Escort carrier

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The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the United States Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy, and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force in World War II. They were typically 20 to 40 percent shorter, and displaced 30 to 60 percent less, than fleet carriers; and with hulls built to commercial standards--far less sophisticated structurally, and incorporating far fewer protective elements than any front-line combat ship--they could be built more quickly and cheaply than vessels meant to engage in combat. Obviously, the lack of protection made escort carriers particularly vulnerable, and several were sunk with great loss of life. Of the 151 aircraft carriers built in the U.S. during World War II, 122 were escort carriers, though no examples survive...

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