USS Pringle (DD-477)

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USS Pringle in December 1942
USS Pringle in December 1942
Overview
Type destroyer
Shipyard

Charleston Navy Yard

Keel laying July 31, 1941
Launch May 2, 1942
1. Period of service flag
period of service

September 15, 1942-16. April 1945

Whereabouts Sunk by Kamikaze on April 16, 1945
Technical specifications
displacement

2,100  ts

length

114.7 meters

width

12.2 meters

Draft

5.4 meters

crew

336

drive
speed

35 kn

Range

6,500  nautical miles (11,700 km) at 15 knots

Armament

When commissioning:

The USS Pringle (DD-477) was a for Fletcher Class belonging destroyer of the US Navy , who in World War II was used. The USS Pringle was equipped with a catapult and an aircraft on commissioning. On April 16, 1945, the ship was sunk by a kamikaze attack off Okinawa .

Namesake

Vice Admiral Joel RP Pringle (1873–1932) was an officer in the US Navy. During the First World War he served as commander of the destroyer tender USS Melville (AD-2) and as chief of staff of the Destroyer Flotillas, European Waters .

technology

Hull and drive

The hull of the USS Pringle 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 .

Board aircraft

The USS Pringle was one of six Fletcher-class destroyers to be equipped with a Mark VI aircraft catapult and a Vought Kingfisher aircraft. Besides the USS Pringle , only two others ( USS Stevens (DD-479) and USS Halford (DD-480) ) actually received a catapult. The catapult and the crane to pick up the aircraft were located aft of the second funnel instead of the second torpedo tube set, gun # 3 and the second deck of the deckhouse, on which most Fletcher had a 40mm twin anti-aircraft gun. The 40-mm gun was on the quarterdeck just before the depth charge drainage rails, where 20-mm guns were otherwise.

The original plan provided that the aircraft on board should serve as a reconnaissance aircraft for the destroyer flotilla, to which the USS Pringle belonged. The launch should be done by catapult, the landing near the destroyer on the water. The aircraft was then lifted back onto the catapult by crane. The USS Pringle was the only destroyer to have used the catapult operationally. With the construction of new cruisers and fast battleships, which were also equipped with aircraft on board, as well as aircraft carriers in connection with the changed mission profile of the destroyers, the concept proved to be obsolete. Another reason was the weight reserves used up to the limit by the catapult and aircraft, which no longer permitted an increase in anti-aircraft armament that was recognized as necessary. At the end of 1943 the catapult of the USS Pringle was removed.

Armament and Electronics

The main armament of the USS Pringle when it was commissioned was its four 5-inch / 127-mm Mark 30 individual turrets. The armament was changed after the catapult was removed and a fifth 5-inch turret was added. There were also various anti-aircraft guns . The anti-aircraft armament was further strengthened in the course of the war.

The USS Pringle 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

The USS Pringle was laid down in the Charleston Navy Yard on July 31, 1941 and launched on May 2, 1942. On September 15, 1942, she entered service under the command of Lieutenant Commander Harold O. Larson.

1943

After the completion of its testing, the USS Pringle met the convoy ON-154 in the mid Atlantic and escorted him to Halifax . On this voyage, she was the first US destroyer to launch an aircraft from a catapult. The aircraft was used to search for enemy submarines. In the prevailing weather, shooting the aircraft turned out to be difficult due to the relatively small size of the destroyer.

On February 6, she moved to the Pacific. After arriving off Guadalcanal on May 30, 1943, she patrolled the Solomon Islands . On the night of July 17-18, the USS Pringle, along with USS Saufley (DD-465) and USS Waller (DD-466), attacked three Japanese destroyers off Vanga Point near Kolombangara . In addition to several torpedo hits on the destroyers, she succeeded in shooting down a Japanese aircraft.

In August, the USS Pringle protected the advancing units on Vella Lavella , escorted LSTs through the Strait of Gizo and covered mining operations off Kolombangara. On the night of September 3rd to 4th, she and the USS Dyson (DD-572) made an advance on Japanese shipping between Gambi Head on Choiseul and Kolombangara, in which three barges were sunk.

On November 11, 1943 she escorted the Task Group (TG) 31.7 to Kaiserin Augusta Bay on Bougainville . During the journey, she shot down a Japanese plane and damaged another.

1944

The USS Pringle operated in the Solomon Islands for the next several months, interrupted by a stay in Sydney in late January 1944. In early March, they shelled coastal position in the southwest of Bougainville.

During the battle for the Mariana Islands and Palau , she was used for fire support, escort service and anti-submarine defense. After further missions during the Battle of Saipan in June and the Battle of Tinian in July, in which the USS Pringle supported the landings of the American troops with its artillery, it ran to San Francisco to be overhauled in the Mare Island Naval Shipyard .

After completing the work, she drove to Pearl Harbor on October 19 , from where she set sail for the Philippines on November 10 to take part in the invasion.

On 27 and 28 November, they opened fire along with the other destroyers of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 22 , USS Saufley , USS Waller and USS Renshaw , the port facilities of Ormoc City in Leyte and shot down a Japanese plane. An allied reconnaissance aircraft spotted a surfaced Japanese submarine south of Pacijan heading for Ormoc Bay and reported it to the destroyers. At 1:27 a.m., the USS Waller's radar caught the submarine I-46 and damaged it with one of the first shots. At 1:45 a.m., the DesRon 22 sunk the submersible submarine .

A supply formation escorted to Mindoro by the USS Pringle between December 27 and 30 was subjected to heavy air strikes. Several of the association's ships were sunk. The destroyer succeeded in shooting down two attacking aircraft. On December 30, a kamikaze plane crashed on the ship and struck behind the deckhouse, killing 11 men and wounding 20. One 40 mm gun was destroyed and two 5 "guns damaged.

1945

In February 1945 the USS Pringle was operational again. She escorted transport ships to Iwo Jima on February 17 . During the landing on Iwo Jima , she supported the landing units of the US Marine Corps with her artillery. On March 4, she moved to Ulithi to prepare for the upcoming Battle of Okinawa . The Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 90 assigned to it protected the transports, covered minesweeping operations and put their guns one in support of the invasion. On April 15, it was used as a radar outpost and was able to shoot down two planes in a kamikaze attack before a third machine hit its bridge. One 1,000-pound and two 500-pound bombs from the aircraft exploded, tearing the destroyer in two at the front boiler room level. Six minutes later the USS Pringle sank . 258 men survived the sinking.

Awards

The USS Pringle received ten Battle Stars for 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 .
  • Norman Friedman: US Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, MD. United States Naval Institute, 1980.
  • David Brown: Warship Losses of World War Two. Arms and Armor, London 1990, ISBN 0-85368-802-8 .

Web links