ACV-96 (later CVE-96) was initially named Anguilla Bay, for a bay between Anguilla and Esquivel Islands, in Maurelle Island, Alexander Archipelago, Alaska (NS0305808). The name comes from the Spanish word anguila, meaning "eel," and was given in 1924 by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS), "from name of island, of which this is the principal indentation."

Renamed Salamaua, 6 November 1943, after a town in New Guinea, taken by the Allies on 11 September 1943, during the Salamaua-Lae campaign in World War II (NS0309609).

NS0309609a: A US Army Air Forces (USAAF) B-24 Liberator bomber, flying over explosions on the Salamaua Peninsula, where the port is located. (The Army Air Forces in World War II, vol. 4, courtesy of ibiblio.org.)

(Map NS0305808 courtesy of Hamstermap.com. Map NS0309609 courtesy of Google Maps Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History, by Norman Friedman..)

A Japanese kamikaze dives on USS Louisville (CA-28) of Task Group Twenty-Eight, Seventh Fleet. Attack took place outside of Lingayen Gulf, Philippines. Image taken by crew of USS Salamaua (CVE 96), 5 January 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), photo # 80-G-342376.

A Japanese kamikaze dives on USS Louisville (CA-28) of Task Group Twenty-Eight, Seventh Fleet. Attack took place outside of Lingayen Gulf, Philippines. Image taken by crew of USS Salamaua (CVE 96), 5 January 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), photo # 80-G-342378.

USS Louisville (CA-28) is hit by a Kamikaze in Lingayen Gulf, Philippine Islands, 5 January 1945. Photographed from USS Salamaua (CVE-96).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), photo # 80-G-363217.

Just before 0900, 13 January 1945, a kamikaze carrying two 250 kg. bombs crashed Salamaua's flight deck.

John D. Cornwell, USNR, was, at the time, a TBM Avenger pilot with Composite Squadron (VC) 87 aboard Salamaua. He was later an S2F Tracker pilot and retired as a Captain.

See also "The World War II Experiences of George Bomely."

USS Salamaua (CVE-96) shown five minutes after being hit by a Japanese suicide plane while off the coast of Lingayen Gulf, Philippine Islands, 13 January 1945. Photographed by Chief Photographer's Mate E.W. Peck, assigned to USS Tulagi (CVE-72).

The destroyer in between is possibly USS Gridley (DD-380).

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo, # 80-G-339181.

USS Salamaua (CVE-96) in dry dock following kamikaze strike. LT(JG) Warren A. Reckhow is on the right in the three-men group standing in front of the ship.

USS Salamaua (CVE-96) underway off San Francisco, California, circa 1945 (possibly postwar).

USS Salamaua (CVE-96) showing standard improvements in this 1 November 1945 photograph. She had just returned to the United States carrying troops from overseas and would not again see carrier service, but even so she was fitted with an SP height-finding radar for fighter control. Note single flight-deck catapult. USN Photo.

Photo and text from U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History, by Norman Friedman.

Servicemen returning to the United States from the Pacific aboard USS Salamaua (CVE-96). "Where hulking warplanes once awaited the call to action, bunks and cots now line the hangar deck of the ship." Photograph released 16 November 1945.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), photo # 80-G-701514.

Ex-Salamaua at the Zidell Ship Dismantling Co., Portland, Oreg. The photo was probably taken by someone in the Zidell yard.

August N. Opp was a steamfitter in the Kaiser Shipbuilding Co., Vancouver, WA, shipyard and carried this card while working on the future USS Salamaua (CVE-96).

Shipmates aboard USS Salamaua (CVE-96), "Magic Carpet Duty" transporting veterans back to the United States, 1945.

Oscar Burel Clarkson was a RdM2/c aboard USS Salamaua (CVE-96) during World War II.

"The attached photograph is of my father-in-law who was a ADC on board USS Salamaua, with his crew. His name was William (Bill) Spaven. He is the one front center with his right arm across the propeller of the aircraft."

"I found a report from a Pilot, Robert W Porter, who was on board USS Salamaua, his aircraft slammed into the sea when the catapult fired too soon. He was rescued and returned to duty. Here is an excerpt from his report which mentions my father-in-law CPO Spaven, as follows:"

"My vision was fuzzy but I saw the whale boat speeding toward me. The sailors drew alongside, hauled me in and headed back to the carrier. Once there, thinking I would miss out on our first engagement with the enemy, I sought an airplane to join the fray. But CPO Spaven wisely cornered me and insisted I go to sick bay to get my face sewn up. I was flying again a few days later."

"There may have been others, but I believe I could be the only pilot to launch from a carrier before the engine was started."

(Quoted from "Scramble One!", Centennial of Naval Aviation, summer 2011, vol. 3, issue 3.)

"Scramble One!," by Robert W. Porter himself, is reproduced with permission from Wings of Gold magazine, Association of Naval Aviation.