page_title: USS Baldwin
section_title: 1944
hierarchical_section_title: USS Baldwin / Service history / 1944
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Baldwin (DD-624) underway at sea on 12 March 1944.
context_page_description: USS Baldwin, was a United States Navy Gleaves-class destroyer, in service from 1943 to 1946. She was the only ship of the U.S. Navy to be named for Charles H. Baldwin, an 1864 Medal of Honor recipient.
  Baldwin was laid down on 19 July 1941 by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Co., Seattle, Washington and launched on 14 June 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Ida E. Crawford, daughter of Acting Master's Mate Baldwin. The ship was commissioned on 30 April 1943, Lieutenant Commander George Knuepfer in command, and reported to the United States Atlantic Fleet.
context_section_description: Some three months later, on 17 April 1944, Baldwin headed for Europe in the screen for Arkansas, Nevada, and Tuscaloosa. The destroyer arrived at Plymouth, England, on 28 April and began a routine that combined patrols in British waters with preparations for the invasion of Normandy.
  On 5 June, she departed the Isle of Portland in company with other units of the Western Naval Task Force. As a unit of the gunfire support group during the assault, Baldwin assisted the troops ashore with naval gunfire. In return, she suffered two hits from a light-caliber shore battery on D-Day, but sustained only slight damage. On 9 June, Baldwin joined Frankford in repulsing an attack by German E-boats and received credit for destroying one of them. She operated off the coast of France until 15 July when she returned to England.
  Three days later, the destroyer departed Plymouth in the screen of a 50-ship convoy bound for North Africa and arrived in Bizerte, Tunisia, on 28 July. She operated in the western Mediterranean mostly between Oran, Algeria, and Naples, Italy before arriving off Saint-Tropez on 15 August, D-Day for the invasion of southern France. Baldwin served there as an element of the Antisubmarine and Convoy Control Group, Task Group 80.6 (TG 80.6) which screened follow up convoys between Oran and southern France. On 23 September, she concluded her part in that operation and departed Oran in company with her division mates bound for the United States.
caption: USS Baldwin in 1944
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