USS Salamaua (CVE-96) - Service History

Service History

Following shakedown off the west coast, Salamaua transported planes and cargo from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, then returned to California, whence she conducted a similar run to Finschhafen, New Guinea. On 1 September, she returned to Alameda, California, underwent overhaul; conducted training exercises, and on 16 October, again sailed west from San Diego. She arrived at Ulithi on 5 November, then continued on to the Palaus and the Philippines. From the 14th-23rd, she furnished air cover for convoys in the Leyte Gulf area, then proceeded to the Admiralties to stage for the invasion of Luzon.

She departed Seeadler Harbor on 27 December and moved north. On 6 January 1945, she arrived off the entrance to Lingayen Gulf. Her planes began blasting enemy positions ashore and providing air cover for the approaching Allied ships. On the 9th, they provided air cover for the troops landing on the assault beaches, then continued that support until the 13th.

Just before 0900 on that day, a kamikaze carrying two 551 pound (250 kg) bombs crashed on Salamaua's flight deck. 15 men were killed, and over 80 injured. Damage was extensive: the flight deck, the hangar deck, and spaces below were set ablaze; one of the bombs, failing to explode, punched through the starboard side at the waterline; power, communications, and steering failed; and one of her engine rooms flooded, preventing repairs to her starboard engine, which had quit. But by 0910, her gunners had splashed two more kamikazes.

Temporary repairs enabled the CVE to return to San Francisco. Arriving on 26 February, repairs were quickly completed; and, on 21 April, she moved west again. On 20 May, she arrived at Guam, where she continued on to the Ryukyu Islands where she joined other escort carriers on the 26th to support land operations on Okinawa. On 4 June, she joined a logistic support group, but on the 5th, she was damaged by a typhoon. Repairs were made at Guam and, toward the end of July, she assumed antisubmarine patrol duty in the Marianas-Okinawa convoy lanes. In August, she shifted to the Leyte-Okinawa lanes, where she remained until after the mid-month Japanese surrender.

On the 25th, Salamaua returned to Leyte, replenished, then escorted a troop convoy to Tokyo Bay. The convoy arrived on 2 September, and the CVE's planes photographed the landing of the occupation troops at Yokohama the same day. After guarding a second convoy into Tokyo Bay, she joined the "Magic Carpet" fleet, embarked veterans for transport to the United States, and disembarked them at Alameda on 3 October.

Before the end of the year, Salamaua completed two more "Magic Carpet" runs. In 1946, she prepared for inactivation. She was decommissioned on 9 May 1946, struck from the Naval Vessel Register on the 21st, and subsequently sold to the Zidell Ship Dismantling Co., Portland, Oregon, for scrapping on 18 November 1946.