The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Friday, September 7, 2012

USS Card CVE-11-- Part 1

Since I wrote about the USS Card the past two days and I'd never heard of the ship, some more research was in order.  Thanks Wikipedia.

The Card was a Bogue-class escort carrier, originally was to be a C-3 cargo ship, but while under construction was converted to an escort carrier.  Laid down 27 Oct 1941, launched Feb 1942 and commissioned 8 Nov 1942.

Stats:  9,800 tons, length 496 feet, beam 69.6 feet, 890 officers and men and carried 28 planes.

Was the flagship of TG 21.14, a U-boat hunter-killer group and was very successful.  Their first operation sank the U-117 7 Aug 1943, U-664 9 Aug 1943, U-525 11 Aug and U-847 27 Aug.

On the second cruise 29 Sept to 9 Nov, planes from the Card spotted nest of four subs refueling.  On 4 Oct 1943 sank U-460 and U-422.  Nine days later the U-402 and 31 Oct the U-584.

On Nov 1st, one of the Card's escort ships, the USS Bone, got into gunfight with the U-405 and rammed the sub and sank it but was so badly damaged, it had to be sunk herself.

So, Donald Brown certainly saw a lot od action on the Card.

More Operations Coming.  --GreGen

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