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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

USS CAPE GLOUCESTER   (CVE-109)
(later CVHE-109 and AKV-9)


Unit Awards, Campaign and Service Medals and Ribbons

   

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: American Campaign Medal
2nd Row: Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1 star) / World War II Victory Medal / Navy Occupation Service Medal ("Asia" clasp)


Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign: November - Kilo - Alpha - Zulu

(Ex- WILLAPA BAY)
CLASS - COMMENCEMENT BAY
Displacement 21,397 Tons (full load), Dimensions, 557' 7" (oa) x 75' x 30' 8" (Max)
Armament 2 x 5"/38AA 36 x 40mm, 20 x 20mm, 33 Aircraft.
Machinery, 16,000 SHP; Allis-Chambers, Geared Turbines, 2 screw
Speed, 19 Knots, Crew 1066.

Operational and Building Data

Fate: Stricken from the Navy list 1 April 1971. Sold to Nicolai Joffe Co., Beverly Hills, CA, for $14,314,682.00 and scrapped in Richmond, CA. (Thanks to Ron Reeves for the information.)


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For Full Size Image
Size Image Description Contributed
By And/Or Copyright
Name
Willapa Bay
NS0310911
120k

CVE-109 was initially named Willapa Bay for a bay off southwestern Washington state, adjacent to Pacific County (NS0310911). (ACV-53, later CVE-53, had been named Willapa.)

Renamed Cape Gloucester, 26 April 1944, after the cape in New Guinea where the 7th Amphibious Force (commanded by Rear Admiral Daniel E. Barbey) successfully landed the 1st Marine Division under heavy enemy air attack, on 26 December 1943.

NS1016020202: An M-4 Sherman tank of the First Marine Division landing from USS LST-202, at Cape Gloucester, 26 or 27 December 1943. USS LST-204 is in the background. US Coast Guard photo # 3058, from the collections of the US Coast Guard Historian's Office, via Mike Green.

(Map NS0310911 courtesy of Hamstermap.com. Map NS0310911a courtesy of Google Maps.)

NavSource
Cape Gloucester
NS0310911a
59k
Landing, Cape Gloucester
NS1016020202
59k
1945–1946
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310901
66k Bureau of Ships photo # 92916. Jim Gregg, PhoMate 3/c, USS Cape Gloucester, 1946
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310902
158k Docking, date and place unknown. (From ship's photographic files). Jim Gregg, PhoMate 3/c, USS Cape Gloucester, 1946
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310903
214k Underway, date and place unknown. (From ship's photographic files). Jim Gregg, PhoMate 3/c, USS Cape Gloucester, 1946
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310905
157k

Overhead view of USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109) underway off Vashon Island, Washington, 17 March 1945.

US Navy and Marine Corps Museum/Naval Aviation Museum, Photo No.1996.488.035.012, Robert L. Lawson Photograph Collection.

Robert Hurst
Larger copy submitted by Mike Green
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310909
352k

USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109), date and location unknown. Official USN photo.

John Spivey
Larger copy courtesy of Jim Kurrasch, Battleship Iowa, Pacific Battleship Center
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310906
126k

USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109) underway off the U.S. West Coast in 1945. USN photo.

David Buell
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310914
371k

USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109) seen from the foc'sle of USS Putnam (DD-757) in an Okinawa anchorage on 16–17 or 21–22 July 1945. They were operating in TF 32 at that time.

Photo from the George Hansen collection.

Eric Hansen and John Chiquoine
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310910
290k

USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109) anchored in mid-stream at Nagasaki, waiting to take aboard liberated Allied prisoners of war. Photographed by Private First Class L.F. DeRycke, 5 September 1945.

Official U.S. Marine Corps Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), # 127-GW-1643-138641.

NARA
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310907
92k

A TBM-3E Avenger of VMTB-132 being hooked up by the catapult crew ready for launch from onboard USS [Cape] Gloucester (CVE-109), during operations against Kyushu, Japan, on 8 September 1945. USMC, courtesy Robert J. Cressman.

Photo and text from Carrier Air War in Original WWII Color, by Robert Lawson and Barrett Tillman.

Robert Hurst
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310907a
60k

A TBM-3E Avenger of VMTB-132 about to land back onboard USS [Cape] Gloucester [(CVE-109)] the same day [8 Sept. 1945]. USMC, courtesy Robert J. Cressman.

Photo and text from Carrier Air War in Original WWII Color, by Robert Lawson and Barrett Tillman.

Robert Hurst
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310907b
90k

F4U-1D Corsairs of VMF-351 (assigned to MCVG-4), are readied for launch from USS [Cape] Gloucester [(CVE-109)], during operations against Kyushu, Japan, on 8 September 1945. USMC, courtesy Robert J. Cressman.

Photo and text from Carrier Air War in Original WWII Color, by Robert Lawson and Barrett Tillman.

Robert Hurst
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310907c
429k

Aboard USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109), a Plane Director uses arm signals to position a TBM Avenger bomber on the ship's starboard catapult, during operations off Kyushu, Japan, 8 September 1945. Flight deck crewmen are attaching a catapult bridle to the plane. Note rockets (probably 3.5-inch) mounted under the TBM's wing, and resting on the cart in the left center background. U.S. Marine Corps photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) (# USMC 136542).

NARA
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310913
2.16M

USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109), War Diaries for 14–21 September 1945.

Via Tony Drury, Royal Navy Escort Carriers
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310904
110k

CAPT Burroughs inspects crew.

Captain Sherman E. Burroughs was the first Commanding Officer of the Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake, where extensive guided missile and rocket testing and research occurred. Burroughs High School at Inyokern, site of the NOTS, is named after him.

Jim Gregg, PhoMate 3/c, USS Cape Gloucester, 1946
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS1016073701
1.46M

Aerial view of Pearl Harbor, circa 16–23 January 1946. Ships present are: USS Bennington (CV-20) moored across the channel at NAS Ford Island; USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109), opposite Bennington; USS Troilus (AKA-46), moored astern of Cape Gloucester; USS LST-1078, moored astern of USS LST-1070; USS Terror (CM-5); USS LST-459 with LCT-1015 secured to her main deck, astern of USS LST-863. Moored forward of LST-863 are two unidentified minesweepers and three larger, unidentified ships. The next pier has two unidentified ships, possibly AKs; the survey ship USS Sumner (AGS-5); and two unidentified minesweepers. USS LST-737 moored astern of USS LST-45, moored astern of numerous minesweepers. And possibly USS Shipley Bay (CVE-85).

Official US Navy photo, file number 496019, from CINCPAC, released 23 January 1946. Also stamped "BUAer, 496019".

David Buell
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310912
166k

Edward Earl VonKline (aka Red), Charles's grandfather, aboard USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109), in a photo believed to have been taken 16–23 January 1946, while the ship was moored at Pearl Harbor.

Charles J. Yates, MSgt (OR-7), USAF
"Mothballed"
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS09051616
75k

USS Mount Katmai (AE-16) at time of Inclining Experiment at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, 2 March 1949. Cape Gloucester is "mothballed" and USS Princeton (CV-37) being prepared for inactivation on the opposite pier.

US Naval Shipyard Puget Sound photo # NY8-3148 now in the collections of the US National Archives, Seattle Branch.

Tracy White
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS09051618
79k

As above.

US Naval Shipyard Puget Sound photo # NY8-3151 now in the collections of the US National Archives, Seattle Branch.

Tracy White
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS09051619
65k

As above.

US Naval Shipyard Puget Sound photo # NY8-3152 now in the collections of the US National Archives, Seattle Branch.

Tracy White
CVE-109 Cape Gloucester
NS0310908
49k

Ex-Cape Gloucester and other ships in "mothballs," date unknown.

Gerhard Mueller‑Debus

For more information about this ship, see:

Read the
USS CAPE GLOUCESTER (CVE-109 / CVHE-109 / AKV-9) DANFS History entry

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Additional Resources
Hazegray & Underway World Aircraft Carrier Pages By Andrew Toppan
Escort Carrier Sailors & Airmen Association

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Last update: 24 December 2023