African-American sailors observe an Evarts class destroyer escort during a snowstorm. (U.S. Archives)
DE DAY: Destroyer Escort Sailors Recall Winning the Nazi Submarine War
Naval Veterans to Tour USS Edson, Explore Saginaw River History
June 19, 2015
By: Dave Rogers
(EDITOR'S NOTE: One of the most dramatic, and virtually unknown, stories in American naval history will be in focus in Bay City this weekend when the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association meet here in their annual convention.)
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Maine's Governor Paul R. LePage has proclaimed June 20, 2015 as Destroyer Escort Day to honor American sailors from World War II, The Vietnam War, and the Korean War who served on Destroyer Escort ships.
Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan might well chime in with a "me too" since his state was the wellspring of the smaller ships that made a big contribution to winning World War II.
(COMMENT: Gov. Snyder did send a similar proclamation on DE Day, read to the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association DESA aboard the USS Edson by former Mayor Mike Buda on Saturday.)
Bay City's -- and the Defoe Shipbuilding Company's -- role in producing the DEs, 289 foot long sub-chasers, as well as 173 foot long patrol craft (PCs), is one that demands more public recognition.
A still-pregnant mystery surrounds the ordering of two patrol craft (PC) prototypes by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 -- THREE YEARS BEFORE the U.S. had any certainty of involvement in World War II.
Roosevelt had been Secretary of the Navy during World War I (1914-1918) so no doubt had a hand in procurement of the unarmed vessels Defoe furnished the Navy.
Defoe's first government contract was for five 40-foot spent torpedo chasers delivered in 1917, according to Catherine C. Baker in her 1974 "Shipbuilding on the Saginaw" published by the former Museum of the Great Lakes.
In 1918 the firm was awarded a contract for eight 98-foot steel mine-planters.
Strangely, no armaments could be part of the Defoe-built World War I vessels because this country still had a treaty with Great Britain -- dating back nearly a century to the War of 1812 -- prohibiting construction of warships on the Great Lakes!
Those early years of World War II were perilous for the world, and freedom of mankind: German subs ruled the Atlantic, sinking 600 ships -- half the merchant fleet carrying U.S. goods to Britain -- in the first six months of 1942.
The Nazis were winning the battle of the maritime supply lines and Britons were near starving as a result.
Naval chiefs huddled in Washington, D.C. to contemplate a strategy: Full size destroyers take too long to build, so they would use smaller craft like fast DEs, as well as even faster PCs, to escort merchant convoys and destroy German subs with depth charges; planes overhead will harry the U-boats (untersee boots) with torpedoes.
But how to turn out the ships fast enough? The answer came from Harry Defoe in Bay City, Michigan.
The innovative "roll-over" method of construction was devised by Defoe to speed the output of the smaller ships. The DE was built at a third the cost and in half the time of a destroyer.
"These ships were used as lifelines for Allied forces by protecting convoys from the U-Boat menace in the Atlantic Ocean," Gov. LePage's news release said, continuing:
"Destroyer Escorts were also used for surface to surface combat, shelling shores for invasions, and many other assignments."
Before the DEs and PCs, 26 Allied ships were sunk to every enemy sub destroyed. By 1945, the kill ratio had shifted to two U-boats sunk for every Allied merchant ship that went down.
Military intelligence reports were that Hitler was confounded by the new small ship/plane sub-chasing strategy, and was outgunned -- having geared the pace of Nazi U-boat construction to deal only with destroyers.
Defoe built 17 DEs, four of the Ruddrow class and 13 of the Buckley class and converted 11 DEs to fast troop transports, APDs, each carrying four landing craft. Defoe completed a DE every three weeks.
Some 56 PCs were built here and more than 500 similar vessels came off the ways nationwide.
In 1944, as the war was coming to an end, Defoe lost 10 destroyer escort vessel contracts canceled as well as 56 large landing craft and 29 diesel minesweepers scrubbed in 1945.
Defoe's roll-over construction method revolutionized ship construction, allowing welders to work down-hand rather than the more arduous way above their heads. The firm was awarded five Navy "E" awards for production and quality.
The immutable tide of war had almost miraculously been turned -- and Defoe and Bay City had played a vital role.
The longer Buckley class DEs were 306 feet and 103 were built. Most of the film The Enemy Below (1957) was filmed on USS Whitehurst, a Buckley-class DE. The rest of the film is set in the submarine that it is hunting.
In 1975 DEs were re-designated frigates.
Governor LePage last week met with members of the New England Chapter of the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association (DESA), which includes Navy Veterans from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. The Governor presented a signed copy of the 2015 Destroyer Escort Day Proclamation, which is a longstanding tradition of the Governor of the State of Maine.
Here the old sailors and their wives and relatives will tour the USS Edson (DD 946), a full size destroyer of 418 feet, dwarfing the DEs that were only about three-quarters their size.
Gov. LePage commented on the men who manned the destroyer escorts, some of whom will gather in Bay City this weekend:
"We are losing a generation of warriors, and it saddens me to know there are very few veterans still with us who served on these historic ships. "Our veterans deserve respect and recognition for their dedication in defending our freedom. These sailors risked and often gave their lives for peace and freedom worldwide. We can never thank them enough," said Governor LePage.
No one dare argue with those sentiments.
(NOTE: The last time the DE group met in Bay City was 2003 and the gathering was attended by the late Bill Defoe. This columnist spoke at that meeting and is proud to have been asked to speak to the association on the deck of the USS Edson on Saturday. The topic will be the history of the Saginaw River. Please pray for good weather.)
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