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Career (US)
Class and type:	Bogue-class escort carrier
Name:	USS Altamaha
Builder:	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	15 April 1941
Launched:	4 April 1942
Acquired:	31 October 1942
Decommissioned:	1946?
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Battler
Acquired:	31 October 1942
Commissioned:	15 November 1942
Decommissioned:	12 February 1946
Struck:	28 March 1946
Fate:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Displacement:	9,800 tons (standard)
Length:	496 ft
Beam:	105 ft (32 m)
Draught:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion:	Steam turbines, 1 shaft, 8,500 shp (6.3 MW)
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement:	646, excluding air group
Armament:	2 × 4 in (102 mm) (1x2) 8 × 40 mm (4x2) 20 × 20 mm guns
Aircraft carried:	20
Honours and awards:	Atlantic 1942-1945, Salerno 1943, Indian Ocean.

The USS Altamaha (CVE-6) (originally AVG-6) was a Bogue-class escort aircraft carrier that served during World War II as HMS Battler (D18) in the Royal Navy.

She was laid down on 15 April 1941 as a freighter, Mormactern (hull 160), under Maritime Commission contract at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by Ingalls Shipbuilding. On 7 January 1942 she was named Altamaha but the name was cancelled on 17 March 1942. She was launched on 4 April 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Phillip Seymour, wife of Captain Seymour. She was redesignated ACV on 20 August 1942. Acquired by the United States Navy on 31 October 1942, she was simultaneously transferred (via the Lend-Lease programme) to the United Kingdom and the same day. She was renamed HMS Battler and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 15 November 1942.

Battler served in the Royal Navy from November 1942 until the end of World War II, serving for the most part as convoy escort in the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans. She travelled the globe extensively - USA, UK, Gibraltar, Malta, Salerno, Palermo, Suez, Aden, Cochin (India), Bombay, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, Maldives, Sydney and the Panama Canal.

In September 1943, Battler supported the allied invasion of Italy at Salerno. In March 1944, as part of force CS4, she helped to disrupt u-boat operations in the Indian Ocean when her aircraft guided destroyers onto the German supply ship Brake and two u-boats. The Brake was destroyed by gunfire from HMS Roebuck and one of the u-boats was damaged by Battler's aircraft^[1].

Battler was returned to the United States on 12 February 1946 and struck from the Navy list on 28 March 1946. She was sold on 14 May 1946 to the Patapsco Steel Scrap Co., Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and was subsequently scrapped.

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

HMS Battler. Fleet Air Arm Archive. Fleet Air Arm Archive (2000-2001).

Complete set of photos + 'HMS Battler Diary of Flying Operations' logged at http://www.hmsbattler.com