I have a family member who served on Pursuer D73 and it was only near the end of his life when he started telling us things about his time on that ship. I would like to know everything possible about it if anyone has any knowledge please. He mentioned about being torpedoed and ending up in the water in the Arctic Circle- you only had 5 minutes tops to get out of the water before you died. He did the Atlantic convoys and apparently the Murmansk convoys too where there were hailstones the size of a man's fist. He mentioned going to Africa and Norway. I know now that Pursuer was instrumental in firing upon the Tirpitz.
TL;DR: I'd like to know anything about HMS Pursuer D73. Thank you!
She was transferred from the US to the British under the Lend Lease Agreement in June of 43 and commissioned then as HMS Pursuer. She spent some time undergoing modifications at Norfolk, then sailed to New York to join Convoy HX250 to Clyde (UK) on 30 July 1943. It is possible she carried aircraft to be transferred to the British on this trip.
Upon arrival she sailed to Liverpool and underwent extensive modifications to become a British Assault Carrier August to November 1943, arriving back at Clyde mid-November. There she took on 20 Wildcat/Martlet V aircraft of the 881 and 886 squadrons of the 7th Naval Fighter Wing and was deployed to Greenock and then in December in the Irish Sea.
In early February 1944 she deployed with the 16th Escort Group to convoy defense duty in the western approaches, first providing air patrol support for a convoy from Liverpool to Gibraltar. There were several aircraft crashes and one enemy encounter, in which one of Pursuer's hellcats Wildcats/Martlets downed an enemy He177. The pilot was Sub-Lt. TLM Brander. On 22 February she linked up with a convoy returning to England and arrived back at Clyde on on 6 March 1944.
She then was loaned to Home Fleet for the assault on the German battleship Tirpitz (operation TUNGSTEN) and sailed on 16 March with sister CVEs Emperor, Fencer, and Searcher. These became FORCE 2 at Scapa Flow and were joined by the Royalist, Furious, Sheffield, Jamaica, two fuel ships, and five destroyers. On 2 April they were joined by the Anson, Belfast, and more destroyers. There were two strikes on the target, in which 40 Barracuda dive bombers and over 80 fighters, including the Pusuer's Wildcats. I believe Pursuer lost only 1 Wildcat in the attack.
Operation PITCHFORK was to be a repeat attack on the Tirpitz, but it was canceled sometime around the 13th of April 1943 1944. It was rescheduled for April 24th, operation PLANET, but was again canceled. On or around April 26th, the Pursuer joined in Operation RIDGE ABLE, an attack on enemy shipping off Norway. She then returned to Liverpool for repairs at the end of April 1944.
On June 2nd 1944 the Pursuer participated in Operation NEPTUNE. She and many other vessels were stationed off Lands End to (try to) intercept U-boats as they attempted to enter the Channel. The aim was to prevent any interference of the invasion fleets approaching the landings at Normandy. Pursuer was responsible for one aircraft kill, a Ju88, during this time.
She was then assigned duty in the western Mediterranean and passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on July 22nd. She participated in Operation DRAGOON off the coast of France, which was August of 44. Some 180 aircraft sorties were launched, and five aircraft were lost during this action. Late in August she was released from DRAGOON and assigned to duty in the Aegean. She sailed for Alexandria with other ships and arrived on 2 September. During September she participated in multiple actions in that theater and returned to Alexandria at the end of the month. During this time she was with the Searcher, Emperor, Attacker, Khedive, and others.
She then went back to England and arrived at Clyde on 12 October 1944. In November she was at Scapa Flow, again with Home Fleet, and participated in several operations off Norway.
By mid-December she was back at Clyde and took passage with a convoy to the US Navy Yard at Norfolk, VA, where she arrived on the 24th of December for repairs. There she took on Corsair aircraft and arrived back in England after repairs on February 15th 1945. [edit: Presumably she unloaded the Corsairs (they never fought from Pursuer as far as I can tell), but she received instead as upgrades thirty Hellcat IIs. See reply below]
From there she went to Gibraltar and then Cape Town, South Africa. From there she sailed to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and arrived July 25th to begin operations with East Indies Fleet. She was to participate in Operation ZIPPER against Japanese-held Malaya, but that was put on hold upon the Japanese surrender on 15 August. On 20 November she left the East Indies Fleet and arrived back at Clyde on the 12th of December. She was disarmed and removed from active service, and sailed for Norfolk on January 16th 1946. A month later she was officially returned to the US ownership, and was sent to the scrapyards of Patapsco Steel in May to be broken up.