Vulnerable American Escort Carriers

The US fleet carriers were very lightly armoured, sacrificing protection for speed and space in the expectation that a large air group would be the best armour. As a consequence, when they did come under bomb and kamikaze attack, they were usually swiftly put out of operation, requiring dockyard repair, after only one or two hits.

But because they had air protection they were hit much less than otherwise. Choices, choices, armor a ship against hits, or protect it AND the other ships in the TF from getting hit in the 1st place? Seems pretty obvious; don't get hit in the first place. That'll stop those hits that even the best armor won't protect against and defend the TF as well. Not to mention the boat'll go faster and get out of the way of those nasty surface ships and out of range of land air that much better.

To answer the first question, the CVE was one of those step children that over achieve. Their original function was anti submarine and ferrying. They ended up so useful and easy to build that many more than originally conceived were built . Your question number two is misphrased IMO, you emphasize crew protection as the reason for armor, etc. The actual reason is ship survivability. Of course, this has the nice side effect helping crew survive as well, but armor is not the only way to increase ship survivability. Since CVE's were based on merchant hulls there was not a lot possible as far as hull armor goes and all other normal precautions and safety mechanisms were done. But the end result was still a flat topped slowish merchant ship full of fuel and explosives. Of course it seemed less safe than it's bigger brother the fleet carrier. That does not mean there was any neglect. Destroyers are called tin cans, why were they penetrable by light cannon fire? And just forget about DE's. It's all about seaworthiness, speed, size and hull design.

Must have been resurrected somehow as USS Santee was sold to the Master Metals Co. for scrapping December 1959.

You are right, I made a mistake about Santee: She survived the damage.

While checking, I found an interesting summary of Kamikaze damage to carriers: http://www.warships1.com/index_tech/tech-042.htm

Emmanuel Gustin

On 4 Apr 2004 09:02:16 -0500, in soc.history.war.world-war-ii John Lansford

Only the SANGAMON-class CVEs were based on oiler hulls. The rest were based on, or directly converted from, merchant C-3 (general cargo) hulls.

YORKTOWN class: 4'-2 1/2' belt armor; 3' main deck armor; 3'-1' lower deck armor.

LEXINGTON class: 6' belt armor; 2' main deck armor; 3'-1' lower deck armor: 1' flight deck armor.

(_American Battleships, Cruisers and Carriers_, H.T. Lenton)

intersting info sniped for space reasons FWIW, Janes Book of Fighting Ships (a more common, but less accurate source than those you are using), muddies the water on this issue of Alaska Class. It describes, 'All ... officially described as 'Large Cruisers'. In fact, they are the first battle cruisers to be ordered by any navy since the Washington Conference met in 1921.' Again this is only FWIW (for what it's worth) and of interest.