USS Hoggatt Bay (CVE-75) was the twenty-first of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers built for the United States Navy during World War II.

Four Babcock & Wilcox boilers powered two Skinner Unaflow reciprocating steam engines, which drove two screws, providing 9,000 horsepower (6,700 kW), thus enabling her to make 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).

During the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf, she carried 16 FM-2 Wildcat fighters and 12 TBM-1C Avenger torpedo bombers for a total of 28 aircraft.

[7][8] Her construction was awarded to Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington under a Maritime Commission (MC) contract, on 18 June 1942.

She then underwent a shakedown cruise down the West Coast, heading to Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California.

She arrived at San Diego on 23 February, and spent the early half of March conducting gunnery and air-defense drills off of the California coast.

She spent April undergoing an overhaul, heading westwards on 1 May to conduct antisubmarine operations around the vicinity of Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago.

[11] Stopping at Pearl Harbor on 8 May, Hoggatt Bay then proceeded for Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands on 11 May, assigned to Escort Division (CortDiv) 39, otherwise known as Task Unit 16.14.6.

On the early morning of 31 May, the Buckley-class destroyer escort England claimed her sixth submarine kill in thirteen days.

Thus, the task group proceeded northwards, and on 10 June, one of Hoggatt Bay's Wildcats sighted an oil slick approximately 8 miles (13 km) west of the escort carrier.

[11][13] On 19 June, Hoggatt Bay returned to Manus, before proceeding to Eniwetok in the Marshalls, staying there for a period of four days to replenish.

At 03:11 in the early morning of 3 October, the radar operators of Hoggatt Bay detected a surface signature approximately 20,000 yards (18,000 m) away from the carrier.

As the destroyer escort closed to within 5,000 yards (4,600 m), the submarine dove, and thirteen minutes later, having established sonar contact, Samuel S. Miles fired her first volley using her Hedgehog mortars.

Hoggatt Bay and her escorts served as a deterrent against submarine attack, and was credited with thwarting at least one attempt to strike the damaged cruisers.

On 22 December, Captain Josephus Asa Briggs assumed command of Hoggatt Bay whilst she was replenishing at Manus.

Pausing at Kossol Roads on 31 December, the formation saw its first of many kamikaze attacks on 3 January 1945, with a plane shot down just 1,000 yards (910 m) from Hoggatt Bay.

However, it was not until 13 January that she found herself directly menaced, after a kamikaze, aiming for her sister ship Tulagi and dissuaded by heavy anti-aircraft fire, switched its destination for Hoggatt Bay.

As the Avenger came to a stop on Hoggatt Bay's flight deck, the bomb detonated, killing thirteen onboard and wounding fourteen others.

On 1 May, she embarked Composite Squadron (VC) 99 at Saipan, and after a short period of exercises, she departed on 8 May for Okinawa, in support of the ongoing battle.

After conducting some training exercises off Samar from 17 to 21 July, she left for Adak, Alaska on 11 August to join Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's Ninth Fleet, which was operating off of the Aleutian Islands.

Arriving on 7 September, Hoggatt Bay conducted air patrols and dropped supplies for American ex-prisoners of war.

[10][11][18] On 15 September, Lieutenant Colonel James Devereux, who had received a Navy Cross for his conduct during the Battle of Wake Island, was taken onto Hoggatt Bay, where he was expeditiously airlifted back to the United States.

[10][11] Hoggatt Bay's first Magic Carpet trip began on 3 November, when she headed westwards, bound for Pearl Harbor.

Midway through, her destination changed to Saipan, and she ferried approximately 1200 passengers back to the West Coast, sailing into San Pedro on 7 December.