USS Fletcher (DD-445)
_off_New_York,_1942.jpg) USS Fletcher (DD-445) |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | destroyer |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | June 2, 1941 |
| Launch | May 3, 1942 |
| 1. Period of service |
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|
| period of service |
June 30, 1942 - |
| Whereabouts | scrapped |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
2,100 ts |
| length |
114.7 meters |
| width |
12.2 meters |
| Draft |
5.4 meters |
| crew |
9 officers, 264 men |
| drive |
|
| speed |
35 knots |
| Range |
6,500 nautical miles (11,700 km) at 15 knots |
| Armament |
upon commissioning
after reconstruction
|
| Nickname |
Fighting Fletcher, Lucky 13 (Lucky 13) |
The USS Fletcher (DD-445) (later DDE-445 ) was a destroyer of the US Navy and lead ship of the Fletcher class . It was named after Admiral Frank F. Fletcher . The ship served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1969.
technology
For full details, see the Class Article: Fletcher Class
Hull and drive
The hull of the Fletcher was 114.7 m long and 12.2 m wide. The draft was 5.4 m, the displacement was 2,100 standard 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 over 35 knots .
Armament and Electronics
The main armament of the Fletcher when commissioned were their five 5-inch / 127-mm Mark 30 single turrets. In addition, there were various anti-aircraft guns , which were reinforced in the course of the war. In 1948/49 the ship was converted into a submarine destroyer and received increased anti-submarine armament, including a Mk. 108 anti-submarine rocket launcher in front of the bridge.
The Fletcher was one of the first destroyers to be equipped with radar from the start . 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
Construction and commissioning
The Fletcher was laid on June 2, 1941 at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Kearny , New Jersey . After the christening by Susan Hunt Stetson Fletcher, the widow of Admiral Fletcher, the ship was launched on May 3, 1942. After further equipment work then took place on June 30th, the commissioning with the Navy under the command of Lieutenant Commander WM Cole. The destroyer was assigned to the Pacific Fleet.
Second World War
On October 5, 1942, the Fletcher arrived in the waters off New Caledonia and took service off Guadalcanal . She subsequently supported the Marines on land with her ship artillery, for example on October 30 at Lunga Point . On November 12, the destroyer repelled a massive Japanese air strike on a convoy of ships. The following day the first naval battle of Guadalcanal developed , in the course of which the Fletcher sank two Japanese destroyers with torpedoes and severely damaged the battleship Hiei . Since she did not suffer any damage herself, she was nicknamed Lucky 13 by her crews . After supplies had been bunkered on Espiritu Santo , the ship returned to Ironbottom Sound on November 30 with a cruiser / destroyer association (Taskforce 67) through the Lengo Canal . As the lead ship, the Fletcher located the Japanese forces via radar shortly before midnight. During the night battle that followed, a Japanese destroyer was sunk, but the Americans lost the heavy cruiser Northampton , some of whose survivors were rescued by the Fletcher . Three other cruisers were partially badly damaged.
In the following months, the destroyer continued to operate off the Solomon Islands, supporting the land forces with artillery fire and repelling air strikes. On February 11, 1943, he rushed to the aid of the cruiser Helena , which had sighted the Japanese submarine RO-102 . On February 21, the Fletcher supported the American landing on the Russell Islands , and on the night of March 5 to 6, they shelled the Japanese airfield at Munda Point . Between April 23 and May 4, she was lying in Sydney Harbor for overhaul of the ship . After further missions off the Solomon Islands, she was involved in the Battle of the Gilbert Islands at the end of November and fended off a heavy Japanese air strike on November 26th. On December 9, the Fletcher returned to Pearl Harbor for a short dock stay. Between January 13 and 21, 1944, she accompanied a supply convoy from San Diego to the Western Pacific, then took part in the Battle of the Marshall Islands and stayed in the region until February 4. After accompanying an empty convoy to Funafuti , she returned to the Marshall Islands region and participated in Operation Catchpole . She spent the following months patrolling the area. At the beginning of October she became part of the fleet that began the liberation of the Philippines with the invasion of Leyte on October 20 .
In January 1945 she was involved in the landing on Luzon , in February she provided artillery support for the reconquest of Manila. The Fletcher stayed in the region until May 15, when it returned to the west coast of the United States where it was overtaken. During the shipyard stay, she was rebuilt according to the Emergency Kamikaze Refit . The two 40-mm twin guns amidships were replaced by 40-mm quadruple guns. In order to create space for the straightening devices, the front torpdoset was removed and instead a platform was built between the chimneys on which the straightening devices were installed. As a result of the conversion, which was completed at the end of July 1945, it had three 40 mm twin guns and two 40 mm quadruple guns and six 20 mm twin guns. After the war ended, she took part in several exercises off San Diego and Hawaii.
First decommissioning
On August 7, 1946, the Fletcher was demobilized in San Diego and assigned to the reserve fleet. On January 15, 1947, the ship was finally decommissioned. In the following months, the destroyer was fundamentally overhauled and rebuilt. He received new anti-submarine armaments and tracking devices in response to the improvement of Soviet submarines. On October 3, 1949, the Fletcher was commissioned for the second time as an anti-submarine destroyer (DDE).
Cold War
_underway_at_sea,_circa_the_1960s_(NH_68912).jpg)
The first voyage took the Fletcher to San Diego, from where she set off on May 1, 1950 for her mission with the 7th US Fleet in the Western Pacific. At the time of the outbreak of the Korean War , she was lying in the port of Hong Kong with the submarine carrier Valley Forge and immediately set off for Korea. On July 3, the combat group arrived off the coast, where they supported the British carrier Triumph , whose airstrike was flying against North Korea. The Fletcher spent the entire summer off the Korean coast, only interrupted by short supply stays in Sasebo or Okinawa . She assisted the landing at Incheon from September 13 to 17 and returned to her home port of Pearl Harbor on November 11, after having spent October on various aircraft carriers off the Korean coast.
In January 1951, the Fletcher went into dry dock for an overhaul for two weeks, as well as in May after intensive exercises off Hawaii. The next mission followed on November 19, when the Fletcher ran out to Japan with Destroyer Squadron Eins via Midway. From Yokosuka she then operated again with the 7th Fleet off the coast of Korea, took part in two coastal bombardments and several submarine exercises off Okinawa. She returned to Hawaii on June 20, 1952, and on September 5, she ran with Joint Task Group 132 to Eniwetok , where the first test of a hydrogen bomb was to take place as part of Operation Ivy . She monitored the sea area around the atoll during the preparations and was about 30 nautical miles from Ground Zero during the detonation of Ivy Mike on November 1st. After completing the test, the Fletcher returned to Pearl Harbor on November 24th.
Another mission followed in May 1953 with the 7th Fleet in the Pacific, which lasted until the end of November. The first half of 1954 the ship spent in port and with exercises in the region around Hawaii. On August 9, she ran out with Destroyer Wing 11 in the direction of Yokosuka. On August 21, the association left Japan for Subic Bay , where it joined the porters Philippine Sea and Yorktown and helped evacuate Yijang Shan Island during the First Quemoy Crisis in September . In 1955 the Fletcher was involved in the evacuation of the Dachen Islands . Until 1962 she operated annually for several months with the 7th Fleet in the western Pacific. In 1962 she was again classified as a destroyer (DD).
During the Vietnam War she was deployed four times for six months each off the coast and was involved in Operation Market Time , among other things . Their missions off Vietnam also included coastal bombardments, missions as "plane guard" for various carriers and radar watch missions. In August 1968 she exchanged her crew with the Philip , which had been classified as no longer operational. The following mission in the Pacific was the last one, in May 1969 she returned to Pearl Harbor, where she unloaded her ammunition and the crew was bid farewell. The Fletcher lifted anchor one last time on July 16 and drove to San Diego.
fate
The Fletcher was decommissioned on August 1, 1969, after more than 27 years of service, in the port of San Diego and removed from the shipping registers of the Navy. According to the initial plans, it should be preserved as a museum ship, but these were then abandoned. On February 22, 1972, the destroyer was sold to Taiwan for scrapping, transferred to Taiwan in a deep-sea tug in March and subsequently completely demolished.
The Fletcher received 15 Battle Stars for its use in World War II and five for its use in the Korean War.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b destroyerhistory.org , as of December 12, 2016
- ↑ ussfletcher.org in the waybackmachine ( Memento from March 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), as of January 10, 2008
Web links
- Photos of the Fletcher at navsource.org (English)