USS Tulagi

History
United States
Name	Tulagi
Namesake	The Battle of Tulagi, 7–8 August 1942
Ordered	as Fortazela Bay
Builder	Kaiser Company
Laid down	7 June 1943
Launched	15 November 1943
Commissioned	21 December 1943
Decommissioned	30 April 1946
Stricken	8 May 1946
Fate	Sold 1946 and scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type	Casablanca-class escort carrier
Displacement	7,800 tons
Length	512 ft 3 in (156.13 m)
Beam	65 ft (20 m); 108 ft (33 m) maximum width;
Draft	22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)
Speed	19 knots (35 km/h)
Complement	860
Armament	1 × 5-inch/38 cal. DP gun; 16 × 40 mm AA cannon in 8 twin mounts; 20 × 20 mm guns AA machine guns in single mounts;
Service record
Operations:	Operation Dragoon; Philippines campaign; Invasion of Iwo Jima; Battle of Okinawa;
Awards:	4 Battle stars

USS Tulagi (CVE-72) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy.

She was laid down on 7 June 1943 at Vancouver, Washington, United States, by the Kaiser Company, Inc., as Fortazela Bay (ACV-72); and redesignated CVE-72 on 15 July 1943. However, her name was corrected to read Fortaleza Bay on 19 October 1943, and the ship was renamed Tulagi on 6 November 1943; launched on 15 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. James Duke Earner; and commissioned on 21 December 1943, Capt. Joseph Campbell Cronin in command.

Service history

The new escort carrier got underway from Seattle on 17 January 1944 bound for San Francisco where she was immediately pressed into service ferrying stores, airplanes, and military personnel to Hawaii. She departed Pearl Harbor for the homeward voyage on 29 January and arrived at San Diego with her load of passengers on 4 February. Throughout most of February, she participated in training exercises out of San Diego before steaming, via the Canal Zone, for Hampton Roads, Virginia. Following her arrival at Norfolk on 17 March, Tulagi underwent overhaul and carrier qualification tests.

Tulagi embarked a load of

Army Air Forces planes late in May and departed New York on the 28th in convoy with two other carriers and their screen. On 6 June, Tulagi entered her first foreign port as she steamed the swept channel approach to Casablanca

. After disembarking her cargo, the carrier took on passengers including a group of 35 prisoners of war and then headed home.

After arriving at Norfolk on 17 June 1944, Tulagi got underway late in June for

Rear Admiral Calvin T. Durgin on board as Commander, Task Group 27.7, and steamed eastward conducting squadron and battery training en route to Oran, Algeria. Tulagi visited Malta on 26 July and then spent the following weeks conducting exercises, which included a dress rehearsal out of African and Italian ports for the coming Operation Dragoon

, the invasion of southern France.

On D-Day, Tulagi steamed in formation 45 miles off the invasion beach; and, at 0546, she launched her first flight of

F6F Hellcats. In the next week, aircraft from Tulagi flew a total of 68 missions and 276 sorties, inflicting considerable damage on the enemy. Weather was generally good as carrier-based planes conducted spotting missions and made strikes at various targets ashore, including gun emplacements and railway facilities. On 21 August, Tulagi's last day in support of Operation "Dragoon", German forces were in retreat before the Allied thrust. Tulagi's fliers conducted a devastating attack along the line of march of a German convoy which snarled the roads for miles around Remoulins and crowned her achievements of the day by downing three German Junkers Ju 52s

.

After taking on supplies and fuel at Oran, she got underway for home on 6 September. Following a quick overhaul at Norfolk, the escort carrier set her course for Panama; transited the Canal; and arrived at San Diego on 26 October. There, she embarked two air squadrons for transportation to Hawaii and departed the west coast on 29 October 1944.

Following her arrival at Pearl Harbor on 5 November, the carrier participated in antisubmarine warfare and gunnery exercises. On the 24th, she got underway in company with a special antisubmarine task group which conducted sweeps as it steamed via the Marshalls and

Saipan. Throughout December, Tulagi continued antisubmarine activities in the Palaus and the southern Marianas

.

On the first day of the new year, 1945, Tulagi got underway for

Mitsubishi A6M Zeros, three enemy aircraft succeeded in penetrating the defenses of the convoy. Two were shot down, but one managed to crash into Louisville

, a member of the convoy's screen.

When landing began at Lingayen Gulf on 9 January 1945, Tulagi launched her planes for air strikes on land targets, anti-snooper patrols, and air cover for American vessels. On 12 January, Tulagi supplied air support for the Lingayen Gulf beachhead; and, the next day, her port battery shot down a suicide plane which had singled out the carrier for destruction. Before it crashed, the attacker, deflected from Tulagi by withering anti-aircraft fire, crossed astern and to starboard of the escort carrier and vainly attempted to dive into an alternate target. On 17 January, the Army Air Force assumed responsibility for direct air support of American operations in Lingayen Gulf; and Tulagi's fliers turned their attention toward the Zambales coast where they provided cover for support and protection of forces near San Narcisco. On 5 February, Tulagi arrived at Ulithi after a grueling period of sustained flight operations during which her planes had been in the air for all but two of 32 days.

Tulagi departed Guam on 21 February to conduct hunter-killer exercises in support of the assault on Iwo Jima before joining a task unit in "area Varnish" west of Iwo Jima on 1 March. She supplied air support and antisubmarine patrols until departing the area on 11 March, bound for Ulithi. Arriving there on 14 March, she prepared for the invasion of the Ryukyus.

Assigned alternately to antisubmarine and direct support activities, Tulagi operated continuously off the coast of

Miyako Jima

, she began antisubmarine operations along the shipping lanes approaching Okinawa.

Following this long and arduous tour, Tulagi arrived at Guam on 6 June 1945. The carrier departed the Marianas on the 8th, bound for San Diego. She remained on the west coast throughout the summer undergoing overhaul, trials, and training. Peace came while she was at San Diego, but she departed the west coast again on 4 September and steamed via Hawaii for the Philippines. At

Samar, she embarked planes for transportation back to the United States and reached Pearl Harbor in October. After returning to San Diego in January 1946, the veteran escort carrier reported to the 19th Fleet at Port Angeles, Washington

, on 2 February 1946 for inactivation. She was decommissioned on 30 April 1946 and struck from the Navy List on 8 May 1946.

Awards

Tulagi received four

battle stars

for World War II service.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links

Photo gallery at navsource.org

v t e Casablanca-class escort carriers
Casablanca Liscome Bay Anzio Corregidor Mission Bay Guadalcanal Manila Bay Natoma Bay St. Lo Tripoli Wake Island White Plains Solomons Kalinin Bay Kasaan Bay Fanshaw Bay Kitkun Bay Tulagi Gambier Bay Nehenta Bay Hoggatt Bay Kadashan Bay Marcus Island Savo Island Ommaney Bay Petrof Bay Rudyerd Bay Saginaw Bay Sargent Bay Shamrock Bay Shipley Bay Sitkoh Bay Steamer Bay Cape Esperance Takanis Bay Thetis Bay Makassar Strait Windham Bay Makin Island Lunga Point Bismarck Sea Salamaua Hollandia Kwajalein Admiralty Islands Bougainville Matanikau Attu Roi Munda
Preceded by: Sangamon class Followed by: Commencement Bay class
List of escort aircraft carriers of the United States Navy