Wreck of USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56)

 Second World War 1939-1945, battlefield, shipwreck, United States Navy

Laid down in December 1942 as the second member of the Casablanca Class of Escort Aircraft Carriers, USS Linscome Bay commissioned into US Navy service on August 7th, 1943 and was immediately dispatched for duty in the Central Pacific.

After training off the Hawaiian Islands for two months, she sortied to the Gilbert Islands on November 11th 1943 as part of Operation Galvanic, the invasion of Tarawa and Makin Atolls. Arriving off Makin Atoll on November 20th, the Linscome Bay launched the first of her 2,278 aircraft attack missions against the Japanese positions on Tarawa and Makin Islands. Three days of bloody fighting later the American assault had succeeded in capturing the islands from the Japanese and the Linscome Bay had reformed into her task force and prepared to withdraw from the area for refueling and re-provisioning.

Steaming in formation at 15 knots about 20 miles Southwest of Makin Island in the early morning of November 24th, 1943, the Linscome Bay and her crew were preparing to begin morning flight operations when a lookout on the Starboard side shouted "Here comes a torpedo!" at 05:10hrs. The single torpedo, fired from the Japanese Submarine I-175 struck the Linscome Bay in her Starboard Stern, just aft of her engine room. Shortly after the impact and just the ship wallowed back to an even keel, a second larger detonation rocked the ship, likely from her aircraft bomb magazine exploding. All power on the ship was lost and she began to list heavily to Starboard, large fires burning all over the Stern half of the ship. The crew that had survived the explosions needed no orders to abandon the ship, as she listed more and more to Starboard, more ammunition began to cook off and the fully fueled planes in her hanger began to catch fire. As crew scrambled over the side into the water, the Linscome Bay suddenly rolled onto her Starboard side and sank Stern-first in this general area at 05:33hrs on November 24th, 1943.

While 294 of her crew were able to escape the ship, 644 men went down with her.

www.navsource.org/archives/03/056.htm