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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

USS MIDWAY (CVE-63),
later USS ST. LO (CVE-63)

CLASS - CASABLANCA
Displacement 7,800 Tons, Dimensions, 512' 3" (oa) x 65' 2" x 22' 4" (Max)
Armament 1 x 5"/38AA 8 x 40mm, 12 x 20mm, 27 Aircraft.
Machinery, 9,000 IHP; 2 Skinner, Uniflow engines, 2 screws
Speed, 19 Knots, Crew 860.

Awarded	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Stricken
*Casablanca Class Escort Carrier*
18 Jun 1942	23 Jan 1943	17 Aug 1943	23 Oct 1943	27 Nov 1944
Builder: Kaiser Shipbuilding Co., Vancouver, Wash.

Built under a Maritime Commission contract (hull number 1100), type S4-S2-BB3. Initially classified as an "Aircraft Escort Vessel" and designated AVG-63. Named Chapin Bay after a bay in Alaska (?).
Reclassified as an "Auxiliary Aircraft Carrier" and redesignated ACV-63, 20 Aug 1942 (prior to construction).
Renamed Midway, 3 Apr 1943, after the decisive battle (3-6 Jun 1942) which cost Japan four large aircraft carriers and forced the enemy to assume a defensive posture in WW2.
Reclassified as an "Escort Carrier" and redesignated CVE-63, 15 Jul 1943 (prior to commissioning).
Renamed St. Lo, 15 Sep 1944 (?), after the French town where the decisive breakout of the Normandy beachhead had taken place, 18 Jul 1944. The name Midway was thus freed to be assigned to a new, giant aircraft carrier (CVB-41) then under construction.

Fate: Sunk by a Japanese kamikaze off Samar, Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 25, 1944.

USS St. Lo and the other ships and aircraft of "Taffy 3," aided by planes of "Taffy 2," gallantly fought and stopped the powerful Japanese Center Force, and inflicted significant losses on the enemy. But at 1050 the task unit came under a concentrated air attack; one plane crashed through St. Lo's flight deck and exploded her torpedo and bomb magazine, mortally wounding the carrier. St. Lo was engulfed in flames and sank half an hour later.

One hundred and twenty-six men were lost with the ship and remain on active duty.

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Contributed By And/Or Copyright
*As USS Midway* (CVE-63)**
NS0306304	30k	The *Midway* being launched on August 17, 1943.	USS *Saint Lo* Association
NS0306303	38k	USS *Midway* (CVE-63) leaving Astoria, Ore., on Nov. 13, 1943. Photo taken from USS Tripoli (CVE-64).	USN
NS0306305	60k	The *Midway* somewhere in the Pacific on the way to Australia with a load of aircraft.	USS *Saint Lo* Association
*As USS St. Lo* (CVE-63)**
NS0306306	36k	Bridge of USS *St. Lo*, date unknown.	USS *Saint Lo* Association
NS0306301	68k	San Diego, April 1944. Camouflaged in Measure 32, Design 15A.	USN
NS0306302	73k	Getting underway from dock with tug assist, April 10, 1944.	USN
Battle off Samar, October 25, 1944
NS0306307	34k	USS *St. Lo* (previously believed to be the Gambier Bay) and DE laying down a smokescreen on October 25, 1944 during the Battle off Samar.	USS *Saint Lo* Association
NS0306308	15k	At about 1055 a major detonation (probably caused by a pair of torpedoes lying almost in the center of a fire started a few minutes earlier by a kamikaze hit) destroyed much of the after section of the flight deck. The after elevator blew upward and disappeared, some 25' of the flight deck were folded forward and the forward elevator was warped. The explosion also knocked out steering control.	USS *Saint Lo* Association
For more photos and information about this ship, see: Memorial to Admiral Sprague and Task Unit 77.4.3 (Taffy 3)

USS ST. LO CVE-63 History
View This Vessels DANFS History Entry
(Located On The Hazegray & Underway Web Site, This Is The Main Archive For The DANFS Online Project.)

Crew Contact and Reunion Information

Date:
Place:
Contact:
Address:
Phone:
E-mail:
Web site:	USS St. Lo Association
Remarks:

Related Links

Hazegray & Underway World Aircraft Carrier Pages By Andrew Toppan.
Official U.S. Navy Carrier Website
Escort Carrier Sailors & Airmen Association
USS Saint Lo CVE-63 (formerly Midway), & Composite Squadron 65 (VC 65) Association

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Last update: 2 September 2007

NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

USS MIDWAY (CVE-63),later USS ST. LO (CVE-63)

USS MIDWAY (CVE-63),
later USS ST. LO (CVE-63)