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USS VELLA GULF
CVE-111




     Escort carriers provided air and antisub-marine defense of invasion convoys and beach-head areas and close support of invasion troops until such time as these functions could be taken over by shore-based aircraft.
     The carriers themselves were smaller, slower ships of about 30-plane capacity, on which were based squadrons of fighters and torpedo bombers. In amphibious operations escort carriers were normally employed in formations of 4 to 7 carriers with 6 to 12 destroyers and destroyer escorts. but single carriers with fewer escorts were used for specialized antisubmarine or convoy-escort operations.
Catapult launch

Catapult launch

Virtually all aircraft were launched with either the H-2 or H-4 catapults



Marine Air Group 3 was assigned to VELLA GULF.It was composed of VMF-51 and VMTB-234.



Corair hard landing

Corsair after a hard landing



corsair hard landing II

A different shot of the same Corsair

On the whole the Corsairs sustained more structural damage on landing than the other carrier aircraft. Where as Grumman aircraft were made for carrier flight decks and were much tougher



Tokyo Bay

USS VELLA GULF
Tokyo Bay, Japan

September 12, 1945



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