USS Kalinin Bay
USS Kalinin Bay
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Kalinin Bay |
Builder | Kaiser Shipyards |
Laid down | 26 April 1943 |
Launched | 15 October 1943 |
Commissioned | 27 November 1943 |
Decommissioned | 15 May 1946 |
Fate | Sold for scrap 8 December 1946 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Casablanca-class escort carrier |
Displacement | 7,800 tons |
Length | 512 ft 3 in (156.13 m) overall |
Beam |
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Draft | 22 ft 6 in (6.86 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h) |
Range | 10,240 nmi (18,960 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 27 |
Service record | |
Part of: | United States Pacific Fleet |
Operations: |
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Awards: |
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USS Kalinin Bay (CVE-68) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy.
She originally designated an AVG, was classified ACV-68 on 20 August 1942; laid down under a
USS Kalinin Bay was named after a bay on the northern shore of Kruzof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska.
Service history
After shakedown along the Pacific Coast, Kalinin Bay departed
Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign
With Composite Squadron 3 (VC-3) embarked 9 April, Kalinin Bay reached
Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign
Kalinin Bay cleared Eniwetok 18 August and proceeded via
Philippines Campaign
She departed the Palaus 30 September; and, upon arriving
The Battle off Samar
Steaming about 60 miles east of Samar before dawn 25 October, Taffy 3 prepared to launch the day's initial air strikes. At 0647, Rear Admiral Sprague received word that a sizable Japanese fleet was approaching from the northwest. Comprising four battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers,
So began the Battle off Samar—one of the most memorable engagements in U.S. naval history. Outnumbered and outgunned, the slower Taffy 3 seemed fated for disaster; but the American ships defied the odds and gamely accepted the enemy's challenge.
Kalinin Bay accelerated to flank speed, and, despite fire from three enemy cruisers, she launched her planes, ordering the pilots "to attack the Japanese task force and proceed to Tacloban airstrip, Leyte, to rearm and regas." As salvos fell "with disconcerting rapidity" increasingly nearer Kalinin Bay, her planes, striking the enemy force with bombs, rockets, and gunfire, inflicted heavy damage on the closing ships.
Coming under heavy fire
As the trailing ship in the escort caravan, Kalinin Bay came under intense enemy fire. Though partially protected by chemical smoke, by a timely rain squall, and by valiant counterattacks of screening destroyers and destroyer escorts, she took the first of 15 direct hits at 0750. Fired from the Japanese battleship Haruna, a 14-inch (356 mm) shell struck the starboard side of the hangar deck just abaft the forward elevator.[1][2]
By 0800, the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro, the only "Nachi class cruiser" present in the engagement, was spotted steaming off Kalinin Bay's port quarter, closed to within 18,000 yards. Kalinin Bay gamely responded to their straddling salvos with rapid fire from her single 5 inch gun, which only intensified the enemy fire. Three 8-inch armor-piercing projectiles from Haguro struck her within minutes of each other. At 0825, the carrier's 5-incher scored a direct hit from 16,000 yards on Haguro's No. 2 turret and a second hit shortly thereafter forced the enemy ship to withdraw temporarily from formation.[1]
At 0830, five enemy destroyers steamed over the horizon off her starboard quarter. The closing ships opened fire from about 14,500 yards, and, as screening ships engaged the cruisers and laid down concealing smoke, Kalinin Bay shifted her fire, and, for the next hour, traded shots with Japan's Destroyer Squadron 10. Many salvos exploded close aboard or passed directly overhead, and, though no destroyer fire hit Kalinin Bay directly, she took ten more 8-inch (203 mm) hits from the now-obscured Haguro. One shell passed through the flight deck and into the communications area, where it destroyed all the radar and radio equipment.
Under heavy attack from the air and harassed by incessant fire from American destroyers and destroyer escorts, the enemy cruisers broke off action and turned northward at 0920. At 0915, the enemy destroyers, which were kept at bay by the daring and almost single-handed exploits of the destroyer Johnston, launched a premature torpedo attack from 10,500 yards. As the torpedoes approached the escort carriers, they slowed down. A Grumman TBF Avenger from St. Lo strafed and exploded two torpedoes in Kalinin Bay's wake about 100 yards astern, and a shell from the latter's 5 inch gun deflected a third from a collision course with her stern.
At about 0930, as the enemy ships fired parting salvos and reversed course northward, Kalinin Bay scored a direct hit amidships on a retreating destroyer. Five minutes later, she ceased fire and retired southward with the surviving ships of Taffy 3. At 1050, the task unit came under a concentrated air attack. During the 40-minute battle, the first attack from a Kamikaze unit in World War II, all except Fanshaw Bay were damaged. One plane of Lieutenant Yukio Seki and his Shikishima squadron crashed through St. Lo's flight deck and exploded her torpedo and bomb magazine, mortally wounding the carrier. Four diving planes attacked Kalinin Bay from astern and the starboard quarter. Intense fire splashed two close aboard; but a third plane crashed into the port side of the flight deck, damaging it badly. The fourth hit destroyed the aft port stack.[3]
As part of Taffy 3, Kalinin Bay had prevented a Japanese penetration into
Despite the battle damage, Taffy 3 cleared the air of attacking planes; at noon, the escort carriers retired southeastward while their escort searched for survivors from St. Lo. Though Kalinin Bay suffered extensive structural damage during the morning's furious action, she counted only 5 dead among her 60 casualties. Weary and battle scarred, Kalinin Bay was awarded the
End of career
Repairs completed 18 January 1945, the veteran escort carrier departed San Diego 20 January to ferry planes and men to Pearl Harbor and Guam. For more than 8 months, she served as a replenishment carrier in the Pacific Carrier Transport Squadron; and, during six cruises between the West Coast and Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, and Guam, she transported more than 600 planes. Departing San Diego 2 September, she steamed to the Philippines, arriving at Samar 28 September to participate in
After conducting two more voyages between California and Pearl Harbor, Kalinin Bay departed San Diego 8 December for the Far East. On 25 December, while she steamed to Yokosuka, Japan, an intense storm heavily damaged her flight deck. Arriving the 27th, she received emergency repairs, then sailed 3 January 1946 for the West Coast and arrived San Diego 17 January. On 13 February, she proceeded to the eastern seaboard, reaching Boston 9 March. Kalinin Bay was decommissioned 15 May, and she was sold for scrap 8 December to Patapsco Steel Co., Baltimore, Maryland.
Awards
In addition to the Presidential Unit Citation, Kalinin Bay received five
References
- ^ a b "USS Kalinin Bay". History Central. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
- ^ "Imperial Battleships". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
- ISBN 9781781593134.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.