HMS Reaper (D82)
HMS Reaper at Greenock in Scotland in September 1944
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
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| Name: | USS Winjah |
| Builder: | Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Laid down: | 5 June 1943 |
| Launched: | 22 November 1943 |
| Fate: | Transferred to the Royal Navy |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Reaper |
| Commissioned: | 18 February 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 2 July 1946 |
| Fate: | Sold as a merchant ship; scrapped in 1967 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: |
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| Displacement: | 7,800 tons |
| Length: | 495 ft 8 in (151.08 m) |
| Beam: | 69 ft 6 in (21.18 m) |
| Draught: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbines, one shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW) |
| Speed: | 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h) |
| Complement: | 890 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 28 |
The USS Winjah (CVE-54) (originally AVG-54, later ACV-54), was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, leased to the Royal Navy during World War II.
Winjah was laid down on 5 June 1943 at Tacoma, Washington, by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding. She was assigned to the United Kingdom under lend-lease on 23 June; she was redesignated CVE-54 on 15 July; launched on 22 November; and delivered to the British on 18 February 1944.
Renamed HMS Reaper (D82), the carrier operated in the Royal Navy for the duration of World War II. After arriving at Norfolk, Virginia, on 13 May 1946, Reaper was decommissioned on 20 May and returned to the United States Government. Authorized for disposal on 14 June, Winjah was struck from the Navy Registry on 8 July and sold to the Waterman Steamship Company of Mobile, Alabama on 12 February 1947 as the South Africa Star. She was scrapped in Nikara, Japan in May 1967.
Just after World War II, the Reaper was responsible for bringing from Cherbourg harbour many examples of former German Luftwaffe aircraft captured by the American military's Operation Lusty over to North America, such as the sole examples of the Arado Ar 234 jet reconnaissance bomber, and the Heinkel He 219 night fighter, that exist in American aviation museums in the 21st century. The aircraft arrived by air from Germany to Querqueville Airfield which is under a kilometer away from Cherbourg.
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