“Robert Cross reveals how destroyer escorts turned tide of Atlantic battle” |
| Robert Cross reveals how destroyer escorts turned tide of Atlantic battle Posted: 17 Sep 2010 09:22 PM PDT Robert F. Cross of Albany had the greatest possible help with researching and writing his book "Shepherds of the Sea: Destroyer Escorts in World War II." Cross used firsthand accounts of sailors, including several from the Capital Region, who served aboard 56 of 563 destroyer escorts. He also reviewed oral histories, letters, war dairies, ship logs and other documents. His work on the book began during a dinner at the Fort Orange Club in Albany in 2003 when Frank Lasch, president of the Destroyer Escort Historical Museum, suggested Cross write a book on destroyer escorts. The former newspaper correspondent, who is Albany's Department of Water and Water Supply commissioner and chairman of the Albany Port District Commission, had just finished writing a Franklin D. Roosevelt biography titled "Sailor in the White House: The Seafaring: Life of FDR." Lasch helped Cross connect with 91 destroyer escort veterans. "I had a story that hadn't been told, but must be told," Cross said. "This is a story about American heroes." More than 150,000 Americans, mostly teenagers and officers in their early 20s, served as destroyer escort sailors as they protected U.S. Merchant Marine and Allied ships that transported troops, food and war supplies. The sailors also hunted enemy subs. More than 1,300 of destroyer escort sailors died in combat. The destroyer escort story actually begins before World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was secretary of the Navy during World War I, and British Prime Minister Winston Church recognized Germany's U-boats were a threat to shipping. In 1940, Roosevelt ordered the Navy to develop small vessels capable of countering the threat. But, Navy officials decided to spend money on larger warships, destroyers and carriers. Within months after the U.S. entered the war, the decision not to build destroyer escorts proved to be a bad one. "U-boats slaughtered Allied vessels and their sailors on the Atlantic Ocean with great effectiveness -- 2,800 ships were sunk in the first six months following the attack on Pearl Harbor," Cross said, adding the Allies were losing the Battle of the Atlantic. But destroyer escort sailors helped turn the tide and win the battle, he said. As Germany was sinking more ships than could be replaced, the U.S. Navy took another look at destroyer escort development. In 1942, the Navy began building the escorts; the first one was deployed in January 1943. Within a year, 336 warships were deployed. Each destroyer escort, designed by Naval architect William Francis Gibbs, had a crew of between 180 and 220 men. Each destroyer escort was about 300 feet long 35 feet wide and equipped with anti-aircraft guns, torpedoes, depth charges and hedgehogs. Each hedgehog included 24 bombs with 30 pounds of TNT that could be launched 270 yards ahead of a ship and exploded undersea. German Navy Capt. Herbert Werner, a U-boat commander, attested to the escorts' immediate effectiveness. In March 1943, Werner reported that the U-boat Force suffered a sharp increase in losses. He blamed the losses on the effectiveness of the destroyer escorts. Germany launched 859 U-boats. Allied sailors and airmen sank more than 750 of the enemy subs by the end of the war. Destroyer escort crews sank 70 German U-boats and 26 Japanese submarines. Only 16 of the destroyer escorts were sunk. U-boats sunk only five DEs. The others were sunk by enemy aircraft, mines and warships. Cross also details historic events. The destroyer escort USS Ulvert M. Moore was commanded by Capt. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., FDR's son. Lieutenant William Bell of Schenectady, an officer on the Ulvert, received a message that his skipper's dad, President Roosevelt, died on April 12, 1945. Bell delivered the news. He did not to attend his dad's funeral because when his crew had a death in their families they were not allowed to attend funerals. Out of fairness to his men, he remained on duty. Cross reveals the name of a Navy officer, Lt. George Gowling, who successfully led an effort to develop a transmitter that could jam and counter Germany's new secret weapon, a 3,400-pound radio-control glide bomb that could be launched from 20 miles away. Glide bombs had destroyed a number of Allied warships and killed thousands of sailors in the Mediterranean. Cross also details how the destroyer escort USS Mason became the first Navy warship that had a crew of mostly black sailors, who earned Commendation Medals for their performance. One of the destroyer escorts, the USS Slater, which is moored on the Hudson River in Albany, has been fully restored. The Slater is the last DE still afloat in the United States. News of your soldiers and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or by e-mail at brownt@timesunion.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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