At 1955 her radar picked up the convoy about 16,000 yards ahead. Completed in June 1942, she arrived at Guadalcanal in October and soon proved herself during a vital time when the US Navy's posture in the Pacific war was changing from defensive to offensive, an auspicious beginning to a 27-year career. While off Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach Harbor, KIDD was struck by the 9,000-ton Swedish freighter HAINAN on April 21, 1953. It soon became clear that it was traveling in the opposite direction of the convoy. On October 2, 1961, she found herself part of the rapid mobilization of the nations military forces in response to the Soviets construction of the Berlin Wall. After seven minutes, the ships ceased firing and a Coast Guard boarding party from the Spencer headed for the smoking U-boat. Together, these classes dominated the US Navys destroyer force over the next 25 years. . CAPT John M. Waters, USCG (Ret. Fred Edwards, Destroyer Type Desk, Bureau of Ships, 1942, quoted in Holland, Rear Admiral W. J., Jr., USN (Ret), ed. Her keel was laid on Oct . 5. The crew was extremely tight. The entire process of raising steam was started by making up a burner, igniting the torch with a match, inserting it into the furnace, and opening the fuel valve. My own ship, the USS Halsey Powell (DD 686) had been struck by a Kamikaze while escorting the carrier USS Hancock (CV 19) off Okinawa in 1945. In the traditional system of naming destroyers after Naval heroes, she was named after Rear Admiral Isaac Campbell Kidd, Sr. who was killed aboard his flagship, USS ARIZONA (BB-39) during the surprise attack by the Japanese on the American fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Following this action, KIDDalong with the other ships of DESRON 48sailed for Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California for a major overhaul and refitting. Copyright 2011-2022 Naval Historical Foundation. 9. Slow but reliable, the Coast Guard's Secretary-class cutters were the backbone of the United States' North Atlantic escort force during World War II. She continued rescue operations all the while maneuvering to avoid bombs and airborne torpedoes while simultaneously engaging the enemy. The other ships in the division would then come alongside and tie up using regular mooring lines. Not all of the latter 1950s involved Cold War tensions. For a secure moor, the lines were Doubled Up. Previous. The date was Wednesday, April 11, 1945. The cycle would start at the end of a shipyard overhaul, in our case at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Allan Roby was reassigned at this time, with Cdr. By the autumn of 1942, the main U-boat menace had moved from the U.S. East Coast back to the North Atlantic. The first ship to moor had to place a boat in the water which carried the mooring party. I loved the country so much that I did not want to leave. 1. The deck divisions would man the line handling stations with the First Lieutenant and Chief Boatswains Mate on the Forecastle and the Gunnery Officer in charge on the fantail. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1987). This never happened in real life. The goal was to have two boilers on line, one in each fire room, and have both engines ready for operation with the plant split (2 independent plant configuration) prior to setting what is referred to as the Special Sea Detail. Not wishing to dishonor RADM Kidd, however, the crew obtained permission from Mrs. Kidd first. The edition of TIME magazine that week carried a photo of KIDD, announcing that it had been one hundred years since the Jolly Roger had flown in New York Harbor. We also made fueling stops at Guam and Midway. Introduced in 1942, the 2,100-ton Fletcher -class destroyers formed the core of the US Navy's destroyer force from 1943. The Coast Guard would man 30 DEs, organized in five escort divisions, and 74 PFs, primarily assigned to weather-station duty. Having transferred steam to both engine rooms from her only remaining boiler room, KIDD now made approximately 20 knots as she headed south toward Ulithi Atoll. Brittin took command of the ship and headed the beleaguered ship southward. But through the efforts of many dedicated people, she avoided the scrapping yard to make one final voyage. did fletcher class destroyers serve in the atlantic? Along with her signal flags, the Jolly Roger flies high from her mast and the image of the pirate looks out from her forward stack, greeting passers-by both on shore and aboard visiting riverboats. During that same period, Germany lost 783 of its 1,100 U-boats. Instead, she struck a glancing blow and the U-boat's hydroplane opened a large gash in the Campbell's hull. After the war, the ships reverted to Coast Guard control and were reconfigured as peacetime cutters. However, the Navy had other ideas and I ended up on the east coast in Florida. On 17 December, the Ingham was on the western edge of the air gap, sweeping ahead of eastbound Convoy SC-112. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died on April 12, the same day that KIDD had committed her dead to the sea. With that change came the order to paint the gleaming white cutter hulls regulation Navy haze gray. Commissioned back into service on March 28 of that year under the command of Cdr. The class was designed in 1939, as a result of dissatisfaction with the earlier destroyer leader types of the Porter and Somers classes. On July 03, 1997, KIDDs torpedo tubes were reloaded for the first time since 1964, finishing out her full armament. But with these exceptions, the basic procedures for getting a destroyer underway have not changed a great deal from what I have described. In my previous two articles (read Part 1 here, read Part 2 here) I gave technical and manning overviews of the U.S. Navys highly successful Fletcher class destroyer. During the attack on Rabaul, KIDD stopped to pick up the crew of a downed plane from the ESSEX, falling behind the main force of the fleet, and came under attack from a group of eight Japanese dive bombers. Communications would be established with all vital stations, steering gear, alarms, whistle and engine order telegraph tested, radar, sonar, and fathometer in operation, and compasses checked. She whispers stories of courage, bravery, and sacrifice. In April, the British and Canadians assumed full responsibility for escorting the North Atlantic convoys, while the U.S. Navy took control of the transatlantic route between the United States and the Mediterranean. At this point, we were underway. By December, at least six convoys were simultaneously in the North Atlantic, and the available escort ships were not enough to stop the U-boats' slaughter. After two deployments, it was back to the shipyard again. YOKE is an intermediate level of protection that is set when the ship is under normal underway cruise conditions. Now, on the eve of impending war, the U.S. was ready to take destroyer design to the next level. In January, 1952, DESDIV 152 returned to San Diego for overhaul and repair. Bennett (DD 473) lays stack and chemical smoke in the Shortland Islands, 1944. off Korea in the 1950s and some even off Vietnam in the 60s, she was condemned in 2010 as a derelict and hazard to navigation and scrapped in 20102011. The Alexander Hamilton was one of the first cutters actively engaged in convoy escort duty. Several months later, the President also ordered the U.S. Navy to help escort Allied convoys. My wifes first comment when I took her around the ship for the first time was You mean that you start all of this up with a match?. She was first launched in 1943 and went in and out of commission during the Korean War and the Cold War. None of the Germans hoisted a white flag, and the one-sided close-range battle continued. Under the command of Cdr. The Navy, however, did not have enough ships to watch the vast area effectively and immediately asked for Coast Guard assistance. The Steering Gear room (After Steering) would be manned. Less than six weeks after the transfer, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States formally entered World War II. The Bibb, Duane, and Ingham were also still operating from Iceland. We had a victim already strapped in the stretcher when he was wounded.. Assigned to DESDIV 152, she joined Carrier Task Force 77 at Wonsan, Korea, with division mates UHLMANN (DD-687), HOPEWELL (DD-681), and WEDDERBURN (DD-684). USS The Sullivans was named after the five Sullivan brothers who were killed when USS Juneau was lost in action in mid-November 1942. But while the Mahans were all in service before World War II, the first Fletcher class vessels was not introduced into service until the middle of 1942, which is after the February 1942 date in which the movie is set. With the active sonar switch on, Sasso again picked up the U-boat: "It was beautiful, a metallic sound, real clear." You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Naval History this month. She participated in the bombardments of Roi and Kotje through February of that year, guarded construction of airfields at Emirau from March through April, and then supported the occupation of Aitape and Hollandia in New Guinea in May. KIDD was in the vanguard position with BULLARD the following morning when they steamed to within eleven miles of the Japanese shoreline, her navigator taking bearings on enemy lighthouses. She returned to bombardment duty and rescuing downed pilots. The combat air patrol downed the remaining Japanese aircraft. Arch A. Mercey and Lee Grove, eds., Sea, Surf and Hell (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1946). USS Halsey Powell backs away from a pier in Subic Bay. At the end of the year, DesDiv 101 continued on to Luzon, where Haraden was again damaged while escorting a carrier task force in the Sulu Sea and again returned to the West Coast for repairs. Since 1975 all new destroyer, cruiser, and frigate types have been powered by aircraft derivative gas turbine engines. Over the next 3?? Gun crews kept the aircraft at bay. Four B&W three-drum boilers (565 psi @ 850 F), Two sets of General Electric geared turbines (60,000 hp total), five 5"/38-cal. While 19 were lost and six damaged beyond repair, 44 earned ten or more service stars, 19 were awarded the Navy Unit Commendation and 16 received the Presidential Unit Citation. That call to action came in 1951 during the Korean War. During the attack on Rabaul, KIDD stopped to pick up the crew of a downed plane from the ESSEX, falling behind the main force of the fleet, and came under attack from a group of eight Japanese dive bombers. Though built with the Pacific in mind, Fletchers also served in the Atlantic theater. did fletcher class destroyers serve in the atlantic? Thirty-two were transferred to the navies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Taiwan and Turkey. Several films are told from the point of view of the German U-boat crews. The Coast Guard, however, maintains that the cutter's attacks two days later destroyed the same U-boat. She opened to the public for the first time on August 27, 1983. The Fletcher design permitted significant increases over preceding classes in hull, armament, machinery, ammunition, stores and fuel bunkerage. Destroyer Squadron 51 The lead ship of the class was the USS Fletcher (DD-445). 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