Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger
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Warship Wednesday, July 10, 2024: Priceless Cargo
U.S. Navy photograph, 80-G-276964, now in the collections of the National Archives.
Above we see the Bouge-class escort carrier USS Copahee (CVE-12) underway outbound from Garapan anchorage off Saipan on 8 July 1944, some 80 years ago this month, bound for San Diego where she would arrive on the 28th. Her deck cargo is interesting, and on closer look:
Show a load of captured Japanese planes– some never before seen in the West– to be used for intelligence and training purposes. This invaluable cache would prove a boon to Allied intelligence and some of these aircraft remain as a legacy of the war in the Pacific today.
It was all in a day’s work for Copahee, who reliably shipped aircraft around the theater by the thousands during her un-sung career.
About the Bogues
With both Great Britain and the U.S. running desperately short of flattops in the first half of World War II, and large, fast fleet carriers taking a while to crank out, a subspecies of light and “escort” carriers, the first created from the hulls of cruisers, the second from the hulls of merchant freighters, were produced in large numbers to put a few aircraft over every convoy and beach in the Atlantic and Pacific.
Of the more than 122 escort carriers produced in the U.S. for use by her and her Allies, some 45 were of the Bogue class. Based on the Maritime Commission’s Type C3-S-A1 cargo ship hull, these were built in short order at Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation, Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, and by the Western Pipe and Steel Company of San Francisco.
Some 496 feet overall with a 439-foot flight deck, these 16,200-ton ships could only steam at a pokey 16 ish knots sustained speed, which negated their use in fleet operations but allowed them to more than keep up with convoys of troop ships and war supplies. Capable of limited self-defense with four twin Bofors and up to 35 20mm Oerlikons for AAA as well as a pair of 5-inch guns for defense against small boats, they could carry as many as 28 operational aircraft in composite air wings. They were equipped with two elevators, Mk 4 arresting gear, and a hydraulic catapult.
Most of the Bogue class (34 of 45) went right over to the Royal Navy via Lend-Lease, where they were known as the Ameer, Attacker, Ruler, or Smiter class in turn, depending on their arrangement. However, the U.S. Navy did keep 11 of the class for themselves (USS Bogue, Card, Copahee, Core, Nassau, Altamaha, Barnes, Breton, Croatan, Prince William, and our very own Block Island), all entering service between September 1942 and June 1943.
Meet Copahee
Our subject was the only warship named for the small sound of the South Carolina coast, by the naming convention for the rest of her class. Launched 21 October 1941 by Todd-Pacific Shipyards, Tacoma, as a C3-S-A1 cargo ship SS Steel Architect under a Maritime Commission contract, she was acquired by the Navy almost two months to the day after Pearl Harbor– 8 February 1942– and commissioned as an Aircraft Escort Vessel, AVG-12 just two weeks after the Battle of Midway on 15 June 1942.
USS Copahee (ACV-12) underway off Port Angeles, Washington, on 30 August 1942. 80-G-11503.
Her war diary notes that she was the first American escort carrier commissioned on the West Coast. It also notes that her original cargo ship nameplate, Steel Architect, was still on her bow at the time.
Her hull number designation was changed to ACV-12 as an Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier on 20 August 1942 and to CVE-12, an escort carrier, on 15 July 1943, but this was all academic as she was already deployed for both of these changes.
War!
Once she joined the fleet, Copahee was placed under the direct command of ComAirPac, which she would serve until May 1944 when she transferred to ComCarTransRonPac.
USS Copahee (ACV-12) off Puget Sound Navy Yard on 17 August 1942. Note the barrage balloons aloft in the background. NH 55384
USS Copahee (ACV-12) Mess Attendants manning a 20mm machine gun, in a gun tub beside the flight deck, 9 September 1942. The carrier was then en route from Alameda, California, to the southwest Pacific. 80-G-71586
Sailing with TG 2.16, her first cruise was to Noumea in September 1942 with a load of 59 carrier aircraft. She then, escorted by TG 63.8 including three destroyers and the cruiser USS Helena, carried 20 desperately-needed F4F Wildcats of MAG 14 (VMF-121) to within launching distance of Guadalcanal on 9 October, where they flew off to Henderson Field.
This group was led by Major Joseph “Joe” J. Foss, who, flying his Wildcat from Henderson, shot down his first Japanese A6M Zero just four days later. Within a month, he had accounted for 23 “kills” over Guadalcanal with the “Cactus Air Force.”
Commander of VMF-121, Maj. Joe Foss (fourth from left resting his chin on his fist) stands with some of his pilots next to their F4F Wildcat fighters on Henderson Field.
Sent back to the rear without any aircraft, Copahee would be on hand for carrier aviator quals off the Coast of California and Hawaii for the rest of 1942, then in January 1943 would get back into the business of shuttling aircraft (as many as 80 at a time between deck cargo and hangar), aircrews, ordnance, engines, and equipment from the West Coast to the front lines, alternating with carrier landing qualifications/refreshers whenever she came back home.
A U.S. Marine Corps Vought F4U-1 Corsair of Marine Fighting Squadron 213 (VMF-213) Hell Hawks is warming up for a fight from the flight deck of the escort carrier USS Copahee (ACV-12), on 29 March 1943. Date 29 March 1943. National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7154.022
USS Copahee (ACV-12) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, 9 May 1943. Note the deck load of SBD and PV-1 planes. She would also carry the PV-1s of VB-144 to NAS Kaneohe, Hawaii. Upon arrival, the squadron began an intensive period of combat training and operational patrols over the ocean near the Hawaiian Islands before shifting to Tarawa. Copahee would also later carry PV-1-equipped VPB-148 from NAS Moffett Field, California to Hawaii in May 1945. 19-N-46207
USS Copahee (ACV-12) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, 9 May 1943. Stern view. 19-N-46208
Same as the above, 19-N-46204
Starboard, same location and date as the above. 19-N-46205
USS Copahee passing under the Golden Gate Bridge on her way out to sea on 15 July 1943. Mare Island photo # 5188-43.
Unloading SBDs to barge from USS Copahee (CVE 12) at Midway Island, May 21, 1943. 80-G-88086
Changing colors on USS Copahee (CVE 12) upon arriving at Townsville, Australia, September 25, 1943. 80-G-88137
An Army P-40 after being unloaded from USS Copahee (CVE 12) at Townsville, Australia, before being taken to the Air Depot, September 27, 1943. 80-G-88121
Brisbane, Australia, 11 March 1944. Army P-38 (Lightning) on the flight deck of USS Copahee (CVE-12). The carrier departed San Francisco, California, on 22 February and remained in Brisbane until 13 March.
She also brought back things from her travels.
Copahee in the summer of 1943 shipped a captured A6M3 Model 32 Zero-Sen (Hamp/Hap) (MSN 3030, Q-102), late of the 582nd Kokutai, which had been inherited by U.S. Army troops at Buna in December 1942, back to the states.
An abandoned Mitsubishi A6M3 Model 32 Zero fighter. It was flown by Lieutenant Junior Grade Kazuo Tsunoda stationed at Buna base, New Guinea. The plane made a crash landing after being damaged by a USAAF Bell P-39 Airacobra on 26 August 1942. This aircraft, with V-187 and V-190, were captured and Buna and used by Allied forces. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.488.159.030
9 April 1944, Copahee in her new camo scheme at San Diego, from her War History
Across the first half of June 1944, she would serve as a replacement carrier for Task Force 58, conducting operations off Saipan until the 16th– directly supporting the mission up close and in real-time. In this, she shuttled 124 carrier aircraft to fleet carriers.
It was at Saipan’s Aslito airfield that American troops captured a motherlode of aircraft and assets left behind by the Japanese Imperial Navy. These would include over a dozen late-model A6M Zekes of the 261st Kokutai and a scratch-and-dent Kate.
Aslito Airfield, June-July 1944. Japanese Mitsubishi A6M “Zero” on Saipan at Aslito airfield. 80-G-307726
Recognizing the importance of this cache, the Navy’s Technical Air Intelligence Unit – Pacific Ocean Areas (TAIU-POA) wanted it all and soon the Navy’s go-to transport carrier was inbound from Eniwetok, arriving off Charan Kanoa, Saipan on the morning of 7 July then leaving the next day bound for San Diego.
This mix included at least 13 Zeke variants including several that would later be made flyable: A6M2 (MSN 5352), A6M5 (MSN 5356), A6M5 (MSN 5350), A6M5 Model 52 (MSN 4340), A6M5 Model 52 (MSN 1303), A6M5 (MSN 2193, 61-608), A6M5 (MSN 4361,61-131) and A6M5 Model 52 Zero (MSN 5357, 61-120). The cargo also included the first Nakajima B5N2 (Kate) Type 97 Carrier Attack Bomber (MSN 2194, tail-code KEB-306), a specimen of the 931st Kaigun, along with an assortment of spare parts that included 37 engines and “2,000 cubic feet of Japanese general aviation gear.”
4320 on USS Copahee belowdecks
The aircraft soon made their way into ONI publications and were widely exhibited across the country.
“ONI Know Your Enemy” Zeke 61-131 from Copahee
“ONI Know Your Enemy” Kate from Copahee
Zeke 4340 TAIC 7 1946 Victory parade, Wright Field
After unloading her cargo and receiving a short yard period to address repairs, Copahee was back at it, leaving Alameda on 4 September 1944 with a load of new aircraft headed to Hawaii.
In late October 1944, she carried several carrier aircraft late of the CVG-81 from USS Hancock, including the entirety of VA-174– equipped with SB2C-3 Helldivers — from Hawaii to Guam where USS Wasp would embark them for the Philippine campaign. In March 1945, Copahee would again carry VA-174 and CVG-81 elements, this time for transit back to the States.
Besides her ferry work, she conducted over 3,000 carrier qualification launches during her six periods tasked as a West Coast training carrier during the war, sadly resulting in two pilot fatalities. At least 710 aviators logged landings on Copahee.
From commissioning through VJ Day, Copahee steamed 249,638 miles (keep in mind this was usually at 12-14 knots), transporting an amazing 2,232 aircraft and 13,719 passengers. She was underway some 67 percent of her career.
Take a look at the variety in the 657 aircraft that she carried just in the first six months of 1945:
She also carried an immense amount of avgas and ordnance to forward areas. For instance, 769,000 gallons were delivered to Hawaii in 1944 alone.
Early model Mark XIII torpedo after bodies on USS Copahee CVE-12 Oct 29, 1943. She delivered no less than 147 torpedoes to forward areas from the West Coast
Ordnance delivered is staggering from one little 16,000-ton jeep carrier:
Another interesting facet of her War History is the evolution of her armament:
At the end of the war found Copahee at Hunters Point undergoing yard repairs. She then spent the rest of the war on “Magic Carpet” duty, returning homeward-bound servicemen from Saipan, Guam, Eniwetok, and the Philippines to the west coast.
She began deactivation at Alameda on 21 December 1945 and was decommissioned and placed in reserve with Tacoma’s mothball fleet on 5 July 1946.
Copahee received one battle star for World War II service, for the capture and occupation of Saipan in June 1944.
On 1 March 1959, while laid up, she was redesignated an Escort Helicopter Aircraft Carrier, and her hull number changed on paper to CVHE 12. Stricken sometime after, she was sold for scrap in 1961.
Of the rest of the Bogue class, USS Block Island (CVE-21) along with British-operated sister HMS Nabob (D 77) were lost to German U-boats during the war. Likewise, the same could be said for sistership HMS Thane (D 48) would be so crippled by U-1172 in 1945 that she was not returned to service.
As for the class’s post-war service, they were too small and slow to be utilized as much more than aircraft transports, and most of the British-operated vessels were returned to the U.S. Navy, retrograded back to merchantmen, and sold off as freighters.
Of the ten U.S.-operated Bogues, most were sold for scrap or for further mercantile use sans flattop and guns, with Card, converted to an aviation transport (AKV-40, later T-AKV-40) in the 1950s, remaining in service into Vietnam where she was embarrassingly holed by Viet Cong sappers in Saigon. The last of the class in American service, she was scrapped in 1971.
The final Bogue hull, the former Smiter-class escort carrier HMS Khedive (D62), continued operating as the tramp freighter SS Daphne as late as 1976 before she met her end in the hands of Spanish breakers.
Epilogue
Few relics remain of Copahee. Her War History and diaries are in the National Archives.
Her bell is supposedly on loan by the NHHC to a school in California, although some say it may have since gotten out into private hands and has been spotted as a yard ornament.
Photo via Navsource
The U.S. Navy has yet to reissue her name.
Her 16 war dead, lost to accidents in high-tempo operations, are remembered on a plaque installed at the National Museum of the Pacific War.
Meanwhile, at least one of the A6M5 Model 52s (MSN 4340, 61-131) she brought back to the West Coast in July 1944 is preserved in the Smithsonian’s collection.
Mitsubishi A6M5 Reisen (Zero Fighter) Model 52 ZEKE (A19600335000) at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. Photo taken by Eric Long. Photo taken on December 29. 2016. (A19600335000.3T8A4453) (A19600335000-NASM2018-10400)
A second A6M5, (MSN 5357, 61-120) remained in flyable condition as N46770 until very recently and appeared in several scenes of 2001’s Pearl Harbor. She is in the collection of the Planes of Fame Air Museum, Chino.
The others have been lost to history.
Joe Foss made it off of Guadalcanal, received the Medal of Honor from FDR personally, and later became a brigadier general in the Air National Guard after the war. Turning to politics, he became the 20th Governor of South Dakota in 1955 and passed in 2003, aged 87.
Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.
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