USS Bainbridge (DD-246)

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USS Bainbridge (DD-246)
The third USS Bainbridge in 1944
The third USS Bainbridge in 1944
Ship data
flag United StatesUnited States (national flag) United States
Ship type destroyer
class Clemson class
Shipyard New York Shipbuilding , Camden
Build number 235
Keel laying May 27, 1919
Launch June 12, 1920
Commissioning February 9, 1921
Whereabouts decommissioned on July 21, 1945, sold for demolition in November 1945
Ship dimensions and crew
length
95.81 m ( Lüa )
94.5 m ( KWL )
width 9.65 m
Draft Max. 2.84 m
displacement 1190  ts standard;
1590 ts maximum
 
crew 146 men
Machine system
machine 4 White-Forster - boiler
2 sets Westinghouse - geared turbines
Machine
performance 		26,500
Top
speed 		35 kn (65 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

last:

Sensors

1941: Sonar , 1942: Radar

The USS Bainbridge (DD-246) was a Clemson-class destroyer serving the US Navy during World War II .

construction

Bainbridge 1921

The third USS Bainbridge was built on May 27, 1919 at New York Shipbuilding Corp. in Camden (New Jersey) under construction no. 235 laid down. The ship was christened by Juliet Edith Greene, the great-great-granddaughter of the namesake, the Commodores Bainbridge (1774-1830), on June 12, 1920. DD-246 was put into service on February 9, 1921 under Lieutenant Commander El Thebaud and was assigned to the Atlantic fleet .

The shipyard in Camden (New Jersey) built 20 destroyers of this class (DD-231 to DD-250, construction no. 220-239) from June 1918 to April 1921. She had also built ten destroyers of the previous Wickes class (DD-125 to 130; 157 to 160, construction number 210-219) for the US Navy.

The ship's predecessor in name was the USS Bainbridge (DD-1) , the first torpedo boat destroyer in the US Navy. This ship, which was built in Philadelphia in 1901/02, took part in the First World War in the Mediterranean in 1917/18 and was sold for demolition in early 1920. The first USS Bainbridge was a 259 ts brigantine that entered service with the US Navy in December 1842 and was lost at Cape Hatteras on August 21, 1861 .

Calls

Interwar period

The Bainbridge operated it on the east coast and in the Caribbean and took part in exercises and maneuvers until October 1922. Then she moved to Turkish waters. On December 16, 1922, she rescued around 500 survivors of the burning French military transport Vinh-Long a good 10 nautical miles from Constantinople . Lieutenant Commander WA Edwards was awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary bravery and heroism .

She served for the next year, based in Newport , Rhode Island , as the temporary flagship of the reconnaissance fleet and then in the 14th squadron of the Atlantic reconnaissance fleet . Between 1923 and 1928 she took part in numerous exercises and maneuvers . Mostly in the summer months, DD-246 took part in exercise programs of the reconnaissance fleet, often with reservists . On December 23, 1930, she was decommissioned and assigned to the reserve . In March 1932 she was partially put back into active service and served in the 19th rotating reserve division, where she took part in many reserve exercises. On September 5, 1933, she was asked again full to active duty, this time in the 8th Destroyer - Division of enlightenment fleet. She briefly served in the Special Service Squadron in the Florida Keys and Guantánamo Bay , Cuba . She later moved to the Pacific , where DD-246 reached San Diego on November 5, 1934. While on duty on the West Coast, the Bainbridge made trips to British Columbia , Alaska and Hawaii . On November 20, 1937, she was assigned to the San Diego Reserve.

Second World War

The destroyer Bainbridge , in reserve , was returned to service on September 26, 1939 and assigned to the 62nd Destroyer Division, which conducted neutrality patrols from the Canal Zone . In the summer of 1940, Key West , Florida , became the starting point for their reconnaissance tasks. When the German freighter Helgoland (3664 BRT, built in 1922), which has been lying in the Colombian port of Puerto Colombia since the beginning of the war , broke through a blockade at the end of October 1940, the Bainbridge and her sister boats Overton and Sturtevant did not succeed in finding the German steamer. The Heligoland passed the American island of Saint Martin on November 3 and disappeared in the North Atlantic. On November 30, the NDL's ship reached the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire .

On March 1, 1941, the US Navy formed the Support Force Atlantic Fleet , which included three destroyer flotillas (7th, 30th, 31rd) and flying boat squadrons that were supposed to secure the western section of the convoys when crossing the Atlantic. The Bainbridge with the sister ships MacLeish , Overton , Sturtevant , Reuben James , McCormick , Broome , Simpson and Truxtun formed the Desron 31 .

On July 19, 1941, a task group of the US Atlantic Fleet ran with the carrier Wasp , two cruisers and destroyers towards Iceland. from which the P-40 fighter aircraft took off for Iceland and reached their destination without losses. In the future, the destroyers of the Desron 7 , Desron 11 and Desron 30 as well as the Desdiv 62 with McCormick , Sturtevant , Reuben James and Bainbridge should be used from and to there. From August 6, the Catalina flying boats of Patron 73 and Mariner flying boats of Patron 74 were deployed from Reykjavik and Hvalfjord respectively. With Operation Indigo III at the beginning of September, the US Task Force TF.15 secured an Icelandic supply escort with two heavy cruisers and destroyers around the battleship Idaho with four troop carriers and an army brigade as relief for the Marines stationed on Iceland , three freighters, the fleet tanker Cimarron and workshop ship Delta . The flush deckers Bainbridge , Overton , Reuben James , Truxtun and MacLeish as well as the newer destroyers Walke and Morris were used as escort groups . The destroyers carried out several depth charges against eight sonar contacts on September 11 and 12, all of which turned out to be false targets, but on the 14th Truxtun sighted a submarine that was attacked with depth charges by the destroyers but escaped. On the 16th the convoy reached Reykjavik and the TF.15 Hvalfjödhur.

At the same time, German submarines tried to attack British supply traffic. The British radio reconnaissance recognized the German efforts early on and tried to divert the convoys. The German successes against individual convoys contrasted with a number of others that the Germans did not discover. The convoy SC.44 (56 ships), secured by the Canadian EG.23 with a town destroyer , HMS Chesterfield ex USS Welborn C. Wood (DD-195), and four corvettes was spotted early by U 74 . Its reports did not allow a very planned approach due to radio interference. On the night of September 19, U 74 attacked for the first time and sank the corvette Lévis . The submarines were able to sink four merchant ships with 25,653 GRT before reinforcements of the security units arrived from other convoys. From the 20th the US destroyers Winslow , Overton , Truxton , Bainbridge and Reuben James belonged to the security of the SC.44 up to the MOMP , where the British EG.3 took over the security, to which besides the destroyers Bulldog and Amazon also the Town destroyers HMS Richmond and Georgetown belonged to. In October, the Bainbridge temporarily secured the HX.155 and ON.31 convoys with Roe of the Sims class , Sturtevant , Overton and Truxton . Bainbridge was involved in yet another convoy security to Iceland in early November before she went to the Boston Navy Yard for a routine shipyard time .

Use after the start of the war

The overhaul of the Bainbridge could be completed in Boston in December and the ship reached the port of operation Argentia on Newfoundland on January 1, 1942. From there, the ship made a convoy protection to Iceland from January 13 to February 5 and then changed to a new area of ​​responsibility. In February the destroyer moved via Boston, Newport (Rhode Island) , Hampton Roads and through the Florida Straits to New Orleans , where it arrived on February 25, 1942. From there, the Bainbridge accompanied convoys between different ports on the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean for the next three months . The destroyer was last deployed to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and relocated to Jacksonville (Florida). The first deployment led back to New Orleans from May 19, but back to Charleston (South Carolina) from May 25 , where it was launched on Arrived May 28. His escort missions now took place on the route between the Hampton Roads in the north and Key West or Guantanamo Bay in the south.

The Bainbridge was part of the securing of convoy KN-109 of twelve merchant ships from Key West to Hampton Roads, which ran into a minefield of 15 ground mines near Virginia Beach on the evening of June 15, 1942, which U 701 , a German submarine of the type VII C of the Kriegsmarine under Kapitänleutnant Horst Degen . Two tankers from the escort also ran into these mines. The British trawler HMS Kingston Ceylonite, which was part of the escort, hurried to the aid of the units hit and ran into another mine at around 19:27. The force of the explosion of the 580 kilogram mine broke the trawler's keel and caused the ship to sink within four minutes. 18 crew members went down with the submarine hunter. 14 men were later rescued by other security vehicles. However, the three ships hit first could later be brought in.

When the Bainbridge was restored, its armament had also been modernized. The 102 mm guns, the old 76 mm flak and two of the four triple torpedo tubes had been removed. But the destroyer now had six 76 mm L / 50 multi-purpose guns, five 20 mm Oerlikon cannons , two triple torpedo tubes (one on each side and slightly offset) and six depth charges; this armament was standard for more than escort destroyer used Four Stackers . In September the destroyer was operational again; the scope of the ship now extended north to New York .

The USS Santee 1943

In 1943 the repaired and overhauled Bainbridge can be used on the route from the USA to North Africa and the Mediterranean . In the summer of 1943, the destroyer formed the Support Group 21.11 with the sister ships Overton , MacLeish and the escort carrier Santee (ACV-29) , which strengthened the security of convoys to Europe as well as those returning convoys in the Central Atlantic. The three destroyer served primarily the self-protection of the support, engaging with the U-boats were Avenger - and Wildcat machines combated of the wearer. When the Task Group was detached from the GUS.9 convoy in mid-July 1943 to hunt German submarines in a recognized supply area, the group succeeded in sinking U 160 , Type IX C , on the 14th and on the 15th of the » Monsun «boats U 509 , also of the Type IX C, which were sunk by an Avenger / Wildcat team of the VC-29 of the Santee with Fido torpedoes . In the fall of 1943, the Bainbridge went back to the States to be converted into an APD . Since the demand for seaplane tenders decreased at the same time , however, these were primarily converted into transporters. The Bainbridge was further optimized for use as a destroyer escort. Their equipment with Oerlikon automatic cannons was reduced to four such weapons, as well as the number of depth charges. The fourth boiler and the associated chimney were removed and a Hedgehog launcher was also installed. The Bainbridge came back into service with the fleet before the end of 1943 to secure US coastal traffic and maritime traffic in the Caribbean.

The Bainbridge 1944

Until June 1944 the destroyer was employed again and again without finding a permanent job. From then on, the Bainbridge was extensively repaired larger units or corresponding new large units on the test and training drives. These included u. a. the porter Hancock , the Large Cruiser Alaska and the porter Bon Homme Richard . During this mission, the Bainbridge suffered significant hull damage on February 14, 1945 when it was accidentally hit by a training torpedo. After the destroyer had been repaired quickly in Trinidad and was ready for use again at the end of February, the destroyer failed again at the end of the month when a fire broke out in the paint store. This misfortune led to another visit to the factory in San Juan (Puerto Rico) , which lasted until April 1945. Bainbridge moved north to Norfolk in May, still visited Casco Bay in Maine, where she conducted a two-week training course for reservists.

End of the ship and awards

On July 1, 1945, the ship was taken from active service and decommissioned on July 21 in Philadelphia . It was sold on November 30, 1945. On December 31, 1945, the destroyer was resold and then canceled in November 1947 at the Northern Metal Company .

Awards

The Bainbridge received a Battle Star for her service as a convoy escort from June 13th to August 1943.

Web links

Commons : USS Bainbridge (DD-246)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Bainbridge III (DD-246)
  2. ↑ CLEMSON destroyers (1918-1922)
  3. ↑ WICKES destroyers (1918-1921)
  4. ↑ Bainbridge II (Torpedo-boat Destroyer No. 1) on DANFS
  5. ↑ Bainbridge I (Brigantine)
  6. ^ Kludas: Seeschiffe des NDL , p. 56
  7. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 24.10.- 30.11.1940 Atlantic
  8. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 03/01/1941 Atlantic
  9. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 19.7.- 13.9.1941 North Atlantic
  10. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , September 6-16, 1941 North Atlantic
  11. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 15.- 09.26.1941 North Atlantic
  12. ^ Convoys North America - Great Britain and back convoys October 1941
  13. ↑ Leonce Peillard: The battle in the Atlantic , p. 279f.
  14. ↑ Rohwer: Sea War , June 11th - July 19th, 1942 West Atlantic
  15. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , July 6–30, 1943 Central Atlantic