USS Charles Ausburne (DD-570)
_underway_at_sea_on_23_March_1944_(80-G-232122).jpg) USS Charles Ausburne (DD-570) on March 23, 1944 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | destroyer |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | May 14, 1941 |
| Launch | March 16, 1942 |
| 1. Period of service |
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|
| period of service |
November 24, 1942-18. April 1946 |
| Whereabouts | 1960 to the Federal Republic of Germany
|
| 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 Charles Ausburne (DD-570) was a destroyer in the United States Navy . The ship belonged to the Fletcher class and was used in the Pacific during World War II . After the end of the war, the destroyer belonged to the reserve fleet and was loaned to the Federal Republic of Germany as Destroyer 6 (D 180) in 1960 . Destroyer 6 was decommissioned in 1967 and then sold for demolition.
Namesake
Charles L. Ausburne (1889-1917) was a member of the US Navy in the First World War . After the USAT Antilles sank , he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross .
technology
Hull and drive
The hull of the USS Charles Ausburne 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 USS Charles Ausburne when commissioned was its five 5-inch / 127-mm Mk 30 single turrets. There were also various anti-aircraft guns , which were reinforced in the course of the war.
The USS Charles Ausburne 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.
history
USS Charles Ausburne was laid down at Consolidated Steel Corporation in Orange, Texas on May 14, 1941 . It was launched on March 16, 1942. Godmother was W. H. Cotten. On November 24, 1942, the destroyer was commissioned under the command of Lieutenant Commander L. K. Reynolds.
1943
From April 1 to May 8, 1943, the USS Charles Ausburne escorted a convoy from New York to Casablanca and then another convoy back to New York. On May 11, she was assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 23 (Little Beavers) and the flagship of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 45 .
The USS Charles Ausburne was then transferred to the Pacific and reached Nouméa on June 28, 1943 . She was used during the Battle of Guadalcanal in patrol and escort service and escorted convoys to Guadalcanal and between Efate and Espiritu Santo . From August 27, 1943, it operated from Port Purvis against the Tokyo Express , the night-time operations of Japanese destroyers to transport troops in the Solomon Islands .
On October 31, it shelled Japanese airfields on Buka and coastal batteries on the Shortland Islands as part of the landing on Bougainville . During the landing in Kaiserin Augusta Bay on the morning of November 1, 1943, four Japanese cruisers and six destroyers were reported south of Rabaul . The DesRon 23 destroyers headed north to intercept the Japanese formation. The Japanese ships were located on November 2 at 2:27 a.m. The ships of DesDiv 45 , Stanly , Charles Ausburne , Claxton and Dyson , carried out a torpedo attack that the Japanese units were able to avoid. The next targets were the light cruiser Sendai and the destroyer Hatsukaze . Together with her sister ship Spence, the Charles Ausburne sank the destroyer. As an escort for the Foote , which was hit by a torpedo , she left the naval battle at Empress Augusta Bay towards Purvis Bay .
She then patrolled the sea area off Bougainville , fired at targets on the island and escorted troop transports with reinforcements to the island. On November 24th, the USS Charles Ausburn , USS Claxton , USS Dyson , USS Converse and USS Spence received orders to intercept a Japanese formation consisting of the transport destroyers Amagiri , Yugiri and Uzuki and the destroyers Onami and Makinami . On November 25, the association was located at 1:45 a.m. off Cape St. George. The USS Charles Ausburne and two destroyers undertook a torpedo attack on two Japanese destroyers, in the course of which the Onami and Makanimi were sunk. The American destroyers took up the chase of the remaining Japanese destroyers, and the USS Charles Ausburne was able to sink the Yugiri . The Battle of Cape St. George ended the Tokyo Express .
1944
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In early 1944, the Charles Ausburne was overhauled in Australia and returned to the northern Solomon Islands on January 30th. In February she carried out patrols to cover the landing on Green Island and on February 18, 1944 shelled the port facilities of Kavieng , which were almost completely destroyed. From February 20 to 24, the Little Beavers operated against Japanese shipping off New Ireland and sank a tugboat, a mine-layer, a small freighter and several barges.
From March 26, 1944 the destroyer belonged to the 5th US fleet. As part of Task Force (TF) 58 , the USS Charles Ausburne was used in the air raids on Palau , Ulithi and Woleai on March 30 and April 1, 1944. In late April it was part of the destroyer screen of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown during the landings at Hollandia and the air strikes on Truk and Ponape . After returning to Majuro , she took part in exercises in preparation for the following battle for the Mariana Islands .
During operations against the Marianas , the USS Charles Ausburne was at sea from June 6 to July 6, 1944. It was mainly used to protect the aircraft carriers of the TF 58 during the attacks on Tinian , Pagan , Guam and Iwo Jima . They shelled coastal positions on Guam and protected the USS Essex while the carrier was deployed in support of the first landings on Guam and the advancing troops on Saipan .
After overhaul on the west coast of the United States , the USS Charles Ausburne returned to Ulithi on November 5, 1944. In November it protected the porters whose planes covered the convoys to Leyte from the air. From December 19 to 24, she led the first supply convoy from San Pedro Bay in the Philippines to Mindoro . On December 21 the convoy was repeatedly target of air strikes that during the deletion stopped charging.
1945
On January 4, 1945, the USS Charles Ausburne escorted a convoy from San Pedro Bay to the Gulf of Lingayen. The convoy was attacked from the air. The escort vehicles were able to repel the air attack. A contact was later detected by radar and the USS Charles Ausburne , along with three other destroyers, set a course for the contact to identify it. It was the Japanese destroyer Hinoki , which was sunk by the four American ships. On January 9th and 10th, she covered the landings and used her artillery against coastal targets to support the advancing troops. After her return to San Pedro on January 15, she was used for escort and patrol services in the Gulf of Lingayen and in San Pedro Bay for the next two months.
At the end of March and April 1945, the USS Charles Ausburne supported the landings at Panay and Negros . On May 13th she left San Pedro Bay and again belonged to the 5th US fleet, with which she reached the roadstead of Hagushi on Okinawa on May 16th . Here it was used for anti-submarine defense and to protect the landings at Aguni Shima .
From June 23 until the end of the war, it served as a radar outpost and patrolled the waters off Okinawa.
post war period
The USS Charles Ausburne left Okinawa on September 10, 1945 and reached Washington, DC on October 17 , where it was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation . After a visit to New York , she reached Charleston , South Carolina , where she was decommissioned on April 18, 1946. She was then mothballed as part of the reserve fleet.
Destroyer 6 (D 180)
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In 1959 the destroyer was completely overhauled and modernized in the Charleston Navy Yard. The cannon 53 was removed, as well as all 20 mm flak and the forward torpedo tube group. Six 3 "anti-aircraft guns were installed in double mounts as well as German navigation devices and the pole mast was replaced by a three-legged mast. The conversion costs amounted to approx. 5 million US $. On April 12, 1960, the handover to the Federal Republic of Germany took place, which the ship as Destroyer 6 ( D 180) put into service. after tests and exercises left destroyer 6 Charleston on 19 July 1960 and went to Flensburg where the destroyer broke in on August 18, 1960.
Destroyer 6 belonged to the 3rd destroyer squadron . The ship was rebuilt several times during the shipyard layover. So the bridge was enlarged, eliminating the open bridge and two U-defense torpedo tubes were set up on the upper deck at the level of the torpedo tube group.
On January 14, 1967, a defective drive valve of a turbine caused a collision with a floating crane , which in turn damaged the stern of the Karlsruhe frigate while the ship was in dock.
Destroyer 6 was removed from the US Navy list of warships on December 1, 1967 and decommissioned on December 15, 1967. It remained in Germany as a spare part carrier and was available at the naval arsenal in Kiel . After cannibalization, the hull was sold to Lübeck on October 9, 1968 and scrapped there.
Awards
The USS Charles Ausburne was awarded eleven Battle Stars and a Presidential Unit Citation for its service in World War II .
literature
- Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Destroyer of the US Navy . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-587-8 .
- Alan Raven: Fletcher Class Destroyers . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1986, ISBN 0-87021-193-5 .
- Jerry Scutts: Fletcher DDs (US Destroyers) in action (Warships No. 8) . Squadron / signal publications, Carrollton (Texas) 1995, ISBN 978-0-89747-336-1
- Theodore Roscoe: Destroyer Operations in World War II . United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1953, ISBN 978-0-87021-726-5
- Gerhard Koop, Siegfried Breyer: The ships, vehicles and planes of the German Navy from 1956 until today . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-7637-5950-6
- German Navy Federation, cast off! 4-2011 , ISSN 1432-9069
Web links
- History of USS Charles Ausburne (DD-570) in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- navsource.org: USS Charles Ausburne (English)
- Destroyer Squadron 23 website (English)