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Resources

 

Web sites

Destroyer Escort Sailor's Association (DESA)

Tin Can Sailors Association

NavSource Naval History - Photographic History Of The U.S. Navy

Naval Historical Center

Haze Gray & Underway - Naval History and Photography

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

Destroyer History

U Boat Aces

UBoat.net

Arnold Hague Convoy Database

Convoys at WarSailors.com

 

 

Research, in-person

Sources For Individual Ship Study, National Archives

National Archives, general

 

 

Books

Destroyer Escorts of World War Two

  • Retailers:    Pictorial Histories Publishing    Amazon
  • Softcover, 50 pages, 10.4" x 8.2"
  • Price:  $9.95, new
  • Author:  Thomas Walkowiak
  • Publisher:  Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Inc.   Missoula, Montana
  • ISBN:  0-933126-88-3

 

Destroyer Escorts in Action

  • Retailers:    Amazon   Alibris
  • 50 pages
  • Price:  $10-$15, used
  • Author:  Al Adcock
  • Publisher:  Squadron/Signal Publications
  • ISBN:  0897473787


The Buckley-class Destroyer Escorts

  • Retailers:   Amazon
  • Hardcover, 210 pages
  • Price:  $65 used,  apparently not available as new
  • Review from Amazon:   The subjects of Franklin's superior monograph constituted the most numerous class of U.S. Navy destroyer escorts during World War II. More than 150 were built, and they served in several allies' navies (some 50 in the British) in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. They fought long and hard, taking and inflicting heavy casualties in antisubmarine warfare. Later they survived the kamikazes off Okinawa. Many, rearmed or converted into destroyer transports, were still serving in friendly Third World navies 30 years after their launching. Franklin has comprehensively researched the book, and the effort has elicited much new and useful information, such as the design compromises that shortages of materials and facilities forced on even the lavish U.S. wartime production machine. Graphic material includes comprehensive plans as well as illustrations of most ships of the class. Lovers of World War II ships will accord Franklin and the publisher a hearty "Well done." Roland Green

 

Tempest, Fire and Foe

  • Retailers:   Amazon
  • Hardcover, 480 pages
  • Price:  $35, new
  • Comments from Al Green USS Enright sailor:  I believe I have read every book published on the subject.  A must is "Tempest, Fire and Foe" by Lewis M. Andrews, Jr.  It's a large book which can be read in sections. The Enright gets little mention. This means we were lucky to survive with such a small casualty list.
  • Description from Amazon:   A detailed report covering ALL SIX CLASSES OF DESTROYER ESCORTS commissioned in World War II, including the conversions of some to fast transports (APD), and the men who fought in them. Numerous narratives and photos are woven by laughs, the sights and sounds of war. The author, Lewis M. Andrews Jr. was commanding officer of a destroyer escort in Word War II.
    Across the North Atlantic, these "budget price destroyers" convoyed merchant vessels and transports loaded with the sinews of combat, troops and material. At times, DEs made hazardous rescues through roaring flames from stricken ships. The merciless north latitudes sent huge waves crashing onto those small hulls, often crumpling superstructure and splinter shields like trashed paper. There were engagements with U-boats and many were sent to their final dives. DEs guarding Mediterranean-bound convoys fought with Junker and Heinkel torpedo bombers as well as submarines. Together with escort (jeep) carriers, DEs turned the tide of battle, foiled the enemy's grand design to sever oceanborne traffic between the United Kingdome, the European Continent and North America. In the attack on Normandy, they screened the battleships from enemy submarines and motor torpedo boats so that the big ships' heavy also could reduce enemy fortifications to rubble. Off the bloody beaches of Anzio and Normandy, their advanced electronics foiled enemy radio-controlled glider bombs. They went to the aid of sinking amphibious vessels, rescuing soldiers and sailors alike, as a bloody red froth was thrown onto the beach by the waves. We lost destroyer escorts and men. Atlantic victory did not come cheap.
    In the Pacific, DEs and APDs (fast transports converted from DEs) also convoyed merchant ships, sending numerous Japanese submarines to the bottom and losing some of our ships as well. They screened tankers in the train of the Third Fleet to replenish the ever-thirsty bunkers of aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers. They dueled with shore batteries, occasionally taking hits. They formed antisubmarine screens for the big ships as they bombarded island after island to pave the way for amphibious assaults. They were assigned the hazardous duty of operating with underwater demolition teams under the guns of enemy emplacements. They weathered gales and killer typhoons, frequently recording rolls of seventy degrees from the vertical. From the Phillipines to Iwo Jima to Okinawa they engaged Japanese suicide planes, the Divine Wind (kamikaze). Many a DE or APD crew on the picket line remained at battle stations for eighteen hours a day and some were in the area as long as ninety days. Often, as many as three to four kamikazes would come roaring out of the sun with the intention of diving onto a single ship. The vessels downed many kamikazes but suffered their fiery crashes in turn. Casualties were enormous in this most severe action ever recorded in the United States Navy.

 

U-boats vs. Destroyer Escorts: The Battle of the Atlantic

 

 

Video & Film

Fighting Destroyer Escorts of World War II

  • Description:  The only professional video made about DEs and APDs.  History of these trim but deadly warships.  Battle of the Atlantic & Pacific.  Dramatic war footage.  Return of the USS Slater (DE-766.  Every U.S. ship listed.  Narrated by Richard Libertini.
  • Format:  VHS, 48 minutes
  • Price:  $24.95
  • Retailer:  Pictorial Histories Publishing

 

The Enemy Below

  • Description:  Hollywood film, 1957
  • Starring:  Starring: Robert Mitchum,   Curd Jürgens,  Director: Dick Powell
  • Summary from Amazon:   In The Enemy Below Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens are respectively captains of a U.S. destroyer escort and a German U-boat whose vessels come into conflict in the South Atlantic. Both are good men with a job to do, the script noting Jurgens' distaste for Hitler and the Nazis and engaging our sympathy with the German sailors almost as much as the Americans. Made at the height of the cold war of the 1950s, the film delivers a liberal message of co-operation wrapped inside some spectacular action scenes and a story which builds to a tense and exciting, moving finale.

 



Museums

Destroyer Escort floating museum:  USS-Slater (DE-766)

 

 

 



 


 

 

 

  

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