Escort Carrier

The escort carrier was the improvised answer to the Battle of the Atlantic's most desperate problem: merchant convoys crossing the mid-ocean gap where land-based aircraft could not reach. Converted from merchant hulls or tanker frames in a matter of weeks, these small carriers embarked twelve to thirty aircraft — enough to fly anti-submarine patrols, depth-charge U-boats, and provide limited fighter cover against long-range German reconnaissance aircraft. Slow, lightly armored, and derided as 'Combustible, Vulnerable, and Expendable' by their own crews, escort carriers nevertheless turned the Atlantic battle: USS Guadalcanal's hunter-killer group captured U-505 in 1944, the only enemy warship seized on the high seas since the War of 1812. In the game the escort carrier provides naval air cover and anti-submarine support for fleet groups, cheaper and more vulnerable than a fleet carrier, but invaluable for protecting convoys and hunting submarines across wide ocean areas.