USS Wadsworth (DD-516)

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USS WADSWORTH (DD-516) in December 1944
USS WADSWORTH (DD-516) in December 1944
Overview
Type destroyer
Shipyard

Bath Iron Works

Keel laying August 18, 1942
Launch January 10, 1943
1. Period of service flag
period of service

March 16, 1943-18. April 1946

Whereabouts 1959 to the Federal Republic of Germany
1980 transferred to Greece
1993 canceled
Technical specifications
displacement

2,100  ts

length

114.6 meters

width

12.2 meters

Draft

5.4 meters

crew

329

drive
speed

35 kn

Range

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

Armament

When commissioning:

The USS Wadsworth (DD-516) was a Fletcher-class destroyer in the United States Navy and took part in World War II . In 1959 the Wadsworth was loaned to the Federal Republic of Germany as armaments aid and was put into service there as Destroyer 3 (D 172) . The ship was bought by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1976. In 1980 the ship went to the Greek Navy , which put it into service as Nearchos (D-65) . In 1993 the destroyer was canceled.

Namesake

Commodore Alexander S. Wadsworth (1790-1851) was an officer in the United States Navy . Wadsworth took part in the British-American War and the Second Barbarian War.

technology

Hull and drive

The hull of the USS Wadsworth was 114.6 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 .

Armament and Electronics

The main armament of the USS Wadsworth when it was commissioned was its five 5-inch / 127-mm Mark 30 individual turrets. There were also various anti-aircraft guns . The anti-aircraft armament was further strengthened in the course of the war.

The USS Wadsworth 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 Wadsworth was laid down at Bath Iron Works in Bath , Maine on August 18, 1942 , and launched on January 10, 1943. Godmother was Rebecca Wardsworth Peacher, great-granddaughter of the namesake. On March 16, 1943, the destroyer entered service at the Boston Navy Yard under the command of Commander John F. Walker.

1943

The USS Wadsworth left Boston on April 5, 1943 and carried out test drives from Guantanamo Bay . She then returned to the Boston Navy Yard for rework. She was then used to protect the aircraft carriers USS Princeton and USS Yorktown during exercises off Port of Spain , Trinidad and as an escort and protection for the USS Bunker Hill . After returning to Boston, she set sail again on July 20 and was assigned to a task force formed around the aircraft carriers USS Lexington , USS Princeton and USS Belleau Wood , which transferred to the Pacific. On August 9, 1943, the association reached Pearl Harbor . Ten days later, she left the base and headed for Canton to protect the USS Prince William . On August 31, she operated from Espiritu Santo on the Japanese submarine I-20 , which had torpedoed and damaged the tanker WS Rheem 10 NM north of the Bougainville Strait. The USS Wardsworth made underwater contact on September 1 and threw depth charges at the submarine in seven attempts. Sinking or damage to I-20 could not be confirmed. The submarine has been officially missing since October 10, 1943.

On September 6, the USS Wadsworth reached Havannah Harbor on Efate . After exercises with the task force of the USS Saratoga , she set sail with USS Tracy on September 17 and escorted a supply convoy to Kukum Beach on Guadalcanal . On September 30, she returned to Efate and became part of the destroyer wing of the battleship USS South Dakota . After returning to Efate, the USS Wadsworth patrolled Meli Bay and secured the entrance to Havannah Harbor.

Together with the other destroyers of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 45 , she formed the screen around the transport ships of Task Group (TG) 31.5 on the way to the Solomon Islands and during the first landings in the Kaiserin Augusta Bay on Bougainville . The task force reached the target area in the early morning of November 1, 1943. The USS Wadsworth led a group of minesweepers into the bay and began bombarding the coast with its artillery at 5:47 am. After the two-hour bombardment, she and her sister ship the USS Sigourney took up position to protect the transports that had begun landing the troops. The destroyers were taken by surprise by six enemy aircraft that attacked them from the sun. The first bomb missed the USS Wadsworth and exploded about 20 m from the ship on the starboard side. Two more bombs hit about 450 m behind her. The fourth bomb missed the ship by 20 m on the port side, but two crew members were killed and nine others were wounded by bomb fragments. The two destroyers were able to shoot down two attackers each. The USS Wadsworth remained in position until late at night. On the morning of November 8th, she escorted a second convoy with troop transports to Kaiserin Augusta Bay. Again she patrolled the coast and was used as a fighter guide ship. It repulsed an airstrike around noon and shot down a dive bomber and a torpedo bomber . She left the area shortly after midnight and patrolled Guadalcanal until November 10, before again escorting convoys to Bougainville until the end of the year. The escort service was interrupted several times by operations against coastal positions.

1944

In January 1944, the USS Wadsworth was used together with USS Waller and USS Halford against Japanese shipping off the east coast of New Ireland , against coastal positions in the Buka Passage area and the newly built Japanese airfield on Choiseul .

On February 11, she left Purvis Bay and met other destroyers and loaded LSTs off Munda , New Georgia , whose destination was the Green Islands . On the morning of February 15, 1944, the unit reached Barahun and began disembarking the troops. The destroyer took up position off the coast. Two hours after the start of the landing, all 5800 soldiers of the 3rd New Zealand Division carrying out the landing had landed. When it got dark, the USS Wadsworth was used as a fighter guide ship and brought night fighters to approaching Japanese planes. On February 17, she returned to Purvis Bay to then join a convoy of troop transports off Kukum Beach and escort them to the Green Islands. After disembarking the troops on February 20, she drove back to Purvis Bay.

The next operations of the Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 45 took the USS Wadsworth off the west coast of New Ireland, where the destroyers were used against Japanese ship movements. Shortly after midnight on February 24, 1944, the destroyer opened fire on facilities and troop concentrations on the coast.

On March 17, the USS Wadsworth escorted a convoy of fast transporters (APD) from Guadalcanal to Emirau . Until mid-April she stayed in the escort service between Guadalcanal and Emirau.

After a stay in Sydney , she drove to Havannah Harbor, where she arrived on May 10th. Together with Battleship Division (BatDiv) 3 battleships , USS Pennsylvania , USS New Mexico and USS Idaho , she conducted exercises in preparation for landing in the Marianas . On May 31st, the Commander of the USS Wardsworth , Commander John F. Walsh, was appointed Commander of the DesDiv 90 .

The destroyers of the DesRon 45 together with the BatDiv 3 formed the Task Group (TG) 53.14 on June 2, 1944 and set course for the Marianas. On June 14, the USS Wardsworth was part of the umbrella of the USS Pennsylvania , the USS Idaho and the light cruiser USS Honolulu in the bombardment of targets in east Tinian .

After taking over fuel off Saipan , the USS Wadsworth joined Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 on June 17 and belonged to TG 58.3 with the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise . On June 19, TG 58.3 took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

On July 7, the USS Wardsworth sailed to Tinian with other destroyers and cruisers. The original plan to combat targets on Tinian was changed and facilities on Guam were attacked instead . After a brief stay on Eniwetok , she returned to Guam and on July 22nd took in eight locals who had fled the Japanese and were able to provide information about the Japanese positions. During the Battle of Guam , it shelled the island several times and served as a radar outpost. On August 2, she was replaced by the USS Hudson and then used until August 6 as a fighter command ship for the fighters of the USS Belleau Wood , the USS Langley and the USS Essex . On August 10, she escorted fleet tankers to Eniwetok, from where she set sail on August 13 with a course to Pearl Harbor.

Before Oahu it was used as a radar outpost. As an escort for Natoma Bay and Manila Bay , she returned to the Marshall Islands and was placed under the 3rd US Fleet on September 25th. After a short time the USS Wardsworth left the archipelago and went to the Mare Island Navy Yard on October 25 , where it was overhauled, repaired and modernized by December 5.

The USS Wadsworth switched from the DesRon 45 to the DesRon 24 and escorted a convoy from California to Hawaii . The convoy arrived there on December 29, 1944.

1945

In mid-January 1945 the USS Wadsworth reached Palau and replaced the USS Lansdowne in the function of a tender for four minesweepers and two submarines, which operated between Peleliu and Angaur . On January 25, she ran to Ulithi and became part of the glider of TG 51.1 , a transport group that was scheduled for landing on Iwo Jima .

On the morning of January 19, TG 51.1 reached Iwo Jima. Then she was used for anti-submarine defense on the southern tip of the island, in escort service and for fire support for the troops that had landed.

The USS Wadsworth left Iwo Jima on March 5 and headed for the Philippines, where it operated and performed various exercises for the remainder of the month. As part of a transport group, she set course for Ryukyus .

She arrived in Okinawa on April 1, 1945 . For the next 15 days, they supported the invasion with their guns. On Kearama Retto she received improved equipment and served as a radar outpost and fighter guide off Okinawa. From April 17 to June 24, the USS Wadsworth performed this task nine times. During this time it repulsed 22 air strikes, shot down six planes and was involved in the downing of seven other planes. In addition, fighter planes led by her could shoot down 28 enemy machines. In total, the crew was ordered to the combat station 203 times.

On June 27, the USS Wadsworth reached San Pedro Bay , Leyte . She spent two weeks in Filipino waters and then set course for Okinawa with a group of heavy cruisers . The association reached Okinawa on July 16 and sailed from there to the East China Sea to combat Japanese shipping off the coast of China. This mission was repeated at the beginning of August.

post war period

After the fighting ended, the USS Wadsworth remained in the Far East. On November 17, she ran via Hawaii to San Diego and later through the Panama Canal to Charleston . She arrived there on December 23, 1945. The USS Wadsworth was decommissioned on April 18, 1946 and assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet .

Whereabouts

Destroyer 3 (D 172)

→ see also: Class 119

In 1959 the destroyer was completely overhauled and modernized in the Charleston Navy Yard. The cannon 53 was removed, as well as all 20 mm flak and the forward torpedo tube group. There were built six 3 "Flak in double guns, and German navigation devices and the pole mast replaced by a tripod mast. The conversion costs were approximately $ 5 million on October 6, 1959, was handed over to the Federal Republic of Germany, the ship as well. Destroyer 3 ( D 172) put into service. after tests and exercises left destroyer 3 Charleston and drove with stops in Hamilton on Bermuda , Ponta Delgada on the Azores and Lisbon to Kiel , where the destroyer broke in on December 19, 1959.

Destroyer 3 belonged to the 1st destroyer squadron . On April 1, 1968, the ship moved to the Fleet Service Squadron and on October 1, 1971 to the 3rd Destroyer Squadron . The ship was rebuilt several times during the shipyard layover. So the bridge was enlarged, eliminating the open bridge and two U-defense torpedo tubes were set up on the upper deck at the level of the torpedo tube group. In 1973 the remaining torpedo tube group was expanded. The slewing ring remained on board and the resulting gap was bridged by a walkway. Destroyer 3 was removed from the list of warships of the US Navy on October 1, 1974 and bought by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1976 for approx. 375,000 DM . On June 30, 1980, the destroyer was taken out of service. Destroyer 3 left Kiel on September 29, 1980 and moved to Greece. The ship was decommissioned there on October 15, 1980.

Nearchus (D-65)

With the German decommissioning, the commissioning as Nearchos (D-65) of the Greek Navy took place at the same time . In 1988 the Nearchos was decommissioned and deleted from the fleet list in 1991. On September 24, 1993, she was towed to Aliağa for demolition.

Awards

The USS Wadsworth received seven Battle Stars and one Presidential Unit Citation during 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
  • Gerhard Koop, Siegfried Breyer: The ships, vehicles and planes of the German Navy from 1956 until today . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-7637-5950-6
  • German Navy Federation, cast off! 4-2011 , ISSN  1432-9069
  • Theodore Roscoe: Destroyer Operations in World War II . United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1953, ISBN 978-0-87021-726-5

Web links