USS Bennett (DD-473)

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USS Bennett in front of the Naval Yard Boston 1943
USS Bennett in front of the Naval Yard Boston 1943
Overview
Type destroyer
Shipyard

Boston Navy Yard

Keel laying December 10, 1941
Launch April 16, 1942
1. Period of service flag
period of service

February 9, 1943-18. April 1946

Whereabouts December 1959 to Brazil
1978 target ship
Technical specifications
displacement

2,100  ts

length

114.7 meters

width

12.2 meters

Draft

5.4 meters

crew

329

drive
speed

35 kn

Range

6,500  nautical miles (11,700 km) at 15 knots

Armament

When commissioning:

The USS Bennett (DD-475) was a for Fletcher Class belonging destroyer of the US Navy . She took part in the Second World War between 1943 and 1945 . After the war she was part of the reserve fleet and was handed over to Brazil in 1959. She served in the Brazilian Navy as CT Paraíba . In 1978 the destroyer was sold for demolition.

Namesake

Floyd Bennett (1890-1928) was a US Navy pilot. He had tried to reach the North Pole with Richard Evelyn Byrd . Although they could not have reached the pole in the short flight time, they were celebrated as heroes in their homeland and awarded the Medal of Honor .

technology

Hull and drive

The hull of the USS Bennett was 114.7 m long and 12.2 m wide. The draft was 5.4 m, the displacement was 2,100 tons . The ship was powered by two General Electric steam turbines, and the steam was generated in four Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The power was 60,000 shaft horsepower, the top speed was 35 knots .

Armament and Electronics

The main armament of the destroyer was five 5 "/ 38 Mk.30 single turrets and ten 21" torpedoes in two tube sets. There were also various anti-aircraft guns . The anti-aircraft armament was reinforced in the course of the war due to the increased threat.

The USS Bennett was equipped with radar . An SG and an SC radar were mounted on the mast above the bridge, with which aircraft could be located at distances between 15 and 30 nautical miles and ships between 10 and 22 nautical miles. A QC sonar was installed for underwater location .

history

The USS Bennett was laid down in the Boston Navy Yard on December 10, 1941 . On April 16, 1942, she was baptized by the widow of the namesake and put into service on February 9, 1943 under the command of Commander EB Taylor. The USS Bennett was part of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 89 of Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 45 .

1943

After completion of the test drives, the USS Bennett ran to Pearl Harbor . She reached Hawaii on May 31, 1943 and conducted patrols in Hawaiian waters until the end of July. She then escorted a convoy to Efate . From July 27 to October 28, she remained stationed on Efate and served as an air traffic control ship and patrolled the New Hebrides area . On November 1, 1943, together with USS Guest , USS Fullam , USS Hudson , USS Renshaw , USS Conway , USS Terry , USS Anthony , USS Wadsworth , USS Braine and USS Sigourney , she escorted a convoy consisting of twelve troop carriers with approximately 13,300 US Marines on board to Bougainville . After reaching the landing section at Cape Torokina in the north of the Kaiserin Augusta Bay , the destroyers supported the invasion by using their artillery and formed the air defense. She stayed in the New Hebrides until April 5, 1944 .

1944

After the mission off Bougainville, the USS Bennett operated against enemy shipping in the sea area off Truk and took part in the operations against the Green Islands . She belonged to Task Group (TG) 31.8 , which in addition to the USS Bennett consisted of the rapid transporters USS Talbot , USS Waters and USS Dickerson as well as the destroyers USS Guest , USS Hudson and USS Guest . In the early morning of January 31, 1944, TG 31.8 was off the Green Islands and disembarked the Green Raider Detachment , a unit consisting of New Zealand and American soldiers. The task of the Green Raiders was to scout out the Japanese defense positions. The next morning the raiders were resumed. During the landing on Green Island on February 15, 1944, the destroyer was used again in support.

The USS Bennett was involved in the bombardment of the Japanese bases Kavieng on February 18 and Rabaul on February 29. She stayed in front of Bougainville until the end of April and was then one of the ships that were pulled together for Operation Forager , the conquest of the Mariana Islands . She was involved in the landings on Saipan and Guam from mid-June to mid-August . At the end of August she moved to the Central Pacific and took part in the landings on Peleliu and Angaur between September 12 and 25 . In October it ran from Manus to San Francisco , where it came in on October 25, 1944 and was overtaken. After completing the work, she reached Pearl Harbor on December 24th, where she conducted training.

1945

On February 19, 1945 she ran at Iwo Jima to be used as a radar outpost during the Battle of Iwo Jima . During the mission, it was slightly damaged by a dud in an air raid on March 1 .

From April 1, it was used as a radar outpost off the Okinawa Islands during the Battle of Okinawa . At 8:50 am on April 7, she was hit by a kamikaze , killing three men and wounding 18. Furthermore, the forward engine room was damaged and the electrical supply failed. The USS Bennett was able to reach the American base on the Kerama Islands under its own power . The next day she was towed to Saipan by the USS Yuma . After completing the makeshift repairs, she ran to Bremerton and went to the Puget Sound Navy Yard , where she was repaired from May to August 1945. In August she moved to Adak in the Aleutian Islands and from August 28 to September 26 made a trip to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the Kamchatka Peninsula .

After her return to San Diego Base , the USS Bennett was decommissioned on December 21, 1945. On April 18, 1946, she was assigned to the reserve fleet.

Paraíba

On December 15, 1959, the destroyer was handed over to the Marinha do Brasil , which baptized the ship with the name CT (Contratorpedeiro) Paraíba (D 28) . On the transfer voyage, the Paraíba got caught in a severe storm and absorbed water in the stern, so that the stern sagged to the level of the stern deck. In 1978 the ship was decommissioned and sunk as a target ship.

Awards

The USS Bennett was awarded nine Battle Stars and a Navy Unit Commendation .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodore Roscoe: Destroyer Operations in World War II , p. 243
  2. ^ Theodore Roscoe: Destroyer Operations in World War II , p. 272

literature

Web links