Attacker-class escort carrier

HMS Attacker
Class overview
Name	Attacker class
Builders	4 at Ingalls Shipbuilding 4 at Western Pipe & Steel 3 at Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Avenger class
Succeeded by	Ruler class
Built	1941–1943
In commission	1942–1946
Planned	11
Completed	11
Retired	8
Scrapped	3
General characteristics
Type	Escort carrier
Displacement	10,200 long tons (10,360 t) (standard) 14,400 long tons (14,630 t) (full load)
Length	465 ft (142 m) (wl) 496 ft (151 m) (oa) 440 ft (130 m) (fd)
Beam	69 ft 6 in (21.18 m) wl 82 ft (25 m) (fd) 111 ft 6 in (33.99 m) (extreme width)
Draught	23 ft 3 in (7.09 m) (mean) 26 ft (7.9 m) (deep load)
Installed power	2 × Foster-Wheeler 285 psi (1,970 kPa) boilers 8,500 shp (6,300 kW)
Propulsion	1 × General Electric or Westinghouse steam turbine 1 × Screw
Speed	18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement	646
Armament	2 × 4 in (100 mm)/50 caliber guns in single mounts 8 × 40 mm (1.57 in) Bofors anti-aircraft gun in twin mounts 21 × 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannons in single and twin mounts
Aircraft carried	20
Aviation facilities	Flight deck 442 by 88 feet (135 by 27 m) Hangar 262 by 62 feet (80 by 19 m) 2 × 42-by-34-foot (13 by 10 m) lifts 9 arrestor wires

The Attacker class were a class of escort aircraft carriers in service with the British Royal Navy during the Second World War.

The United States Navy had acquired 22 C3 cargo ships shortly after the Attack on Pearl Harbor to be converted into the Bogue class. With an increasing need for convoy escorts in the North Atlantic eleven of these were transferred to the Royal Navy, and reclassified as Attacker class, under the terms of the Lend-Lease program.

The ships were originally intended to serve as convoy escort carriers, equipped with both anti-submarine and fighter aircraft, and transport carriers, transferring new and replacement aircraft to forward bases. During successful use during the amphibious invasion of North Africa to cover advancing ground units until land airbases were secured, several ships were refit as strike carriers, equipped with just fighter aircraft. When used as convoy escorts, the ships' aircraft were successful in deterring German submarines from attacking Allied convoys, with a number of German submarines and aircraft destroyed or damaged by the aircraft. Those carriers operating in the strike role took part in two major landings in the Mediterranean and an operation against the German battleship Tirpitz in Norwegian waters. Eight of the ships ended the war in the Far East in the campaigns against the Japanese Empire and were then used to transport home prisoners of war.

All eleven ships survived the war and were eventually returned to the United States Navy, which sold eight of them for conversion back into merchant ships. The other three ships were scrapped.