Her construction was awarded to
Kaiser Shipbuilding Company,
Vancouver, Washington under a
Maritime Commission contract, on 18 June 1942, under the name
Alikula Bay, as part of a tradition which named escort carriers after bays or sounds in Alaska. She was
laid down on 31 January 1944, and was assigned the designation MC hull 1132. She was
launched on 17 April 1944;
sponsored by Mrs. Mabel C. Wallgren, wife of
Senator Monrad Wallgren, under the name
Alikula Bay. She was renamed
Bismarck Sea on 16 May 1944, as part of a new naval policy which named subsequent Casablanca-class carriers after naval or land engagements, and she was transferred to the United States Navy and
commissioned on 20 May, with
Captain John L. Pratt in command. , July 1944. After being commissioned,
Bismarck Sea engaged in training exercises off the West Coast throughout June. On 1 July, she left
San Pedro ferrying aircraft and pilots to
Pearl Harbor. After unloading her aircraft, she loaded more aircraft and ferried them to the
Marshall Islands, arriving at
Majuro Atoll on 16 July. She then proceeded back to Pearl Harbor, carrying damaged aircraft, arriving on 29 July, along with her sister ship . Throughout August, she was stationed at
San Diego for a four-week overhaul, where she received her combat air contingent, Composite Squadron (VC) 86. Between 7 September, and 16 October, she engaged in additional training exercises. She then steamed to
Ulithi,
Caroline Islands, to join
Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid's
7th Fleet on 1 November. Between 14 and 23 November, she operated off
Leyte and
Mindanao in support of
operations onboard Leyte. On 21 November, a Japanese aircraft made a strafing run along the carrier, but without inflicting any damage, and escaped to the northwest before it could be engaged. On 27 November, she arrived at
Seeadler Harbor,
New Guinea, to join
Task Group 77.4, commanded by
Rear Admiral Calvin T. Durgin. Throughout December, she conducted additional flight training and gunnery exercises. On 27 December, she left for
Palau, to support the
invasion of Luzon. On 5 January 1945, her task group sighted the Japanese
destroyers and . engaged in a brief and inconclusive firefight with the destroyers, before disengaging to provide a screen. Twenty-four fighters and sixteen torpedo bombers were sent against the destroyers, which
Bismarck Sea supplemented the strike group with four Avengers and the same amount of Wildcats. The aerial strike force inflicted serious damage on both of the destroyers, sinking
Momi.
Hinoki, albeit damaged, was able to escape into
Manila harbor, but she was subsequently sunk on 7 January by aircraft from Task Force 78. However, that same day, the escort carrier was sunk by a kamikaze aircraft. The task group then participated in the
Invasion of Lingayen Gulf and supported air operations over Luzon until 17 January, when the task group proceeded towards Ulithi in preparation for the
invasion of Iwo Jima. She departed Ulithi on 10 February, reorganized into Task Unit 52.2, still under the command of Durgin, and consisting of ten escort carriers and their destroyer screens, along with two escort carriers loosely tied into the task group on anti-submarine duties. On 16 February, she arrived off
Iwo Jima to support the landings. The task group's aircraft conducted anti-submarine patrols, anti-aircraft patrols, and supported the first wave of troops on 19 February. Close air support, almost all of it derived from carriers, played a major role throughout the invasion.
Sinking On 16 February, Vice-Admiral
Kimpei Teroaka authorized the formation of a kamikaze special attack unit to counter the imminent landings on Iwo Jima. The kamikaze force consisted of thirty-two aircraft in total, and on the early morning of 21 February, they departed from
Katori Naval Air Base, in
Asahi, Chiba. They refueled at
Hachijō-jima, and proceeded towards the U.S. naval contingent surrounding Iwo Jima, arriving near sunset. When the kamikazes arrived,
Bismarck Sea was performing routine
close air support with the rest of Task Group 52.2. At the time, the escort carrier task group, having split in two, consisted of
Bismarck Sea, her sister ships , ,
Saginaw Bay, , and , along with a destroyer contingent. The task group was steaming approximately east of Iwo Jima. At 17:30, the aircraft on
Bismarck Sea were scrambled to deal with incoming planes, which turned out to be friendly. After recovering her planes, she found it necessary to take on three planes from other carriers and, due to the lack of deck space, to shelter four of her fighters below-decks without emptying their fuel tanks, a decision which would later prove disastrous. This brought the number of aircraft aboard the carrier to thirty-seven aircraft: 19 FM-2 fighters, 15 TBM-3 torpedo bombers, 2
OY-1 reconnaissance aircraft, and a
F6F Hellcat fighter. At 18:45, the task group spotted the Japanese planes headed for them, when a
Mitsubishi G4M made a dive towards
Lunga Point. Gunners from
Bismarck Sea shot it down. At 18:46, five
Nakajima B6Ns dove towards
Lunga Point. All four of the kamikazes missed with their torpedoes, and none of them made successful contact with
Lunga Point, albeit the third kamikaze's wreckage skidded across the carrier's deck, sparking a brief gasoline fire. Damage to
Lunga Point was minimal, and eleven of her crew were wounded. There were no fatalities, and she was able to continue operating in support of troops on Iwo Jima. The fifth plane, however, switched targets, and proceeded towards
Bismarck Sea. At , it was spotted by, and engaged by gunners aboard
Bismarck Sea. However, despite the heavy gunfire, which damaged the plane, it quickly approached
Bismarck Sea from the starboard side at a low angle, which the anti-aircraft guns could not depress sufficiently to fire at. The plane plowed in under the first
40 mm gun (aft), crashing through the hangar deck and striking the ship's
magazines. At the time of the crash, the
aircraft elevator was in operation, and nearly up to the flight deck, when its cables were cut by the kamikaze, causing the platform to drop onto the hangar deck with a tremendous amount of force. The force of the explosion distributed munitions, including torpedoes, across the deck, and started a fire. The ship's steering was also rendered dysfunctional by the blast. The sprinkler system and the water curtains were inoperative, but the fire was nearly under control when about two minutes later, a second plane, likely attracted by the ship's glow against the darkness, approaching from the port side, struck the aft elevator shaft, exploding on impact, killing the majority of the fire-fighting party and destroying the fire fighting salt-water distribution system, thus preventing any further damage control. The second plane detonated amongst the four fighters which were sheltered belowdecks, and the fighters, with full gasoline tanks, quickly turned the fire into a conflagration, enveloping the entire aft side of the ship. When munitions on board the ship began to detonate, and with no firefighting equipment operational, the situation quickly deteriorated. At 19:00, the crew assembled at their "abandon ship" locations, and the engines were cut. Captain John L. Pratt issued the order to abandon ship at 19:05. As the crew abandoned ship, a large explosion, likely from the detonation of the torpedoes within the hangar deck, rocked the ship. This explosion tore much of the aft-end of the ship to shreds, and she quickly acquired a list to the starboard. The majority of the crew made it off the ship in the next 30 minutes. At 20:07, the ship's island detached from the hull and slid into the water. Two hours after the dual kamikaze attacks, at 21:15,
Bismarck Sea sank with the loss of 318 men, and was the last US Navy aircraft carrier to be lost during World War II. Many casualties were inflicted once the crew abandoned ship, through
hypothermia, choppy seas, and Japanese aircraft strafing the survivors. Three destroyers and three
destroyer escorts rescued survivors over the next 12 hours, between them saving a total of 605 officers and men from her crew of 923. The destroyer escort directed the rescue operations of the remaining hands, in spite of darkness, heavy seas and continuing air attacks, rescuing a majority of the surviving crew. Thirty of
Edmonds own crew went over the side to bring the wounded and exhausted carrier men to safety.
Edmonds hauled up 378 men, the destroyer escort retrieved 136 men, and the destroyer recovered 39 survivors. Survivors were then transferred to the attack transports and . The special attack unit which struck on 21 February, in addition to sinking
Bismarck Sea, also heavily damaged , , and slightly damaged
Lunga Point, , and .
Bismarck Sea was the only ship to sink as a result of the attacks and was struck from the Navy List on 30 March; to date, she is the last US aircraft carrier in commission lost due to enemy action. The kamikaze attacks killed 43 Japanese in total. ==See also==