Casablanca - class escort carrier The " Casablanca " class escort aircraft carrier s are the most numerous class of aircraft carriers ever built . Fifty were laid down , launched and commissioned within the space of less than two years - 3 November 1942 through to 8 July 1944 . These were nearly one third of the 151 carriers built in the United States during the war . Despite their numbers , and the preservation of more famous and larger carriers as museums , none of these modest ships survive today . Five were lost to enemy action during World War II and the remainder were scrapped . The first class to be designed from keel up as an escort carrier , the " Casablanca " class had a larger and more useful hangar deck than previous conversions . It also had a larger flight deck than the " Bogue " class . Unlike larger carriers which had extensive armor , protection was limited to splinter plating . " Casablanca " class carriers were built by Kaiser Company , Inc . ' s Shipbuilding Division , Vancouver Yard on the Columbia River in Vancouver , Washington . The Vancouver yard was expressly built in 1942 to construct Liberty Ship s , but exigencies of war soon saw the yard building LST landing craft and then Escort Aircraft Carriers all before the end of the yard ' s first year in operation . The yard had twelve building ways and an enormous 3 , 000 foot outfitting dock along with a unique additional building slip originally intended to add prefabricated superstructures to Liberty ships . Their small size made them useful for transporting assembled aircraft of various sizes , but combat fighters were usually smaller and lighter models such as the Wildcat . The hull number s were assigned consecutively , from CVE - 55 " Casablanca " to CVE - 104 " Munda " . Production time and Navy refusal . Although Essex class aircraft carrier s were completed in 20 months or less , 1941 projections on the basis of the 38 - month average pre - war construction period estimated no new fleet carrier s could be expected until 1944 . Kaiser had reduced construction time of cargo ships ( Liberty Ship s ) from more than a year to less than 90 days , and proposed building a fleet of 50 small carriers in less than 2 years . The US naval authorities refused to approve construction of the Kaiser - built ships until Kaiser went directly to the President ' s advisors . The Allies were in desperate need of carriers to replace early war losses . Kaiser produced the small carriers as rapidly as planned and resistance to their value quickly disappeared as they proved their usefulness defending convoys , providing air support for amphibious operations , and allowing fleet carriers to focus on offensive air - strike missions . Service . Although designated as convoy escort carriers , the " Casablanca " class was far more frequently used in large fleet amphibious operations , where speed was less important and their small airgroups could combine to provide the effectiveness of a much larger ship . Their finest hour came in the Battle off Samar , when Taffy 3 , a task unit composed of six of these ships and their screen of 3 destroyer s and 4 destroyer escort s gave battle against the Japanese main force . Their desperate defense not only preserved most of their own ships , but succeeded in turning back the massive force with only aircraft machine guns , depth charges , high - explosive bombs , and their own 5 " gun s . Tasked with ground support and antisubmarine patrols , they lacked the torpedoes and armor - piercing bombs to tackle a surface fleet alone . Taffy 3 was to be protected by Admiral Halsey ' s Third Fleet with carriers and battleships . But the Third Fleet had left the scene to pursue a decoy carrier fleet , inadvertently leaving Taffy 3 the only force between the massive Japanese fleet and undefended landing forces at Leyte Gulf . The lightly armed vessels each had only one 5 " / 38 cal gun mounted aft , yet two of their numbers , " St . Lo " ( ex - " Midway " ) and " Kalinin Bay " , became the only US aircraft carriers to ever record a hit on an enemy warship by its own guns . " St . Lo " hit a Japanese destroyer with a single round and " Kalinin Bay " damaged a " Myoko " class cruiser with two hits . Recent evidence suggests that six 5 " shells fired from the USS " White Plains " struck the heavy cruiser IJN " Chokai " . One of the rounds impacted amidships on the starboard side , causing a larger secondary explosion ( probably from one of the " Chokai " ' s own torpedoes ) that proved fatal to the heavy cruiser . The " White Plains " gun crew put all six 5 " rounds into the " Chokai " from a range of 11 , 700 yards , near the maximum effective range for the 5 " / 38 gun . Another noteworthy achievement of the " Casablanca " class was when USS " Guadalcanal " under command of Captain Daniel V . Gallery , made the first capture - at - sea of a foreign warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812 , by capturing U - 505 . Of the eleven U . S . aircraft carriers of all types lost during World War II , six were escort carriers , five of which were of the Kaiser - built " Casablanca " class : Sunk 24 November 1943 . Submarine torpedo launched from IJN I - 175 SW off Butaritari ( Makin ) . Sunk 25 October 1944 . Concentrated surface gunfire from IJN Center Force during Battle off Samar . Sunk 25 October 1944 . Kamikaze aerial attack during Battle of Leyte Gulf . Sunk 4 January 1945 . Kamikaze aerial attack in the Sulu Sea en route to Lingayen Gulf . Sunk 21 February 1945 . Kamikaze aerial attack off Iwo Jima . Unlike most other warships since , the " Casablanca " class ships were equipped with uniflow reciprocating engines instead of turbine engine s . This was done because of bottlenecks in the gear - cutting industry , but greatly limited their usefulness after the war . Some ships were retained postwar as aircraft transports , where their lack of speed was not a major drawback . Some units were reactivated as helicopter escort carriers ( CVHE and T - CVHE ) or utility carriers ( CVU and T - CVU ) after the war , but most were deactivated and placed in reserve once the war ended , stricken in 1958 - 9 and scrapped in 1959 - 61 . One ship , , was heavily modified into an amphibious assault ship ( LPH - 6 ) , but was scrapped in 1964 . Originally , half of their number were to be transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend - Lease , but instead they were retained in the US Navy and the Batch II " Bogue " class escort carriers were transferred instead as the " Ruler " class ( the RN ' s Batch I " Bogues " were the " Attacker " class ) . References . pps . 1 & 2 - " Kaiser Company , Inc . - Vancouver " , BuShips QQ files , NARA , College Park , MD . - " The Ships We Build " , Kaiser Company , Inc . , n . d . , c . immediate post - war , 1945 .