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
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Retailers:
Amazon
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Hardcover, 210 pages
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Price: $65 used, apparently not available as new
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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
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Retailers:
Amazon
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Hardcover, 480 pages
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Price: $35, new
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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.
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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
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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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