Building
Kalinin Bay was a Casablanca-class escort carrier, one of the "jeep carriers" built by Kaiser from welded prefabricated sections. The Casablancas were the most numerous type of aircraft carrier ever built. She was laid down at Kaiser's Vancouver, Washington, yard on 26 April 1943 and launched on 15 October 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Anna Mary Updegraff, mother of Captain William N. Updegraff. She was commissioned at Astoria, Oregon, on 27 November 1943, Captain C. R. Brown in command. She was named for Kalinin Bay on the north shore of Kruzof Island in southeastern Alaska. She was 512 feet long, displaced 8,188 tons, had a single 5-inch gun aft, and relied on a bow catapult to launch planes from her short deck.
Supply carrier and the Marshalls
She left San Diego on 3 January 1944 loaded with troops and planes. She reached Tarawa on 24 January and spent more than two weeks supplying the Fifth Fleet's carriers during the Marshalls campaign. With Composite Squadron 3 aboard she reached Majuro on 23 April and flew antisubmarine patrols off Mili.
Marianas and Palaus
On the way to Saipan a Japanese torpedo crossed her bow close aboard. From 15 June she flew strikes for the invasion. She beat off a dusk air attack on 17 June, ferried planes to Eniwetok, and returned to support the fighting ashore until 9 July. She covered the Guam landings from 20 July to 2 August. At the Palaus from 14 September, her planes flew almost 400 sorties for Peleliu, Angaur and Ngesebus, and on 25 September alone they sank or destroyed three cargo transports and six barges.
Leyte and the Battle off Samar
At Manus on 3 October 1944 Captain T. B. Williamson took command. Off Leyte from 17 October, she supported the Ranger landings on Dinagat and Homonhon and the main assault at Tacloban. With Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's "Taffy 3" her planes flew 244 sorties between 18 and 24 October.
At dawn on 25 October, about 60 miles east of Samar, Taffy 3 found itself facing Admiral Kurita's Center Force: four battleships, eight cruisers and eleven destroyers. At 06:58 the Japanese opened fire. Kalinin Bay went to flank speed and launched her planes under fire, ordering the pilots "to attack the Japanese task force and proceed to Tacloban airstrip, Leyte, to rearm and regas." As the trailing carrier she drew the heaviest fire. At 07:50 a 14-inch shell from the battleship Haruna hit the starboard side of her hangar deck. The heavy cruisers Haguro and Tone then closed in. Her one 5-inch gun hit Haguro twice, knocking out a radio transmitter. She took three 8-inch hits early on, and most of the next eleven came after 08:40, from as close as 10,100 yards. One holed her below the waterline and passed right through, wrecking fuel lines and a forward bulkhead. Another destroyed all her radar and radio. Altogether she took fifteen direct hits. Fighters strafed and exploded torpedoes from Yahagi's destroyers, a St. Lo Avenger detonated two in her wake, and her 5-inch gun deflected a third. At about 09:30, as the Japanese turned away, she hit a retreating destroyer amidships.
At 10:50 the first organized kamikaze attack of the war struck Taffy 3. St. Lo was sunk. Four planes went for Kalinin Bay. Two were shot down close aboard, one crashed into the port side of her flight deck, and the fourth destroyed her aft port stack. Taffy 3 lost five ships and 1,161 men, but it turned back what was called "the most powerful surface fleet which Japan had sent to sea since the Battle of Midway," and kept it out of Leyte Gulf.
Last service and fate
Repaired at San Diego by 18 January 1945, she spent eight months in the Carrier Transport Squadron, carrying more than 600 planes to Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok and Guam. In Operation Magic Carpet she brought 1,048 men home from Samar. On 25 December 1945, heading for Yokosuka, a storm badly damaged her flight deck. She went to Boston, was decommissioned on 15 May 1946, and was sold for scrap on 8 December 1946 to the Patapsco Steel Company of Baltimore. She received the Presidential Unit Citation and five battle stars.
Sources
Wikipedia, "USS Kalinin Bay" (based on DANFS).
NHHC/DANFS, "Kalinin Bay."