directed by John Ford, is about a real life naval officer and author Frank W. 'Spig' Wead.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051198/reviews

Hey, it's The Duke... so it must be true.

 

Interesting.
Did the US wait to place an order for CVEs after the British had ordered some?

 

The article doesn't say anything about the timing of orders, but it does say this:

Interestingly, just a week later [after the Halsey letter of 13 December 1940], President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a memo to Admiral Stark by FDR’s naval aide, Captain Daniel Callahan, proposed that, in order to increase convoy protection, a 6,000- to 8,000-ton merchant vessel capable of attaining a speed of at least 15 knots be converted into an experimental carrier equipped with a flight deck that could accommodate ten helicopters or ten planes with low-landing speeds. 2 While Admiral Halsey’s proposal had called for the creation of auxiliary carriers to be used for noncombat purposes, President Roosevelt’s concept was for a carrier that could help provide antisubmarine protection to convoys at sea.

and...

Following a series of January 1941 meetings principally in the CNO’s office, it was decided that two Maritime Commission diesel-powered C-3 merchant ships, the SS Mormacmail and Mormacland , could be provided for conversion into carriers; the U.S. Navy would receive the first ship and the Royal Navy the second.

So, it's obvious that the RN was shopping for carriers, but it's not clear if any orders had already been placed.