Yorktown and Hornet were stationed in the Atlantic, but were transfered to the Pacific in December 1941 and March 1942. Wasp went to the Pacific in June 1942, and Ranger went in July 1944.
Which other aircraft carriers operated in the Atlantic Theatre during WWII?
For the US. the Atlantic was the bastion where the escort carriers (CVE) operated in the anti sub role. The British kept their carriers in the Atlantic until 1945.
I know that the Atlantic had CVEs. Is there a list of the ones that operated in the Atlantic? (And to clarify, I’m just looking for the U.S. carriers.) Were there any Independence Class carriers in the Atlantic?
There were nine Independence class carriers in WW II. As far as I know, none of them served in the Atlantic, as there were eight of them involved in the battle for the Philippines. Don’t know for sure where that last one was, though.
This site lists seven Casablanca class carriers operating in the Atlantic:
Mission Bay
Guadalcanal
Didrickson Bay/Tripoli
Wake Island
Solomons
Tulagi
Shamrock Bay
Wiki mentions some 113 carriers in six classes (not counting six produced by the British), and states that ‘many’ were Lend-Leased to the British. I was hoping there would be a comprehensive list naming all of the carriers operated by the USN in the Atlantic during WWII. (And it would be interesting to know which of the CVEs were Lend-Leased, although that’s not my primary question.)
I was going to say Ranger, although reviewing her history on this DANFS page I see that she went to the Pacific in 1944 (although she was never engaged in combat in the Pacific as our smallest surviving fleet carrier).
There is a similar DANFS page for escort carriers that one may “walk” through, one by one, looking for Atlantic service.
(I am going to be quite surprised if the British leased any carriers other than jeeps. The couple I found (e.g., the Altamaha, the Barnes, and the first Block Island were all shorter than 500’ o.a. with displacements of less than 8,000 tons.)