USS Rudyerd Bay (CVE-81) was the twenty-seventh of fifty Casablanca-class escort carriers built for the United States Navy during World War II.

[1][8] Upon being commissioned, Rudyerd Bay underwent a shakedown cruise down the West Coast to Southern California, where she took on a load of aircraft, which she ferried to Espiritu Santo of the New Hebrides throughout April and May.

At Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, she joined Task Group 30.8, the Fleet Oiler and Transport Carrier Group, which at the time, consisted of seven escort carriers (including Rudyerd Bay), seven destroyers, fifteen destroyer escorts, and twenty-four replenishment oilers, organized into eight task units.

The location had been chosen because it lay out of range of Japanese fighters, but it also happened to lie within Typhoon Alley, where many Pacific tropical cyclones transited.

He ordered his fleet to move to the next morning's planned rendezvous spot, approximately 160 mi (260 km) northwest, and comfortably safe from the typhoon's impacts.

Conflicting orders meant that some of the destroyers attempted to do some fueling during the morning, even as waves with an estimated height of 60 ft (18 m) pounded the task force.

[13][14] Nonetheless, all appearances suggest that Rudyerd Bay passed through Typhoon Cobra relatively intact and without much damage, given the fact that on 19 December, Halsey found it judicious to assign upon her and her sister Anzio, the task of combing through the area looking for survivors.

[16] At 08:40, Rudyerd Bay, along with her screens, relieved the destroyer escort Tabberer, which had been conducting search and rescue operations for fifty straight hours.

[17][18] Upon concluding rescue operations, Rudyerd Bay steamed back to Ulithi, where the destroyer escorts unloaded the survivors of the Spence.

On 28 December, the escort carrier, accompanied by Nehenta Bay, several oilers, and various other ships, departed Ulithi, voyaging westwards to continue their replenishment role in support of the Philippines campaign.

[8] Rudyerd Bay remained at Ulithi until 10 February, when she left for Saipan, in the Mariana Islands, in preparation for the invasion of Iwo Jima.

The two carriers were responsible for providing air cover and escorting the troop transports as they ferried marines to the shores of Iwo Jima.

[19] Nonetheless, VC-77 continued providing close air support and conducting antisubmarine patrols around Iwo Jima until 8 March, when Rudyerd Bay retired for Ulithi.

[8] Throughout these operations, Rudyerd Bay witnessed a steady stream of both kamikazes and conventional Japanese aircraft make attacks on the escort carriers.

For example, on the late afternoon of 2 April, Rudyerd Bay's fighters were scrambled when two kamikazes attacked her sister Wake Island, with an extreme near-miss tearing a large hole in the starboard side of the carrier.

In the ensuing mayhem, two Wildcat fighters and an Avenger on the flight deck were rendered as complete losses, with four more planes being severely damaged, albeit remarkably, none of the pilots were killed or seriously injured.

[8] Proceeding eastwards, Rudyerd Bay arrived on Guam on 23 May, where she detached her aircraft contingent, VC-96, and embarked Composite Squadron 85 (VC-85) for transport back to the West Coast.

Nonetheless, Rudyerd Bay continued onwards, unloading cargo and passengers at Enewetak, before heading to Ulithi and the Philippines, and moving Composite Squadron (VC-33) to Okinawa.

[8] There, Rudyerd Bay underwent repairs and modifications in order to better accommodate troops, before being assigned to the "Magic Carpet" fleet, which repatriated servicemen from throughout the Pacific.

She transited through the Panama Canal on 28 February, unloaded some aircraft at Jacksonville, Florida in early March, and steamed north to Boston, where inactivation work was commenced.

She was struck from the Navy list on 1 August 1959, and sometime in January 1960, she was sold to Cantieri Navali Santa Maria, which broke her up in Genoa, Italy throughout 1960.