Hi, I know very little about ships (I'm an armor guy). And I want to build a diorama from this picture, but have little idea as to what kind of aircraft carrier it is. Somenone told me it was a straight deck JEEP carrier. Could you guys direct me to some reference for the conning tower, as I will have to scratch-build the entire thing.



-THanks

Hey William.

I don't think it would have been an escort carrier, they only carried FMs and TBMs. I just checked all the light carriers and I've seen nothing. That only leaves an Essex class, Enterprise or Saratoga.

I'll keep checking.
Gator

It was an escort carrier; while they predominantely operated Wildcats and Avengers, they were also used as training carriers and as such saw a lot of different aircraft operate off of their decks. That particular photo was shot on USS Charger (designated both ACV-30 or CVE-30 in 1943, when that photo is dated) and another shot in the series is viewable here.

Learn something new everyday. Thanks Tracy.

A pleasure... I enjoy learning new things and helping others do the same.

Out of curiosity I looked up a random week in March 1945; I figured the Kamikaze would have pushed for uprated fighters for a couple of months by then and maybe some of the CVEs would be more than just Wildcats.

Chenango CVE-29, Sangamon CVE-26, Santee CVE-28, and Suwanee CVE-27 were operating F6F-5s. Granted they were larger CVEs than, say, the Bogue class. The Wildcats were part of VCs (Composite Squadrons), so generally speaking, if a carrier had an air GROUP they were using Hellcats (and/or Corsairs for the fleet carriers) but if they just had a composite squadron aboard it was outfitted with Hellcats of some variety.

WOW! Thanks for that link! it'll be of great help as reference for this build. I'll try and post a link when I get started.


-Thanks!

THe build log is located here