USS Greer (DD-145)

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USS Greer (DD-145)
The USS Greer (DD-145)
The USS Greer (DD-145)
Ship data
flag United StatesUnited States (national flag) United States
Ship type destroyer
class Wickes class
Shipyard W. Cramp & Sons , Philadelphia ,
Build number 460
Keel laying February 24, 1918
Launch May 11, 1918
Commissioning December 31, 1918
to June 22, 1922, March 31, 1930 to January 13, 1937; October 4, 1939
Whereabouts July 19, 1945 out of service,
November 30, 1945 for demolition
Ship dimensions and crew
length
95.8 m ( Lüa )
94.5 m ( Lpp )
width 9.4 m
Draft Max. 2.8 m
displacement 1165   ts standard
 
crew 113 men
Machine system
machine 4 Normand- boiler
2 GE Curtiss - geared turbines
Machine
performance
27,000 PS (19,858 kW)
Top
speed
35 kn (65 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
Sensors

1941: sonar , 1942 radar

The USS Greer (DD-145) was a destroyer of Wickes-class destroyer of the US Navy . The destroyer was the first ship in the US Navy to be attacked by a German submarine in the Atlantic , over three months before the German Reich declared war on the United States . In response to this incident, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instructed the ships of the US Navy not to wait for an attack, but to strike immediately if they sighted an Axis craft ("Shoot on sight order").

History of the destroyer

The destroyer named after Rear Admiral James A. Greer (1833-1904) was built at the William Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Of the 270 four-stack destroyers ( four stackers ), two destroyers Caldwell -Vorserie , 21 of Wickes - and 25 of the Clemson class built on this shipyard. The new building with construction number 460 began on February 24, 1918. On August 1, 1918, the new building was launched as Greer and entered service with the US Navy on December 31, 1918

Operations until the entry into the war

Greer's first major voyage was to the Azores , where the destroyer met the ex- NDL steamer George Washington , on which American President Woodrow Wilson was returning to the United States from the Paris Peace Conference . In 1919, the Greer took part in securing the first transatlantic flight when it was the first of a further 20 destroyers that the three planes were to fly over on their way to the Azores. Of the Navy's Curtiss flying boats , only the NC-4 was able to complete the flight successfully. The destroyer visited Europe in 1919 and was then assigned to the American Pacific fleet, which was under construction, and reached San Francisco on November 18, 1919. On March 25, 1920, the destroyer moved from California to the American Asia fleet . In May, the destroyer was then off Shanghai to protect American life and property. The Greer also visited Port Arthur and Dairen to investigate the political situation in these cities. The destroyer then ran to Cavite in the Philippines for exercises with the units permanently stationed in Asia. Then the destroyer returned to San Francisco via Guam , Midway and Hawaii by September 29, 1921 . On June 22, 1922, the destroyer was decommissioned in San Diego and assigned to the reserve.

On March 31, 1930, the Greer was put back into service. The Battle Fleet assigned to the destroyer took part in the coast of different exercises from Alaska to Panama and also went to Hawaii once. On February 1, 1931, the destroyer was transferred to the Scouting Fleet and was initially used in the Caribbean between Panama , Haiti and Cuba . From August 1933 to February 1934 the destroyer belonged to the so-called Rotating Reserve . Training drives, participation in maneuvers and securing of practicing aircraft carriers were the tasks of the destroyer. She then returned to the American east coast and belonged to Training Squadron 3 from June 1936, where she carried out trips for the training and education of the Naval Reserve . On September 28, 1936, the destroyer then ran at the Philadelphia Navy Yard , where it was decommissioned again on January 13, 1937.

After the start of the war in Europe, the Greer was put back into service on October 4, 1939 and was the lead ship of Destroyer Division 61 . The ship performed security duties on the east coast and in the Caribbean and on the east coast. On December 14th, the German freighter Arauca (4354 GRT) from Hapag and the NDL passenger steamer Columbus (32581 GRT) from Vera Cruz (Mexico) ran to the north-west for the breakthrough home and not, as expected, through the Yucatán Strait . The waiting Australian cruiser Perth thus had little chance of putting the German passenger steamer in the open Atlantic before it broke out. In the Gulf of Mexico , the Florida Strait and on the east coast up to the height of Cape Hatteras , the Columbus was constantly accompanied by two detaching US destroyers. The Greer was one of the destroyers used . While the Arauca was calling at Port Everglades , Columbus , who was last accompanied by the cruiser Tuscaloosa , tried to escape into the open sea. Before the approaching British destroyer Hyperion , the Columbus sank 320 nautical miles east of Cape Hatteras . The US ships prevented an escape through regular, openly sent location reports. Nevertheless, the crew preferred asylum in the USA to captivity.

In 1941, the destroyer's work was concentrated on the route between Reykjavík , Iceland and Naval Station Argentia on Newfoundland , which was built under the destroyer-for-base agreement with which the US Navy sold 50 destroyers similar to Greer to Great Britain was. The US Navy forms a Support Force Atlantic Fleet with 3 destroyer flotillas and flying boat squadrons for securing convoy in the North Atlantic. Among the employed there, about twenty destroyers belonged in the Desron 30 , the Greer . The American ships partially secured escorts, but they were forbidden to attack submarines of the Axis Powers because they were ships of a still neutral state. On July 19, which forms US Atlantic Fleet war flotilla TF.1 to secure Islands and Iceland to secure the convoys. A task group with the carrier Wasp , the cruisers Quincy and Vincennes and the destroyers O'Brien and Walke brought P-40 fighters to Iceland, which are launched from the sea and reach their destination without loss. The units used to escort convoys to Iceland include the Desron 7 , Desron 11 and Desron 30 with the destroyers Dallas , Greer , Tarbell , Cole , Bernadou , Lea , Ellis and Upshur as well as the Desdiv 62 . August 6 also operated Catalina -Flugboote the patron 73 and Mariner -Flugboote the Patron 74 of Reykjavik or Hvalfjord out. Since the German OKW had considerably expanded the scope of the war in the summer of 1941, the United States moved ever closer to the side of the Western Allies. This led to the so-called Greer Incident in September , which brought the United States' entry into the war even closer on the part of the Western Allies.

The Greer Incident

During the Second World War , the USS Greer was on a supply voyage to Iceland on September 4, 1941 . At this point in time, the US was still neutral . Nearby, a British aircraft ( Hudson , M '/ 269. Sq. RAF) spotted the German submarine U 652 on the surface of the water. U 652 dived immediately. The flight crew then warned the USS Greer that a German submarine had dived nearby. The aircraft then dropped four depth charges at the point where U 652 was last sighted. On the USS Greer all men went to the battle station and the destroyer ran at 22 knots in the direction of the submarine. There he got sonar contact and maneuvered in such a way that the submarine could not emerge. In this situation, U 652 fired two torpedoes at the USS Greer . The destroyer was able to avoid both. The USS Greer then threw depth charges on the submarine, but they did not cause any damage either. After several hours, U 652 escaped and the USS Greer continued her journey. Three months before the German Reich declared war on the United States, this led to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt's instructions to the ships of the US Navy not to wait for an attack, but to strike immediately when they sighted an Axis power vessel (" shoot on sight order ").

In a report requested by the US Senate to investigate the incident, Admiral Harold R. Stark stated that the USS Greer had reported the location of U 652 to a British aircraft several times .

The damaged Kearny next to the Monssen (Gleaves class) , Iceland, 10.1941

Defense of Convoy SC.48 / torpedoing USS Kearny (DD-432)

While defending convoy SC.48, the destroyer Kearny was torpedoed by a German submarine on the night of October 17 and brought in by the Greer .
see: The End of Broadwater

Further missions

In 1941 the Greer remained in the North Atlantic and secured convoys to and from the MOMP, the "mid-ocean meeting point", where the American units exchanged security duties with the British units. After an overhaul in Boston , the destroyer moved south to the Caribbean on March 3, 1942.
The destroyer joined the US convoy AS.1, which was supposed to bring three transporters to Ascension Island . The escort formed the cruisers Cincinnati and Memphis and the destroyers Ellis , Greer , Winslow , Somers and Jouett . The convoy had the 38th Engineer General Service Regiment and small special forces on board to build an airfield on the island in the Atlantic. The place should be used as an intermediate landing place for the transfer of machines to Africa.
Back in the Caribbean, the ship also carried out other tasks: in addition to securing the convoys, 30 castaways were rescued from submarine victims. From May, the Greer guarded the port of Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe to prevent the Vichy-loyal French school cruiser Jeanne d'Arc from leaving.

Web links

Commons : USS Greer (DD-145)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ USS Greer, DD 145
  2. a b c d e Greer (Destroyer No. 145) on DANFS
  3. CALDWELL destroyers (1917-1920) Three-screw ships with three funnels!
  4. WICKES destroyers (1918-1921)
  5. CLEMSON destroyers (1918-1922)
  6. Rohwer: naval warfare , 14.- 19.12.1939 West Atlantic
  7. Rohwer: naval warfare , 03/01/1941 Atlantic
  8. Rohwer: naval warfare , 19.7.- 13.9.1941 North Atlantic
  9. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , September 1–6, 1941 North Atlantic
  10. ^ Clay Blair : Der U-Boot-Krieg, Die Jäger 1939-1942 , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-12345-X , p. 429
  11. Rohwer: naval warfare , 11/09/1941 General Location / USA
  12. ^ Rohwer: Sea War , March 14–31, 1942 South Atlantic