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NavSource Online: Escort Carrier Photo Archive

USS HOLLANDIA   (CVE-97)
(later CVU-97 and AKV-33)


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 (2 stars) / World War II Victory Medal / Navy Occupation Service Medal ("Asia" clasp)


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

Specifications 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

Built by Kaiser Co., Inc., Vancouver, Wash. Initially named Astrolabe Bay. Keel laid 12 Feb 1944, launched 28 Apr 1944. Renamed Hollandia 30 May 1944. Commissioned 1 Jun 1944.

Decommissioned 17 Jan 1947. While in reserve, she was reclassified as an "Utility Aircraft Carrier" (CVU-97), 12 Jun 1955; again reclassified as a "Cargo Ship and Aircraft Ferry" (AKV-33), 7 May 1959. Stricken from the Navy list 1 Apr 1960 and sold for scrap in July that year.


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Name
Astrolabe Bay
NS0306022
64k

AVG-97 (later ACV-97, CVE-97, CVU-97 and AKV-33) was initially named Astrolabe Bay for a bay (NS0306022) between Astrolabe Peninsula and Boussole Head, in Glacier Bay, Alaska. It was named in 1883 by George Davidson, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS), for L'Astrolabe (under Paul-Antoine Fleuriot, Vicomte de Langle), one of the two ships of the French scientific expedition under Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, which explored the region in 1786. Interestingly, the Geographic Dictionary of Alaska (1906) lists an Astrolabe Point but not an Astrolabe Bay. Anyway, the name Astrolabe Bay was assigned to ACV-60 and, later, to CVE-97.

Renamed, 30 May 1944, after the town of Hollandia (now Jayapura) on the northern coast of New Guinea on Humboldt Bay (now Yos Sudarso Bay). During World War II Hollandia was a major Japanese air base, and was taken by a brilliantly executed American amphibious operation, 22 April 1944. The success of the operation had much to do with securing New Guinea and was a major step toward the eventual invasion of the Philippines.

(Maps courtesy of Google Maps.)

NS0309709a: A Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless bomber en route to strike enemy targets, 21 April 1944. Hollandia airfield is directly below, with Sentani airfield in the middle distance and Lake Sentani at top. Wrecked Japanese planes litter Hollandia field, largely the victims of USAAF attacks earlier in the month. (National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), photo # 80-G-251419.)

NavSource
Hollandia
NS0309709
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Hollandia
NS0309709a
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World War II
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309701
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USS Hollandia (CVE-97) shows the gun arrangement of the Casablanca-class in this September 1944 photograph: two twin Bofors on each quarter, and a single 5"/38 (barely visible) aft.

Ron Reeves
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309703
138k

USS Hollandia (CVE-97) underway along an unidentified breakwater circa 1944. She is camouflaged in Measure 32, Design 16A.

US Navy and Marine Corps Museum/Naval Aviation Museum, photo # 1996.488.034.005. Robert L. Lawson Photograph Collection.

Robert Hurst
Mike Green
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309704
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USS Hollandia (CVE-97) off California, 18 September 1944. Camouflaged in Measure 32, Design 16A.

Gerd Matthes, Germany
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309711
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View of soda fountains in the mess deck aboard the U.S. Navy escort carrier USS Hollandia (CVE-97), in 1944–1945.

From the Hollandia 1944–1945 Cruise Book.

John Spivey
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309707
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USS Hollandia (CVE-97) circa 1945, but exact date and location unknown. Camouflaged in Measure 21.

Ron Reeves
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309702
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USS Hollandia (CVE-97) arrives at Naval Air Station Alameda, California on 29 November 1945. She was transporting 1100 servicemen home from Eniwetok and Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands, as part of Operation Magic Carpet. By this time the ship was camouflaged in Measure 21.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command (#NH 106721).

Naval History & Heritage Command, via Robert Hurst
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309710
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Veterans of the Pacific, aboard USS Hollandia (CVE-97) at U.S. Naval Air Station, Alameda, California, just prior to disembarking. Some of the passengers pick up their sea-bags from their bunks on the ship's hangar deck. Photograph received November 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), # 80-G-353729.

NARA
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309710a
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Bunk rooms on USS Hollandia (CVE-97) which was converted as a troop transport. This space was formerly a clipping room for 40 millimeter ammunition. Photograph received November 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), # 80-G-353732.

CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309710b
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Bunk rooms on USS Hollandia (CVE-97) which was converted as a troop transport. Some of the 1100 passengers as they relax on their bunks, just prior to disembarking at Naval Air Station, Alameda, California. Photograph received November 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), # 80-G-353734.

Memorabilia
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309705
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Plank Owner's Certificate, with embossed ship's seal.

Tommy Trampp
CVE-97 Hollandia
NS0309706
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Shellback Certificate, dated 19 July 1944, with embossed ship's seal.

Tommy Trampp

For more photos and information about this ship, see:

Read the USS HOLLANDIA (CVE-97 / CVU-97 / AKV-33) DANFS History entry

Old 97
"Old 97", The Story of the U.S.S. Hollandia, by Lieut. Arthur C. Walsh
(Submitted by Ron Reeves)

Crew Contact And Reunion Information

Contact Name: Mr. Zane Lambert
Address:315 10th Ave SE Olympia, WA, 98501-1312
Phone: 360-357-8560
E-mail: None

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

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Last update: 16 July 2024