World War II Database

1. Geo Bryja says:
13 Jul 2021 10:27:06 AM

Hello,
Awesome collection of info here. I just wanted to point out that perhaps the correction could be made to help differentiate between carriers and avoid confusion amongst some – In the pic of “Group portrait of airmen with a FM-1 Wildcat fighter aboard USS Coral Sea, 30 Oct 1943” – this designation would not have been “USS” but rather “CVE”. Thx. All the best ~

2.  David Stubblebine says:
13 Jul 2021 02:20:50 PM

Geo Bryja (above):
Thank you for your kind words and for your recommendation. Allow me to describe the US Navy’s custom for designating ships, which is followed by most authors including WW2db. Ships have a type, a name, and a hull number. In Coral Sea’s case, the type was Escort Carrier designated CVE, the name was Coral Sea, and the hull number was 57. Any Navy ship in commission becomes a United States Ship, or USS. Customarily, ‘USS’ is listed in front of the ship’s name followed by the ship’s type listed with the hull number: i.e., USS Coral Sea (CVE-57). In the few cases where commissioned ships have no names, ‘USS’ is put in front of their hull designations: i.e., USS LST-167. Navy reports from the period often omitted the name altogether and would refer to this ship simply as ‘CVE-57.’ Many authors use the full description in their writing while others use portions of it. WW2db often omits the hull designation while describing the ships by name along with the ‘USS’ (or HMS, or HMAS, etc. as the case may be) to help identify which Navy the ship sails with.