USS Chenango (CVE-28)

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For other ships with the same name, see USS Chenango.
USS Chenango
History
NameSS Esso New Orleans
Owner
Standard Oil Company
Builder
Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Chester, Pennsylvania
Laid down10 July 1938
Launched1 April 1939
Sponsored byMrs. Rathbone
FatePurchased by the US Navy
United States
NameUSS Chenango
Namesake
Acquired31 May 1941
Commissioned20 June 1941, as AO-31
Decommissioned16 March 1942
Recommissioned19 September 1942, as ACV-28
Decommissioned14 August 1946
Reclassified
  • CVE-28, 15 July 1943
  • CVHE-28, 12 June 1955
Stricken1 March 1959
FateSold, 12 February 1960
General characteristics as escort carrier
Class and typeSangamon-class escort carrier
Displacement11,400 long tons (11,583 t)[1]
Length553 ft (169 m)
Beam
  • 75 ft (23 m)
  • 114 ft 3 in (34.82 m) extreme width
Draft32 ft (9.8 m)
Propulsion
Speed18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h)
Complement1,080 officers and men[1]
Armament2 ×
5 in (127 mm)/51 cal guns[1][2]
Aircraft carried31
Aviation facilities2 × elevators
Service record
Operations: World War II
Awards:

The second USS Chenango (CVE-28) (originally designated as

Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, in Chester, Pennsylvania, sponsored by Mrs. Rathbone; acquired by the United States Navy on 31 May 1941; and commissioned on 20 June 1941 as AO-31.[1]

Service as oiler

Assigned to the Naval Transportation Service, Chenango steamed in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Pacific as far as Honolulu on tanker duty. Chenango was present at Aruba, N.W.I. on 16 February 1942 when a German submarine shelled one of the island's refineries. She was decommissioned at Brooklyn Navy Yard on 16 March for conversion to an escort carrier.[1]

Conversion and combat service as escort carrier

Her conversion complete, she was recommissioned as ACV-28 on 19 September 1942. Carrying 77

hurricane
en route which caused extensive damage.

Quickly repaired, Chenango was underway for the Pacific by mid-December, possibly alongside

Tarawa from 20 November-8 December, her planes covered the advance of the attack force, bombed and strafed beaches ahead of the invading troops, and protected off-shore convoys. On 29 November 1943, at 21:57, her Avenger TBFs (Air Group 35) found and sank a Japanese submarine, probably I-21.[4]
She returned to San Diego for another period of training duty.

Steaming from San Diego on 13 January 1944, Chenango supported the invasion landings on

Pagan Island, as well as conducting valuable photographic reconnaissance of Guam. From 8 July, she joined in daily poundings of Guam, preparing for the island's invasion. She returned to Manus
on 13 August to replenish and conduct training.

USS Chenango underway in 1944.

From 10 to 29 September, Chenango joined in the neutralization of enemy airfields in the

Seattle, Washington
until 9 February 1945.

After the overhaul period, she again sailed west, arriving at

Sakashima Gunto. On 9 April, a crash-landing fighter started a raging fire among the strike-loaded aircraft on Chenango's deck. Skillful work by her crew saved the ship from serious damage and she remained in action off Okinawa until 11 June. After escorting a tanker convoy to San Pedro Bay, Chenango sailed on 26 July to join the logistics force for the 3rd Fleet
, then engaged in the final offensive against Japan.

Postwar service and scrapping

Following the cease-fire, Chenango supported the occupation forces and evacuated some 1,900 Allied prisoners of war and 1,500 civilians from slave labor camps. She cleared

San Pedro, California on 5 February for Boston, and was placed out of commission in reserve there on 14 August 1946. She was reclassified CVHE-28 on 12 June 1955, struck from the Naval Vessel Register
on 1 March 1959, sold and removed from naval custody on 12 February 1960.

Awards

Chenango was awarded the

battle stars
for her World War II service.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f DANFS: Chenango II.
  2. ^ Friedman 1983 p. 407
  3. ^ Craven & Cate 1983, p. 77.
  4. ^ I-21 Combinedfleet.com

References

  • Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James Lea (1983). Europe, Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943. The Army Air Forces In World War II. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History.
    LCCN 83017288
    .
  • Friedman, Norman (1983). U.S. Aircraft Carriers. Naval Institute Press.
    ISBN 0-87021-739-9
    .
  • Howe, George F. (1993). The Mediterranean Theater of Operations — Northwest Africa: Seizing The Initiative In The West. United States Army In World War II. Washington, DC: Center Of Military History, United States Army.
    LCCN 57060021
    .
  • "Chenango". history.navy.mil. Retrieved 2022-02-05.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

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