USS Shamrock Bay (CVE-84) was a of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

. She was laid down with the hull code ACV-84 on 15 March 1943 by the Kaiser Co., Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...

, under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1121); re-designated CVE-84 on 10 June 1943; launched on 4 February 1944; sponsored by Mrs. James R. Dudley; and commissioned on 15 March 1944, Captain

Captain (naval)

Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....

 Frank T. Ward, Jr., in command.

Service history

Following shakedown, Shamrock Bay remained on the west coast into June qualifying pilots in carrier landings. Then transferred to transport duty in the Atlantic, she carried Army fighter planes and Army and Navy personnel to Casablanca

Casablanca

Casablanca is a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Grand Casablanca region.Casablanca is Morocco's largest city as well as its chief port. It is also the biggest city in the Maghreb. The 2004 census recorded a population of 2,949,805 in the prefecture...

 and brought back damaged P-40

Curtiss P-40

The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational...

s for use in training and for salvage and aircraft engines for overhaul and salvage. Passengers on the return voyages were, for the most part, Army Air Corps personnel from the China-Burma-India theater.

On 27 October, Shamrock Bay completed her second transport run at Norfolk and prepared for antisubmarine operations in the South Atlantic. However, the loss of escort carriers in the Philippine area brought a change of orders; and, on 11 November, with Composite Squadron 42 (VC-42) embarked, she sailed for the Pacific.

Transiting the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 on 18 November, she arrived at San Diego on the 27th; embarked VC-93 for transportation to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 on 2 December; and reached Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

 on the 9th. There, VC-42 and -93 were disembarked and VC-94 reported for duty. On the 11th, Shamrock Bay continued west, and, delivering planes to Johnston Island en route, arrived at Seeadler Harbor

Seeadler Harbor

Seeadler Harbor, also known as Port Seeadler, is located on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea and played an important role in World War II...

, on Manus

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...

 in the Admiralty Islands

Admiralty Islands

The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...

, on the 22nd to join the 7th Fleet

United States Seventh Fleet

The Seventh Fleet is the United States Navy's permanent forward projection force based in Yokosuka, Japan, with units positioned near Japan and South Korea. It is a component fleet force under the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with...

.

With an increase in aircraft from her normal ASW complement of 9 TBM Avenger

TBF Avenger

The Grumman TBF Avenger was a torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air or naval arms around the world....

s and 12 FM-2 Wildcat

F4F Wildcat

The Grumman F4F Wildcat was an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that began service with both the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy in 1940...

s to 12 Avengers and 20 Wildcats, Shamrock Bay covered Task Groups 79.1 and 79.2 from 31 December 1944 through 8 January 1945, as those groups departed the Admiralties and moved into the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 for the Lingayen Gulf

Lingayen Gulf

The Lingayen Gulf is an extension of the South China Sea on Luzon in the Philippines stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central...

 invasion of Luzon

Luzon

Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...

. Enemy aerial resistance increased as the force closed its objective. On the 8th, dogfights peppered the sky. was hit by a kamikaze

Kamikaze

The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

and was unable to accommodate all of her planes. Two were landed on Shamrock Bay. Shortly afterwards, another kamikaze, a Nakajima Ki-43

Nakajima Ki-43

The Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa was a single-engine land-based tactical fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II...

 "Oscar", headed for Shamrock Bay, but was driven off only to crash into . Shamrock Bay then landed that CVE's planes, as escort ships went to the aid of the stricken carrier.

From 9 January to 17 January, Shamrock Bay remained in the assault area conducting flight operations in support of the invasion. Five hundred and seventy-one sorties were flown, 180 of which were over Luzon. On the 17th, she joined TG 77.14 and sailed for Ulithi

Ulithi

Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...

.

At Ulithi, the escort carrier joined TU 50.8.25; and, on 16 February, departed that atoll to act as carrier escort of group Baker of the Logistics Support Group for the Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...

 landings. She continued that support into March. On the 5th, she returned to Ulithi to prepare for Operation Iceberg, the assault on Okinawa; and, on the 13th, she got underway for the Ryukyus

Ryukyu Islands

The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...

, again supplying cover for the Logistics Support Group. Detached on 7 April, a week after the main landings on the Hagushi beaches, she joined TU 52.1.1 and commenced strikes over Okinawa.

On April 15, 1945, four of the Shamrock Bay's FM-2 Wildcat fighters were scrambled to help save the USS Laffey (DD-724)

USS Laffey (DD-724)

USS Laffey , an , was the 2nd ship of the United States Navy to be named for Bartlett Laffey. Seaman Laffey was awarded the Medal of Honor for his stand against Confederate forces on 5 March 1864...

. The Laffey was under attack from kamikazes in Picket Station 1, 50 miles north of Okinawa. The four fighters shot down six enemy kamikazes but were forced to return to the Shamrock Bay due to being low on fuel and ammunition. The Laffey is later saved by a flight of 12 Marine Vought F4U Corsiar fighter-bombers.

With only a few, brief interruptions to take on supplies and ammunition at Kerama Retto

Kerama Retto

The are a group of 22 islands located southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan. Four of the islands are inhabited:,., and. The islands are within Shimajiri District. The Kerama-shotō coral reef is a Ramsar Site....

, Shamrock Bay remained at sea conducting flight operations in support of the Okinawa campaign until 11 May. She then sailed for Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

 to take on aircraft and aviation spares as well as ammunition and supplies. On the 20th, Captain J.E. Leeper relieved Captain Ward, and VC-96 replaced VC-94. On the 28th, the ship departed Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor is a deep-water port on the western side of Guam in the Mariana Islands. The harbor is formed by Orote Peninsula in the south and Cabras Island in the north. To the south, the harbor narrows and then widens again to form an inner harbor. The southern end of the harbor is the location...

 to return to the Ryukyus; and, at the end of the month, she resumed her support activities as a unit of TU 32.1.1. In early June, flight operations were interrupted as the force rode out a typhoon, then continued until the ships headed for the Philippines after mid-month.

Shamrock Bay, having launched over 1,200 sorties in support of the Okinawa campaign, arrived in San Pedro Bay

San Pedro Bay (Philippines)

San Pedro Bay is a bay in the Philippines, at the northwest end of Leyte Gulf, about 15 km east-west and 20 km north-south. The bay is bounded on the north and east by Samar and on the east by Leyte Island. It is connected by San Juanico Strait to Carigara Bay of the Samar Sea. The...

 on 27 June. In early July, she transferred her planes to Guiuan airfield. On the 5th, she sailed for Guam to take on aircraft engines to be returned to the United States for overhaul; and, on the 27th, she arrived at San Diego. VC-96 then disembarked, and Shamrock Bay commenced an availability period which ended just before the cessation of hostilities in the Pacific.

After the end of the war, Shamrock Bay made a transport run to Guam, carrying Army and Navy planes out and vehicles back. Then assigned to "Magic Carpet" duty, she offloaded her aviation stores and detached her aviation personnel at Alameda

Alameda, California

Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...

; and, on 20 October, headed for Pearl Harbor to embark her first contingent of returning veterans, members of the 4th Marine Division. She completed that run at San Diego on 2 November 1945, then made two transpacific runs, one to Okinawa and one to Honshū. She completed the second run at Seattle on 26 January 1946. On 2 February, she sailed for Alameda; and, on the 7th, she got underway to return to the east coast for inactivation.

Shamrock Bay arrived at Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 on 1 March; underwent overhaul; and was decommissioned on 6 July 1946. Reclassified CVU-84 on 12 June 1955, she remained in the Reserve Fleet until struck from the Navy List on 27 June 1958. In May 1958, she was sold for scrapping to the Hyman-Michaels Co., of Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.