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Question, as I don't know: I always thought USN CVEs only carried Wildcats. True? Those groups can upgrade in-game to Hellcats. Is that WAD? Is that kosher?

The largest CVE's ended the war carrying Hellcats and Corsairs. The majority were still using Wildcats.

Was this a case of ability, or just other areas had higher priority for Hellcats?

Used in Operation Dragoon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dragoon
On CVE-69 Kasaan Bay: (VF-74 operating 32 Hellcats and 3 Avengers)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/03/069.htm

and CVE-72 Tulagi (VOF-1 operating 26 Hellcats and two Avengers:
http://www.navsource.org/archives/03/072.htm

A little bit about their action:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive ... 01275.html

The Navy was using up most of the supply of Hellcats on the CVs and CVLs.  Hellcats could fly from all the CVEs.  A number of the standard CVEs had Marine Corsair units at the end of the war and the Corsair was tougher to land on any carrier than a Hellcat.  Most CVEs served in the Atlantic where the Wildcat was good enough. 

For most of the roles CVEs performed in the Pacific, the Wildcat was also good enough.  Generally if aircraft from a CVE are engaging enemy ships, something has drastically gone wrong (such as the Battle Off Samar).

Bill

Hellcats could operate from most flight decks including the shorter CVE's. There were genuine problems with the Corsairs as they were officially too heavy and had too long a take-off run for a lot of CVE's, although there are many cases of them being flown from CVE's mainly by Marine squadrons (often being used for shuttle/ferryign)

And close support Marine air groups on CVEs with Corsairs and Avengers were being worked up for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. Four were nearly ready (eight squadrons) and four more were in the planning stages.

Most CVEs served in the Atlantic where the Wildcat was good enough. 

It depends on the class. Bogue class, for example, was primarily an Atlantic theater class; Casablanca was Pacific. The escorts were used more for ASW protection, and so in that case the Wildcats were perfectly adequate, as you stated.

ORIGINAL: Terminus

And close support Marine air groups on CVEs with Corsairs and Avengers were being worked up for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. Four were nearly ready (eight squadrons) and four more were in the planning stages.

Marines were already flying close support from CVEs during the Iwo Jima and Okinawa operations.

Bill

Not the dedicated groups, I believe.

Not the dedicated groups, I believe.

I looked at the Navy's listings of Aircraft by location for the week of May 19, in the middle of the Okinawa operation and the following CVEs had Marine squadrons embarked that took part in operations:
Block Island CVE106: VMF-511 (10 Hellcats, 8 Corsairs) and VMTB-233 (Avengers)
Gilbert Island CVE107: VMF512 (2 -5P Hellcats, 17 corsairs) and VMTB143 (Avengers)

Two CVEs (Vella Gulf & Cape Gloucester) were in San Diego ready to depart with Marine air groups and there were a couple others still training up but earmarked for specific carriers.

Haven't had time to look into Iwo Jima yet.

As of March 10th the "Squadrons Assigned to Marine Carriers" shows:

Block Island - San Diego, Air Group MCVG-1 at Santa Barbara
Gilbert Island - San Diego Air Group MCVG-2 at Santa Barbara
Vella Gulf - Tacoma (fitting out) Air Group MCVG-3 at Santa Barbara
Cape Gloucester - Tacoma (fitting out) Air Group MCVG-4 at Santa Barbara
Puget Sound - Tacoma (fitting out) Air Group MCVG-5 at Mojave
Salerno Bay- Portland Oregon Air Group MCVG-6 at Mojave

So no all-Marine CVEs took part in Iwo Jima.

ORIGINAL: Terminus
Not the dedicated groups, I believe.

Correct. Marines flew different missions all the time and somebody can always find Marines doing something out of the box.

There were dedicated USMC CAS CAGs for Commencement Bay CVEs. Some USN CAS CAGs for these too. Four or five were off San Diego ready to go by VJ day, and the rest would have been there for Downfall.

Some CVE's were simply too small or had too weak a flightdeck to operate the heavier fighters, particularly the unforgiving F4U Corsair. However yes there are quite a few cases of several (larger, not sure of the stressing or length of the flight deck - anyone out there got a tape measure?) CVE's operating (Marine) Corsairs towards the end of the Pacific War

Uhh yeah... look at my two posts on the 28th....