USS Pope (DE-134)

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USS Pope (DE-134)
USS Pope (DE-134)
Overview
Type Escort destroyer ( Edsall class )
Shipyard

Consolidated Steel Corporation

Keel laying July 14, 1942
Launch January 12, 1943
Namesake John Pope
1. Period of service flag
Commissioning June 25, 1943
Decommissioning May 17, 1946
Technical specifications
displacement

1,253 tons
1,590 tons full load

length

93.27 m

width

11.15 m

drive

Fairbanks Morse  diesel engine
4 diesel prime movers

speed

21 knots (39 km / h)

The USS Pope (DE-134) was a destroyer escort the Edsall-class serving the US Navy , who during World War II was built. She served in the Atlantic as an escort for ships of the US Navy and convoys to protect against air and submarine attacks.

history

Named after the naval officer John Pope , who served in the US Navy during the Civil War and in memory of the predecessor ship of the same name, the USS Pope , which was sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea in February 1942, the destroyer escort Pope was escorted on July 14, 1942 laid down at Consolidated Steel in Orange , Texas . After the ship was christened by Mrs. Rae W. Fabens, the ship was launched on January 12, 1943 and was commissioned on June 25, 1943 under the command of Comdr. Frederick Sherman Hall commissioned with the US Navy.

After test drives off Bermuda, the Pope reached Casablanca on September 23, 1943 after her first escort in a convoy. Two more convoy escorts followed before the destroyer was assigned to the TG 21.12 anti-submarine group around the escort aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal . There the Pope was involved in the sinking of U 515 on April 9, 1944 and the detachment of U 505 , for which she was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation . The Pope remained in association with the Guadalcanal until the end of the war and supported, among other things, the sinking of U 546 on April 24, 1945.

Shortly after the German surrender, the Pope escorted the German submarine U 858 to Cape May together with the USS Pillsbury , after it had previously surrendered to the US ships in the North Atlantic. After another convoy mission, the Pope returned to the United States, where she acted as a "plane guard" for the USS Solomons during exercises off Norfolk and Mayport . The USS Pope was decommissioned on May 17, 1946 and transferred to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet and eventually scrapped.

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