USS Wintle ( DE - 25 ) USS " Wintle " ( DE - 25 ) was an constructed for the United States Navy during World War II . It was promptly sent off into the Pacific Ocean to protect convoys and other ships from Japanese submarines and fighter aircraft . By the end of the war , when she returned to the United States , she had proudly accumulated three battle star s . " Wintle " was laid down on 1 October 1942 at the Mare Island Navy Yard as BDE - 25 , one of the destroyer escorts allocated to the Royal Navy under the lend - lease program ; launched on 18 February 1943 ; sponsor unknown ( Lt . Comdr . Wintle ' s widow sponsored DE - 266 which ship carried the name " Wintle " at the time BDE - 25 was launched ) ; reallocated to the United States Navy on 4 June 1943 ; named " Wintle " on 14 June 1943 when DE - 266 was allocated to the Royal Navy as her replacement ; and commissioned on 10 July 1943 , Lt . Comdr . Leonard W . Bailey , USNR , in command . World War II Pacific Theater operations . " Wintle " completed shakedown training in late July and early August and returned to the Mare Island Navy Yard for post - shakedown repairs . On 21 September , she put to sea with a Hawaii - bound convoy and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 October . She departed Oahu , Hawaii , almost immediately to return home in the screen of another convoy on 17 October . On the 25th , the destroyer escort stood out of San Francisco Bay in the screen , built around , for a convoy bound , via Pearl Harbor , to Viti Levu in the Fiji Islands . She delivered her charges at Nandi Harbor on 14 November and , after a three - day stopover , departed Viti Levu on 17 November to escort to Funafuti in the Ellice Islands . She stopped there for two days before returning to sea on the 21st to escort to a fueling rendezvous . When she returned to Funafuti the following day , " Operation Galvanic " , the Gilbert Islands invasion , was well underway . All the destroyer escort ' s recent movements and those she made over the following fortnight were undertaken to support the warships participating in that campaign . On 8 December , " Wintle " completed her labors in behalf of " Galvanic " and set a course for Funafuti where she stopped between 9 and 12 December before continuing on toward Oahu in the screen for a convoy . " Wintle " involved in collision . The warship arrived in Pearl Harbor on 21 December . After several days in port , she began battle practice training in the Hawaiian operating area . On 3 January 1944 , " Wintle " and came alongside one another to practice fueling at sea . After transferring about 1 , 000 gallons of fuel to " Wintle " , Dempsey prepared to leave . Suddenly , she rammed " Wintle " on her starboard side . Her anchor ripped open " Wintle ' s " starboard side from the lower platform deck to the main deck at frame 40 . Dempsey ' s anchor also broke " Wintle ' s " degaussing coil and severed her return steam line . In her haste to change course , Dempsey swerved sharply , colliding with " Wintle " again , this time stern to stern , crushing " Wintle ' s " propeller guard against her hull . The damaged destroyer escort ' s repair party quickly stuffed mattresses into the breach in her hull and shored them up as best they could to prevent serious flooding . " Wintle " was able to make 10 knots without shipping too much water and reached Pearl Harbor the following morning to begin repairs . She completed repairs rapidly and returned to sea to resume exercises on 11 January . Supporting the invasion of the Marshall Islands . Ten days later , " Wintle " received orders assigning her to the 5th Amphibious Force for " Operation Flintlock " , the invasion of the Marshall Islands . She departed Pearl Harbor that same day escorting four tank landing ships to Majuro . " Wintle " and her charges reached that atoll on 1 February to find that the American force had taken it without opposition the previous day . The destroyer escort led the patrol of the entrance of the lagoon on the 2nd , then met at sea , and escorted her into the lagoon on the 3rd . She then resumed anti - submarine warfare ( ASW ) patrol off Majuro and continued the task for the next six days . On the 9th and 10th , she escorted to Kwajalein , then headed back to Pearl Harbor , where she arrived on the 23rd . " Wintle " remained in the Hawaiian Islands until 2 March , when she got underway with to escort a three - ship convoy to the Gilberts . They saw their charges safely to the Gilberts on 11 March and got underway the following day for the Solomons . Proceeding via Funafuti , the two destroyer escorts arrived off Lunga Point , Guadalcanal , on 18 March and reported for duty with the 3rd Fleet . For the next six months , " Wintle " crisscrossed the Southwest Pacific escorting tankers , transports , and cargo - men to and from various American bases , most frequently between the Solomons and the Admiralty Islands . When not engaged in escort missions , she honed her ASW skills during exercises with American submarines . On 19 September , she arrived at Manus Island concluding her last Solomons - Admiralties run . On the 22d , she headed out of Seeadler Harbor for a new theater , the Palau Islands in the Central Pacific . The warship arrived in the anchorage at Kossol Passage three days later . Her stay proved brief because she set course back to Manus that same day . She reached Seeadler Harbor on 5 October and , after a brief availability alongside , headed back to the Palaus where she arrived on 15 October . During the following month , " Wintle " performed patrol and escort duties in the Palaus . On 10 November , she relieved off Denges Passage and fired starshell s over the passage and nearby Ngeregong Island in support of troops embarked in landing craft patrolling against the possibility of enemy reinforcements reaching Peleliu from Ngeregong . That duty lasted until 12 November when she left station to assist " PC - 1260 " , damaged in a collision with . Operating on the Saipan Patrol . The destroyer escort exited Kossol Passage on 18 November and steamed via Ulithi to the Marianas . She entered Apra Harbor , Guam , on the 28th and became a unit of the Saipan Patrol and Escort Force . For about 12 weeks , the warship patrolled the Marianas , primarily between Guam and Saipan . On Christmas night , she helped to repulse a Japanese air raid on U . S . Army Air Force installations ashore on Saipan . Two days later , she rescued three survivors from a B - 29 bomber that crashed near Nafutan Point . After the excitement of late December , January 1945 was uneventful except for two round - trip voyages to Eniwetok and back . On 5 February 1945 , she received orders transferring her to the Marshalls - Gilberts Escort Force . She arrived at Eniwetok on 10 February and began duty escorting convoys from bases in the Marshalls and Gilberts to forward areas . She made frequent voyages between Guam , Kwajalein , and Eniwetok and cruised with a hunter - killer group in search of Japanese submarines reportedly operating in the Marshalls . On the night of 2 April , " Wintle " exchanged gunfire with Japanese shore batteries on bypassed Wotje Atoll after they opened fire on her while she hunted for a midget submarine . During American air strikes on enemy - held Mili , Jaluit , and Wotje in late April and early May , " Wintle " provided air - sea rescue services ; but , fortunately , no aviator needed her assistance . On the night of 5 and 6 May , she covered the evacuation of natives from Japanese - held Jaluit Atoll . On 13 May , " Wintle " departed Eniwetok to screen two merchant ships on a voyage to the Palaus . " Wintle " arrived in Kossol Passage on the 18th and , two days later , headed for Ulithi . There , she joined two ships damaged at Okinawa , and , and escorted them on the Ulithi - to - Eniwetok leg of their voyage home . The ships departed Ulithi on 25 May and made Eniwetok on the 29th . There , the destroyer escort resumed patrol and escort duties with the Marshalls - Gilberts Escort Force which she continued to perform until mid - June . Antisubmarine patrol operations . On 17 June , " Wintle " and stood out of Eniwetok to take up ASW station on the shipping lanes between Eniwetok and the Marianas . The next day , she responded to a report that had been torpedo ed but , upon reaching the repair ship , found no submarine to attack . After an unsuccessful search , she headed back to Eniwetok . The warship continued intermittent patrols until 1 July when she put to sea from Eniwetok lagoon to rendezvous with a hunter - killer group built around . She searched for Japanese submarines along the Eniwetok - Marianas shipping lanes until relieved by on 8 July . " Wintle " returned to Eniwetok where she took on fuel and supplies in preparation for the long voyage back to the United States . The destroyer escort exited the lagoon on 12 July , visited Pearl Harbor on the 18th and 19th , and entered San Francisco Bay on the 26th . Post - War activity . The ship unloaded ammunition at the Mare Island Navy Yard and entered Hunters Point , California , for repairs that same day . She was in drydock on 15 August when news of the Japanese capitulation arrived ; and , on the 18th , most work ceased . Post - War deactivation . Finally , on 15 November 1945 , " Wintle " was placed out of commission and was berthed at Mare Island , California . On 28 November 1945 , her name was struck from the Navy List . The former warship was sold for scrap to the Union Minerals & Alloys Corporation on 25 August 1947 .