CVE-100 was initially named Didrickson Bay for a bay (also known as Deep Bay) on the west coast of Chichagof Island, Alexander Archipelago, Alaska (NS0306409).

Renamed Bougainville, 26 April 1944, to commemorate a major campaign fought on the island by that name, in the northern Solomons (NS0310003).

Allied troops stormed ashore at Cape Torokina on 1 November 1943. During the early morning hours of the 2nd, a Japanese surface force composed of four cruisers and six destroyers tried unsuccessfully to break up the invasion in what became known as the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay:

• U.S. Forces: light cruisers USS Montpelier (CL-57, flag of RADM Aaron S. Merrill), USS Cleveland (CL-55), USS Columbia (CL-56), and USS Denver (CL-58, slightly damaged). Destroyers USS Charles Ausburne (DD-570, flag of CAPT Arleigh A. Burke), USS Stanly (DD-478), USS Claxton (DD-571), USS Dyson (DD-572); USS Spence (DD-512, flag of CDR Bernard L. Austin; slightly damaged), USS Converse (DD-509), USS Foote (DD-511, heavily damaged), and USS Thatcher (DD‑514, slightly damaged).
• Japanese forces: heavy cruisers Myoko (flag of RADM Omori Sentaro) and Haguro (slightly damaged); light cruisers Agano (flag of RADM Osugi Morikazu) and Sendai (flag of RADM Ijuin Matsuji; sunk); destroyers Naganami, Hatsukaze (sunk), Wakatsuki, Shigure, Samidare (damaged), and Shiratsuyu (damaged).

Since the purpose of the assault was to secure air bases to isolate the large Japanese base at Rabaul, New Britain, and not necessarily to occupy the entire island, enemy land forces remained active on Bougainville through the end of the war.

NS0310003a: Chart, "The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay." (See also   "Night Engagement off Empress Augusta Bay" video  .)

(Maps NS0306409 and NS0310003 courtesy of Google Maps. Chart NS0310003a courtesy of The Two-Ocean War, by Samuel Eliot Morison [Galahad Books, 1997].)

USS Bougainville (CVE-100) underway, circa 1945.

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph (#NH 89182). Courtesy of William H. Davis, 1979.