USS Gambier Bay

USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) was a Casablanca-class escort carrier of the United States Navy. During the Battle off Samar, part of the overall Battle of Leyte Gulf, during a successful effort to turn back a much larger attacking Japanese surface force, Gambier Bay was sunk by naval gunfire, primarily from the battleship Yamato, taking at least 15 hits between 8:10 and 8:50. She was the only American aircraft carrier sunk by enemy surface gunfire during World War II.
Named for Gambier Bay on Admiralty Island in the Alaska Panhandle, she was originally classified AVG-73, was reclassified ACV-73 on 20 August 1942 and again reclassified CVE-73 on 15 July 1943; launched under a Maritime Commission contract by the Kaiser Company, Vancouver, Washington on 22 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. H. C. Zitzewitz, wife of Lieutenant Commander Herbert C. Zitzewitz, the Senior Naval Liaison Officer (SNLO) assigned to Kaiser's Vancouver Yard from the Navy's Bureau of Ships; and commissioned at Astoria, Oregon on 28 December 1943, Captain Hugh H. Goodwin in command.
The ship was referred to as the "Bonus Ship" by yard personnel because she was the 19th carrier delivered in 1943. The yard had originally projected...