Writing Adventures and Exploration of History: Jeep Carriers: "Combustible, Vulnerable and Expendable."

I think sometimes resources can be overlooked because they are so common. Does that make sense? The upshot is I was reading some National Geographics last night. I had previously rescued these from a death in the dumpster, but that's another story. Anyway, I was reading the November 1943 issue and came across a full color article on the escort carriers in use by the Navy. I think one often does not hear them mentioned as much as the more glamourous full-size carriers such as the Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown.

(Source: Naval Historical Center)

Some facinating facts I've found about these escort carriers:

Mostly built on converted hulls of cruisers, oilers, merchant ships. They were never intended from the ground up to be carriers.
Their origins can be traced to Halsey and Roosevelt. In particular the need to transport planes to Britain before the war. It seems at this point, the big carriers couldn't get the training in they needed because they were too busy ferrying planes back and forth.
Used extensively in anti-submarine warfare in the Atlantic as well as landing operations in Europe and the Pacific.

(Source: Naval Historical Center)

All in all, it seems these workhorse ships are very often overlooked in the vital role they played in World War II. Take a moment to check the links as there is much more information that what I could put out on this blog post.