USS MacKenzie (DD-614)

	; USS MacKenzie (DD-614)
Overview
Shipyard	Bethlehem Steel Co
Keel laying	May 29, 1941
Launch	June 27, 1942
Commissioning	November 21, 1942
Decommissioning	February 4, 1946
Removed from ship register	July 1, 1971
Whereabouts	sunk as a target ship
Technical specifications
displacement	1620 ts
length	106.20 m
width	11.00 m
Draft	5.40 m
crew	17 officers, 228 men
drive	4 boilers, 2 steam turbines , 2 shafts , 50,000 hp
speed	35 kn (65.8 km / h)
Armament	; 1 × fire control computer Mk 37 over the bridge ; 4 × 5 "guns (127 mm, L / 38) in stand-alone installation, ; 1 × 2 40 mm MK 1 machine guns ; 2 × 5 21" torpedo tubes (533 mm, 3 × 4), ; 4 × 20 mm MK 4 automatic cannons , ; 2 × depth charge drain racks , 4 × depth charge launchers .

The USS MacKenzie (DD-614) was a destroyer of the Benson-class destroyer of the US Navy . It was named after Commander Alexander S. MacKenzie and the third ship to bear this name. The ship was christened by Miss Gail Nielsen, a cousin of the namesake. The first in command was Commander DB Miller.

After the necessary training trips, the "McKenzie" passed the Panama Canal on March 1, 1943 and began its service in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, where it remained during the entire war. On March 13, 1942, she first reached Casco Bay ( Maine ) in order to escort convoys in the coastal area from here. In May of the same year, the destroyer was parked to protect transatlantic convoys and made two trips to the Mediterranean by the end of June. Here, the driving MacKenzie after a sonar contact two depth charge attacks on a submerged submarine and sank it. After the end of the war it turned out that the U 182 had been sunk during this operation . At the end of June the ship was withdrawn from the transatlantic escort service and assigned to the attack group "Cent" in the Mediterranean. "Cent" was one of the three attack groups destined to invade Sicily. On July 9, 1942, the MacKenzie left the North African coast and first went to Scoglitti in Sicily, in order to secure the transport ships the next day and to give fire support to the landing troops.

The destroyer returned to its escort duties three days later and sailed between the United States and the Mediterranean until October 7th. This was followed by escort trips between the USA and Great Britain. After a lay in the yard in Swansea in late autumn , the MacKenzie crossed the Atlantic twice and then moved back to the Mediterranean. Here the destroyer reported on March 18, 1944 in Naples in order to depart from here for escort, fire support and anti-submarine defense as part of the landing operation at Anzio. The MacKenzie had its first success on March 19, when it successfully participated in the sinking of a two-man submarine. Convoy protection was resumed from June 6th and from August the destroyer gave fire protection during the landing on the occasion of "Operation Anvil" on the southern French coast.

On September 15, the destroyer moved to Boston for a five-month overhaul.

Thereafter, in February 1945, it was relocated again to the Mediterranean, where from March 28 to April 21, the Franco-Italian coastal area was shelled during the day and the Gulf of Genoa was blocked at night. Until the end of the war in Europe, the MacKenzie drove in escort in the Strait of Gibraltar and moved back to the United States in July.

Here it was overhauled and should then be relocated to the Pacific. After the end of the war in the Pacific in mid-August 1945, this order was reversed and the ship entered the Charleston , SC Navy Yard on November 4 to be decommissioned. The decommissioning took place on February 4, 1946, then the ship was assigned to the reserve fleet with berth in Philadelphia ( Pennsylvania ). She belonged to this reserve fleet until 1969.

The MacKenzie was deleted from the ship register on July 1, 1971 and sunk as a target ship on May 6, 1974 off the coast of Florida .

The MacKenzie was awarded four Battle Stars .

Web links

USS MacKenzie at navsource.org