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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

(BAVG-4)  /  HMS CHARGER   (D27)  /
USS CHARGER   (AVG-30)

(later ACV-30 and CVE-30)




Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign: November - Whiskey - Uniform - Sierra

Unit Awards, Campaign and Service Medals and Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: American Campaign Medal / World War II Victory Medal

Charger Class Escort Carrier
Ordered Laid down Launched Commissioned Decommissioned Stricken
(see below) 19 Jan 1940 1 Mar 1941 3 Mar 1942 (USN) 15 Mar 1946 29 Mar 1946
Builder: Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pa.

Specifications
(As commissioned, 1942)
Displacement: 8,000 tons standard; 15,000+ tons full load
Dimensions (wl): 465' x 69.5' x 26.25'  /  141.7 x 21.2 x 8 meters
Dimensions (max.): 492' x 111.25'  /  150 x 33.9 meters
Armor: None
Power plant: 2 Doxford diesels (6-cylinder); 1 shaft; 8,500 bhp
Speed: 16 knots
Endurance:
Armament: 1 single 5"/51 gun mount; 2 single 3"/50-cal gun mounts; 10 single 20-mm/70-cal machine guns
Aircraft: 30+
Aviation facilities: 1 elevator; 1 hydraulic catapult
Crew: 856

Click on Thumbnail
for Full Size Image
Size Image Description Source
BAVG-2, BAVG-3, BAVG-4
NS030100304
53k Rio Hudson, Rio Parana and Rio de la Plata just prior to conversion. Hazegray & Underway
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303001
66k Good overhead, port side view. USN
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303002
60k Port side, late war image. USN
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303003
137k Good overhead, starboard side view. USN
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303010
56k

USS Charger (CVE-30) underway circa 1942, location unknown.

Robert Hurst
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303011
134k

USS Charger (CVE-30) at anchor circa 1942, location unknown.

Photo from Navy Yearbook, ed. by Phillip Andrews and Leonard Engel; Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1944.

Original photo and caption submitted by Robert Hurst.
Larger photo by Derick Hartshorn
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303013
77k

USS Charger (CVE-30) in Measure 22 camouflage scheme is being maneuvered by tugs, 24 September 1942, at an unknown Chesapeake Bay location. Except for two aircraft ferrying operations in October 1942 and September 1945, the ship's basic WW2 task was that of training pilots and ships' crews in carrier operations, in Chesapeake Bay.

Mike Green
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303004
112k

USS Charger underway in 1943. For most of her career she was camouflaged in Measure 22, the graded system. Measure 22, introduced in June 1942, was intended for use in areas where bright weather and fair visibility predominated.

Hull, from boot-topping to the lowest point of the main deck edge, was painted navy blue; the upper edge of this band was parallel to the horizon. Vertical surfaces above this blue band were painted haze gray. Flight deck was stained deck blue.

Photo by Edward L. Walger PH2 USN, 1942-1945.

Barbara Walger
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303004a
117k

Official USN photo, taken in January 1944 but otherwise very similar to NS0303004, above.

David Buell
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303007
96k

A Grumman F6F Hellcat that came in too low... 1943.

Photo by Edward L. Walger PH2 USN, 1942-1945.

Barbara Walger
Charger and Long Island
NS0303014
368k

Charger & Long Island-class . From U.S. Naval Ships & Aircraft (ONI 54-R), condensed and printed for FM 30-50, NAVAER 00-80V-57 (Recognition Pictorial Manual of Naval Vessels). Supplement 4 - 4 August 1943.

Photos show HMS Archer, HMS Biter and USS Charger.

Gerd Matthes, Germany
Charger and Long Island
NS0303014a
341k

As above. Bottom photos show USS Long Island (AVG/ACV/CVE-1).

CVE-30 Charger
NS0303012
78k

USS Charger (CVE-30) underway in January 1944, showing a very basic radar fit: SC-2 air search and the smaller SG surface search antenna below it; at the masthead is the YE aircraft homing beacon.

Robert Hurst
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303005
125k

USS Charger anchored in Hampton Roads, 1944.

The island was built out over the side of the ship, to entirely clear the flight deck, and was not supported by the hull or the hangar side, thus requiring dedicated supports (one of them clearly visible under the island structure). Charger was armed with a single 5"/51 gun, aft, and two single 3"/50s forward (visible here); a light battery of .50-cal machine guns was initially planned, but, as shown, 20-mm machine cannon were mounted instead.

The "X" superimposed on the ship's hull number, aft, indicated that the flight deck was not usable for landings.

Photo by Edward L. Walger PH2 USN, 1942-1945.

Barbara Walger
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303015
83k

An FM-2 Wildcat fighter prepares to take off from USS Charger (CVE-30) during training operations in the Chesapeake Bay area, 8 May 1944. Another FM-2 is passing overhead with its tail hook down, apparently having received a "wave-off" due to the carrier's fouled flight deck. Note the light Atlantic area paint schemes worn by these planes.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives (# 80-G-K-1601).

Robert Hurst
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303006
93k

A Grumman F4F Wildcat landing aboard Charger. Taken from a Coast Guard cutter in October 1944.

Photo by Edward L. Walger PH2 USN, 1942-1945.

Barbara Walger
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303008
114k

Two performances by the ship's band.

Steven C. Irwin
CVE-30 Charger
NS0303009
94k
Commercial Service
Ex-Charger
NS0303016
198k

According to my information, the Fairsea was the former escort carrier Charger (BAVG-4), later re-numbered the AVG-30, finally the CVE-30. She was sold to Italian interests in 1949, received the name Fairsea and was converted to a passenger liner. She was then engaged for many years in carrying emigrants from the U.K. to Australia. In January 1969 she suffered a major engine breakdown and fire off Balboa, Panama and was towed to Balboa. Sold to Italian breakers, she was towed to La Spezia (Italy) where she was broken up in 1969.

Photo from an out-of-print book on passenger ships published in 1965.

Photo and text courtesy of Gerhard Mueller-Debus

For more photos and information about this ship, see:

View the HMS Charger (D27)/USS Charger (AVG-30 / ACV-30 / CVE-30)
DANFS History entry located on the Hazegray & Underway Web Site.

Crew Contact and Reunion Information Web Sites
U.S.Navy Memorial Foundation
Fleet Reserve Association

Related Links
Hazegray & Underway World Aircraft Carrier Pages By Andrew Toppan.
Official U.S. Navy Carrier Website
Escort Carrier Sailors & Airmen Association

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Last update: 3 May 2009