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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

USS SAVO ISLAND   (CVE-78)
(later CVHE-78 and AKV-28)



Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign: November - Kilo - X-Ray - Juliet

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.

Operational and Building Data

Initially named Kaita Bay.


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Size Image Description Contributed
By And/Or Copyright
Construction
CVE-78 Savo Island
NS0307807
7k

Savo Island was sponsored by Miss Margaret Taffinder, daughter of Rear Admiral Taffinder, Commandant of the Thirteenth Naval District.

(From "Bo's'n's Whistle," Vol. 4, No. 2; January 28, 1944; pages 4 & 5.)

Courtesy of Ron Gough,
Bea Dee, Ltd.,
Kaiser Vancouver / Swan Island & Oregon Shipyards website
World War II
CVE-78 Savo Island
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52k

Undated, underway with a deck load of aircraft. Camouflaged in Measure 33, Design 14A (thanks to Aryeh Wetherhorn.)

USN
CVE-78 Savo Island
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67k Good photo taken from the waterline. Good details. USN
CVE-78 Savo Island
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USS Savo Island (CVE-78) underway in May 1944, location unknown. Note dismantled SO3C Seamew, a J2F Duck (minus its engine), and SOC Seagull and three F6F Hellcats lining the port side, with spare floats lashed down aft (USN photo).

Robert Hurst
CVE-78 Savo Island
NS0307808
114k

[A] Kamikaze [is] just meters above the flight deck of the escort carrier USS Savo Island (CVE-78) in this shot taken from the battleship USS West Virginia on 5 January 1945. It sheared off the carrier's air-search radar antenna with its wingtip and then hit the water close aboard. The splashes in the water to the right, no doubt from the battleship's anti-aircraft fire, highlight the constant danger of friendly fire among the closely-packed ships of the invasion fleet. Photo National Archives and Records Administration.

Photo and text from Fire From The Sky, by Robert C. Stern.

Robert Hurst
Ex-USS Savo Island
CVHE-78 Savo Island
NS0307803
162k In Reserve, South Boston Naval Annex, May 1958. DD-624 Baldwin moored alongside. © Richard Leonhardt
CVHE-78 Savo Island
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48k See above. © Richard Leonhardt
CVHE-78 Savo Island
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44k See above. Also visible is Natoma Bay (CVU-62). © Richard Leonhardt

USS SAVO ISLAND CVE-78 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

Contact Name: Mr. Donald B Hull
Address:4000 N Hampton Brook Dr Hamburg, NY, 14075-6410
Phone: 716-649-2587
E-mail: None

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

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This page was created by Paul Yarnall and is maintained by Fabio Peña
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Last update: 6 June 2011