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Concept
HMS Biter (D97)
Summary
HMS Biter was a Royal Navy escort carrier during the Second World War. She was laid down as a merchant ship at the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company yard at Chester, Pennsylvania. Laid down on 28 December 1939, she was converted to an escort carrier and commissioned in the Royal Navy on 6 May 1942. She was returned to the United States in 1945 and subsequently lent to France.
Biter was an . These carriers were converted American type C3 merchant ships. Their design was based on the U.S. Navy′s (AVG); to differentiate between the two classes, the Royal Navy added the prefix "B" (BAVG). HMS Biter (BAVG3) was built by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, originally named the Rio-Parana; she was laid down on 28 December 1939, launched on 18 December 1940 and delivered on 4 September 1941. She was converted to an escort carrier in the Atlantic Basin Iron Works at Brooklyn New York and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 6 May 1942, under the command of Captain Conolly Abel Smith.
Biter had a complement of 555 men and an overall length of , a beam of and a height of . She displaced at normal load and at deep load. Propulsion was provided by four diesel engines connected to one shaft giving , which could propel the ship at .
Aircraft facilities were a small combined bridge–flight control on the starboard side and above the long wooden flight deck, one aircraft lift, one aircraft catapult and nine arrestor wires. Aircraft could be housed in the half hangar below the flight deck. Armament comprised three single mounted dual purpose guns and fifteen 20 mm cannons on single or twin mounts. She had the capacity for fifteen aircraft which could be a mixture of Grumman Martlet or Hawker Sea Hurricane fighters and Fairey Swordfish or Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers (also used for anti-submarine patrols).
After commissioning, Biter was being readied to leave New York when a fire broke out on 8 May 1942, in the catapult house which destroyed one of the catapult motors. Eventually believed ready for sea, she left the dock on 15 May but had to return to rectify an engine problem.
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