The first plane came in the early evening, flying so low that the ship's guns couldn't hit it. The ship met its fate at the hands of two incredibly lucky kamikaze hits at Iwo Jima. The Bismarck Sea loading Douglas SBD Dauntless scout bombers from a barge, circa 1944. It also helped move the first wave of invaders ashore at Iwo Jima. The ship earned three battle stars in support of the Philippines Campaign off Mindanao, Leyte and Luzon. If the old sailor's superstition warning against renaming a boat is true, it didn't apply to the Bismarck Sea - at least, not right away. A month after launch, the ship was renamed the Bismarck Sea. Originally, escort carriers were named after Alaskan bays, but a new policy decided they would be named after military engagements. The rules on ship naming changed soon after. When first launched in April 1944, the ship was called the Alikula Bay.

The ship was named for the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, a lopsided 1943 win for the Allies that kept the Japanese from reinforcing its troops on Papua New Guinea and may have prevented the capture of the island altogether. Ships like the Bismarck Sea were around one-tenth the size of the Ford class, so a large number of ships was vital to the Pacific War effort. The United States built 50 Casablanca-class carriers during the war, but they were nothing like the floating cities of today.

Us navy world war 2