RESTING PLACE OF SUNKEN WORLD WAR II CARRIER IDENTIFIED 78 YEARS LATERhttps://www.historynet.com/resting-place-of-sunken-world-war-ii-carrier-identified-78-years-later/The wreckage site of a World War II U.S. Navy escort carrier was identified Monday by the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Underwater Archaeology branch, bringing a semblance of closure to the crew of a ship that dipped beneath the waves 78 years ago.
The USS Ommaney Bay (CVE 79) was transiting the Sulu Sea near the Philippines on the evening of Jan. 4, 1945, when it came under attack by a twin-engine aircraft flown by a Japanese kamikaze pilot.
The ship’s skipper, Capt. Howard L. Young, had just opted to install extra guards on deck as an extra precautionary measure against such attacks — but the effort proved futile.
The incoming aircraft, which no sailors spotted until it was too late, slammed into the Casablanca-class escort carrier’s starboard side, erupting its two attached bombs and igniting a conflagration on the ship’s flight deck, where a slew of aircraft that had not yet been degassed were assembled.
Having a crowded hangar deck full of gassed and armed planes was probably when a WW2 carrier was most vulnerable, e.g. the IJN carriers at Midway. USN escort carriers were built on cargo ship hulls, so they were not as fast or robust as full-sized fleet carrier. Even the two Yorktown class carriers sunk during WW2 took an insane beating before sinking, and Enterprise and a couple of hard-hit Essex class carriers took a beating and survived.
