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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

BRETON   (ACV-10)  /  HMS CHASER   (D32)
(later CVE-10)


Contributed by Tommy Trampp



Battle Honours

Atlantic 1943 — Arctic 1944 — Okinawa 1945

Attacker (US Bogue) Class Escort Carrier
Ordered Laid down Launched Commissioned Returned to US Stricken
- 28 Jun 1941 19 Jun 1942 9 Apr 1943 12 May 1946 3 Jul 1946
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, Miss.

Specifications
(As converted, 1943)
Displacement: 7,800 tons standard; 14,170 tons full load
Dimensions (wl): 465' x 69.5' x 24' 8"  /  141.7 x 21.2 x 7.5 meters
Dimensions (max.): 495' 8" x 111.5'  /  151.1 x 34 meters
Armor: None
Power plant: 2 boilers (285 psi); 1 steam turbine; 1 shaft; 8,500 shp
Speed: 18+ knots
Endurance: 27,300 nautical miles @ 11 knots
Armament: 2 single 4"/50 gun mounts; 4 twin 40-mm/56-cal gun mounts; 8 twin and 10 single 20-mm/70-cal gun mounts
Aircraft: 15+
Aviation facilities: 2 elevators; 1 hydraulic catapult (H 2); 9 arresting wires and 3 barriers
Crew: 646

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Size Image Description Contributed
By And/Or Copyright
Name
Breton
NS0302317
92k

AVG-10 was named Breton, for a sound in Louisiana, located between the Mississippi River delta and the mainland.

The Royal Navy renamed her Chaser. "Chaser" is one that chases, or pursues, another.

(Map courtesy of Google Maps.)

NavSource
Badge
NS0302314
5k

Ship's badge. Per fess wavy white and green; a greyhound courant, in black.

The green in this design references the grass greyhound racing track at the White City Stadium, London, and the motto (Venando victor, "Victorious by chasing") reflects the result of the contest.

Tommy Trampp
HMS Chaser (D32 / R306)
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301003
100k

HMS Chaser (D32/R306) underway on 20 June 1943, showing single 20-mm guns on her forecastle and twin 40-mm guns in the forward deck-edge sponsons. Three Avenger strike aircraft are ranged aft. U.S. National Archives photo.

Photo and text from Aircraft Carriers of the World, 1914 to the Present: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, by Roger Chesneau.

Robert Hurst
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301002
74k Good overhead showing the stern AA protection and general layout of the flight deck. IWM
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301008
93k

HMS Chaser, date and location unknown.

Maxim Kaloshkin
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301012
55k

HMS Chaser (D32), commanded by Captain H.V.P. McClintock, at anchor at Greenock, Scotland, date unknown. Photo taken by Lt. S.J. Beadell, Royal Navy official photographer. Photo # A 17859 from the collections of the Imperial War Museum.

Robert Hurst
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301013
51k

HMS Chaser (D32), commanded by Captain H.V.P. McClintock, at anchor at Greenock, Scotland, date unknown. Photo taken by Lt. S.J. Beadell, Royal Navy official photographer. Photo # A 17861 from the collections of the Imperial War Museum.

Robert Hurst
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301010
131k

"Possibly an 835 Sqn. Sea Hurricane on board HMS Chaser 1943. Folded Swordfish of Squadron ahead."

Sidney C. Hart, from his late father's photo collection
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301011
196k

"Gibraltar Convoy - Sea Hurricane landing (possibly 835 Squadron) on HMS Chaser 1943."

Sidney C. Hart, from his late father's photo collection
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301016
742k

British aircraft carrier HMS Chaser (D32). Photographed by ZP-14 from Naval Air Station, Weeksville, North Carolina, 23 April 1943, the day she arrived in Norfolk Navy Yard.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-64298.

NARA
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301001
95k

Taken from the Telegraphist Air Gunner's position in a just launched Swordfish of 835 Squadron, while escorting Russian Convoy JW57 in February 1944. Note her narrow beam.

IWM
Larger copy submitted by Gerhard Mueller‑Debus
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301009
58k

HMS Chaser arriving at Cochin on the Malabar Coast of India, July 1945, with her flight deck packed with Corsairs, Seafires and Avengers. The aircraft were to be delivered to the Reception Unit, Royal Naval Air Station Cochin. Some arrived practically fully assembled lashed to the flight deck. Others arrived in packing cases. Photo taken by unknown Royal Navy photographer. Photo No A 29289 from the Imperial War Museum Collections.

Robert Hurst
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301004
49k

HMS Chaser as R306, circa 1945.

Photo from the collection of Paul Silverstone.

Hazegray & Underway
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301015
308k

The escort carrier HMS Chaser at Circular Quay in Sydney Harbour, showing her pennant number R306. Courtesy of Sea Power Centre-Australia. Pennant numbers of this type were allocated to British and Commonwealth ships operating alongside the US Navy.

Image scanned from The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy's Most Powerful Strike Force, by David Hobbs (Seaforth Publishing).

Robert Hurst
Commercial Service
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301017
580k

The NV Vereenigde Nederlandsche Scheepvaart Maatschappij cargo ship SS Aagtekerk (ex-HMS Chaser). Photo Ambrose Greenway Collection.

Scanned from Wartime Standard Ships, by Nick Robins, Pub by Seaforth Publishing, a division of Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 47 Church Street, Barnsley, S70 2AS. ISBN 9781848323766.

Robert Hurst
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301007
170k

A glimpse view of Aagtekerk (ex-Breton, ex-HMS Chaser) working cargo in the port of Bremen, Germany, circa 1954. From an out-of-print port promotion brochure (mid-Fifties).

Gerhard Mueller-Debus
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301006
265k

Ex-Breton, ex-HMS Chaser, as Aagtekerk, berthed in Bremen, Germany, in the late 1950s. Published in a Bremen Port promotion brochure in 1960.

Gerhard Mueller-Debus
CVE-10 Breton/HMS Chaser
NS0301005
83k

Ex-Breton, ex-HMS Chaser, as Aagtekerk (Dutch flag), in Bremerhaven, Germany, April 1967.

Photo by Gerhard Mueller-Debus

Read the Breton (ACV-10 / CVE-10)  /  HMS Chaser (D32 / R306) DANFS History entry


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Last update: 11 June 2023