Photos and the story

Gambier Bay

Class	Casablanca class
Type	Escort carrier (CVE)
Hull	CVE-73
Fate	Sunk. by Japanese gunfire off Samar on 25 October 1944. Not pinned to one ship.
Armament (class)	Escort carrier. Flight deck over a merchant hull, small island set aft, one 5-inch gun.
Command	Goodwin, Hugh H. Captain from 28 December 1943

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

The armament line is the class drawing, not a measurement of this hull.

Gambier Bay was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, CVE-73. Captain W. R. Vieweg had her. On the morning of 25 October 1944 she was one of the six carriers of Taffy 3, and she was the one the Japanese cruisers could reach.

Gunfire sank her. The shells came from Kurita's force. They are not pinned to one ship. She was the only American aircraft carrier sunk by naval gunfire in the war.

Hoel, Johnston, and Samuel B. Roberts went down the same morning, getting in the way of those guns. They did not save her. The ships that hit her are still not pinned down.

The pictures on this page are the originals.