HMS Ranee

HMS Ranee (D03) was a U. S.-built escort carrier that served in the Royal Navy during World War Ii. The ship's keel was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract at the Tacoma, Washington yard of the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation on 5 January 1943. She was originally given a prospective U. S. Navy name, USS Niantic, and an initial designation of AVG-46 (later changed to ACV-46, and, by the time of her commissioning, to CVE-46). The vessel was launched on 2 June 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Ray V. Blanco, and was commissioned into the U. S. Navy, as Niantic, on 8 November. Later that day she was transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend-Lease, decommissioned by the U. S. Navy, and recommissioned as HMS Ranee (D03)
As one of the 38 converted C3 escort carriers transferred to the United Kingdom, Ranee joined the merchant aircraft carriers guarding the Atlantic convoy routes. Assigned to the Western Approaches, her aircraft helped to turn the tables on foraging U-boats in the North Atlantic and also assisted in operations to close their northern transit into the Atlantic and track them down in the Bay of Biscay. On 27 February 1945 she sailed from San Diego with USMC squadron...