USS Benson ( DD - 421 ) USS " Benson " ( DD - 421 ) was the lead ship of her class of destroyer s in the United States Navy during World War II . She was named for Admiral William S . Benson ( 1855 – 1932 ) . " Benson " was laid down on 16 May 1938 at Quincy , Mass . , by the Bethlehem Steel Co . ; launched on 15 November 1939 ; sponsored by Mrs . William S . Benson , the widow of Adm . Benson ; and commissioned on 25 July 1940 , Commander Clifford A . Fines in command . 1940 – 1941 . Following fitting out at the Boston Navy Yard , the destroyer made a short cruise to Portland , Maine , before departing Boston on 22 August and heading — via Newport , Rhode Island , and Yorktown , Virginia — for Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , and abbreviated shakedown training . She sailed for the Chesapeake Bay on 3 September and — after visits to Quantico , Virginia , and Washington , D . C . — departed Norfolk , on the 13th and proceeded via Guantanamo Bay to Cayenne , French Guiana , where she arrived on the 21st to check on the possibility of Axis activity in that French colony and its Dutch neighbor , Suriname . This effort seemed necessary to keep fascism out of the Americas and to protect a rich source of bauxite ore , the source of aluminum , for Allied war production . On the 27th , the colony ’ s governor embarked in the destroyer for a visit to Îles du Salut , some seven or eight miles off the coast . He returned to Cayenne later that day and disembarked before the ship sailed for Paramaribo , Suriname . " Benson " departed Cayenne for the third time on 6 October and proceeded via San Juan , Puerto Rico , to the New York Navy Yard where she underwent a post - shakedown overhaul that lasted through mid - November . " Benson " stood out of New York harbor on 18 November to begin the neutrality patrols that constituted her main concern well into the following spring . A highlight of this period of her service came in March 1941 when she escorted while the yacht carried President Franklin D . Roosevelt to the Bahamas for a holiday of fishing . Late in May , the destroyer helped to screen as the battleship patrolled the North Atlantic . While they were at sea , German battleship " Bismarck " got underway on 21 May and headed for the Denmark Strait , hoping to prey on Allied convoys . When Prime Minister Winston Churchill learned of her foray , he asked President Roosevelt to have the American Navy look for the raider and to keep the Royal Navy informed of developments during the search . Once alerted , " Texas " and her consorts scoured the seas for " Bismarck " until the British sank the German warship on 27 May . Soon thereafter , " Benson " returned to the Boston Navy Yard for a month ' s availability to prepare for a new mission . She got underway on 28 June to join Task Force 19 ( TF 19 ) which was being formed to carry marines to Iceland to free the British troops who had been guarding that island for more active service . Task Force 19 departed Argentia , Newfoundland , on 1 July and , at the end of a passage through U - boat - infested waters , anchored in Reykjavík on the evening of 7 July . After returning to Boston , " Benson " quickly refueled and moved to Casco Bay for exercises off Portland , Maine . In September , she began almost seven months of duty shuttling between Boston and Iceland escorting convoys . Three months later , in December , the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Adolf Hitler ' s declaration of war allowed the United States to drop the last pretense of neutrality and prosecute the war against the Axis openly . 1942 – 1943 . At the end of March 1942 , " Benson " got underway to escort a convoy all the way eastward to Derry , Northern Ireland , and returned to Boston early in May . Convoy escort operations — which took her to the British Isles , Bermuda , and the Panama Canal Zone — continued to be her main duty into the autumn when she began readying herself for Operation Torch , the invasion of French North Africa . As a part of those preparations , she took part in shore - bombardment exercises with the new battleship " Massachusetts " ( BB - 59 ) . En route to Casco Bay , Maine , for one of these rehearsals in the pre - dawn darkness of 19 October , she collided with " Trippe " ( DD - 403 ) , killing four and wounding three of the latter ’ s crewmen when her prow pierced " Trippe " ’ s starboard quarter . The accident also caused enough damage to " Benson " to keep her in the New York Navy Yard undergoing repairs until after Allied troops had invaded North Africa . When she was again ready for action , " Benson " resumed convoy - escort duty across the North Atlantic and in the Mediterranean . In July 1943 , she turned her attention to supporting the invasion of Sicily . She sailed from Oran , Algeria , on the 6th with Task Group 80 . 2 ( TG 80 . 2 ) , the escort group of Vice Admiral H . Kent Hewitt ' s Western Naval Task Force , and escorted convoy NCS - 1 to the assault area at Gela , Sicily . She arrived off the beaches there several hours before dawn on the night of 9 – 10 July and spent the next two days in the antiaircraft screen fighting off almost incessant raids by Luftwaffe warplanes . On the 11th , a bomb exploded close aboard the destroyer wounding 18 of her crewmen , but inflicting only superficial damage to the ship . The next day , she set out to escort attack cargo ship " Betelgeuse " ( AKA - 11 ) to Algiers where she arrived on the 18th . More patrol and escort duty in the Mediterranean followed until 24 August , when " Benson " joined TF - 81 in final preparations for landing on the mainland of Italy . At dawn on 9 September , the Allied troops went ashore on Salerno ' s beaches and met fierce opposition while the Luftwaffe struck continuously at the warships of the invaders . At mid - morning on 11 September , a Dornier Do 217 warplane released a radio - controlled glide bomb which struck the No . 3 turret of " Savannah " ( CL - 42 ) and pierced through the light cruiser until it exploded in her lower ammunition handling room , opening seams in the ship ' s hull and tearing a large hole in her bottom . Valiant and efficient damage control parties stemmed the stricken cruiser ' s flooding , corrected her list , extinguished her fires , and enabled her to resume moving under her own power . " Benson " then helped to escort " Savannah " to Malta for temporary repairs that enabled her to return to the United States for permanent patching . " Benson " soon returned to Salerno , rejoined the antiaircraft screen , and — on the morning of 19 September — shot down an Fw 190 fighter - bomber . While supporting ground operations in Italy , she also conducted numerous shore bombardment missions and escorted other ships to various Mediterranean ports . On 2 October , she rescued the survivors from a downed Royal Air Force " Wellington " bomber . 1944 – 1945 . At the end of January 1944 , the destroyer departed Casablanca , Morocco , and escorted Convoy GUS - 28 to New York where she entered the navy yard for an overhaul . Then , following training exercises along the east coast , she got underway with TG 27 . 4 on 20 April and proceeded to Oran where she arrived on 1 May . After upkeep , she headed for Gibraltar on the 9th with Convoy UGS - 40 . Two days later , she helped to fight off an attack by about 30 German planes , shooting down two Junkers Ju 88 bombers , probably destroying a third , and damaging two others . Best of all , no ship from the convoy was lost or damaged . In the months that followed , " Benson " continued to escort convoys and individual ships between various Mediterranean ports . In mid - August 1944 , she joined TG 80 . 6 to help screen other warships involved in the invasion of southern France . She also served as a traffic control vessel during that operation and , from time to time , took part in the bombardment of German positions ashore . While on patrol duty in a fire - support area near Toulon , the destroyer blockaded enemy merchant ships in San Remo harbor and fired on supply buildings in the vicinity . She also supported the French cruisers " Montcalm " and " Jeanne d ' Arc " during their bombardment of San Remo . Early in January 1945 , she sailed to Livorno , Italy , to shell German troops threatening to break through there . During this duty , she was attacked by enemy small combatants , either German E - boat s or Italian MAS boat s , but escaped injury and later escorted the French cruiser " Georges Leygues " in her bombardment of enemy - held shipyards in Pietra Ligure . Pacific service . Detached from this duty late in January 1945 , " Benson " returned to the United States for yard repairs and training during February . After a convoy - escort run to Plymouth , England , in April , the destroyer received orders to the Pacific . Accordingly , she transited the Panama Canal on 12 May and reached Pearl Harbor on the 29th . The destroyer spent a bit more than a month in Hawaiian waters and then got underway on 14 June to escort aircraft carrier s , and in their air strikes against Wake Island . Then , following upkeep at Leyte in the Philippines , she proceeded to Ulithi . Until VJ day on 15 August , the warship performed convoy and patrol duty between Ulithi and Okinawa . She served in the screen for the first occupation troops for Yokohama , who landed on 2 and 3 September 1945 . In the two months following the surrender of Japan , the destroyer escorted five different convoy groups between the Philippines and Tokyo Bay . Ordered back to the United States for inactivation , " Benson " got underway from Yokohama on 4 November 1945 and moored at the Charleston Navy Yard , on 6 December . She was decommissioned there on 18 March 1946 , placed in reserve , and assigned to the Charleston Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet . On 26 February 1954 , " Benson " was transferred to the government of the Republic of China , and she served the Republic of China Navy as " Lo Yang " ( DD - 14 ) into the mid - 1970s . As the result of a survey made of her early in 1974 , the Taiwanese replaced her with another American destroyer that the Navy loaned them in 1975 , the former , which then became " Lo Yang " ( DD - 14 ) . Meanwhile , " Benson " ’ s name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 November 1974 ; and she was sold to Taiwan , presumably for cannibalization and scrapping . " Benson " ( DD - 421 ) earned four battle star s for her World War II service . As of 2008 , no other ship in the United States Navy has been named " Benson " .