USCGC Campbell (WPG-32)
The USCGC Campbell was a 327-foot Secretary-Class (also known as "Treasury Class") Coast Guard ship (WPG-32) built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1935-1936 and commissioned in 1936. Seven similar "combat cutters" were built and named for secretaries of the United States Treasury. The ship earned the title "Queen of the Seas" during a 46-year career, spanning World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam War.
Her peace-time armament consisted of two 5-inch 51 caliber and two 6-pound signal guns, all mounted forward. Unlike the other Secretary Class cutters, Campbell and Ingham did not carry aircraft.
When prepared for convoy escort duty prior to her sailing for Portugal, workers at the New York Navy Yard added three 3-inch 51 caliber guns in-line, aft. Her two signal guns that were directly forward of the bridge were replaced with a single 3-inch 50 caliber gun. Her two 5-inch 51 caliber main batteries remained unchanged. Campbell was the first Secretary Class cutter to transfer for duty with the Navy (on 1 July 1941) and the first to sail on escort of convoy duties when she escorted Convoy HX-159 which sailed on 10 November 1941.[1]
Campbell, along with Spencer, were the first US warships equipped with HF/DF, pioneered by the Royal Navy for the fight against the German U-boat fleet. The escort commander somehow obtained two modified FH3 HF/DF sets, named "Type DAR", from the British and had them mounted on these two ships. The successful pioneering use of this equipment by the Coast Guard was a major step in combatting the U-boats, shifting momentum of the convoy battles in their favor.[1]
When the British and Canadians assumed full responsibility for convoys in the North Atlantic in mid-1943, the US took control of all mid-Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys, where the cutters faced a constant threat from U-boats and the Luftwaffe. Convoys were especially vulnerable once they cleared Gibraltar. Campbell sailed as an escort for Mediterranean convoys in 1943-1944 and saw considerable action against both U-boats and aircraft.
U-boat attack, 1943
On 21 February, 1943, Campbell was escorting Convoy ON-166 when the convoy was surrounded by a U-Boat "Wolf Pack". U-606 torpedoed and sank the SS Nielson Alonso. Dispatched to assist, Campbell rescued fifty survivors and then turned to attack another boat, U-753, damaging it so badly that it had to withdraw. Throughout the 21st and 22nd, Campbell attacked several U-Boats inflicting damage and driving off the subs. Later on the 22nd, U-606, having sustained heavy damage, surfaced in the midst of the convoy attempting a surface attack. Campbell struck the sub a glancing blow that gashed Campbell's hull in the engine room below the waterline, but continued to attack, dropping two depth charges which exploded and lifted the sub out of the water. The crew brought all guns to bear on the subs, fighting on until water in the engine room shorted out all electricity. As the ship lost power and the searchlights illuminating the sub went out, the U-Boat Commander ordered the sub abandoned. Campbell ceased fire and lowered boats to rescue the sub's survivors. Campbell, disabled in the attack, was towed to port nine days later, repaired and returned to escort duty.
Luftwaffe attack, 1944
In April of 1944, the Convoy UGS-40 sailed for the Mediterranean, led by Campbell. The escort screen contained three destroyers, six American destroyer escorts from CortDiv 5, and two French destroyer escorts. Due to recent attacks by the Luftwaffe against Allied convoys in the western Mediterranean, UGS-40 sailed with an elaborate air defense plan, formulated by the convoy's screen commander, Comdr. Jesse C. Sowell, in Campbell. Practiced in Hampton Roads prior to the convoy's departure and as it crossed the Atlantic, these tactics were designed to meet mass aerial attacks by German aircraft carrying a variety of weapons ranging from bombs, to torpedoes, to radio-controlled glider bombs. Off Gibraltar, UGS-40 acquired additional escorts: British antiaircraft cruiser HMS Caledon, Wilhoite (DE-397), Benson (DD-421), and two American minesweepers carrying special apparatus to jam radar transmissions and thus confuse the German glider bombs. On 9 May, 1944, the convoy possed through the Straits of Gibraltar without incident but, two days later, detected German "snoopers" trailing the convoy. In the next few hours, 10 successive shore-based fighter interception sorties failed to drive off the enemy reconnaissance aircraft. First alerted by shore-based radar, the escort screen went to general quarters at 13:16 on 11 May, beginning the first of five successive alerts. In Campbell, Commander Sowell warned the escorts to be alert to the possibility of a dusk attack. At 20:25, radar noted the approach of enemy aircraft, and Sowell formed the convoy into eight columns 1,000 yards apart for maneuvering room. When the enemy was reported 70 miles north of Cape Corbelin, UGS-40 steered due east, past Cape Bengut. Shortly after sunset, escort ships commenced laying smoke, as the German aircraft, a mixed force of Junkers Ju.-88's, Heinkel He. 111's, and Dornier Do. 217's, approached from the stern of the convoy and broke into groups to attack from different points of the compass. The destroyer escorts either downed or drove away all the attacking aircraft, and the Allied convoy emerged unscathed.
Later service
After conversion to an AGC in the Boston Navy Yard between 4 January and 28 March 1945, Campbell was assigned to duty in the Pacific as an Amphibious Flagship. She sailed from Pearl Harbor for Saipan and arrived on 3 August 1945, sailing again for Manila on 10 August, and Leyte on the 19th. On 1 October 1945 she was anchored at Wakanoura Wan, Honshu, Japan as the flagship for Communications Service Division 103. On 30 October she sailed to Sasebo and stayed until 30 November when she was ordered back to the U.S.
Campbell was twice more called to combat action, in Korea and Vietnam. During Operation Market-Time, Campbell destroyed or damaged 105 Viet Cong structures and steamed over 32,000 miles in the Vietnamese War Zone. Campbell was assigned to Search-and-Rescue, Maritime Law Enforcement, Military Readiness, and Ocean Station duties. She was homeported in New York City until 1969 when she moved to Portland, Maine. In 1974 her homeport was again changed, this time to Port Angeles, Washington. There she continued her peacetime duties until decommissioned in 1982. At the time of decommissioning, Campbell was the oldest active continually commissioned vessel in the United States Fleet.[2] She was sunk on 29 November 1984 as a target off Hawaii by the United States Navy.
References
- ^ Williams, K.B. (1996) Secret Weapon: U.S. High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Battle of the Atlantic. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.