USS Marcus Island (CVE-77) was the twenty-third of fifty s built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after U.S. actions against Minami-Tori-shima, which American maps labeled as Marcus Island. In September 1943, she was laid down at Vancouver, Washington, by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company as Kanalku Bay. She was renamed Marcus Island in November 1943, launched in December, and commissioned in January 1944.
Marcus Island served in the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, the Philippines campaign, and the Battle of Okinawa. She acted as the flagship for various escort carrier formations, serving as the headquarters for Rear Admirals William D. Sample and Felix Stump. During the Philippines campaign, she participated in the Battle off Samar and the Battle of Mindoro, surviving multiple close brushes with Japanese kamikazes. Post-war, she participated in Operation Magic Carpet, repatriating U.S. servicemen from throughout the Pacific. Marcus Island was decommissioned in December 1946, mothballed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, and sold for scrap in 1960.
Design and description
Marcus Island was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, the most numerous type of aircraft carrier ever built. They were intended for anti-submarine warfare, coming into service in late 1943, by which time the U-boats were already in retreat. Some did see service in the Atlantic, but the majority were utilized in the Pacific, ferrying aircraft, providing logistics support, and conducting close air support for the island-hopping campaigns. They were built on the standardized Type S4-S2-BB3 hull, a lengthened variant of the hull, and specifically designed to be mass-produced using welded prefabricated sections. This allowed them to be produced at unprecedented speeds: the final ship of her class, , was delivered to the Navy just 101 days after the laying of her keel.
Marcus Island was long overall and at the waterline. She had a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced standard, which increased to with a full load. To carry out flight operations, the ship had a hangar deck and a flight deck. Her compact size necessitated the installation of an aircraft catapult, positioned at her bow, and there were two aircraft elevators to facilitate movement of aircraft between the flight and hangar deck: one each fore and aft. She had two Skinner Unaflow reciprocating steam engines delivering to two propellers for a top speed of . Her armament consisted of one /38 caliber dual-purpose gun, eight Bofors guns, and twelve Oerlikon cannons, supported by an SG surface-search radar and an SK air-search radar. By 1945, the standard armament for the Casablanca-class carriers had grown to twenty Oerlikon cannons and sixteen Bofors guns.
Construction
Marcus Island was laid down under the name Kanalku Bay on 15 September 1943 as MCE hull 1114, the twenty-third of a series of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers. She was renamed Marcus Island on 6 November and launched on 16 December, sponsored by Louise LaHache, the widow of Captain Samuel LaHache. She was transferred to the Navy and commissioned on 26 January 1944. In total, her construction and outfitting cost $7,368,661 ().
Service history Mariana and Palau Islands After commissioning, Marcus Island fitted out at Naval Station Tongue Point in Astoria, Oregon. On 17 February, she started a shakedown cruise down the West Coast, which ended in San Diego, California, on 1 March. On 8 March, she was assigned to ferry aircraft to Pearl Harbor, returning to San Diego on 27 March. She then ferried a load of aircraft from Naval Air Station Alameda to San Diego, finishing on 4 April. There, Composite Squadron (VC) 21 was taken on board for carrier flight training that lasted until 13 April, after which her crew began a period of post-shakedown availability. She steamed northwards on 9 May for Alameda, whereupon she conducted a ferry mission to the Solomon Islands. Back at San Diego on 1 July, she entered drydock to have her hull repainted.
Marcus Island embarked VC-21 again on 12 July for carrier flight training. On 20 July, she stood out from San Diego, with VC-21, VC-80, and a cargo of aircraft on board. She unloaded VC-80 and her load of planes at Pearl Harbor on 26 July. There, she joined her sister ships , , and to form Carrier Division 27. On 11 August, Rear Admiral William D. Sample made Marcus Island his flagship, and the following day, she left Hawaiian waters for the Solomon Islands, arriving at Tulagi on 24 August.
At Tulagi, Marcus Islands division was assigned to support the Marines participating in the landings on Peleliu and Angaur. She departed Tulagi on 1 September, commenced pre-invasion strikes on 12 September, and began close air support operations on 15 September, the day of the landings on Peleliu. She continued providing air cover and launching strikes until 2 October, when she retired to Manus in the Admiralty Islands, arriving on 4 October.
Philippines Leyte At Manus, Carrier Division 27 became part of Task Unit 77.4.2, more commonly known by its call sign, "Taffy 2". On 12 October, joined by the seventeen other escort carriers of Task Group 77.4, Marcus Island steamed for Leyte Gulf to support the landings on Leyte. Arriving off the island on 18 October, her aircraft carried out preparatory airstrikes and conducted combat air patrols. On 20 October, the day of the landings, Rear Admiral Sample insisted on accompanying one of her Avengers as it conducted a close air support mission. Sample's Avenger, loaded with eight rockets, took off at 07:45 to strike positions on Catmon Hill overlooking the landing beaches. As his Avenger circled at altitude following a rocket run, a shell hit his Avenger above the trailing edge of its right wing. Passing through the upper fuselage, the shell detonated just above the root of the left wing, tearing a large hole in the Avenger's flank. Sample was peppered with shrapnel that lacerated his head, right shoulder, and right arm. Nonetheless, the Avenger made it back to the carrier, although the plane was written off due to damage.
Battle off Samar
On 23 October, the Battle of Leyte Gulf began. The bulk of the Japanese fleet had been concentrated to repel the Americans from the Philippines, the seizure of which would have cut the vital oil supply lines from Southeast Asia. Admiral William Halsey Jr., commander of the Third Fleet, encouraged by the prospect of destroying the Japanese carriers, had diverted his surface ships to engage the diversionary Northern Force. This left the San Bernardino Strait undefended, and on the early morning of 25 October, Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force passed through unopposed. Within the Center Force's sights was Taffy 3, north of Marcus Island, which had been caught completely by surprise.
With Taffy 3 overmatched, Taffy 2 received permission from Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid at 07:08 to divert its entire air group to join in the defense. Marcus Island only had two Avengers at hand, as at 05:45 she had sent out ten Avengers to airdrop supplies to the 96th Infantry Division. Nonetheless, she finished launching all her available aircraft at 08:08, dispatching two Avengers, each loaded with a Mark 13 torpedo, and fifteen Wildcats. One of her Avengers reported a hit on the port side, aft, of a heavy cruiser at around 08:45, possibly the , "which appeared to go out of control". Meanwhile, her fighters harassed the advancing Japanese ships and contested the airspace above the battle, shooting down three Aichi E13A seaplanes and two Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters.
During the battle, Marcus Island took on board seven Avengers from Taffy 3, rearming them with torpedoes. At 10:30, the Taffy 3 Avengers were joined by her own Avengers, returning from their resupply mission. By this time, the Center Force had already turned around. Of her returning Avengers, seven were each loaded with four semi-armor piercing bombs and an eighth carried her last remaining torpedo. At 11:20, these eight of her Avengers and six of the Taffy 3 Avengers were launched to pursue the Japanese, and at around 13:00, they attacked a Japanese cruiser, straddling it with bombs.
While the American forces had been distracted by the Battle off Samar and its immediate aftermath, Vice Admiral Naomasa Sakonju's transport unit, which consisted of the , the , and four transports, was unloading approximately 2,500 troops at Ormoc Bay, on the western coast of Leyte. The transport unit had finished unloading on the morning of 26 October, but the Japanese ships were sighted by American aircraft as they withdrew. A strike group of twenty-three Avengers and twenty-nine fighters, to which Marcus Island contributed twelve aircraft, was assembled to strike the transport unit. The strike group made contact at 10:00, bombing, rocketing, and strafing the transport unit. The two transport vessels that the Japanese ships were escorting were quickly sunk, and Uranami was sunk as she attempted to charge the wreckage of a downed Wildcat. Kinu proved to be more resilient, sinking in the aftermath of the attack at 17:30, southwest of Masbate Island. Early on 30 October, Marcus Island withdrew from Leyte for Manus.
Mindoro
Marcus Island entered Seeadler Harbor on 3 November, and replenished until 19 November, when Carrier Division 27 was assigned to Task Unit 77.4.6. Until 27 November, she provided air cover for convoys traveling near the eastern Philippines, which were being harassed by Japanese planes based on Mindanao. She resupplied at Naval Base Kossol Roads, and on 10 December, she steamed for Mindoro, providing air screening for the scheduled landings.
On 15 December, the morning of the Mindoro landings, Marcus Islands task unit came under intense attack. At 04:30, about 40 Japanese aircraft, roughly half kamikazes, half escorts, had taken off from Clark Field and Davao. At 08:00, the escort carriers turned back towards Leyte, having been relieved of their duties by land-based Army Air Forces aircraft, but they were pursued by the Japanese.
At 08:12, the Japanese planes made first contact, with a kamikaze shot down as it dove upon the . At 08:22, three Zeros were spotted approaching Marcus Island from the port quarter, at about in altitude. One Zero disappeared into a cloud, while the other two reoriented themselves towards her. Of the pair, one made a steep bank to remain at her port, completed a chandelle, and then dove from astern, aiming for a painted dummy aircraft elevator midway between her forward aircraft elevator and her bow. Her gunners scored hits on the aircraft out, which may have incapacitated the pilot, as the kamikaze skimmed just over her flight deck. As it passed, its wingtip clipped a lookout platform, decapitating one lookout and injuring another. It then crashed off her starboard bow and exploded underwater, sending a column of water into the air.
The other Zero had passed over Marcus Island to approach her from the starboard quarter, and as it dove, it also set its sights on the painted aircraft elevator. Buffeted by anti-aircraft fire, the kamikaze made a sudden 90° roll to port short of the carrier and careened into the water off her port bow. The kamikaze detonated upon impact, spraying shrapnel across the flight deck and injuring six of the carrier's crew. The two attacks had occurred only ten seconds apart. Damage from both was light.
At 09:30, Marcus Island came under attack again. A Yokosuka D4Y Suisei dive bomber began its dive against her from her starboard beam at an altitude of . Swaying from side to side, the Suisei appeared to have trouble maintaining its aim. The bomb was released at an altitude of at a glide angle of 20°, missing astern of the carrier by and short by . As the Suisei attempted to escape, it was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. On 18 December, she retired from operations, entering Kossol Roads on 19 December.
Lingayen Gulf